A method, apparatus and communication device for estimating arrival time delay

Abstract

The application provides an estimation method, device and communication equipment for a time delay. The method comprises the following steps: obtaining a first time domain impulse response according to a positioning signal; obtaining a time domain sample point of a first path from the first time domain impulse response; the time domain sample point of the first path refers to a time domain sample point corresponding to a first impulse response peak value greater than a first threshold; performing shift processing on the first time domain impulse response to obtain a second time domain impulse response, and a position moving amount of the shift processing is related to the time domain sample point of the first path; performing spectrum peak searching on a pseudo-spectrum function according to the second time domain impulse response to obtain a first estimation value of a time delay; and obtaining a second estimation value of the time delay according to the position moving amount and the first estimation value. The application reduces the dimension of a Vandermonde matrix and the complexity of an operation process by performing shift processing on the first time domain impulse response.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a time of arrival estimation method, device and communication equipment. BACKGROUND

[0002] In recent years, the number of devices accessing the Internet has gradually increased, and various application services based on the Internet of Things have brought great convenience to people's lives. Position information is an important prerequisite for realizing these application services. Therefore, how to obtain accurate position information in real time and efficiently has become a key problem to be solved in promoting industry development. In the prior art, extensive research is constantly conducted on positioning technologies including time of arrival (TOA) measurement technology, such as multiple signal classification (MUSIC) time delay estimation algorithm and maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm. However, in the existing time delay estimation algorithm, there is a problem of excessively high matrix dimension when establishing a pseudo-spectrum measurement, resulting in high algorithm complexity. SUMMARY

[0003] The purpose of the present application is to provide a time of arrival estimation method, device and communication equipment, which solves the problem of high complexity of the existing time delay estimation algorithm.

[0004] Embodiments of the present application provide a time of arrival estimation method, comprising:

[0005] obtaining a first time domain impulse response according to a positioning signal;

[0006] obtaining a time domain sample point of a first path from the first time domain impulse response; wherein the time domain sample point of the first path refers to a time domain sample point corresponding to a first impulse response peak value greater than a first threshold;

[0007] performing shift processing on the first time domain impulse response to obtain a second time domain impulse response, wherein a position shift amount of the shift processing is related to the time domain sample point of the first path;

[0008] performing spectrum peak search on a pseudo-spectrum function according to the second time domain impulse response to obtain a first estimation value of a time of arrival;

[0009] obtaining a second estimation value of the time of arrival according to the position shift amount and the first estimation value.

[0010] Optionally, the shift processing on the first time domain impulse response to obtain a second time domain impulse response comprises:

[0011] shift the first time domain impulse response in a direction smaller than a time domain position of the first time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response.

[0012] Optionally, the first time domain impulse response is a first time domain impulse response after maximum value normalization processing.

[0013] Optionally, the first time domain impulse response is obtained according to the positioning signal, and the method comprises:

[0014] obtaining a first frequency domain impulse response of the positioning signal;

[0015] transforming the first frequency domain impulse response into the first time domain impulse response.

[0016] Optionally, the position moving amount of the shift processing is related to a time domain sample point of the first path, which means that the time domain sample point of the first path after the shift of the first time domain impulse response is not negative.

[0017] Optionally, the shift processing of the first time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response comprises:

[0018] performing window processing on the first time domain impulse response by a window function based on the time domain sample point of the first path to obtain at least one target time domain impulse response located in a first window, wherein the at least one target time domain impulse response comprises a time domain impulse response corresponding to the time domain sample point of the first path;

[0019] shift the target time domain impulse response in the first window in a direction smaller than a time domain position of the target time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response.

[0020] Optionally, the window function is as follows:

[0021]

[0022] wherein h(n)' represents a first time domain impulse response after normalization processing corresponding to an nth sample point, h(n)" represents a target time domain impulse response after window processing corresponding to the nth sample point, M represents the time domain sample point of the first path, and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

[0023] Optionally, the time domain sample point of the first path is calculated by the following formula:

[0024] M = argmin n |h(n)'| 2 >P th

[0025] wherein Pth M is a time domain sample point of the first path, and h(n)' represents a normalized first time domain impulse response corresponding to an n th sample point.

[0026] Optionally, the shifting the target time domain impulse response in the first window towards a direction of a time domain position smaller than the target time domain impulse response comprises:

[0027] The position moving amount is determined as a first time length according to a time domain sample point of the first path.

[0028] The first window is moved by the first time length towards a direction of a time domain position smaller than the target time domain impulse response, to obtain the second time domain impulse response.

[0029] The second time domain impulse response corresponds to a time domain sample point which is not a negative value.

[0030] Optionally, the shifting the first window by the first time length towards a direction of a time domain position smaller than the target time domain impulse response, to obtain the second time domain impulse response, comprises:

[0031] The second time domain impulse response is calculated by the following formula:

[0032] h(M-L+i)'' '=h(M+i)''-Q≤i≤Q

[0033] h(M+i)'' represents all target time domain impulse responses in the first window; M represents a time domain sample point of the first path, i represents other time domain sample points except the time domain sample point of the first path in the first window; h(M-L+i)'' represents the second time domain impulse response, L represents the first time length; and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

[0034] Optionally, the performing a spectrum peak search on a pseudo spectrum function according to the second time domain impulse response, to obtain a first estimated value of the arrival time delay, comprises:

[0035] The second time domain impulse response is converted into a second frequency domain impulse response.

[0036] The pseudo spectrum function is determined according to the second frequency domain impulse response.

[0037] The spectrum peak of the pseudo spectrum function is obtained by performing a spectrum peak search on the pseudo spectrum function, and a value of the spectrum peak is the first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0038] Optionally, the obtaining the second estimation value of the time delay according to the position shift and the first estimation value comprises:

[0039] adding the position shift and the first estimation value to obtain the second estimation value;

[0040] The position shift and the first estimation value have the same unit.

[0041] Embodiments of the application provide a communication device, comprising a memory, a transceiver, and a processor:

[0042] The memory is configured to store a computer program; the transceiver is configured to transceive data under control of the processor; and the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0043] obtaining a first time-domain impulse response according to a positioning signal;

[0044] obtaining a time-domain sample point of a first path from the first time-domain impulse response; wherein the time-domain sample point of the first path refers to a time-domain sample point corresponding to a first impulse response peak value greater than a first threshold;

[0045] performing shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response, wherein a position shift of the shift processing is related to the time-domain sample point of the first path;

[0046] performing spectrum peak search on a pseudo-spectrum function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimation value of a time delay;

[0047] obtaining a second estimation value of the time delay according to the position shift and the first estimation value.

[0048] Optionally, the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0049] performing shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response in a direction smaller than a time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0050] Optionally, the first time-domain impulse response is a first time-domain impulse response after maximum value normalization processing.

[0051] Optionally, the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0052] obtaining a first frequency-domain impulse response of a positioning signal;

[0053] transforming the first frequency-domain impulse response into the first time-domain impulse response.

[0054] Optionally, the position moving amount of the shift processing in relation to the time-domain sample point of the first path is that, after the first time-domain impulse response is subjected to the shift processing, the time-domain sample point of the first path after the shift is not negative.

[0055] Optionally, the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0056] performing windowing processing on the first time-domain impulse response based on the time-domain sample point of the first path, to obtain at least one target time-domain impulse response located in a first window; wherein the at least one target time-domain impulse response includes a time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample point of the first path;

[0057] performing shift processing on the target time-domain impulse response in the first window in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response, to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0058] Optionally, the windowing function is as follows:

[0059]

[0060] wherein h(n)' represents the first time-domain impulse response after normalization processing corresponding to the nth sample point, h(n)" represents the target time-domain impulse response after windowing processing corresponding to the nth sample point, M represents the time-domain sample point of the first path, and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

[0061] Optionally, the time-domain sample point of the first path is calculated by the following formula:

[0062] M = argmin n |h(n)'| 2 >P th

[0063] wherein P th represents the first threshold of the first time-domain impulse response, M represents the time-domain sample point of the first path, and h(n)' represents the first time-domain impulse response after normalization processing corresponding to the nth sample point.

