Radio resource control (RRC) inactive mode positioning

Abstract

Techniques for wireless communications are disclosed. In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) monitors one or more physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates in a search space while in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state, receives a positioning paging message from a network entity on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates while in the RRC inactive state, the positioning paging message configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing positioning session involving the UE, applies the update to the one or more parameters while in the RRC inactive state, and transmits an acknowledgement to the network entity in response to receiving the positioning paging message while in the RRC inactive state.

Description

[0001] DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND

[0002] 1. TECHNICAL FIELD

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

[0004] 2. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

[0005] Wireless communication systems have developed through several generations, including first-generation analog wireless telephones, second-generation (2G) digital wireless telephones, and third-generation (3G) and fourth-generation (4G) high-speed data wireless access networks, such as long-term evolution (LTE) or WiMax. Many different types of wireless communication systems are in use, including cellular and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular analog advanced mobile phone system (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), the global system for mobile communications (GSM), and others.

[0006] A fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, referred to as New Radio (NR), calls for higher data transfer speeds, larger numbers of connected devices, and better coverage, among other improvements. According to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, 5G

[0007] SUMMARY

[0008] The following presents a simplified summary related to one or more aspects disclosed herein. Thus, the following summary should not be considered an extensive overview relating to all contemplated aspects, nor should the following summary be considered to identify key or critical elements relating to all contemplated aspects or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect. Accordingly, the following summary has the sole purpose to present certain concepts relating to one or more aspects relating to the mechanisms disclosed herein in a simplified form to precede the detailed description presented below.

[0009] In an aspect, a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) includes monitoring, while in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state, one or more physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates in a search space; receiving, while in the RRC inactive state, a positioning paging message from a network entity on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates, the positioning paging message configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing positioning session involving the UE; applying, while in the RRC inactive state, the update to the one or more parameters; and transmitting, while in the RRC inactive state, an acknowledgement to the network entity in response to receiving the positioning paging message.

[0010] In an aspect, a UE includes a memory, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to monitor, while in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state, one or more physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates in a search space; receive, while in the RRC inactive state, a positioning paging message from a network entity on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates, the positioning paging message configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing positioning session involving the UE; apply, while in the RRC inactive state, the update to the one or more parameters; and cause the at least one transceiver to transmit, while in the RRC inactive state, an acknowledgement to the network entity in response to receiving the positioning paging message.

[0011] In an aspect, a UE includes means for monitoring, while in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state, one or more physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates in a search space; means for receiving, while in the RRC inactive state, a positioning paging message from a network entity on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates, the positioning paging message configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing positioning session involving the UE; means for applying, while in the RRC inactive state, the update to the one or more parameters; and means for transmitting, while in the RRC inactive state, an acknowledgement to the network entity in response to receiving the positioning paging message.

[0012] In an aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer- executable instructions including at least one instruction instructing a UE to monitor one or more PDCCH candidates in a search space while in an RRC inactive state, at least one instruction instructing the UE to receive a positioning paging message from a network entity on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates while in the RRC inactive state, the positioning paging message configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing positioning session involving the UE, at least one instruction instructing the UE to apply the update to the one or more parameters while in the RRC inactive state, and at least one instruction instructing the UE to transmit an acknowledgement to the network entity in response to receiving the positioning paging message while in the RRC inactive state.

[0013] Other objects and advantages associated with aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the accompanying drawings and detailed description. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of aspects of the present disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several aspects of the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain principles of the present disclosure.

[0016] Figure 1 An example wireless communication system is illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0017] Figure 2A And 2B An example wireless network structure is illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0018] Figures 3A to 3C is a simplified block diagram of several sample 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.

[0019] Figures 4A to 4D is a diagram illustrating example frame structures and channels within the frame structures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0020] Figure 5 Different radio resource control (RRC) states available in new radio (NR) are illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0021] Figure 6A And 6B An example procedure for positioning reference signal configuration in an RRC inactive state is illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] Figure 7 An example wireless communication method is illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0023] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] Aspects of the disclosure are provided in the following description and related drawings for non-limiting examples. Alternative aspects can be devised without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Additionally, well-known elements of the disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the disclosure.

[0025] The words “exemplary” and / or “example” are used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” and / or “example” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or 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.

[0026] Those skilled in the art will appreciate 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.

[0027] Further, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will recognize 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 a corresponding set of computer instructions that, upon execution by such as processor or processors causes the machine(s) to perform the functionality described herein. Thus, the various aspects of the disclosure can be embodied in a number of different forms, all of which have been contemplated to fall within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the aspects described herein, the corresponding form of a respective aspect can be described herein as, for example, “logic configured to” perform the described action.

[0028] As used herein, the terms “user equipment” (UE) and “base station” are not intended to be specific to or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT), unless otherwise noted. Generally, a UE can be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, router, tablet computer, laptop computer, consumer asset tracking 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,” a “client device,” a “wireless device,” a “subscriber device,” a “subscriber terminal,” a “subscriber station,” a “user terminal,” or “UT,” a “mobile device,” a “mobile terminal,” a “mobile station,” or variations thereof, interchangeably. Generally, UEs can communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network the UEs can communicate with external networks such as the Internet and with other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms of connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are also possible for the UEs, such as over wired access networks, wireless local area network (WLAN) networks (e.g., based on Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specifications), and so on.

[0029] A base station can operate according to one of a number of RATs to communicate with UEs depending on the network in which it is deployed, and can be alternatively 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), and so on. The base station can be used mostly to serve a particular geographic region (e.g., a “cell”) with a high degree of accuracy. The geographic region served by a base station can be divided into sectors (e.g., three 120-degree sectors per cell). Communication links between a base station and a UE can be multiple-access channels based on CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, or other schemes. A UE can communicate with a base station via the downlink and uplink. The downlink (or forward link) is a communication link from the base station to the UE. The uplink (or reverse link) is a communication link from the UE to the base station. The communication links can be through an antenna panel of the base station and an antenna of the UE, which can be implemented in a variety of ways. As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) can refer to an uplink / reverse traffic channel or a downlink / forward traffic channel.

[0030] The term “base station” can refer to a single physical transmission-reception point (TRP) or can refer 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 a base station antenna that corresponds 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 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. As used herein, a TRP is a point from which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, references to transmissions from or reception at a base station are understood to refer to a particular TRP of that base station.

[0031] 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 with 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 tower (e.g., where signals are transmitted to UEs) and / or as a location measurement unit (e.g., where signals from UEs are received and measured).

[0032] An “RF signal” comprises electromagnetic waves of a given frequency that convey information through the space between a transmitting device and a receiving device. As used herein, a transmitting device can transmit a single “RF signal” or multiple “RF signals” to a receiving device. However, due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels, the receiving device can receive multiple “RF signals” corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between the transmitting and receiving devices can be referred to as a “multipath” RF signal.

[0033] Figure 1An example wireless communication system 100 is illustrated. The wireless communication system 100 (which can also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WW AN)) can include various base stations 102 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 (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network), or gNBs (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to a NR network), or a combination of both, and the small cell base stations can include femto cell, pico cell, micro cell, and the like.

[0034] The base stations 102 can collectively form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC)) through backhaul links 122 (e.g., SI, X2, Xn, etc. interfaces), and can connect to one or more location servers 172 (which can be part of the core network 170 or can be external to the core network 170) through the core network 170. In addition to other functions, the base stations 102 can perform functions related to one or more of transferring user data, radio channel ciphering and deciphering, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection setup and release, load balancing, distribution for non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment trace, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of warning messages. The base stations 102 can communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC / 5GC) via backhaul links 134 (which can be wired or wireless links).

[0035] Base station 102 can wirelessly communicate with UE 104. Each base station 102 can provide communication coverage for its respective geographical coverage area 110. In one aspect, one or more cells can be supported by base station 102 in each geographical 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), Virtual Cell Identifier (VCI), Cell Global Identifier (CGI)) to distinguish cells operating via the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells can be configured according to different protocol types that can provide access to different types of UEs (e.g., Machine Type Communication (MTC), Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), or others). Since cells are supported by specific base stations, the term “cell” can refer to either or both of the logical communication entity and the base station supporting that logical communication entity, depending on the context. In some contexts, the term "cellular" can also refer to the geographical coverage area (e.g., sector) of a base station, in the sense that the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within a portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0036] While the geographic coverage areas 110 of adjacent macrocell 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 (SC) base station 102' may have geographic coverage areas 110' that substantially overlap with the geographic coverage areas 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell and macrocell base stations may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include home eNBs (HeNBs) that can provide service to a restricted group referred to as a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG).

[0037] 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 (also known as forward link) transmission from base station 102 to UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna technologies, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 may use one or more carrier frequencies. Carrier allocation may be asymmetric with respect to the downlink and uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to the downlink compared to the uplink).

[0038] 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 link 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 a clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen before talk (LBT) procedure prior to communicating in order to determine whether the channel is available.

[0039] The small cell base stations 102' can operate in a licensed or an unlicensed frequency spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the small cell base stations 102' can employ LTE or NR technology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum as used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base stations 102' employing LTE / 5G in an unlicensed frequency spectrum can boost 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.

[0040] 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 to communicate with UEs 182. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is the part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range from 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 extremely 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 a mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range. Further, it will be appreciated that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 can also transmit using mmW or near mmW and beamforming. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the foregoing illustrations are merely examples and should not be construed as limiting various aspects disclosed herein.

[0041] Transmit beamforming is a technique used to focus the transmitted RF signal in a specific direction. Conventional beamforming (also referred to as analog beamforming) uses a network node’s transmit chain to shape the beam in a specific direction. This is done by adjusting the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of the one or more transmitters of the network node. For example, a network node can use an array of antennas (known as a “phased array” or “antenna array”) that creates a beam of RF waves 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.

[0042] Transmit beams can be quasi-co-located, which means that they appear to have the same parameters at the receiver (e.g., a UE), regardless of whether the network node’s transmit antennas themselves are physically co-located. In NR, there are four types of quasi-co-location (QCL) relationships. Specifically, a given QCL relationship of Type A means that the receiver can use a source reference RF signal on a source beam to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread of a target reference RF signal on a target beam transmitted on a same channel. A given QCL relationship of Type B means that the receiver can use a source reference RF signal on a source beam to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of a target reference RF signal on a target beam transmitted on a same channel. A given QCL relationship of Type C means that the receiver can use a source reference RF signal on a source beam to estimate the Doppler shift and average delay of a target reference RF signal on a target beam transmitted on a same channel. A given QCL relationship of Type D means that the receiver can use a source reference RF signal on a source beam to estimate the spatial receive parameter of a target reference RF signal on a target beam transmitted on a same channel.