[0064] Optionally, the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0065] determining the position moving amount as a first time length according to the time-domain sample point of the first path;

[0066] moving all target time-domain impulse responses in the first window in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response by the first time length, to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0067] wherein the time-domain sample point corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is not negative.

[0068] Optionally, the processor is configured to read a computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0069] The second time-domain impulse response is calculated by the following formula:

[0070] h (M-L+i) "'= h (M+i) " -Q≤i≤Q

[0071] wherein h (M+i) " represents all target time-domain impulse responses in the first window; M represents the time-domain sample point of the first path; i represents other time-domain sample points in the first window except the time-domain sample point of the first path; h (M-L+i) "'represents the second time-domain impulse response; L represents the first time length; and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

[0072] Optionally, the processor is configured to read a computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0073] The second time-domain impulse response is converted into a second frequency-domain impulse response;

[0074] A pseudo-spectrum function is determined according to the second frequency-domain impulse response;

[0075] A spectrum peak of the pseudo-spectrum function is obtained by performing a spectrum peak search on the pseudo-spectrum function, and a value of the spectrum peak is a first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0076] Optionally, the processor is configured to read a computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0077] The second estimated value is obtained by adding the position movement amount to the first estimated value;

[0078] wherein the position movement amount and the first estimated value have the same unit.

[0079] Embodiments of the present application provide an arrival time delay estimation device, comprising:

[0080] A first acquisition unit is configured to acquire a first time-domain impulse response according to a positioning signal;

[0081] A second acquisition unit is configured to acquire a time-domain sample point of a first path from the first time-domain impulse response; wherein the time-domain sample point of the first path refers to a time-domain sample point corresponding to a first impulse response peak value greater than a first threshold.

[0082] The first processing unit is used for performing shift processing on the first time domain impulse response to obtain a second time domain impulse response, wherein a position moving amount of the shift processing is related to a time domain sample point of the first path;

[0083] The second processing unit is used for performing spectrum peak searching on a pseudo spectrum function according to the second time domain impulse response to obtain a first estimated value of the arrival time delay;

[0084] The third obtaining unit is used for obtaining a second estimated value of the arrival time delay according to the position moving amount and the first estimated value.

[0085] An embodiment of the present application provides a processor readable storage medium, which stores a computer program, and the computer program is executed by a processor to implement steps of the arrival time delay estimation method.

[0086] The above technical scheme of the present application has the following beneficial effects:

[0087] In the embodiment of the present application, after receiving a positioning signal, a receiving end obtains a first time domain impulse response of the positioning signal, and obtains a time domain sample point of a first path from the first time domain impulse response. The first time domain impulse response is processed by shift according to the time domain sample point to obtain a second time domain impulse response. After performing spectrum peak searching on the second time domain impulse response during TOA estimation, the obtained estimated value is recovered. Since the first time domain impulse response is processed by shift, the dimension of a Vandermonde matrix is greatly reduced, the complexity of the operation process is reduced, and after the spectrum peak searching is completed, the back-off calculation is performed according to the position moving amount, so that the finally estimated TOA value can be output, and the complexity of the peak searching during the TOA measurement algorithm is effectively reduced. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0088] Figure 1 One of flowcharts of the arrival time delay estimation method of the embodiment of the present application;

[0089] Figure 2 The schematic diagram of the time domain impulse response before the shift processing of the embodiment of the present application;

[0090] Figure 3 The schematic diagram of the time domain impulse response after the shift processing of the embodiment of the present application;

[0091] Figure 4 The second of flowcharts of the arrival time delay estimation method of the embodiment of the present application;

[0092] Figure 5 The third of flowcharts of the arrival time delay estimation method of the embodiment of the present application;

[0093] Figure 6Figure 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for estimating a time delay of arrival according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0094] Figure 7 Figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for estimating a time delay of arrival according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0095] Figure 8 Figure 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of an apparatus for estimating a time delay of arrival according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0096] Figure 9 Figure 7 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0097] In order to make the technical problems to be solved by the present application, technical solutions and advantages clearer, the following will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. In the following description, specific details such as specific configurations and components are provided only to help a comprehensive understanding of embodiments of the present application. Therefore, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made to the embodiments described herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the present application. In addition, descriptions of known functions and configurations are omitted for clarity and conciseness.

[0098] It should be understood that the term "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" mentioned throughout the specification means that a specific feature, structure or characteristic related to the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Therefore, "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" appearing throughout the specification does not necessarily mean the same embodiment. In addition, these specific features, structures or characteristics can be combined in one or more embodiments in any suitable manner.

[0099] In various embodiments of the present application, it should be understood that the size of the serial number of the following processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of the processes should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

[0100] In the embodiments of the present application, the term "and / or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, which means that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B can represent the following three cases: A exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. The character " / " generally represents that the associated objects before and after it are in an "or" relationship.

[0101] In the embodiments of the present application, the term "a plurality of" means two or more, and other quantifiers are similar.

[0102] With reference to the drawings of the embodiments of the present application, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, but not all the embodiments of the present application. Based on the embodiments of the present application, all the other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art without creative work fall within the scope of the present application.

[0103] Specifically, the embodiments of the present application provide an estimation method of arrival time delay, device and communication equipment, which solve the problem of high complexity of the existing time delay estimation method.

[0104] As shown in the figure, the embodiments of the present application provide an estimation method of arrival time delay, which specifically includes the following steps: Figure 1

[0105] Step 101: obtaining a first time-domain impulse response according to a positioning signal;

[0106] In the embodiments, the sending end sends a positioning signal to the receiving end, and the receiving end measures the channel impulse response of the received positioning signal to perform time delay estimation. The sending end and the receiving end can be a terminal or a network side device (such as a base station). For example, the sending end is a terminal, and the receiving end is a base station. The terminal sends a positioning signal to the base station. The positioning signal is, for example, a sounding reference signal (SRS). The base station receives the SRS and measures the impulse response related to the SRS to perform TOA estimation. The sending end is a base station, and the receiving end is a terminal. The base station sends a positioning signal to the terminal. The positioning signal is, for example, a positioning reference signal (PRS). The terminal receives the PRS and measures the impulse response related to the PRS to perform TOA estimation.

[0107] The first time-domain impulse response can be one or more time-domain impulse responses related to the positioning signal.

[0108] Step 102: obtaining a time-domain sample point of a first path from the first time-domain impulse response; wherein the time-domain sample point of the first path refers to a time-domain sample point corresponding to a first impulse response peak value greater than a first threshold.

[0109] ​The first path is a first arriving peak impulse response, and in this embodiment, a first threshold is set for the first time domain impulse response, all the first time domain impulse responses are traversed, all the first time domain impulse responses are compared with the first threshold, a first peak greater than the first threshold is obtained, and a time domain sample point corresponding to the first peak is a time domain sample point of the first path. The first path can be a line of sight (LOS) path. The time domain sample point of the first path is obtained from the multiple first time domain impulse responses at the receiving end, and is used for shifting the first time domain impulse response. The first threshold can be set according to a TOA measurement requirement.

[0110] The position of the first path is related to a dimension of a Vandermonde matrix that needs to be constructed in a spectrum peak search.

[0111] In step 103, the first time domain impulse response is shifted to obtain a second time domain impulse response, and a position moving amount of the shifting is related to the time domain sample point of the first path.