[0043] In receive beamforming, a receiver uses a receive beam to amplify an RF signal detected on a given channel. For example, a receiver 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 gain level of) an RF signal received from that direction. Thus, when a receiver is said to be beamformed in a certain direction, this means that the beam gain in that direction is higher relative to the beam gain in other directions, or that the beam gain in that direction is the highest among the beam gains in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc.) for the RF signal received from that direction.

[0044] A receive beam can be spatially related. Spatially related means that parameters for a transmit beam for a second reference signal can be derived from information about a receive beam for a first reference signal. For example, a UE can use a particular receive beam to receive one or more reference downlink reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signals (PRSs), tracking reference signals (TRSs), phase tracking reference signals (PTRSs), cell-specific reference signals (CRSs), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs), primary synchronization signals (PSSs), secondary synchronization signals (SSSs), synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), etc.) from a base station. The UE can then form a transmit beam based on parameters of the receive beam for transmitting one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., uplink positioning reference signals (UL-PRSs), sounding reference signals (SRSs), demodulation reference signals (DMRSs), PTRSs, etc.) to the base station.

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

[0046] In 5G, the frequency spectrum in which wireless nodes (e.g., base stations 102 / 180, UEs 104 / 182) operate is partitioned into multiple frequency ranges: FR1 (from 450 to 6000 MHz), FR2 (from 24250 to 52600 MHz), FR3 (above 52600 MHz), and FR4 (between FR1 and FR2). In a multi-carrier system, such as 5G, one of the carrier frequencies is referred to as the “primary carrier” or “anchor carrier” or “primary serving cell” or “PCell,” and the remaining carrier frequencies are referred to as “secondary carriers” or “secondary serving cells” or “SCells.” In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is the carrier operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by the UE 104 / 182 and in the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 performs initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates the RRC connection reestablishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common control channels as well as UE-specific control channels, and can be a carrier in a licensed frequency (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 between the UE 104 and anchor carrier is established, and which can be used to provide additional radio resources. In some cases, the secondary carrier can be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. Secondary carriers 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 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 different carriers. Since a “serving cell” (whether a PCell or an SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier that a certain base station is currently using for communication, the terms “cell,” “serving cell,” “component carrier,” “carrier frequency,” and the like can be used interchangeably.

[0047] For example, still referring to Figure 1 One of the frequencies utilized by a macrocell base station 102 can be an anchor carrier (or “PCell”), and the other frequencies utilized by that macrocell base station 102 and / or mmW base station 180 can be secondary carriers (“SCells”). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception on 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 compared to the data rate obtained by a single 20 MHz carrier would theoretically result in a doubling of the data rate (i.e., 40 MHz).

[0048] The wireless communications system 100 can further include a UE 164 that can be in communication with the macro cell base station 102 over the communication link 120 and / or the mmW base station 180 over mmW communication link 184. For example, the macro cell base station 102 can support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 can support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0049] In Figure 1 example, one or more satellite positioning system (SPS) space vehicles (SVs) 112 (e.g., satellites) can be used as an independent source of location information for any of the UEs illustrated (simplified as a single UE 104 in Figure 1 The UE 104 can include one or more dedicated SPS receivers specifically designed to receive SPS signals 124 from the SVs 112 to derive geographic position information. An SPS generally includes a system of transmitters (e.g., SVs 112) positioned to enable receivers (e.g., UEs 104) to determine their location on or above the Earth based, at least in part, on signals 124 transmitted by a plurality of the transmitters. Such a transmitter typically transmits a signal marked with a repeating pattern of pseudorandom noise (PN) code with a set number of chips. While the transmitters are typically in SVs 112, they can also be in ground-based control stations, base stations 102, and / or other UEs 104 at times.

[0050] The use of SPS signals 124 can be augmented by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBASes) that can be associated with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems or otherwise enabled for use with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems. For example, an SBAS can include an augmentation system(s) that provides integrity information, differential corrections, etc. to users, such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the Multi

[0051] The wireless communications system 100 can further include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, that indirectly connect to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as “sidelinks”). In Figure 1 In an example, the UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of the UEs 104 connected to one of the base stations 102 (through which the UE 190 can indirectly gain cellular connectivity), and a D2D P2P link 194 with WLAN STA 152 connected to the WLAN AP 150 (through which the UE 190 can indirectly gain WLAN-based Internet connectivity). In one example, the 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®, and so on.

[0052] Figure 2A An example wireless network structure 200 is illustrated. For example, a 5GC 210 (also referred to as Next Generation Core (NGC)) can be viewed functionally as control plane functions 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and user plane functions 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data networks, IP Figure 1 ​Any of the UEs depicted in FIG. 1A). Another optional aspect can include a location server 230 that can be in communication with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance for 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 multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternately can each correspond 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, the 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.

[0053] Figure 2B Another example wireless network structure 250 is illustrated. For example, a 5GC 260 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., 5GC 260). User plane interface 263 and control plane interface 265 connect the ng-eNB 224 to the 5GC 260, specifically to UPF 262 and AMF 264, respectively. In an additional configuration, gNB 222 can also be connected to the 5GC 260 via control plane interface 265 to AMF 264 and user plane interface 263 to UPF 262. Further, ng-eNB 224 can directly communicate with gNB 222 via the backhaul connection 223, with or without direct Figure 1 communication to the 5GC 260. In some configurations, the New RAN 220 can only have one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more ng-eNBs 224 and one or more gNBs 222. Either gNB 222 or ng-eNB 224 can communicate with UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs depicted in FIG. 1A) in the system. The base stations of the New RAN 220 communicate with the AMF 264 over an N2 interface and with the UPF 262 over an N3 interface.

[0054] The functions of the AMF 264 include registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful intercept, transport for session management (SM) messages between the UE 204 and a session management function (SMF) 266, transparent proxy services for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transport for short message service (SMS) messages between the 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 the UE 204, and receives a medium key as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In cases where a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) subscriber identity module (SIM) is used for authentication, the AMF 264 retrieves the security material from the AUSF. The functions of the AMF 264 also include security context management (SCM). The SCM receives a key from the SEAF that it uses to derive access network specific keys. The functionality of the AMF 264 also includes location management for regulatory services, transport for location service messages between the UE 204 and a location management function (LMF) 270, which acts as a location server 230, transport for location service messages between the new RAN 220 and the LMF 270, evolved packet system (EPS) bearer identifier allocation for interworking with the EPS, and UE 204 mobility event notification. In addition, the AMF 264 also supports functionality for non-3GPP (third generation partnership project) access networks.

[0055] 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, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), lawful intercept (user plane collection), traffic usage reporting, quality of service (QoS) handling for user plane (e.g., uplink / downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in the downlink), uplink traffic verification (service data flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in 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 transport for location service messages between the UE 204 and a location server, such as a secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP) 272, over a user plane.

[0056] 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 for proper destination, part of policy enforcement and QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface through which the SMF 266 is used to communicate with the AMF 264 is referred to as the N11 interface.

[0057] Another optional aspect can include an LMF 270, which can be in communication with the 5GC 260 to provide location assistance for 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, can each correspond to a single server. The LMF 270 can be configured to support one or more location services for UEs 204 that can connect to the LMF 270 via the core network, 5GC 260, and / or via the Internet (not illustrated). The SLP 272 can support similar functions to the LMF 270, but whereas the LMF 270 can communicate with the AMF 264, the new RAN 220, and UEs 204 over the control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to convey signaling messages, rather than voice or data), the SLP 272 can communicate with UEs 204 and external clients (not shown in FIG. 2) over the user plane (e.g., using protocols intended to carry voice and / or data, such as the transmission control protocol (TCP) and / or IP). Figure 2B

[0058] Figure 3A 3B And 3C illustrate a number of example components (represented by corresponding blocks) that can be incorporated into a UE 302 (which can correspond to any of the UEs described herein), a base station 304 (which can correspond to any of the base stations described herein), and a network entity 306 (which can correspond to or embody any of the network functions described herein, including the location server 230 and the LMF 270) to support file transfer operations as taught herein. It will be appreciated that these components can be implemented in different types of apparatuses in different implementations (e.g., in ASICs, in SoCs, etc.). 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. Also, a given apparatus can contain one or more of the components. For example, an apparatus can include multiple transceiver components enabling the apparatus to operate on multiple carriers and / or to communicate via different technologies.

[0059] ​​The UE 302 and the base station 304 each include wireless wide area network (WW AN) transceivers 310 and 350, respectively, providing means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for refraining from transmitting, etc.) via one or more wireless communication networks (not shown), such as an NR network, an LTE network, a GSM network, and so on. The WW AN transceivers 310 and 350 can each be respectively connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356 for communicating in a wireless communication medium with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc., via at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, and so on) over a set of time and / or frequency resources (e.g., a carrier) in a particular frequency spectrum. The WW AN transceivers 310 and 350 can be variously configured for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, and so on), respectively, and, conversely, for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, and so on), respectively, in accordance with the designated RAT. Specifically, the WW AN transceivers 310 and 350 include one or more transmitters 314 and 354, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358, respectively, and one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively, for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively.

[0060] The UE 302 and the base station 304 each also include, at least in some cases, wireless local area network (WLAN) transceivers 320 and 360, respectively. The WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 can be connected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, and provide means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for refraining from transmitting, etc.) with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc., via at least one designated RAT (e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, Bluetooth®, Zigbee®, Z-Wave®, and so on) over a set of time and / or frequency resources in a particular frequency spectrum. The WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 can be variously configured for transmitting and encoding signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, and so on), respectively, and, conversely, for receiving and decoding signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, and so on), respectively, in accordance with the designated RAT. Specifically, the WLAN 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.

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

[0062] UE 302 and base station 304 also include satellite positioning system (SPS) receivers 330 and 370, at least in some cases. SPS 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 SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively, such as global positioning system (GPS) signals, global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, Beidou signals, Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. SPS receivers 330 and 370 can comprise any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively. SPS receivers 330 and 370 request information and operations from other systems as appropriate, and perform the necessary calculations to determine a position of UE 302 and base station 304 using measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithm.

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

[0064] The UE 302, base stations 304, and network entities 306 also include other components that can be beneficial for use in conjunction with the operations as disclosed herein. The UE 302 includes processor circuitry implementing a processing system 332 for providing functionality relating to, for example, wireless positioning, and for providing other processing functionality. The base stations 304 include a processing system 384 for providing functionality relating to, for example, wireless positioning as disclosed herein, and for providing other processing functionality. The network entities 306 include a processing system 394 for providing functionality relating to, for example, wireless positioning as disclosed herein, and for providing other processing functionality. The processing systems 332, 384, and 394 thus can provide means for processing, such as means for determining, means for computing, means for receiving, means for transmitting, means for indicating, and the like. In an aspect, the processing systems 332, 384, and 394 can include, for example, one or more processors, such as one or more general purpose processors, multi-core processors, ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), other programmable logic devices or processing circuitry, or various combinations thereof.