[0112] The shifting of the first time domain impulse response can mean that the first time domain impulse response is moved in a time domain position, and a second time domain impulse response is obtained after the movement. The second time domain impulse response is only different from the first time domain impulse response in a time domain position, and other related parameters are the same.

[0113] Optionally, the shifting can mean that the first time domain impulse response is moved by a predetermined time domain length forward (i.e., in a direction smaller than a current time domain position) relative to a current time domain position. Optionally, when the first time domain impulse response is shifted, the position moving amount is related to the time domain sample point of the first path.

[0114] In step 104, a pseudo-spectrum function is searched for a spectrum peak according to the second time domain impulse response, to obtain a first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0115] The second time domain impulse response is obtained after the first time domain impulse response is shifted, the second time domain impulse response is processed by a pseudo-spectrum function, and a spectrum peak obtained through a spectrum peak search is the first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0116] In step 105, a second estimated value of the arrival time delay is obtained according to the position moving amount and the first estimated value.

[0117] The first estimation value is inaccurate because it is calculated after the first time domain impulse response is shifted. The final estimation value (i.e., the second estimation value) of the time of arrival is calculated according to the position shift of the shifting process and the first estimation value. Optionally, the first estimation value can be position recovered according to the position shift of the shifting process, and then the real TOA estimation value can be obtained.

[0118] In the embodiment of the present application, the receiving end obtains the first time domain impulse response of the positioning signal after receiving the positioning signal, and obtains the time domain sample point of the first path from the first time domain impulse response. The first time domain impulse response is shifted according to the time domain sample point, and the second time domain impulse response is obtained. The estimation value obtained after the spectrum peak search using the second time domain impulse response during the TOA estimation is recovered. Because the first time domain impulse response is shifted, the dimension of the Vandermonde matrix is greatly reduced, the complexity of the operation process is reduced, and after the spectrum peak search is completed, the position recovery calculation is performed according to the position shift, and then the final estimated TOA value is output, which effectively reduces the complexity of the peak search during the TOA measurement algorithm.

[0119] Optionally, the first time domain impulse response is the first time domain impulse response after the maximum value normalization processing.

[0120] In the embodiment, after the TOA estimation, the receiving end measures the time domain impulse response of the positioning signal after receiving the positioning signal, and performs normalization processing on the time domain impulse response. The normalization processing can be completed by the following formula:

[0121]

[0122] wherein h(n)' represents the first time domain position after the normalization processing corresponding to the nth sample point; h(n) represents the first time domain impulse response obtained before the normalization processing corresponding to the nth sample point. * represents the conjugate of h(n).

[0123] As an optional embodiment, the first time domain impulse response is obtained according to the positioning signal, which includes: obtaining the first frequency domain impulse response of the positioning signal; and transforming the first frequency domain impulse response into the first time domain impulse response.

[0124] In the embodiment, the receiving end measures the frequency domain impulse response vector of the positioning signal after receiving the positioning signal, and converts the frequency domain impulse response vector by inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) to obtain the corresponding time domain impulse response, i.e., the first time domain impulse response. The method for obtaining the frequency domain impulse response is described below.

[0125] Optionally, the signal model employed by embodiments of the present application can be an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) wireless communication signal, and the received signal can be expressed as follows:

[0126] y(t) = h(t) * s(t) + n(t)

[0127] where y(t) represents the received signal at the receiving end, n(t) represents the transmitted signal at the transmitting end, n(t) represents additive Gaussian white noise, and h(t) represents the channel impulse response, and "*" represents time-domain convolution processing. In a multipath environment, h(t) can be expressed as:

[0128]

[0129] where δ() is a Dirac delta function, L P is the number of multipaths, τ i (t) is the time delay of the i-th multipath; α i (t) represents the complex fading coefficient of the i-th multipath component, and t represents the reception time of the signal.

[0130] In an OFDM system containing K subcarriers, the modulated time-domain OFDM symbol can be expressed as:

[0131]

[0132] where f c represents the OFDM signal carrier frequency, with units of Hz; f scs represents the subcarrier spacing, with units of Hz; k is the number of the current subcarrier; b k represents the signal modulated on the subcarrier.

[0133] According to the above formula, the time-domain signal of the OFDM after passing through the channel can be obtained as:

[0134]

[0135] where w k (t) is the additive Gaussian white noise vector of the subcarrier k.

[0136] After the received signal y(t) is subjected to fast Fourier transform (FFT) transformation, the frequency-domain impulse response estimation value on the k-th subcarrier can be obtained as:

[0137]

[0138] where H k(t) represents an ideal value vector of a frequency domain impulse response, an expression of the ideal frequency domain impulse response is:

[0139]

[0140] A vector form of the frequency domain impulse response can be expressed as:

[0141] x(t) = H(t) + w(t) = Vα(t) + w(t)

[0142] V represents a Vandermonde matrix of time delay, and α(t) is a modified channel complex fading coefficient.

[0143] According to the above calculation, the time delay can be further estimated by a signal estimation algorithm (for example, a MUSIC algorithm or a maximum likelihood estimation algorithm). It is considered in the analysis of the embodiment of the application that the wireless channel is a semi-static channel within a plurality of OFDM symbols, and therefore, the subscript t is ignored.

[0144] According to the above calculation, the frequency domain impulse response of the positioning signal can be obtained, and the corresponding time domain impulse response can be obtained by performing IDFT transformation on the frequency domain impulse response.

[0145] As an optional embodiment, the shifting processing on the first time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response comprises: shifting the first time domain impulse response in a direction smaller than the time domain position of the first time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response.

[0146] In the embodiment, the shifting on the first time domain impulse response can mean that the first time domain impulse response is moved forward (that is, moved in a direction smaller than the current time domain position) relative to the current time domain position, and the time domain position of the peak value (that is, the first path) is advanced, and the dimension of the Vandermonde matrix to be constructed in the spectrum peak search is reduced, and the complexity of the peak value search in the TOA measurement algorithm can be reduced.

[0147] As an optional embodiment, the shifting processing on the first time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response comprises:

[0148] Based on the time domain sample point of the first path, the first time domain impulse response is windowed by a window function to obtain at least one target time domain impulse response located in a first window; wherein the at least one target time domain impulse response comprises a time domain impulse response corresponding to the time domain sample point of the first path; the target time domain impulse response in the first window is shifted in a direction smaller than the time domain position of the target time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response.

[0149] Optionally, the window function is as follows:

[0150]

[0151] Where h(n)′ represents the normalized first temporal impulse response corresponding to the nth sample point, h(n)″ represents the target temporal impulse response corresponding to the nth sample point after windowing, M represents the temporal sample point of the first path, and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window, which can be half the length of the first window. Optionally, the value of n is in the range of 1≤n≤K. r , where K r The number of subcarriers actually occupied by the positioning signal.

[0152] In this embodiment, the length of the first window used for windowing can be set according to the TOA estimation requirements. Q can be half the length of the first window, and Q can be equal to 1. The windowing process refers to using a pre-set window length to search for the relevant impulse response in the corresponding time domain. The signal of the time-domain sample points within the window is retained, while the rest are set to zero. The advantage of this method is that it can reduce the correlation effects of noise and multipath propagation.

[0153] By performing windowing processing on the time-domain sample points around the first path, multiple target time-domain impulse responses, including the first path, can be obtained within a first window. The target time-domain impulse response is the first time-domain impulse response located within the first window. The time-domain sample points of the first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the first peak value greater than a first threshold within the first window are the time-domain sample points of the first path.

[0154] Optionally, the time-domain sample points of the first path are calculated using the following formula:

[0155] M = argmin n |h(n)′| 2 >P th

[0156] Where h(n)′ represents the normalized first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the nth sample point, P th This represents the first threshold of the first time-domain impulse response, which can be set according to the TOA estimation requirements; M represents the time-domain sampling points of the first path. For example... Figure 2 As shown, the first threshold is set on the vertical axis, and P th The range of values ​​for is: 0 <P th <1, the 0 <P th <1 can be a network notification or a message pre-set by the receiving end.