[0065] The UE 302, the base stations 304, and the network entity 306 include memory circuitry implementing memory components 340, 386, and 396, respectively (e.g., each including a memory device), for maintaining information (e.g., information indicative of reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, and so on). The memory components 340, 386, and 396 can thus provide means for storing, means for retrieving, means for maintaining, and so on. In some cases, the UE 302, the base stations 304, and the network entity 306 can include positioning components 342, 388, and 398, respectively. The positioning components 342, 388, and 398 can be hardware circuits that are part of, or coupled to, the processing systems 332, 384, and 394, respectively, that when executed cause the UE 302, the base stations 304, and the network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. In other aspects, the positioning components 342, 388, and 398 can be external to the processing systems 332, 384, and 394 (e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated with another processing system, and so on). Alternatively, the positioning components 342, 388, and 398 can be memory modules stored in the memory components 340, 386, and 396, respectively, that when executed by the processing systems 332, 384, and 394 (or a modem processing system, another processing system, and so on) cause the UE 302, the base stations 304, and the network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. Figure 3A Possible locations for the positioning component 342 are illustrated, which can be part of the WWAN transceiver 310, the memory component 340, the processing system 332, or any combination thereof, or can be a standalone component. Figure 3B Possible locations for the positioning component 388 are illustrated, which can be part of the WWAN transceiver 350, the memory component 386, the processing system 384, or any combination thereof, or can be a standalone component. Figure 3C Possible locations for the positioning component 398 are illustrated, which can be part of the network interface(s) 390, the memory component 396, the processing system 394, or any combination thereof, or can be a standalone component.

[0066] The UE 302 can include one or more sensors 344 coupled to the processing system 332 to provide a means for sensing or detecting movement and / or orientation information independent of motion data derived from signals received by the WWAN transceiver 310, WLAN transceiver 320, and / or SPS receiver 330. As examples, the sensor(s) 344 can include an accelerometer (e.g., a micro-electrical-mechanical 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 movement detection sensor. Moreover, the sensor(s) 344 can include multiple different types of devices and combine their outputs to provide motion information. For example, the sensor(s) 344 can use a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and orientation sensors to provide the ability to compute positioning in 2D and / or 3D coordinate systems.

[0067] In addition, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346 providing a 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, etc.). Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 can also include user interfaces.

[0068] Referring to the processing system 384 in more detail, in the downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 can be provided to the processing system 384. The processing system 384 can implement functionality for an RRC layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a medium access control (MAC) layer. The processing system 384 can provide RRC layer functionality associated with broadcast 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 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.

[0069] 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 transmission channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of the transmission 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 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time and / or frequency domain, and then combined together using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a time domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol stream is spatially precoded to 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

[0070] At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives a signal through its respective antenna 316. The receiver 312 recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to the processing system 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 by the receiver 312 into a single OFDM symbol stream. 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 transmitted on the physical channel. The data and control signals are then provided to the processing system 332, which implements Layer-3 (L3) and Layer-2 (L2) functionality.

[0071] In the uplink, the processing system 332 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. The processing system 332 is also responsible for error detection.

[0072] Similar to the functionality described in connection with the downlink transmission by the base station 304, the processing system 332 provides 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.

[0073] Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from the reference signals 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 antenna 316. The transmitter 314 can modulate an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

[0074] 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. The receiver 352 receives information from its respective antenna 356. The receiver 352 recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to the processing system 384.

[0075] In the uplink, the processing system 384 provides 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 processing system 384 can be provided to the core network. The processing system 384 is also responsible for error detection.

[0076] For convenience, the UE 302, base station 304, and / or network entity 306 are shown Figures 3A-3C as including various components configured according to various examples described herein. It will be appreciated, however, that the illustrated blocks can have different functionality in different designs.

[0077] The various components of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 can communicate with one another and other components of the system 300 using the disclosed methods and techniques. The various components of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 can each exchange information about the system 300 and / or the wireless communications 300 using the disclosed methods and techniques. Figures 3A-3C The various components of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 can be implemented in various ways. In some implementations, Figures 3A-3C 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)), for example. Here, each circuit can use and / or incorporate at least one memory component for storing information or executable code used by that circuit to provide this functionality. For example, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 310 to 346 can be implemented by a processor and memory component of the UE 302 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor component). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 350 to 388 can be implemented by a processor and memory component of the base station 304 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor component). Also, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390 to 398 can be implemented by a processor and memory component of the network entity 306 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor component). For simplicity, various operations, acts, and / or functions are described herein as being performed by the UE, the base station, the 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 processing systems 332, 384, 394, the transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, the memory components 340, 386, and 396, the positioning components 342, 388, and 398, and / or the like.

[0078] NR supports several 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., PRS, TRS, CSI-RS, SSB, etc.) received from pairs of base stations, known as reference signal time difference (RSTD) or time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements, and reports these differences 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, the positioning entity can estimate the location of the UE. For DL-AoD positioning, a base station measures the angle and other channel properties (e.g., signal strength) of the downlink transmit beam used to communicate with a UE to estimate the location of the UE.

[0079] Uplink-based positioning methods include uplink time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA) and uplink angle of arrival (UL-AoA). UL-TDOA is similar to DL-TDOA, but it is based on uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) transmitted by the UE. For UL-AoA positioning, a base station measures the angle and other channel properties (e.g., gain level) of the uplink receive beam used to communicate with a UE to estimate the location of the UE.

[0080] Downlink- and uplink-based positioning methods include Enhanced Cell-ID (E-CID) positioning and Multilateration (also referred to as “Multicell RTT”). In RTT procedures, an initiating party (a base station or a UE) transmits RTT measurement signals (e.g., PRSs or SRSs) to a responding party (a UE or a base station), which transmits RTT response signals (e.g., SRSs or PRSs) back to the initiating party. The RTT response signals include the difference between the ToA of the RTT measurement signals and the transmission time of the RTT response signals (referred to as a Receive-To- Transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement). The initiating party calculates the difference between the transmission time of the RTT measurement signals and the ToA of the RTT response signals (referred to as a “Tx-Rx” measurement). The propagation time (also referred to as the “time of flight”) between the initiating party and the responding party can be calculated from the Tx-Rx measurement and the Rx-Tx measurement. Based on the propagation time and the known speed of light, the distance between the initiating party and the responding party can be determined. For Multicell RTT positioning, a UE performs RTT procedures with multiple base stations to enable the location of the UE to be triangulated based on the known locations of the base stations. RTT and Multicell RTT methods can be combined with other positioning techniques, such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD, to improve location accuracy.

[0081] 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 stations.

[0082] 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., number of consecutive positioning subframes, periodicity of positioning subframes, muting sequence, frequency hopping sequence, reference signal identifier, reference signal bandwidth, etc.), and / or other parameters applicable to a particular positioning method. Alternatively, the assistance data can originate directly from the base stations themselves (e.g., in periodically broadcasted overhead messages, etc.). In some cases, a UE can be able to detect neighbor network nodes without the use of assistance data.

[0083] In the case of OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedures, the assistance data can further include an expected RSTD value and an associated uncertainty, or a search window around the expected RSTD. In some cases, the value range of the expected RSTD can be + / - 500 microseconds (ps). In some cases, the value range of the uncertainty of the expected RSTD can be + / - 32 ps when any resources used for the positioning measurements are in FR1. In other cases, the value range of the uncertainty of the expected RSTD can be + / - 8 ps when all resources used for the positioning measurements are in FR2.

[0084] A position estimate can be referred to by other names, such as a location estimate, position, location, fix, lock, etc. A position estimate can be geodetic and include coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude), or can be civic and include a street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of a location. A position estimate can be further defined relative to some other known position or defined in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). A position estimate can include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume within which the position is expected to be included with some specified or default confidence).

[0085] Various frame structures can be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (e.g., base stations) and UEs. Figure 4A FIG. 400 is a diagram 400 illustrating an example of a downlink frame structure, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 4B FIG. 430 is a diagram 430 illustrating an example of channels within the downlink frame structure, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Other wireless communications technologies can have different frame structures and / or different channels. Figure 4C FIG. 450 is a diagram 450 illustrating an example of an uplink frame structure, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 4D FIG. 470 is a diagram 470 illustrating an example of channels within the uplink frame structure, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Other wireless communications technologies can have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0086] LTE, and in some cases NR, utilizes OFDM on the downlink and single-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. Different from LTE, however, NR also has an option of using OFDM on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDM partition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, subcarriers, etc. Each subcarrier can be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. The spacing of adjacent subcarriers can be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) can be dependent on the system bandwidth. The spacing of adjacent subcarriers can be 15 kilohertz (kHz) in some cases. The minimum resource allocation can be 12 subcarriers (or even one resource block), in some cases. Consequently, the nominal FFT size can be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024 or 2048 for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidth can also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband can cover 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks), and there can be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz, respectively.

[0087] LTE supports a single numerology (subcarrier spacing (SCS), symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR can support multiple numerologies (μ), e.g., subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz (μ = 0), 30 kHz (μ = 1), 60 kHz (μ = 2), 120 kHz (μ = 3), and 240 kHz (μ = 4) or greater can be available. In each subcarrier spacing, there are 14 symbols per slot. For 15 kHz SCS (μ = 0), there is one slot per subframe, 10 slots per frame, a slot duration of 1 millisecond (ms), a symbol duration of 66.7 microseconds (μs), and a maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size of 50. For 30 kHz SCS (μ = 1), there are two slots per subframe, 20 slots per frame, a slot duration of 0.5 ms, a symbol duration of 33.3 μs, and a maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size of 100. For 60 kHz SCS (μ = 2), there are four slots per subframe, 40 slots per frame, a slot duration of 0.25 ms, a symbol duration of 16.7 μs, and a maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size of 200. For 120 kHz SCS (μ = 3), there are eight slots per subframe, 80 slots per frame, a slot duration of 0.125 ms, a symbol duration of 8.33 μs, and a maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size of 400. 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 maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size of 800.

[0088] In Figures 4A to 4D the example, a 15 kHz numerology is used. Thus, in the time domain, a 10 ms frame is divided into 10 equal size subframes, with each subframe of 1 ms and each subframe including one slot. In Figures 4A to 4D time is represented horizontally (on the X axis), with time increasing from left to right, and frequency is represented vertically (on the Y axis), with frequency increasing (or decreasing) from bottom to top.

[0089] 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 Figures 4A to 4DFor 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 by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0090] Some REs carry downlink reference (pilot) signals (DL-RS). DL-RS can include PRS, TRS, PTRS, CRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB, etc. Figure 4A An example location of REs carrying PRS is illustrated (labeled “R”).

[0091] A set of resource elements (REs) used for transmission of PRS is referred to as a “PRS resource.” A set of resource elements 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.

[0092] Transmission of a PRS resource 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’, the PRS is transmitted in every Nth subcarrier of one symbol of the PRB. For example, for comb-4, for each symbol of the PRS resource configuration, the REs corresponding to every fourth subcarrier (such as subcarriers 0, 4, 8) are used to transmit the PRS of the PRS resource. Currently, comb sizes of comb-2, comb-4, comb-6, and comb-12 are supported for DL-PRS. Figure 4A An example PRS resource configuration for comb 6 (which spans 6 symbols) is illustrated. That is, the location of the shaded REs (labeled “R”) indicates a comb-6 PRS resource configuration.

[0093] Currently, DL-PRS resources use a full frequency domain interlaced pattern that can span 2, 4, 6, or 12 consecutive symbols within a slot. A DL-PRS resource can be configured in any downlink or flexible (FL) symbol of a slot that is configured by higher layers. There can be a constant energy per resource element (EPRE) for all REs of a given DL-PRS resource. The following are the per-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}; 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}.

[0094] A “PRS resource set” is a set of PRS resources used to transmit PRS signals, where each PRS resource has a PRS resource identifier (ID). In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP. A PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a TRP ID). In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set have the same periodicity, a common muting pattern configuration, and the same repetition factor (such as “PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor”) across slots. The periodicity is the time from a first repetition of a first PRS resource of a first PRS instance to the same first repetition of the same first PRS resource of a next PRS instance. The periodicity can have a length selected from 2^μ*{4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 32, 40, 64, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2560, 5120, 10240} slots, where μ = 0, 1, 2, 3. The repetition factor can have a length selected from {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32} slots.

[0095] A PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam (or beam ID) transmitted from a single TRP (where a TRP can transmit one or more beams). That is, each PRS resource in a PRS resource set can be transmitted on a different beam, and as such, a “PRS resource” (or simply “resource”) can also be referred to as a “beam.” Note that this does not have any implications on whether the TRP and beam transmitting the PRS is known to the UE.

[0096] A “PRS instance” or “PRS occasion” is one instance of a periodically repeating time window (such as a group of one or more consecutive slots) in which PRS is 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.”

[0097] A “positioning frequency layer” (also simply referred to as a “frequency layer”) is a collection of one or more PRS resource sets across one or more TRPs that have the same values for certain parameters. Specifically, the collection of PRS resource sets have the same subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix (CP) type (meaning that all numerology designs supported for PDSCH are also supported for PRS), the same Point A, the same value of downlink PRS bandwidth, the same starting PRB (and center frequency), and the same comb size. The Point A parameter takes the value of the parameter “ARFCN-ValueNR” (where “ARFCN” stands for “absolute radio frequency channel number”) and is an identifier / code that specifies a pair of physical radio channels used for transmission and reception. The downlink PRS bandwidth can have a granularity of 4 PRBs, with a minimum value of 24 PRBs and a maximum value of 272 PRBs. Currently, up to 4 frequency layers have been defined, and up to 2 PRS resource sets per frequency layer per TRP can be configured.

[0098] The concept of a frequency layer is somewhat similar to the concepts of component carriers and bandwidth parts (BWPs), but differs in that component carriers and BWPs are used by one base station (or macrocell and small cell base stations) to transmit data channels, whereas a frequency layer is used by several (often three or more) base stations to transmit PRS. A UE can indicate the number of frequency layers that the UE can support when the UE sends its positioning capabilities to the network, such as during an LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) session. For example, a UE can indicate whether it can support one or four positioning frequency layers.

[0099] Figure 4BExamples of various channels within the downlink time slot of a radio frame are illustrated. In NR, the channel bandwidth or system bandwidth is divided into multiple BWPs. A BWP is a set of contiguous PRBs selected from the common set of RBs designed for a given numerology for a given carrier. Generally, a maximum of 4 BWPs can be specified in downlink and uplink. That is, a UE can be configured to have up to 4 BWPs on the downlink and up to 4 BWPs on the uplink. Only one BWP (either uplink or downlink) can be active at a given time, which means the UE can only receive or transmit on one BWP at a time. On the downlink, the bandwidth of each BWP should be equal to or larger than the bandwidth of the SSB, although it can or can not contain the SSB.

[0100] Referring to Figure 4B , a primary synchronization signal (PSS) is used by a UE to determine subframe / symbol timing and a physical layer identity. A secondary synchronization signal (SSS) is used by a UE to determine a physical layer cell identity group number and radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identity group number, the UE can determine a PCI. Based on the PCI, the UE can determine the locations of the aforementioned DL-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH), which carries an MIB, can be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form an SSB (also referred to as SS / PBCH). The MIB provides a number of RBs in the downlink system bandwidth, and a system frame number (SFN). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcast system information (such as system information blocks (SIBs)), and paging messages.

[0101] The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries downlink control information (DCI) within one or more control channel elements (CCEs), each CCE including one or more RE group (REG) bundles (which can span one or more symbols in the time domain), each REG bundle including one or more REGs, each REG corresponding to 12 resource elements (one resource block) in the frequency domain and one OFDM symbol in the time domain. The set of physical resources used to carry the PDCCH / DCI is referred to as the control resource set (CORESET) in NR. In NR, the PDCCH is confined to a single CORESET and is transmitted with its own DMRS. This enables UE-specific beamforming for the PDCCH.

[0102] In Figure 4BIn the example shown in FIG. 1, there is one CORESET per BWP, and the CORESET spans three symbols in the time domain (although it can be only one symbol or two symbols). Unlike the LTE control channel, which occupies the entire system bandwidth, in NR, the PDCCH channel is localized to a particular region in the frequency domain (i.e., the CORESET). Thus, Figure 4B The frequency component of the PDCCH shown in FIG. 1 is illustrated in the frequency domain as less than a single BWP. Note that although the illustrated CORESET is contiguous in the frequency domain, the CORESET need not be contiguous. In addition, the CORESET can span less than three symbols in the time domain.

[0103] DCI within the PDCCH carries information about uplink resource allocation (persistent and non-persistent) and descriptions of downlink data transmitted to the UE (referred to as uplink and downlink grants, respectively). More specifically, the DCI indicates resources scheduled for downlink data channels (e.g., PDSCH) and uplink data channels (e.g., PUSCH). Multiple (e.g., up to 8) DCIs can be configured in the PDCCH, and these DCIs can have one of multiple formats. For example, there are different DCI formats for uplink scheduling, for downlink scheduling, for uplink transmit power control (TPC), etc. The PDCCH can be transmitted by 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs to accommodate different DCI payload sizes or coding rates.

[0104] The following are the currently supported DCI formats. Format 0-0: fallback for PUSCH scheduling; Format 0-1: non-fallback for PUSCH scheduling; Format 1-0: fallback for PDSCH scheduling; Format 1-1: non-fallback for PDSCH scheduling; Format 2-0: informing a group of UEs of the slot format; Format 2-1: informing a group of UEs of PRB(s) and OFDM symbol(s) where the UE can assume no transmission for the UE; Format 2-2: transmitting TPC commands for PUCCH and PUSCH; and Format 2-3: transmitting a SRS request group and TPC commands for SRS transmission. Note that the fallback formats are the default scheduling options, which have non-configurable fields and support basic NR operations. In contrast, the non-fallback formats are flexible to accommodate NR features.

[0105] As will be appreciated, the UE needs to be able to demodulate (also referred to as "decode") the PDCCH in order to read the DCI and thereby obtain scheduling of resources allocated to the UE on the PDSCH and PUSCH. If the UE fails to demodulate the PDCCH, the UE will not know the location of the PDSCH resources and it will continue to try to demodulate the PDCCH using different sets of PDCCH candidates in subsequent PDCCH monitoring occasions. If the UE fails to demodulate the PDCCH after some number of attempts, the UE declares a radio link failure (RLF). To overcome PDCCH demodulation problems, search spaces are configured for efficient PDCCH detection and demodulation.

[0106] In general, the UE will not attempt to demodulate every PDCCH candidate that can be scheduled in a slot. To reduce the burden on the PDCCH scheduler, while to reduce the number of blind demodulation attempts made by the UE, search spaces are configured. A search space is indicated by a set of contiguous CCEs that the UE is expected to monitor for a scheduling assignment / grant related to a certain component carrier. There are two types of search spaces for PDCCH to control each component carrier: common search space (CSS) and UE-specific search space (USS).

[0107] The common search space is shared across all UEs, while the UE-specific search space is used on a per-UE basis (i.e., the UE-specific search space is specific to a particular UE). For the common search space, the DCI cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is scrambled with the system information radio network temporary identifier (SI-RNTI) for all common procedures, random access RNT (RA-RNTI), temporary cell RNTI (TC-RNTI), paging RNTI (P-RNTI), interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), slot format indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, TPC-PUSCH-RNTI, TPC-SRS-RNTI, cell RNTI (C-RNTI), or configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI). For the UE-specific search space, the DCI CRC is scrambled with the C-RNTI or CS-RNTI, as these are specific to individual UEs.

[0108] The UE uses four UE-specific search space clustering levels (1, 2, 4, and 8) and two shared search space clustering levels (4 and 8) to demodulate the PDCCH. Specifically, for the UE-specific search space, clustering level '1' has a size of six PDCCH candidates and six CCEs per time slot. Clustering level '2' has a size of six PDCCH candidates and 12 CCEs per time slot. Clustering level '4' has a size of two PDCCH candidates and 8 CCEs per time slot. Clustering level '8' has a size of two PDCCH candidates and 16 CCEs per time slot. For the shared search space, clustering level '4' has a size of four PDCCH candidates and 16 CCEs per time slot. Clustering level '8' has a size of two PDCCH candidates and 16 CCEs per time slot.

[0109] Each search space comprises a coherent set of CCEs that can be assigned to a PDCCH (referred to as PDCCH candidates). The UE demodulates all PDCCH candidates in both search spaces (USS and CSS) to discover a DCI for that UE. For example, the UE can demodulate a DCI to obtain scheduled uplink grant information on the PUSCH and downlink resources on the PDSCH. Note that the clustering level is the number of REs carrying PDCCH DCI messages in the CORESET, expressed in the form of CCEs. There is a one-to-one mapping between the clustering level and the number of CCEs per clustering level. That is, for clustering level '4', there are four CCEs. Thus, as shown above, if the clustering level is '4' and the number of PDCCH candidates in a time slot is '2', the size of the search space is '8' (i.e., 4 x 2 = 8).