[0157] In this embodiment, the first time-domain impulse response peak greater than the first threshold can be obtained according to the above formula, and the time-domain sample point corresponding to the peak is the time-domain sample point M of the first path.

[0158] In this embodiment, after the windowing processing is performed on the first time-domain impulse response, the shift processing can be performed on the time-domain impulse responses in the first window, that is, only the time-domain impulse responses in the first window are moved towards the direction smaller than the current time-domain position, to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0159] It should be noted that the above windowing processing operation can be used for the first type of TOA estimation algorithm (for example, the maximum likelihood time delay algorithm); and the above windowing processing step can be skipped for the second type of TOA estimation algorithm (for example, the MUSIC algorithm). For example, when the TOA is estimated by the maximum likelihood time delay algorithm, the above windowing processing step of performing the windowing processing by the window function can be performed to shift the target time-domain impulse response in the first window. If the MUSIC algorithm is used for TOA estimation, in order to avoid the influence of the noise subspace constructed in the eigenvalue decomposition in the MUSIC calculation process on the accuracy of the time delay estimation, the windowing step is ignored, and all the first time-domain impulse responses are directly shifted. The advantage of the windowing processing is that the influence of the noise and the multipath can be reduced.

[0160] Optionally, the position moving amount of the shift processing is related to the time-domain sample point of the first path, that is, the time-domain sample point of the first path after the shift processing of the first time-domain impulse response is not negative. In this embodiment, since the position of the time-domain sample point of the first path is related to the dimension of the Vandermonde matrix to be constructed during the spectrum peak search, in order to reduce the complexity of the time delay estimation algorithm, the time-domain sample point of the first path cannot be negative after the shift.

[0161] Optionally, the shift processing of the target time-domain impulse response in the first window towards the direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response comprises:

[0162] According to the time-domain sample point of the first path, the position moving amount is determined as a first time length;

[0163] All the target time-domain impulse responses in the first window are moved towards the direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response by the first time length, to obtain the second time-domain impulse response;

[0164] The time-domain sample point corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is not negative.

[0165] Optionally, the moving the target time domain impulse responses in the first window by the first time length in a direction smaller than the time domain position of the target time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response comprises:

[0166] The second time domain impulse response is calculated by the following formula:

[0167] h(M-L+i)″′=h(M+i)″-Q≤i≤Q

[0168] wherein h(M+i)″ represents the target time domain impulse responses in the first window, (M+i) represents all time domain sample points in the first window; M represents the time domain sample point of the first path, i represents other time domain sample points in the first window except the time domain sample point of the first path; h(M-L+i)″′ represents the second time domain impulse response, L represents the first time length; Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window, and in this embodiment, the Q can be half of the length of the first window. Optionally, the target time domain impulse responses in this embodiment are all first time domain impulse responses after maximum value normalization processing.

[0169] In this embodiment, when the first time domain impulse response is shifted, in order to avoid the influence of moving only one impulse response on the measurement value of the TOA estimation algorithm, all time domain impulse responses in a predetermined time domain range can be moved. For example, if windowing is performed when the time domain sample point of the first path is determined, all first time domain impulse responses (i.e., the target time domain impulse responses) in the first window can be moved by the first time length in the time domain. It should be noted that each first time domain impulse response in the first window is moved by the first time length relative to its current time domain position. If windowing is not performed, the time domain range of the first time domain impulse responses that need to be shifted can be the time domain range corresponding to all first time domain impulse responses of the positioning signal, i.e., all first time domain impulse responses of the positioning signal are moved by the first time length in the time domain, and each first time domain impulse response is moved by the first time length relative to its current time domain position. The time domain range of the first time domain impulse responses that need to be shifted can also be customized.

[0170] Optionally, the position movement amount of the shift processing is related to the time domain sample point of the first path, i.e., the first time length is related to the time domain sample point of the first path. In this embodiment, after the first time domain impulse response is moved by the first time length in a direction smaller than the current time domain position, the shifted time domain sample point of the first path is not negative. In this embodiment, since the first time domain impulse response is subjected to windowing before shifting, the first time length needs to satisfy that the second time domain impulse responses obtained by shifting the target time domain impulse responses in the first window are all not negative.

[0171] The shift processing is described as follows. Taking the window processing on the first time-domain impulse response as an example, as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3 , the first time-domain impulse response in the first window before moving is shown in Figure 2 , where the time-domain sample point M of the first path is the point (31, 1) shown in Figure 2 ; Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of moving the first time-domain impulse response in the first window by a first time length L in the forward direction (i.e., in the direction of less than the time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response in Figure 2 ), and the second time-domain impulse response corresponding to the first time-domain impulse response is obtained after the moving. The time-domain sample point of the first path corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is M-L, which is the point (10, 1) shown in Figure 3 . The time-domain sample point M-L of the first path after the moving is not a negative value.

[0172] where the first time length L is a pre-defined parameter that can be configured. Assuming that the time unit of one sample point length is T S1 , the time-domain sample point (i.e., the spectral peak) of the first path shown in Figure 2 is moved to the position of the sample point at 10T S1 , i.e., the position shown in Figure 3 . The parameter can be configured, and 10T S1 is a feasible value, which can be modified to 5T S1 or other values according to actual conditions. It should be noted that, considering the influence of the TA adjustment of the base station on the measurement algorithm, it is not recommended to move to the position of the time-domain sample point at 0.

[0173] In this embodiment, the first time-domain impulse response is moved to obtain the second time-domain impulse response in the direction of less than the current time-domain position. Thus, after the TOA estimation, the spectral peak is searched and then recovered. Since the time-domain position of the peak value (i.e., the first path) is moved forward, the dimension of the Vandermonde matrix to be constructed during the spectral peak search is reduced, and the complexity of the peak value search during the TOA measurement algorithm can be reduced.

[0174] As an optional embodiment, the spectrum peak of the pseudo-spectrum function is searched according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain the first estimated value of the arrival time delay, including:

[0175] The second time-domain impulse response is converted into a second frequency-domain impulse response; the pseudo-spectrum function is determined according to the second frequency-domain impulse response; the spectrum peak of the pseudo-spectrum function is searched to obtain the spectrum peak of the pseudo-spectrum function, and the value of the spectrum peak is the first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0176] The second time-domain impulse response obtained after the shift is subjected to FFT transformation in this embodiment, which converts into a new frequency-domain impulse response X", i.e., the second frequency-domain impulse response. The second frequency-domain impulse response is processed by a predetermined estimation algorithm (e.g., a maximum likelihood estimation algorithm or a MUSIC algorithm), and a spectral peak of a pseudo-spectrum function is found. The value of the spectral peak is the first estimation value, i.e., TOA1.

[0177] It should be noted that, in the spectral peak search of the pseudo-spectrum function according to the second time-domain impulse response, the spectral peak obtained by the spectral peak search is the estimation value corresponding to the time-domain sample point of the first path in the second time-domain impulse response (i.e., the time-domain sample point after the forward shift). For example, if the first time-domain impulse response is subjected to windowing processing by a window function, all the first time-domain impulse responses in the window are shifted forward, and the frequency-domain impulse responses corresponding to all the second time-domain impulse responses after the shift are processed by a predetermined estimation algorithm (e.g., a maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm), and the spectral peak search obtains the first estimation value. If the windowing processing is not performed when the time-domain sample point of the first path is obtained, all the first time-domain impulse responses in the time domain can be shifted forward, and the frequency-domain impulse responses corresponding to all the second time-domain impulse responses after the shift are processed by a predetermined estimation algorithm (e.g., a MUSIC algorithm), and the spectral peak search obtains the first estimation value.