[0110] like Figure 4C As explained, some REs (denoted as "R") carry DMRS for channel estimation at the receiver (e.g., a base station, another UE, etc.). The UE may, for example, additionally transmit SRS in the last symbol of the time slot. The SRS may have a comb structure, and the UE may transmit the SRS on one of the comb teeth. Figure 4C In the example, the SRS described is a comb tooth-2 on a symbol. The SRS can be used by the base station to obtain Channel State Information (CSI) for each UE. CSI describes how the RF signal propagates from the UE to the base station and represents the combined effects of scattering, fading, and power attenuation over distance. The system uses SRS for resource scheduling, link adaptation, massive MIMO, beam management, etc.

[0111] Currently, an SRS resource with comb size of comb-2, comb-4, or comb-8 can span 1, 2, 4, 8, or 12 consecutive symbols within a slot. Here are the per-symbol frequency offsets for the currently supported SRS comb patterns. 1-symbol comb-2: {0}; 2-symbol comb-2: {0, 1}; 4-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1}; 4-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1, 3}; 8-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3}; 12-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3}; 4-symbol comb-8: {0, 4, 2, 6}; 8-symbol comb-8: {0, 4, 2, 6, 1, 5, 3, 7}; and 12-symbol comb-8: {0, 4, 2, 6, 1, 5, 3, 7, 0, 4, 2, 6}.

[0112] A set of resource elements used for transmission of SRS is referred to as an “SRS resource” and can be identified by the parameter “SRS-ResourceId.” A set of resource elements can span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and N (e.g., one or more) consecutive symbols within a slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol, an SRS resource occupies consecutive PRBs. An “SRS resource set” is a set of SRS resources used for transmission of SRS signals and is identified by an SRS resource set ID (“SRS-ResourceSetId”).

[0113] Generally, a UE transmits SRS to enable a receiving base station (a serving base station or a neighboring base station) to measure the channel quality between the UE and the base station. However, SRS can also be used as an uplink positioning reference signal for uplink positioning procedures such as UL-TDOA, multi-RTT, DL-AoA, etc.

[0114] Several enhancements to the previously defined SRS have been proposed for “SRS-for-positioning” (also referred to as “UL-PRS”), such as new interlace patterns within an SRS resource (in addition to single-symbol / comb-2), new comb types for SRS, new sequences for SRS, larger number of SRS resource sets per component carrier, and larger number of SRS resources per component carrier. In addition, the parameters “SpatialRelationInfo” and “PathLossReference” are to be configured based on a downlink reference signal or SSB from a neighboring TRP. Further, one SRS resource can be transmitted outside of the active BWP, and one SRS resource can span multiple component carriers. Furthermore, SRS can be configured in RRC connected state and transmitted only within the active BWP. Also, there can be no frequency hopping, repetition factor, single antenna port, and new lengths of SRS (e.g., 8 and 12 symbols). There can also be open loop power control and no closed loop power control, and comb-8 (i.e., SRS transmitted every eighth subcarrier in the same symbol) can be used. Finally, a UE can transmit from multiple SRS resources through the same transmit beam for UL-AoA. All of these are features outside of the current SRS framework, which is configured by RRC higher layer signaling (and potentially triggered or activated by MAC control element (CE) or DCI).

[0115] Figure 4D An example of various channels within an uplink slot of a frame is illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. A random access channel (RACH) (also referred to as a physical random access channel (PRACH)) can be within one or more slots within a frame based on a PRACH configuration. The PRACH can include 6 consecutive pairs of RBs within a slot. The PRACH allows a UE to perform initial system access and achieve uplink synchronization. A physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) can be located at an edge of the uplink system bandwidth. The PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as scheduling requests, CSI reports, channel quality indicators (CQIs), precoding matrix indicators (PMIs), rank indicators (RIs), and HARQ ACK / NACK feedback. A physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) carries data and can additionally be used to carry buffer status reports (BSRs), power headroom reports (PHRs), and / or UCI.

[0116] 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 as defined in LTE and NR, TRS, PTRS, CRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB, SRS, UL-PRS, etc. Additionally, the terms “positioning reference signal” and “PRS” can refer to downlink or uplink positioning reference signals, unless otherwise indicated by the context. If further differentiation of the type of PRS is needed, downlink positioning reference signals can be referred to as “DL-PRS”, while uplink positioning reference signals (e.g., positioning SRS, PTRS) can be referred to as “UL-PRS”. Additionally, for signals that can be transmitted in both uplink and downlink (e.g., DMRS, PTRS), these signals can be prepended with “UL” or “DL” to differentiate the direction. For example, “UL-DMRS” can be differentiated from “DL-DMRS”.

[0117] After a random access procedure (e.g., a two-step, three-step, or four-step RACH procedure), the UE is in an RRC CONNECTED state. An RRC protocol is used over the air interface between the UE and the base station. The main functions of the RRC protocol include connection establishment and release functions, broadcast of system information, radio bearer establishment, reconfiguration, and release, RRC connection mobility procedures, paging notification and release, and outer loop power control. In LTE, a UE can be in one of two RRC states (connected or idle), but in NR, a UE can be in one of three RRC states (connected, idle, or inactive). Different RRC states have different radio resources associated with the states that a UE can use when in a given state. Note that different RRC states are typically capitalized, as noted above; however, this is not a requirement, and the states can also be written in lower case.

[0118] Figure 5 is a diagram 500 of the different RRC states (also referred to as RRC modes) available in NR according to aspects of the present disclosure. When a UE powers on, it initially is in an RRC disconnected / idle state 510. After a random access procedure, it moves to an RRC connected state 520. If the UE has no activity for a short time, it can suspend its session by moving to an RRC inactive state 530. The UE can resume its session by performing a random access procedure to transition back to the RRC connected state 520. Thus, the UE needs to perform a random access procedure to transition to the RRC connected state 520, regardless of whether the UE is in the RRC idle state 510 or the RRC inactive state 530.

[0119] Operations performed in RRC IDLE state 510 include public land mobile network (PLMN) selection, broadcast of system information, cell reselection mobility, paging for mobile terminated data (initiated and managed by 5GC), discontinuous reception (DRX) for core network paging (configured by non-access stratum (NAS)). Operations performed in RRC CONNECTED state 520 include 5GC (e.g., 5GC 260) and new RAN (e.g., new RAN 220) connection establishment (both control plane and user plane), UE context storage at the new RAN and the UE, new RAN knowledge of the cell to which the UE belongs, transfer of unicast data to / from the UE, and network controlled mobility. Operations performed in RRC INACTIVE state 530 include broadcast of system information, cell reselection for mobility, paging (initiated by new RAN), RAN-based notification area (RNA) management (initiated by new RAN), DRX for RAN paging (configured by new RAN), 5GC and new RAN connection establishment for the UE (both control plane and user plane), storing of UE context in the new RAN and the UE, and new RAN knowledge of the RNA to which the UE belongs.

[0120] Paging is a mechanism by which the network informs a UE that it has data for the UE. In most cases, the paging procedure occurs when the UE is in RRC IDLE (Idle) state 510 or RRC INACTIVE (Inactive) state 530. This means that the UE needs to monitor whether the network is transmitting any paging messages to it. For example, during the idle state 510, the UE enters a sleep mode defined in its DRX cycle. The UE periodically wakes up and monitors its paging frame (PF) and paging occasion (PO) within the PF on the PDCCH to check whether there is a paging message. The PF and PO indicate a time period (e.g., one or more symbols, slots, subframes, etc.) in which the RAN (e.g., serving base station / TRP / cell) will transmit any pages to the UE, and thus is a time period in which the UE should monitor for pages. The PF and PO are configured to occur periodically, specifically at least once during each DRX cycle (which is equal to a paging cycle). While both the PF and PO are needed to determine the time to monitor for pages, for simplicity, only the PO is typically referenced. If the PDCCH indicates via the PF and PO that a paging message is transmitted in a subframe, the UE needs to demodulate the paging channel (PCH) on the PDSCH to see if the paging message is directed to it.

[0121] PDCCH and PDSCH are transmitted using beam sweeping and repetition. For beam sweeping, within each PO, the paging PDCCH and PDSCH are transmitted on all SSB beams as the SSBs transmitted in the cell. This is because when the UE is in RRC IDLE state 510 or RRC INACTIVE state 530, the base station does not know where the UE is located in its geographical coverage area, so it needs to beamform over its entire geographical coverage area (i.e., over all its transmit beams). For repetition, the paging PDCCH and PDSCH can be transmitted multiple times on each beam within the PO. Thus, each PO contains multiple consecutive paging PDCCH monitoring occasions (PMO).

[0122] In NR, positioning is supported not only in RRC CONNECTED state 520, but also in RRC INACTIVE state 530. A key aspect of INACTIVE state positioning (and, in general, RRC INACTIVE state 530) is that the UE is not associated with a serving base station, but can be within the coverage area of any cell within the RAN paging area (it is expected that a UE in RRC INACTIVE state 530 is located in a group of cells whose coverage areas it is located in when transitioning from RRC INACTIVE state 530 to RRC CONNECTED state 520). As such, the UE does not need to communicate with the network when it moves from one cell to another within the RAN paging area. Benefits to the network of INACTIVE state positioning include faster transition of the UE to CONNECTED state 520, as the network maintains the context of the UE (e.g., network identifier, radio bearers, etc.) while it is in INACTIVE state 530. Benefits to the UE include faster transition to CONNECTED state 520, in addition to reduced power consumption, as the UE only monitors for paging while in INACTIVE state 530.

[0123] As described above, during a positioning procedure, the UE can receive / measure DL PRS and / or transmit SRS. To receive / measure PRS, the UE needs to be informed of the downlink resources (i.e., specific locations in time and frequency, such as REs, RBs, slots, subframes, etc.) on which the TRPs / cells involved in the positioning procedure will transmit PRS (i.e., PRS configuration). Similarly, to transmit SRS, the UE needs to be informed of the uplink resources on which to transmit SRS (i.e., SRS configuration). The UE generally receives the PRS configuration from a positioning server via LPP and the SRS configuration from a serving base station via RRC. In either case, the UE needs to be in RRC CONNECTED state 520 to receive the configuration. Without the PRS and SRS configuration, the UE will not be able to receive / measure PRS or transmit SRS.

[0124] Figure 6A and 6BAn example procedure 600 for PRS and / or SRS configuration in RRC inactive state 530 is illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The procedure 600 is performed by a UE 604 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein), a NG-RAN 620 (e.g., the New RAN 220), an AMF 664 (e.g., the AMF 264), and an LMF 670 (e.g., the LMF 270). Although not illustrated for simplicity, the NG-RAN 620 can include one or more gNBs, TRPs, cells, etc.

[0125] The procedure 600 begins with the UE 604 in the inactive state 530. At stage 21, a location event is detected. The location event can be a new request for UE location (e.g., received from the LMF 670), a periodic positioning procedure, etc. In response to the detected location event, stage 22 is performed if the location event is for an uplink-only (e.g., UL-TDOA, UL-AoA, etc.) or downlink and uplink-based positioning procedure (e.g., RTT, E-CID, etc.).

[0126] If the UE 604 is configured to perform a four-step RACH procedure to transition to the RRC connected state 520 (as opposed to a two-step or three-step RACH procedure), at stage 22.1, the UE 604 transmits a random access preamble to the NG-RAN 620 (first message of the four-step RACH procedure). At stage 22.2, the NG-RAN 620 responds with a random access response message (second message of the four-step RACH procedure).

[0127] At stage 22.3, the UE 604 transmits an RRC resume request to the NG-RAN 620. The RRC resume request includes an indication that the RRC resume request is in response to the location event (i.e., the location event at stage 21). In response to the RRC resume request, if the UE 604 is connecting to a new serving gNB in the same paging area of the NG-RAN 620, the new serving gNB retrieves the context of the UE 604 from an anchor gNB (which can be the previous serving gNB or otherwise designated gNB), including any SRS configuration. The context can include an SRS configuration for the UE 604 (e.g., based on the capabilities of the UE 604). The serving gNB thereby determines the SRS configuration and, at stage 22.4, transmits a NR Positioning Protocol Type A (NRPPa) Location Information Update to the LMF 670 (NRPPa is a communication protocol between the NG-RAN 620 and the LMF 670). The NRPPa Location Information Update includes the SRS configuration to be assigned to the UE 604 for the positioning procedure.

[0128] For aperiodic (AP) or semi-persistent (SP) positioning, the LMF 670 activates (triggers) SRS, so at stage 22.5, it transmits a NRPPa Positioning Activation Request to the NG-RAN 620 indicating that SRS will be activated. At stage 22.6, the serving gNB provides the SRS configuration to the UE 604 in an RRC Release message. The RRC Release message can be the fourth message (called “Msg4”) of the four-step RACH procedure or the second message (called “MsgB”) of the two-step RACH procedure. The SRS configuration can be ciphered according to the access stratum (AS) security keys retrieved from the anchor gNB. The RRC Release message can optionally include a preconfigured uplink resource (PUR) configuration for a subsequent resume request. After stage 22.6, the UE 604 transitions back to the RRC Inactive state 530.

[0129] At stage 22.7, the NG-RAN 620 transmits an SRS activation message to the UE 604. The activation can be at the RRC or MAC control element (MAC-CE) level (i.e., the activation message can be an RRC message or a MAC-CE), or can use DCI. At stage 22.8, the NG-RAN 620 transmits a NRPPa Positioning Activation Response to the LMF 670 to confirm that the UE 604 has been activated to transmit SRS on the configured SRS resources. At stage 22.9, the LMF 670 sends a NRPPa Measurement Request to the TRPs / cells involved in the positioning session (i.e., the TRPs / cells in the NG-RAN 620 that are expected to measure and report the SRS transmitted by the UE 604). The Measurement Request can indicate the time and / or frequency resources on which the UE 604 will transmit SRS.

[0130] After stage 22 (if performed), stage 23 is performed for both uplink and downlink based positioning while the UE 604 is in the Inactive state 530. At stage 23.1a, the UE 604 transmits SRS on the time and / or frequency resources indicated in the SRS configuration received at stage 22.6. At stage 23.1b, the UE 604 measures DL PRS from the TRPs / cells in the NG-RAN 620 (if the UE 604 is performing downlink or downlink and uplink based positioning procedures). At stage 23.1c, the NG-RAN 620 (specifically, the involved TRPs / cells) measures the SRS transmitted by the UE 604. The uplink and downlink measurements can occur in parallel.

[0131] At stage 23.2, if the UE 604 did not receive the PUR configuration at stage 22.6, the UE 604 performs a RACH procedure to reconnect to the NG-RAN 620. At stage 23.3, the UE 604 transmits an RRC Resume Request to the NG-RAN 620 (specifically, the serving gNB). The RRC Resume Request includes the event report and an LPP message that includes the PRS measurements from stage 23. lb. At stage 23.4, the NG-RAN 620 (specifically, the serving gNB) forwards the event report to the LMF 670 via the anchor gNB (e.g., the current serving gNB) and the serving AMF 664. At stage 23.5, the involved TRPs / cells in the NG-RAN 620 transmit the respective measurement responses to the LMF 670. At stage 23.6, the LMF 670 computes the location of the UE 604 using the measurements received from the UE 604 and the involved TRPs / cells in the NG-RAN 620.

[0132] If the SRS is semi-persistent or aperiodic, at stage 23.7, the LMF 670 transmits an NRPPa Positioning Deactivation Request to the NG-RAN 620. In response, at stage 23.8, the NG-RAN 620 transmits an SRS Deactivation Command to the UE 604. The deactivation command can be transmitted at the MAC-CE level or using DCI. At stage 23.9, the LMF 670 transmits an Event Report Acknowledgment to the NG-RAN 620 (specifically, the anchor gNB) via the serving AMF 664. At stage 23.10, the NG-RAN transmits an RRC Release message including the Event Report Acknowledgment to the UE 604. Subsequently, the UE 604 transitions back to the RRC Inactive state 530.

[0133] In the foregoing description, the UE 604 remains in the same RAN paging area. However, if the UE 604 is to leave that RAN paging area, it will need to connect to the network to obtain new paging information.

[0134] When the UE is in the RRC Inactive state 530, the PRS and SRS configurations, the Tracking Area (TA), and the TPC are not updated. Instead, for SRS, as Figure 6A and 6BAs shown, the UE needs to transition to RRC connected state 520 to obtain PRS and SRS configurations. For scenarios where the UE is moving in RRC inactive state 530 and has an active ongoing positioning session (e.g., UL-TDOA or RTT based methods), this can be a problem because the UE can need to transmit SRS or receive PRS on different resources than it was previously configured due to its mobility in the NG-RAN. It also consumes more time and power to transition to RRC connected state 520 just to receive updated SRS and PRS configurations.

[0135] Accordingly, the present disclosure provides techniques for a UE to monitor transmissions from a cell, especially a neighbor cell, while in RRC inactive state 530 so that updated transmission parameters and other information can be conveyed to the UE without the UE transitioning to RRC connected state 520. At a high level, a first technique described herein is to configure the UE with a new cell-specific search space that can be monitored when the UE is in RRC inactive state 530 (paging can be considered an example of a cell-specific search space that the UE is currently monitoring in RRC inactive state). A second technique described herein is to overload the paging DCI with additional information to enable UE-specific actions related to positioning. A third technique described herein is to configure the UE with a new UE-specific DCI and search space that is used by all gNBs within a configured area (e.g., a RAN paging area or an area smaller than a RAN paging area). A fourth technique described herein is to configure the UE with a new group-common DCI and search space that is used by all gNBs within a configured area.

[0136] Referring to the first technique in more detail, the following table shows the currently supported search spaces and a new cell-specific search space that can be monitored by a UE in RRC inactive state 530 (in the last row).

[0137]

[0138] Table 1

[0139] As shown in the last row of the table above, a cell-specific Type 2a-PDCCH search space can be configured that the UE can monitor while in the RRC-Inactive state 530. The configuration of the Type 2a-PDCCH can be signaled in (1) an existing SIB (e.g., PDCCH configuration common in the Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI) or Positioning SIB (Pos-SIB), (2) a new SIB defined for this purpose, or (3) indicated to the UE in the RRC release message that sets up the RRC-Inactive state 530 (e.g., the RRC release message at stages 23.6 and 23.10).

[0140] Referring now to the second technique described herein, unlike the first technique, the second technique can use currently supported search spaces (the first five rows of Table 1). In this case, the paging message to the UE can be overloaded with additional bits needed to trigger the positioning function (compared to a non-positioning paging message). However, the additional bits should be added in a way that the paging message and its format is still compatible with legacy UEs. Additionally, the periodicity of the paging message for data and positioning can not match, so different types of paging messages need to have the same periodicity or otherwise be distinguished from each other.

[0141] Referring now to the third technique described herein, the UE can be configured with a new UE-specific search space. Unlike the current paging, where the UE monitors a cell-specific search space and only one base station transmits in that search space, any base station can transmit in this search space. For this technique, the UE indicates the number of receive beams (i.e., used to receive the downlink RF signals) that it monitors, and the base stations transmitting within the UE-specific search space to the UE can have to repeat the paging message that number of times for the UE. That is, the base stations can transmit the paging message the number of UE receive beams times the number of base station transmit beams, which is not ideal as it can result in more repetitions than actually needed. This is because the UE in the RRC-Inactive state 530 cannot indicate the best receive beam to the base station. As such, the base station does not know which transmit beam(s) and / or which receive beam(s) are best suited for communicating with the UE. Instead, to ensure that the UE receives the paging message, the base station needs to transmit the paging message the number of UE receive beams times on all of its transmit beams.

[0142] Referring now to the fourth technique described herein, the configured search space from the third technique can instead be used for a group of UEs (i.e., a group-common search space that can be shared by a group of UEs). This slightly reduces the overhead compared to the third technique.

[0143] There are various additional aspects that can be applied to the four techniques described above. In one aspect, the information carried by the new DCI can include PRS and SRS triggering. The DCI can indicate PRS / SRS resource set and resource index, periodicity and number of instances, start and end of the corresponding positioning reference signal (PRS or SRS), timing advance (TA) update, TPC update, etc. In particular, a UE in RRC inactive state 530 monitors PDCCH candidates in a new search space (one or more of the search spaces described above with respect to the first four techniques) associated with the base station that is currently the "best" potential serving base station. The UE then receives a positioning paging message with the new DCI, and the UE performs the actions as indicated in the new DCI (e.g., transmit on the updated resource set, update the TA, etc.).

[0144] There are different options for how to address a given UE as part of the paging message. As a first option, the UE can be addressed like a regular (non-positioning) paging. In this case, the UE identity can be, for example, an inactive RNTI (I-RNTI) or a serving temporary mobile subscriber identity (S-TMSI). More than one UE can be addressed in the paging message, and the paging message for each UE will have the same number of bits so that all UEs can parse the PDSCH message scheduled by the PDCCH. Each UE can have a different interpretation of the bits in the paging message depending on its configuration.

[0145] As a second option for how to address a given UE, the UE can be addressed by a specific DCI. In this case, the DCI can be scrambled with a unique UE identity such as an I-RNTI. In addition, each UE can have an individual size of the DCI.