[0178] The calculation method of TOA1 will be described below by taking the maximum likelihood estimation algorithm and the MUSIC algorithm as examples.

[0179] Example 1: Assuming that the MUSIC algorithm is used for TOA estimation, the spectral peak search of the pseudo-spectrum function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain the first estimation value TOA1 of the arrival time delay can include the following steps.

[0180] Step 31, covariance matrix estimation; in actual situations, the covariance matrix R XX of the true channel frequency-domain impulse response estimation vector cannot be directly obtained, and is usually estimated by using a new frequency-domain impulse response estimation value X" and a plurality of measurements, N being the corresponding number of snapshots, and the covariance matrix being as follows: XX

[0181]

[0182] It should be noted that the X" can be the frequency-domain impulse response corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response obtained after the shift after the windowing processing, or the frequency-domain impulse response corresponding to all the time-domain impulse responses after the shift without the windowing processing.

[0183] ​Step 32, eigenvalue decomposition; after obtaining the multiple sets of frequency domain impulse responses, the covariance matrix is decomposed to obtain a signal eigenvalue matrix composed of signal eigenvalue vectors and a noise eigenvalue matrix composed of noise eigenvalue vectors, and the eigenvalue decomposition process is as follows:

[0184] R XX = U S ∧ S U S H + U N ∧ N U N H

[0185] where the diagonal matrix is U S denotes a signal eigenvalue matrix composed of signal eigenvalue vectors U N denotes a noise eigenvalue matrix composed of noise eigenvalue vectors

[0186] Step 33, spectral peak search, define the pseudo-spectrum function of the MUSIC time delay algorithm as

[0187]

[0188] where v(τ) is the Vandermonde matrix about the time delay τ, and H denotes the conjugate transpose.

[0189] Step 34, the propagation time delay τ, i.e., TOA1, can be determined by searching for the maximum value of the pseudo-spectrum function.

[0190] Example II: assuming that the maximum likelihood algorithm is used for TOA estimation, the pseudo-spectrum function is searched for a spectral peak according to the second time domain impulse response to obtain a first estimated value TOA1 of the arrival time delay, which can include:

[0191] Step 41, based on the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, the likelihood function of τ can be obtained:

[0192] L(τ) = X″(t) H V(V H V) -1 V H X″(t)

[0193] where the function is the spectral peak function of the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, V denotes the Vandermonde matrix about the time delay, (V H V) -1 denotes the inverse matrix of the matrix V H V.

[0194] Step 42, a spectrum peak search is performed on the maximum likelihood function, and the algorithm delay τ under the multipath time delay can be simplified as:

[0195] τ=argmax{L(τ)}

[0196] The propagation delay τ output by step 42 is TOA1.

[0197] It should be noted that the method of obtaining the first estimated value of the arrival time delay by the spectrum peak search is only exemplary, and other algorithms can also be used for calculation, which is not limited herein.

[0198] As an optional embodiment, the second estimated value of the arrival time delay is obtained according to the position movement amount and the first estimated value, including:

[0199] The position movement amount and the first estimated value are added to obtain the second estimated value; wherein the units of the position movement amount and the first estimated value are the same.

[0200] In this embodiment, after obtaining the first estimated value, the obtained first estimated value is recovered according to the position movement amount of the previous shift processing, and a recovered time delay estimation value TOA2=TOA1+L can be obtained. L is the position movement amount.

[0201] It should be noted that the position movement amount and the TOA unit are unified before the addition and subtraction processing is performed, for example: the basic unit of TOA2 and TOA1 is 1ns, the unit of L needs to be converted from T s1 to 1ns to obtain L1, and then the value of TOA2 can be obtained.

[0202] When the receiving end of the application receives the positioning signal, the frequency domain impulse response vector of the signal is processed by using the MUSIC algorithm or the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, the spectrum peak of the pseudo-spectrum function is searched, and the corresponding peak value and time estimation initial value are obtained. Because the peak value is in advance, the dimension of the Vandermonde matrix is greatly reduced, and after the spectrum peak search is completed, the time advance is added to output the estimated TOA value, and then the time domain impulse response can be moved back to the previous position.

[0203] Embodiments of the application reduce the complexity of the peak value search of the TOA measurement algorithm by obtaining the time domain sample point of the first path, moving the obtained first time domain impulse response in the direction smaller than the current time domain position, and recovering after the spectrum peak search of the TOA measurement algorithm. This method is suitable for both UE positioning methods based on downlink reference signals and UE positioning methods based on uplink reference signals. The uplink and downlink processes are similar, except that the transmission and reception ends of the reference signals are different.

[0204] For the UE's TOA measurement method of downlink reference signal, both MUSIC algorithm and maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm are applicable, both of which need to process the channel frequency domain response estimation vector and perform the spectral peak search operation of pseudo spectrum. For MUSIC algorithm, a full rank covariance matrix needs to be constructed, then the eigenvalue decomposition of the covariance matrix is performed, the matrix is decomposed into signal subspace and noise subspace, and finally the corresponding pseudo spectrum function is constructed to search for the spectral peak value, and the searched spectral peak value is the propagation delay. The time delay estimation algorithm based on maximum likelihood needs to construct a corresponding likelihood function and then perform spectral peak search, and then restore the correct value in time. Taking the MUSIC algorithm as an example, a low complexity TOA measurement scheme is introduced.

[0205] I. Low complexity TOA measurement scheme based on MUSIC algorithm, including downlink and uplink two schemes respectively.

[0206] (I) Downlink: The following is an example. When using MUSIC algorithm to estimate the TOA of downlink reference signal, the low complexity TOA measurement scheme positioning method flow is as shown in Figure 4

[0207] Among them, step 1: the sending end, such as base station (Base station, BS) configures to send traditional PRS, and reports the configuration information of PRS to the positioning server;

[0208] Step 2: The positioning server informs the receiving end (UE) of the configuration information of PRS;

[0209] Step 3: The sending end (BS) sends PRS according to the configuration information of PRS;

[0210] Step 4: The receiving end (UE) receives PRS according to the given configuration information of PRS, and measures the frequency domain impulse response vector of the positioning signal;

[0211] Step 5: The receiving end processes the frequency domain impulse response, converts the frequency domain signal into time domain signal through IFFT transformation, obtains the time domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value greater than the first threshold, and shifts all the time domain impulse responses on the time domain, and the first impulse response peak value is moved to 10T S1 , which can be configured, 10T S1 is a feasible value, which can be modified to 5T S1 or other values; after the shift processing, the time domain impulse response obtained after the shift is converted into frequency domain signal through FFT transformation.

[0212] ​Step 6: The frequency domain impulse response is processed by the MUSIC algorithm, and the spectral peak of the pseudo-spectrum function of the MUSIC algorithm is found. For details, refer to steps 31-34, which are not repeated here.

[0213] Step 7: After finding the spectral peak of the pseudo-spectrum, restore it according to the previously moved Ts value to obtain the estimated TOA measurement value.

[0214] The receiving end reports the TOA measurement result to the positioning server, which can traverse all positions to obtain the TOA measurement value set of each base station reference signal corresponding to all positions, and save it; after receiving the measurement result, the positioning server determines the most likely position of the UE according to the predetermined rule, which is considered as the final result of positioning.

[0215] (II) Uplink: The above is an example. When the MUSIC algorithm is used for TOA estimation of downlink reference signals, the low-complexity TOA measurement scheme positioning method flow is as shown in Figure 5 .