[0146] With respect to how the UE acknowledges the paging message, in regular paging, the UE initiates a connection setup procedure. Thus, when the UE transitions to RRC connected state 520 (or at some point during the procedure), the network is aware that the paging was successful. In contrast, for positioning paging, the UE does not acknowledge the paging message by default. As such, the network can only indirectly know whether the paging was successful based on the actions of the UE. For example, if the next action of the positioning session takes a long time or is not detected, it can indicate that the paging message was not successful. For example, if an SRS is triggered after 100 ms, it can take more than 100 ms for the network (e.g., the serving base station) to realize that the UE did not receive the paging. That is, the network will only determine that the paging message that triggered the SRS was not successful when the network does not detect the SRS at the scheduled time. As another example, if a TPC command is sent, the network can never detect a change in UE transmit power.

[0147] Accordingly, the present disclosure provides techniques for having an uplink message carry an acknowledgement of receipt of a DCI paging message. If the UE does not receive the paging message, it does not send an acknowledgement. If an acknowledgement is not received, the network (e.g., serving base station, location server) can immediately repeat the page or attempt to page on a different cell. Note that because the UE is in RRC Inactive state 530, the UE can have moved to the coverage area of another cell and can not receive pages from the last RRC Connected 520 cell.

[0148] There are different options for how to transmit the acknowledgement message to the paging base station. As a first option, the UE can be configured with PUCCH resources (a few symbols or slots after the DCI paging message) to transmit the acknowledgement on. The resource selection information can be provided in the DCI paging message, while the resource configuration can be provided in the RMSI. However, this technique requires transmit power control and TA alignment to work well, and they are typically not very accurate.

[0149] As a second option, the UE can be assigned (by the serving base station or location server) a dedicated RACH preamble for each cell signaled by the DCI. Upon receiving the RACH preamble from the UE, the paging base station will know that the page has been received.

[0150] In a further aspect, even in RRC Inactive state 530, the UE can inform the network (e.g., the most recent serving base station or location server) as it moves from cell to cell. This reduces most of the paging overhead on the network. This can be achieved by transmitting a dedicated RACH preamble on a specified resource periodically or upon triggering a certain event to the best cell. In response, the receiving base station can provide the RACH preamble to the UE for the neighbor cell to continue the process. This information can be indicated in the same paging DCI.

[0151] Figure 7 An example method 700 of wireless communication is illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In an aspect, the method 700 can be performed by a UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

[0152] At 710, the UE monitors one or more PDCCH candidates in a search space while in an RRC Inactive state (e.g., RRC Inactive state 530). In an aspect, operation 710 can be performed by WWAN transceiver 310, processing system 332, memory component 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which can be considered means for performing this operation.

[0153] At 720, the UE receives, while in the RRC inactive state, a positioning paging message from the network entity on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates, the positioning paging message being configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing positioning session involving the UE. In an aspect, operation 720 can be performed by the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory component 340, and / or the positioning component 342, any or all of which can be considered means for performing this operation.

[0154] At 730, the UE applies the update to the one or more parameters while in the RRC inactive state. In an aspect, operation 730 can be performed by the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory component 340, and / or the positioning component 342, any or all of which can be considered means for performing this operation.

[0155] At 740, the UE transmits, while in the RRC inactive state, an acknowledgement to the network entity in response to receiving the positioning paging message. In an aspect, operation 740 can be performed by the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory component 340, and / or the positioning component 342, any or all of which can be considered means for performing this operation.

[0156] As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of the method 700 is increased positioning performance (e.g., reduced latency, reduced power consumption, etc.) as the UE can receive updated positioning parameters while remaining in the RRC inactive state.

[0157] In the above detailed description, various features are grouped together in examples. This manner of disclosure should not be understood as a limitation on the example clauses, but rather a description of features that can be common to an example group. Thus, the attached claims should not be limited to the features of each example group, but rather they can comprise features common to more than one example group. It is possible that an example clause can recite only a single feature, but it is also possible that an example clause can recite more than one feature. Additionally, it is also possible for an example clause to recite no features of its own, but rather to refer to other example clauses for features. Where reference is made to other example clauses, this should be understood to mean that an example clause can include features recited in any of the other example clauses, in combination with the features of the example clause to which the reference is made. Furthermore, it is also possible for an example clause to recite features that are not included in other example clauses. It is also possible for an example clause to recite features that are not included in other example clauses. Where reference is made to other example clauses, this should be understood to mean that an example clause can include features recited in any of the other example clauses, in combination with the features of the example clause to which the reference is made. Furthermore, it is also possible for an example clause to recite features that are not included in other example clauses. It is also possible for an example clause to recite features that are not included in other example clauses.

[0158] Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0159] Clause 1. A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: monitoring one or more physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates in a search space while in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state; receiving, from a network entity, a positioning paging message on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates while in the RRC inactive state, the positioning paging message being configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing positioning session involving the UE; applying the update to the one or more parameters while in the RRC inactive state; and transmitting, to the network entity, an acknowledgement in response to receiving the positioning paging message while in the RRC inactive state.

[0160] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein: the search space is a cell-specific search space, and the receiving comprises receiving the positioning paging message on the at least one PDCCH candidate in the cell-specific search space.

[0161] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, further comprising: receiving, in a system information block (SIB), a configuration of the one or more PDCCH candidates in the cell-specific search space.

[0162] Clause 4. The method of clause 2, further comprising: receiving, in an RRC release message, a configuration of the one or more PDCCH candidates in the cell-specific search space.

[0163] Clause 5. The method of any of clauses 2-4, wherein the UE is identified by a positioning paging radio network temporary identifier (pos-P-RNTI) in the at least one PDCCH candidate.

[0164] Clause 6. The method of clause 1, wherein the positioning paging message configured to trigger the update to the one or more parameters associated with the ongoing positioning session comprises one or more additional bits in the positioning paging message compared to a non-positioning paging message.

[0165] Clause 7. The method of clause 1, wherein: the search space is a UE-specific search space, and the receiving comprises receiving the positioning paging message on the at least one PDCCH candidate in the UE-specific search space.

[0166] Clause 8. The method of clause 7, further comprising: transmitting an indication of a number of receive beams used by the UE to receive the positioning paging message.

[0167] Clause 9. The method of clause 8, wherein the positioning paging message is transmitted by the network entity at least once for each of the number of receive beams.

[0168] Clause 10. The method of clause 7, wherein the UE-specific search space is a common search space for a group of UEs.

[0169] Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 1-10, wherein the one or more parameters comprise: a configuration of a positioning reference signal, a timing advance (TA) parameter, a transmit power control (TPC) parameter, or any combination thereof.

[0170] Clause 12. The method of clause 11, wherein the configuration of the positioning reference signal comprises: a resource set identifier of the positioning reference signal, a resource index of the positioning reference signal, a periodicity of the positioning reference signal, a number of instances of the positioning reference signal, a start of the positioning reference signal, an end of the positioning reference signal, or any combination thereof.

[0171] Clause 13. The method of any of clauses 11-12, wherein the positioning reference signal comprises a downlink positioning reference signal (DL PRS) or a sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0172] Clause 14. The method of any of clauses 11-13, wherein the applying comprises: transmitting or receiving the positioning reference signal based on the configuration of the positioning reference signal, updating a TA of the UE based on the TA parameter, updating a TPC of the UE based on the TPC parameter, or any combination thereof.

[0173] Clause 15. The method of any of clauses 1-14, wherein the receiving comprises receiving the positioning paging message on the at least one PDCCH candidate in downlink control information (DCI).

[0174] Clause 16. The method of any of clauses 1-15, wherein the network entity is a potential serving base station.

[0175] Clause 17. The method of any of clauses 1-16, wherein the UE is identified by an inactive radio network temporary identifier (I-RNTI) or a serving temporary mobile subscriber identity (S-TMSI) in the at least one PDCCH candidate.

[0176] Clause 18. The method of clause 17, wherein a plurality of UEs including the UE are addressed in the positioning paging message.

[0177] Clause 19. The method of clause 18, wherein the positioning paging message is interpreted differently by each UE of the plurality of UEs based on a configuration of the positioning paging message.

[0178] Clause 20. The method of any of clauses 1 to 19, wherein the UE is identified in UE-specific DCI within the at least one PDCCH candidate.

[0179] Clause 21. The method of clause 20, wherein the UE-specific DCI is scrambled by an identifier unique to the UE.

[0180] Clause 22. The method of clause 21, wherein the identifier unique to the UE is an I-RNTI associated with the UE.

[0181] Clause 23. The method of any of clauses 20 to 22, wherein a length of the UE-specific DCI is specific to the UE.

[0182] Clause 24. The method of any of clauses 1 to 23, further comprising receiving a configuration of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource on which an acknowledgement is to be transmitted, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the acknowledgement to the network entity on the PUCCH resource.

[0183] Clause 25. The method of clause 24, wherein: the UE receives resource selection information for the PUCCH resource in DCI within the at least one PDCCH candidate, and the UE receives configuration information for the PUCCH resource in remaining minimum system information (RMSI).

[0184] Clause 26. The method of clause 25, wherein the PUCCH resource comprises one or more symbols, one or more slots, or one or more subframes after the DCI.

[0185] Clause 27. The method of any of clauses 1 to 26, further comprising receiving an assignment of a dedicated random access preamble for the network entity, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the dedicated random access preamble as the acknowledgement.

[0186] Clause 28. The method of clause 27, wherein the receiving the assignment comprises receiving the assignment of the dedicated random access preamble in DCI within the at least one PDCCH candidate.

[0187] Clause 29. The method of any of clauses 1 to 28, further comprising, while in an RRC inactive state, transmitting an indication that the UE has moved from a coverage area of a first cell to a coverage area of a second cell, and receiving one or more random access preambles for the UE from a neighbor cell.

[0188] Clause 30. The method of clause 29, wherein the indication comprises a dedicated random access preamble transmitted on one or more preconfigured time and frequency resources.

[0189] Clause 31. The method of any of clauses 29-30, wherein transmitting the indication comprises transmitting the indication periodically or in response to an event.

[0190] Clause 32. The method of any of clauses 29-31, wherein the one or more random access preambles are received in a positioning paging message.

[0191] Clause 33. The method of any of clauses 29-32, wherein transmitting the indication comprises transmitting the indication to a network entity.

[0192] Clause 34. An apparatus comprising: a memory and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the memory and the at least one processor configured to perform the method of any of clauses 1-33.

[0193] Clause 35. An apparatus comprising means for performing the method of any of clauses 1-33.

[0194] Clause 36. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, comprising at least one instruction for causing a computer or processor to perform the method of any of clauses 1-33.

[0195] Those skilled in the art will appreciate 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.

[0196] Further, 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.

[0197] 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 DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor 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.

[0198] The methods, sequences, and / or algorithms described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein can be embodied directly in hardware, in software with associated firmware, in software / firmware, or in any combination thereof. Software modules 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 exemplary 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.

[0199] 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, include 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.

[0200] While the forgoing examples are illustrative of the principles of the present disclosure in one or more aspects, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made therein 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 aspects of the present disclosure need not be performed in any particular order. Furthermore, although elements of the present disclosure can be described or claimed in singular form, plural forms can be used therein as well unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Claims

1. A wireless communication method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: When in an inactive Radio Resource Control (RRC) state, monitor one or more Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidates in the search space; When the UE is in the RRC inactive state, a location paging message from a network entity is received on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates, the location paging message being configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing location session involving the UE. When the RRC is inactive, the update of one or more parameters is applied; as well as When in the RRC inactive state, an acknowledgment is sent to the network entity in response to receiving the location paging message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein: The search space is a search space that varies depending on the cell, and The receiving includes receiving the location paging message on at least one PDCCH candidate in the search space that varies depending on the cell.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: The configuration of one or more PDCCH candidates in the cell-specific search space is received in the System Information Block (SIB).

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising: The RRC release message receives the configuration for one or more PDCCH candidates in the cell-specific search space.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the UE is identified by the location paging radio network temporary identifier pos-P-RNTI among the at least one PDCCH candidate.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the location paging message configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with the ongoing location session includes one or more additional bits in the location paging message compared to a non-location paging message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein: The search space is a search space that varies from UE to UE, and The receiving includes receiving the location paging message on at least one PDCCH candidate in the search space that varies depending on the UE.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: Transmit an indication of the number of receive beams used by the UE to receive location paging messages.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the location paging message is transmitted by the network entity at least once for each of the plurality of receiving beams.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the UE-specific search space is a shared search space for a group of UEs.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters include: Configuration of positioning reference signals, Pre-set TA parameters Transmit power control TPC parameters, or Any combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the configuration of the positioning reference signal includes: The resource set identifier of the positioning reference signal, The resource index of the positioning reference signal, a periodicity of the positioning reference signal, a number of instances of the positioning reference signal, a start of the positioning reference signal, an end of the positioning reference signal, or any combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the positioning reference signal comprises a downlink positioning reference signal (DL PRS) or a sounding reference signal (SRS).

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the applying comprises: transmitting or receiving the positioning reference signal based on a configuration of the positioning reference signal, updating a TA of the UE based on the TA parameter, updating a TPC of the UE based on the TPC parameter, or any combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving the positioning paging message in a downlink control information (DCI) on the at least one PDCCH candidate.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the network entity is a potential serving base station.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE is identified by an inactive radio network temporary identifier (I-RNTI) or a serving temporary mobile subscriber identity (S-TMSI) in the at least one PDCCH candidate.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a plurality of UEs including the UE are addressed in the positioning paging message.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the positioning paging message is interpreted differently by each UE of the plurality of UEs based on a configuration of the positioning paging message.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE is identified in a UE-specific DCI within the at least one PDCCH candidate.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the UE-specific DCI is scrambled by an identifier unique to the UE.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the identifier unique to the UE is an I-RNTI associated with the UE.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein a length of the UE-specific DCI is specific to the UE.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a configuration of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource on which the acknowledgement is to be transmitted, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the acknowledgement to the network entity on the PUCCH resource.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein: the UE receives resource selection information for the PUCCH resource in a DCI within the at least one PDCCH candidate, and the UE receives configuration information for the PUCCH resource in remaining minimum system information (RMSI).

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the PUCCH resource comprises one or more symbols, one or more slots, or one or more subframes after the DCI.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving an assignment of a dedicated random access preamble for the network entity, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the dedicated random access preamble as the acknowledgement.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein receiving the assignment comprises receiving an assignment of the dedicated random access preamble in DCI within the at least one PDCCH candidate.

29. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, while in the RRC inactive state, an indication that the UE has moved from a coverage area of a first cell to a coverage area of a second cell; and receiving one or more random access preambles for the UE from a neighbor cell.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the indication comprises a dedicated random access preamble transmitted on one or more preconfigured time and frequency resources.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein transmitting the indication comprises transmitting the indication periodically or in response to an event.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the one or more random access preambles are received in the positioning paging message.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein transmitting the indication comprises transmitting the indication to the network entity.

34. A user equipment (UE), 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: monitor one or more physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates in a search space while in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state; receive, while in the RRC inactive state, a positioning paging message from a network entity on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates, the positioning paging message configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing positioning session involving the UE; apply, while in the RRC inactive state, the update to the one or more parameters; and cause the at least one transceiver to transmit, while in the RRC inactive state, an acknowledgment to the network entity in response to receiving the positioning paging message.

35. The UE of claim 34, wherein: the search space is a cell-specific search space, and the at least one processor is configured to receive a configuration of the one or more PDCCH candidates in the cell-specific search space on which the at least one processor is configured to receive the positioning paging message.

36. The UE of claim 35, wherein the at least one processor receives the configuration of the one or more PDCCH candidates in the cell-specific search space in a system information block (SIB).

37. The UE of claim 35, wherein the at least one processor receives the configuration of the one or more PDCCH candidates in the cell-specific search space in an RRC release message.

38. The UE of claim 35, wherein the UE is identified by a positioning paging radio network temporary identifier (pos-P-RNTI) in the at least one PDCCH candidate. ​ 39. The UE of claim 34, wherein the positioning paging message configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with the ongoing positioning session comprises one or more additional bits in the positioning paging message compared to a non-positioning paging message.

40. The UE of claim 34, wherein: the search space is a UE-specific search space, and the at least one processor is configured to receive the positioning paging message comprises the at least one processor being configured to receive the positioning paging message on the at least one PDCCH candidate in the UE-specific search space.

41. The UE of claim 40, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: cause the at least one transceiver to transmit an indication of a number of receive beams used by the UE to receive positioning paging messages.

42. The UE of claim 41, wherein the positioning paging message is transmitted by the network entity at least once for each of the number of receive beams.

43. The UE of claim 40, wherein the UE-specific search space is a common search space for a group of UEs.

44. The UE of claim 34, wherein the one or more parameters comprise: a configuration of a positioning reference signal, a timing advance (TA) parameter, a transmit power control (TPC) parameter, or any combination thereof.

45. The UE of claim 44, wherein the configuration of the positioning reference signal comprises: a resource set identifier of the positioning reference signal, a resource index of the positioning reference signal, a periodicity of the positioning reference signal, a number of instances of the positioning reference signal, a start of the positioning reference signal, an end of the positioning reference signal, or any combination thereof.

46. The UE of claim 44, wherein the positioning reference signal comprises a downlink positioning reference signal (DL PRS) or a sounding reference signal (SRS).

47. The UE of claim 44, wherein the at least one processor being configured to apply comprises the at least one processor being configured to: cause the at least one transceiver to transmit or receive the positioning reference signal based on the configuration of the positioning reference signal, update a TA of the UE based on the TA parameter, update a TPC of the UE based on the TPC parameter, or any combination thereof.

48. The UE of claim 34, wherein the UE receives the positioning paging message on the at least one PDCCH candidate in a downlink control information (DCI).

49. The UE of claim 34, wherein the network entity is a potential serving base station.

50. The UE of claim 34, wherein the UE is identified by a non-active radio network temporary identifier (I-RNTI) or a serving temporary mobile subscriber identity (S-TMSI) in the at least one PDCCH candidate.

51. The UE of claim 50, wherein a plurality of UEs including the UE are addressed in the positioning paging message.

52. The UE of claim 51, wherein the positioning paging message is interpreted differently by each of the plurality of UEs based on a configuration of the positioning paging message.

53. The UE of claim 34, wherein the UE is identified in UE-specific DCI within the at least one PDCCH candidate.

54. The UE of claim 53, wherein the UE-specific DCI is scrambled by an identifier unique to the UE.

55. The UE of claim 54, wherein the identifier unique to the UE is an I-RNTI associated with the UE.

56. The UE of claim 53, wherein a length of the UE-specific DCI is specific to the UE.

57. The UE of claim 34, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive a configuration of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource on which the acknowledgement is to be transmitted, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the at least one transceiver to transmit includes the at least one processor being configured to cause the at least one transceiver to transmit the acknowledgement to the network entity on the PUCCH resource.

58. The UE of claim 57, wherein: the at least one processor receives selection information for the PUCCH resource in DCI within the at least one PDCCH candidate, and the at least one processor receives information for the PUCCH resource in remaining minimum system information (RMSI).

59. The UE of claim 58, wherein the PUCCH resource comprises one or more symbols, one or more slots, or one or more subframes after the DCI.

60. The UE of claim 34, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive an assignment of a dedicated random access preamble for the network entity, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the at least one transceiver to transmit includes the at least one processor being configured to cause the at least one transceiver to transmit the dedicated random access preamble as the acknowledgement.

61. The UE of claim 60, wherein the at least one processor receives the assignment of the dedicated random access preamble in DCI within the at least one PDCCH candidate.

62. The UE of claim 34, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: cause the at least one transceiver to transmit an indication that the UE has moved from a coverage area of a first cell to a coverage area of a second cell while in the RRC inactive state; and receive one or more random access preambles for neighbor cells of the UE.

63. The UE of claim 62, wherein the indication comprises a dedicated random access preamble transmitted on one or more preconfigured time and frequency resources.

64. The UE of claim 62, wherein the at least one processor causes the at least one transceiver to transmit the indication periodically or in response to an event.

65. The UE of claim 62, wherein the one or more random access preambles are received in the positioning paging message.

66. The UE of claim 62, wherein the at least one processor causes the at least one transceiver to transmit the indication to the network entity.

67. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for monitoring one or more physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates in a search space while in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state; means for receiving, while in the RRC inactive state, a positioning paging message from a network entity on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates, the positioning paging message configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing positioning session involving the UE; means for applying, while in the RRC inactive state, the update to the one or more parameters; and means for transmitting, while in the RRC inactive state, an acknowledgement to the network entity in response to receiving the positioning paging message.

68. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising: at least one instruction instructing a user equipment (UE) to monitor one or more physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates in a search space while in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state; at least one instruction instructing the UE to receive, while in the RRC inactive state, a positioning paging message from a network entity on at least one of the one or more PDCCH candidates, the positioning paging message configured to trigger an update to one or more parameters associated with an ongoing positioning session involving the UE; at least one instruction instructing the UE to apply, while in the RRC inactive state, the update to the one or more parameters; and at least one instruction instructing the UE to transmit, while in the RRC inactive state, an acknowledgement to the network entity in response to receiving the positioning paging message. ​ ​

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