[0216] Step 1: The sending end (UE) configures to send SRS signals, and reports the configuration information of the SRS to the positioning server;

[0217] Step 2: The positioning server informs the receiving end (BS) of the configuration information of the SRS;

[0218] Step 3: The sending end (UE) sends SRS according to the configuration information of the SRS;

[0219] Step 4: The receiving end (BS) receives SRS according to the given configuration information of the SRS, and measures the frequency domain impulse response vector of the positioning signal;

[0220] Step 5: The receiving end processes the frequency domain impulse response, converts the frequency domain signal into the time domain signal by IFFT transformation, obtains the time domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak greater than the first threshold, and shifts the impulse response in the time domain. The first impulse response peak is moved to 10T S1 , which can be configured, and 10T S1 is a feasible value, which can be modified to 5T S1 or other values, and the time domain impulse response obtained after shifting is converted into a frequency domain signal by FFT transformation.

[0221] Step 6: The frequency domain impulse response is processed by the MUSIC algorithm, and the spectral peak of the pseudo-spectrum function of the MUSIC algorithm is found. For details, refer to steps 31-34, which are not repeated here.

[0222] Step 7: After finding the spectrum peak of pseudo-spectrum, restore it according to the previously moved Ts value, and obtain the estimated TOA measurement value.

[0223] The receiving end reports the TOA measurement result to the positioning server, which can traverse all positions to obtain the TOA measurement value set of each base station reference signal corresponding to all positions, and save it; after receiving the measurement result, the positioning server determines the most likely position of the UE according to the predetermined rule, and the position is regarded as the final result of positioning.

[0224] II. Low-complexity TOA measurement scheme based on maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, including two schemes of uplink and downlink.

[0225] (A) The following is an example: when using the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm to estimate the TOA of the downlink reference signal, the low-complexity TOA measurement scheme positioning method flow is as shown in Figure 6 .

[0226] Wherein step a: the sending end (BS) configures to send the traditional PRS, and reports the configuration information of the PRS to the positioning server;

[0227] Step b: the positioning server informs the receiving end (UE) of the configuration information of the PRS;

[0228] Step c: the sending end (BS) sends PRS according to the configuration information of PRS;

[0229] Step d: the receiving end (UE) receives PRS according to the given configuration information of PRS, and measures the frequency domain impulse response vector of the positioning signal;

[0230] Step e: the receiving end processes the frequency domain impulse response, converts the frequency domain signal into time domain signal through IFFT transformation, obtains the time domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak greater than the first threshold; based on the time domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak, window operation is performed on all time domain impulse responses, and the time domain impulse responses in the window are shifted forward in time domain (i.e. moving towards the direction smaller than the current time domain position), moving to 10T S1 , which can be configured, 10T S1 is a feasible value, which can be modified to 5T S1 or other values, and then the moved time domain impulse response is converted into frequency domain signal through FFT transformation.

[0231] Step f: the receiving end processes the frequency domain impulse response through the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, searches for the spectrum peak of pseudo-spectrum in the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm related τ likelihood function, and finds the spectrum peak of pseudo-spectrum, see steps 41-42, which will not be repeated here.

[0232] Step g: After finding the spectrum peak of the pseudo-spectrum, restore it according to the previously moved Ts value to obtain the estimated TOA value.

[0233] The receiving end reports the TOA measurement result to the positioning server, and the positioning server can traverse all positions to obtain the TOA measurement value set of each base station reference signal corresponding to all positions and save it; after receiving the measurement result, the positioning server determines the most likely position of the UE according to the predetermined rule, and the position is regarded as the final result of positioning.

[0234] (B) Uplink: The above is an example. When the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm is used for TOA estimation of the downlink reference signal, the low-complexity TOA measurement scheme positioning method flow is as shown in Figure 7 .

[0235] Step a: The sending end (UE) configures the sending of the SRS signal and reports the configuration information of the SRS to the positioning server;

[0236] Step b: The positioning server informs the receiving end (BS) of the configuration information of the SRS;

[0237] Step c: The sending end (UE) sends the SRS according to the configuration information of the SRS;

[0238] Step d: The receiving end (BS) receives the SRS according to the given configuration information of the SRS, and measures the frequency domain impulse response vector of the positioning signal;

[0239] Step e: The receiving end processes the frequency domain impulse response, converts the frequency domain signal into the time domain signal through IFFT transformation, obtains the time domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak greater than the first threshold; based on the time domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak, performs a windowing operation on all time domain impulse responses, and shifts the time domain impulse responses in the window in the time domain (i.e. moving towards the direction smaller than the current time domain position) to 10T S1 , which is a configurable parameter, and 10T S1 is a feasible value, which can be modified to 5T S1 or other values, and then performs FFT transformation on the shifted time domain impulse responses to convert them into frequency domain signals.

[0240] Step f: The receiving end processes the frequency domain impulse response through the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, performs spectrum peak search in the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm related τ likelihood function, finds the spectrum peak of the pseudo-spectrum, see steps 41-42, which will not be repeated here.

[0241] Step g: After finding the spectrum peak of the pseudo-spectrum, restore it according to the previously moved Ts value to obtain the estimated TOA value.

[0242] The receiving end reports the TOA measurement result to a positioning server. The positioning server can traverse all positions to obtain a set of TOA measurement values of the reference signals of all base stations corresponding to the positions, and save the set. After receiving the measurement result, the positioning server determines the most likely position of the UE according to a predetermined rule, and the position is regarded as the final result of the positioning.

[0243] The embodiment of the present application first performs IFFT transformation on the frequency domain impulse response vector of the received signal, converts it into a time domain signal, and then obtains the time domain sample point corresponding to the first peak impulse response in the time domain. After moving the obtained time domain impulse response forward, the obtained spectrum peak is recovered after the spectrum peak search in the positioning algorithm, so as to reduce the complexity of the peak search in the TOA measurement algorithm. Compared with the existing algorithms, the existing MUSIC and maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithms need to process the frequency domain response vector to obtain the corresponding time delay estimation value. The high dimension of the Vandermonde matrix constructed in the algorithm causes high spatial complexity of the algorithm itself, and the pseudo-peak spectrum peak search takes a long time, which causes high time and space complexity of the algorithm. In order to further reduce the algorithm complexity in the spectrum peak search, the embodiment of the present application further reduces the dimension of the Vandermonde matrix constructed in the search of the peak value by moving the peak value forward, reduces the corresponding search time, and reduces the time and space complexity of the corresponding algorithm. At the same time, if a window is used for windowing processing in the time domain, the window does not need to be modified after the corresponding impulse response is found.

[0244] The embodiment of the present application receives the positioning signal, obtains the first time domain impulse response of the positioning signal, obtains the time domain sample point of the first path from the first time domain impulse response, shifts the first time domain impulse response according to the time domain sample point to obtain the second time domain impulse response, and performs spectrum peak search on the second time domain impulse response when performing TOA estimation, and then recovers the obtained estimation value. Since the first time domain impulse response is shifted, the dimension of the Vandermonde matrix is greatly reduced, the complexity of the operation process is reduced, and after the spectrum peak search is completed, the position moving amount is calculated, so that the finally estimated TOA value can be output, and the complexity of the peak search in the TOA measurement algorithm is effectively reduced.

[0245] The above embodiment introduces the estimation method of the arrival time delay of the present application. The corresponding device will be further described in the present embodiment combined with the drawings.

[0246] Specifically, as shown in the figure, Figure 8 The embodiment of the present application provides an arrival time delay estimation device 800, which comprises:

[0247] The first acquisition unit 810 acquires a first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal;

[0248] The second acquisition unit 820 is configured to acquire a time-domain sample point of a first path from the first time-domain impulse response; the time-domain sample point of the first path refers to a time-domain sample point corresponding to a first impulse response peak value greater than a first threshold;

[0249] The first processing unit 830 is configured to perform shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response; a position moving amount of the shift processing is related to the time-domain sample point of the first path;

[0250] The second processing unit 840 is configured to perform spectrum peak searching on a pseudo-spectrum function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimation value of an arrival time delay;

[0251] The third acquisition unit 850 is configured to acquire a second estimation value of the arrival time delay according to the position moving amount and the first estimation value.

[0252] Optionally, the shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response comprises:

[0253] The shift processing is performed on the first time-domain impulse response in a direction towards a time-domain position smaller than the first time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0254] Optionally, the first time-domain impulse response is a first time-domain impulse response after maximum value normalization processing.

[0255] Optionally, the first acquisition unit comprises:

[0256] The first acquisition subunit is configured to acquire a first frequency-domain impulse response of the positioning signal;

[0257] The first conversion subunit is configured to convert the first frequency-domain impulse response into the first time-domain impulse response.

[0258] Optionally, the position moving amount of the shift processing being related to the time-domain sample point of the first path refers to that, after the shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first path after the shift is not a negative value.

[0259] Optionally, the first processing unit comprises:

[0260] The first processing subunit is configured to perform windowing processing on the first time-domain impulse response by a window function based on the time-domain sample point of the first path to obtain at least one target time-domain impulse response located in a first window; the at least one target time-domain impulse response comprises a time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample point of the first path.

[0261] The second processing subunit shifts the target time-domain impulse response in the first window in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0262] Optionally, the window function is as follows:

[0263]

[0264] wherein h(n)' represents the normalized first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the nth sample point, h(n)" represents the target time-domain impulse response corresponding to the nth sample point after window processing, M represents the time-domain sample point of the head path, and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

[0265] Optionally, the time-domain sample point of the head path is calculated by the following formula:

[0266] M = argmin n |h(n)'| 2 >P th

[0267] wherein P th represents the first threshold of the first time-domain impulse response, M represents the time-domain sample point of the head path, and h(n)' represents the normalized first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the nth sample point.

[0268] Optionally, the second processing subunit is specifically configured to:

[0269] determine the position movement amount as a first time length according to the time-domain sample point of the head path;

[0270] move all target time-domain impulse responses in the first window in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response by the first time length to obtain the second time-domain impulse response;

[0271] wherein the time-domain sample point corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is not negative.

[0272] Optionally, the second processing subunit is specifically configured to:

[0273] calculate the second time-domain impulse response by the following formula:

[0274] h(M-L+i)"'=h(M+i)"-Q≤i≤Q

[0275] Wherein, h(M+i)'' represents all target time-domain impulse responses in the first window; M represents the time-domain sample point of the first path, i represents other time-domain sample points in the first window except the time-domain sample point of the first path; h(M-L+i)''' represents the second time-domain impulse response, L represents the first time length; Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

[0276] Optionally, the second processing unit comprises:

[0277] A second conversion subunit, configured to convert the second time-domain impulse response into a second frequency-domain impulse response;

[0278] A first determination subunit, configured to determine a pseudo-spectrum function according to the second frequency-domain impulse response;

[0279] A third processing subunit, configured to perform a spectrum peak search on the pseudo-spectrum function to obtain a spectrum peak of the pseudo-spectrum function, wherein the value of the spectrum peak is a first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0280] Optionally, the third acquisition unit is specifically configured to add the position movement amount to the first estimated value to obtain the second estimated value.

[0281] Wherein, the position movement amount and the first estimated value have the same unit.

[0282] Embodiments of the present application acquire a first time-domain impulse response of a positioning signal, and acquire a time-domain sample point of a first path from the first time-domain impulse response; shift the first time-domain impulse response according to the time-domain sample point to obtain a second time-domain impulse response; perform a spectrum peak search on the second time-domain impulse response after TOA estimation, and then restore the obtained estimated value. Since the first time-domain impulse response is shifted, the dimension of the Vandermonde matrix is greatly reduced, the complexity of the operation process is reduced, and after the spectrum peak search is completed, the position movement amount is used for back-off calculation, so that the finally estimated TOA value can be output, and the complexity of the peak search of the TOA measurement algorithm is effectively reduced.

[0283] It should be noted that the above device provided by the embodiments of the present application can realize all the method steps realized by the above method embodiments, and can achieve the same technical effects. Therefore, the same parts and beneficial effects of the method embodiments will not be described in detail.

[0284] It should be noted that the division of the unit in the embodiments of the present application is illustrative, and is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, another division manner can be used. In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application can be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit can be physically present separately, or two or more units can be integrated in one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in the form of hardware or in the form of a software functional unit.

[0285] When the integrated unit is realized in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a processor-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions of the present application essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art or the whole or part of the technical solutions can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, and includes a plurality of instructions for causing a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) or a processor to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The foregoing storage medium includes: a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and various media that can store program codes.

[0286] As shown in Figure 9 The embodiments of the present application also provide a communication device, which can be a terminal or a network side device. The communication device comprises a memory 920, a transceiver 900, and a processor 910.

[0287] The memory 920 is used for storing a computer program. The transceiver 900 is used for transceiving data under the control of the processor. The processor 910 is used for reading the computer program in the memory and performing the following operations:

[0288] obtaining a first time domain impulse response according to a positioning signal;

[0289] obtaining a time domain sample point of a first path from the first time domain impulse response; wherein the time domain sample point of the first path refers to a time domain sample point corresponding to a first impulse response peak value greater than a first threshold;

[0290] performing shift processing on the first time domain impulse response to obtain a second time domain impulse response, wherein a position moving amount of the shift processing is related to the time domain sample point of the first path;

[0291] performing spectrum peak search on a pseudo spectrum function according to the second time domain impulse response to obtain a first estimation value of a time delay;

[0292] According to the position moving amount and the first estimation value, a second estimation value of the arrival delay is obtained.

[0293] Optionally, the processor is configured to read a computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0294] The first time-domain impulse response is shifted in a direction smaller than a time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response, and the second time-domain impulse response is obtained.

[0295] Optionally, the first time-domain impulse response is a first time-domain impulse response after maximum value normalization processing.

[0296] Optionally, the processor is configured to read a computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0297] A first frequency-domain impulse response of the positioning signal is obtained.

[0298] The first frequency-domain impulse response is transformed into the first time-domain impulse response.

[0299] Optionally, the position moving amount of the shifting processing is related to the time-domain sample point of the first path, which means that the time-domain sample point of the first path after the shifting of the first time-domain impulse response is not negative.

[0300] Optionally, the processor is configured to read a computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0301] At least one target time-domain impulse response in a first window is obtained by windowing the first time-domain impulse response based on the time-domain sample point of the first path, wherein the at least one target time-domain impulse response includes a time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample point of the first path.

[0302] The target time-domain impulse response in the first window is shifted in a direction smaller than a time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response, and the second time-domain impulse response is obtained.

[0303] Optionally, the processor is configured to read a computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0304] The window function is as follows:

[0305]

[0306] wherein h(n)' represents the normalized first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the n th sample point, h(n)'' represents the target time-domain impulse response corresponding to the n th sample point after window processing, M represents the time-domain sample point of the first path, and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

[0307] Optionally, the time-domain sample point of the first path is calculated by the following formula:

[0308] M = argmin n |h(n)′| 2 >P th

[0309] wherein P th represents the first threshold of the first time-domain impulse response, M represents the time-domain sample point of the first path, and h(n)' represents the normalized first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the n th sample point.

[0310] Optionally, the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0311] determining the position movement amount as a first time length according to the time-domain sample point of the first path;

[0312] moving all target time-domain impulse responses within the first window by the first time length towards a direction of a time-domain position smaller than the target time-domain impulse response, to obtain the second time-domain impulse response;

[0313] wherein the time-domain sample point corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is not negative.

[0314] Optionally, the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0315] calculating the second time-domain impulse response by the following formula:

[0316] h(M-L+i)'''= h(M+i)'' - Q≤i≤Q

[0317] wherein h(M+i)'' represents all target time-domain impulse responses within the first window, M represents the time-domain sample point of the first path, i represents other time-domain sample points within the first window except the time-domain sample point of the first path, h(M-L+i)'''represents the second time-domain impulse response, L represents the first time length, and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

[0318] Optionally, the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0319] The second time-domain impulse response is converted into a second frequency-domain impulse response;

[0320] The pseudospectral function is determined based on the second frequency domain impulse response;

[0321] A spectral peak search is performed on the pseudo-spectral function to obtain the spectral peak of the pseudo-spectral function, and the value of the spectral peak is a first estimate of the arrival time delay.

[0322] Optionally, the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0323] The positional movement is added to the first estimate to obtain the second estimate;

[0324] The unit of the position movement is the same as that of the first estimate.

[0325] In an embodiment of this application, after receiving a positioning signal, the receiving end acquires the first time-domain impulse response of the positioning signal; and obtains the time-domain sample points of the first path from the first time-domain impulse response; the first time-domain impulse response is shifted according to the time-domain sample points to obtain a second time-domain impulse response; when performing TOA estimation, the second time-domain impulse response is used to perform spectral peak search and then the obtained estimated value is recovered. Since the first time-domain impulse response is shifted, the dimension of the Vandermonde matrix is ​​greatly reduced, reducing the complexity of the calculation process. After the spectral peak search is completed, backtracking calculation is performed according to the position shift amount, and the final estimated TOA value can be output, effectively reducing the complexity of peak search in the TOA measurement algorithm.

[0326] Among them, Figure 9 In this context, the bus architecture can include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, specifically linking various circuits together, represented by one or more processors (processor 910) and memory (memory 920). The bus architecture can also link various other circuits such as peripheral devices, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and therefore will not be described further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 900 can be multiple elements, including transmitters and transceivers, providing a unit for communicating with various other devices over a transmission medium. The processor 910 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 920 can store data used by the processor 910 during operation.

[0327] The processor 910 can be a central processing unit (CPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), and can also be implemented in a multi-core architecture.

[0328] It should be noted that the communication device provided by the embodiment of the present application can implement all the method steps achieved by the method embodiment and achieve the same technical effects. Therefore, the same parts and beneficial effects of the method embodiment will not be described in detail.

[0329] In addition, the embodiment of the present application further provides a processor readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the program is executed by a processor to implement the steps of the method for estimating the arrival delay. And the same technical effects can be achieved. To avoid repetition, this will not be described here. The readable storage medium can be any available medium or data storage device accessible by the processor, including but not limited to magnetic storage (such as floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, magneto-optical disk (MO) and the like), optical storage (such as CD, DVD, BD, HVD and the like), and semiconductor storage (such as ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, non-volatile memory (NAND FLASH), solid state disk (SSD) and the like).

[0330] Those skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of the present application can be provided as a method, a system or a computer program product. Therefore, the present application can be in the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Moreover, the present application can be in the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer usable storage media (including but not limited to magnetic disk storage and optical storage, etc.) containing computer usable program code.

[0331] The computer executable instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operations steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.

[0332] These processor-executable instructions can also be stored in a processor-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the processor-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.

[0333] These processor-executable instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operations steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.

[0334] Obviously, numerous modifications and variations of the present application are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the claims and their equivalents, the application can be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

Claims

1. A method of estimating a time of arrival, characterized by, The method comprises: obtaining a first time-domain impulse response based on a positioning signal; obtaining a time-domain sample point of a first path from the first time-domain impulse response; wherein the time-domain sample point of the first path refers to a time-domain sample point corresponding to a first impulse response peak value greater than a first threshold; performing shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response, wherein a position shift amount of the shift processing is related to the time-domain sample point of the first path; performing spectrum peak searching on a pseudo-spectrum function based on the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimation value of a time of arrival; obtaining a second estimation value of the time of arrival based on the position shift amount and the first estimation value; the shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response comprises: performing shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response in a direction towards a time-domain position smaller than that of the first time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response; the position shift amount of the shift processing being related to the time-domain sample point of the first path refers to that, after the shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first path after the shift processing is not a negative value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, The first time-domain impulse response is a first time-domain impulse response after maximum value normalization processing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, The method of obtaining a first time-domain impulse response based on a positioning signal comprises: obtaining a first frequency-domain impulse response of the positioning signal; transforming the first frequency-domain impulse response into the first time-domain impulse response.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein, The shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response comprises: performing windowing processing on the first time-domain impulse response based on the time-domain sample point of the first path by using a window function to obtain at least one target time-domain impulse response located in a first window; wherein the at least one target time-domain impulse response comprises a time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample point of the first path; performing shift processing on the target time-domain impulse response in the first window in a direction towards a time-domain position smaller than that of the target time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein, The window function is as follows: wherein h(n)' represents a first time-domain impulse response after normalization processing corresponding to an n-th sample point, h(n)'' represents a target time-domain impulse response after windowing processing corresponding to the n-th sample point, M represents the time-domain sample point of the first path, and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 4, characterized in that, The time-domain sample point of the first path is calculated by the following formula: M = arg min n |h(n)′| 2 >P th wherein P th represents a first threshold of the first time-domain impulse response, M is a time-domain sample point of the first path, and h(n)' represents a normalized first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the nth sample point.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein, The shift processing on the target time-domain impulse response in the first window in a direction towards a time-domain position smaller than that of the target time-domain impulse response comprises: determining the position shift amount as a first time length based on the time-domain sample point of the first path; moving all target time-domain impulse responses in the first window in a direction towards a time-domain position smaller than that of the target time-domain impulse response by the first time length to obtain the second time-domain impulse response; wherein a time-domain sample point corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is not a negative value.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein, The moving the all target time domain impulse responses in the first window by the first time length in the direction less than the time domain position of the target time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response comprises: The second time domain impulse response is calculated by the following formula: h (M-L+i) "'=h (M+i) "-Q≤i≤Q Wherein, h (M+i) " represents all target time domain impulse responses in the first window; M represents the time domain sample point of the first path, i represents other time domain sample points in the first window except the time domain sample point of the first path; h (M-L+i) "'represents the second time domain impulse response, L represents the first time length; Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein, The spectrum peak search is performed on the pseudo spectrum function according to the second time domain impulse response to obtain the first estimated value of the arrival time delay, comprising: The second time domain impulse response is converted into a second frequency domain impulse response; The pseudo spectrum function is determined according to the second frequency domain impulse response; The spectrum peak of the pseudo spectrum function is obtained by performing spectrum peak search on the pseudo spectrum function, and the value of the spectrum peak is the first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

10. A communication device, characterized by Comprise: Memory, transceiver, processor; Memory for storing computer programs; Transceiver for transceiving data under the control of the processor; The processor is used for reading the computer program in the memory and performing the following operations: Obtain the first time domain impulse response according to the positioning signal; Obtain the time domain sample point of the first path from the first time domain impulse response; wherein the time domain sample point of the first path refers to the time domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak greater than the first threshold; The first time domain impulse response is shifted to obtain a second time domain impulse response, and the position moving amount of the shift processing is related to the time domain sample point of the first path; According to the second time domain impulse response, the spectrum peak search is performed on the pseudo spectrum function to obtain the first estimated value of the arrival time delay; According to the position moving amount and the first estimated value, the second estimated value of the arrival time delay is obtained; The processor is used for reading the computer program in the memory and performing the following operations: The first time domain impulse response is shifted in the direction less than the time domain position of the first time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response; The position moving amount of the shift processing related to the time domain sample point of the first path means that the time domain sample point of the first path after the shift processing of the first time domain impulse response is not negative.

11. The communication device of claim 10, wherein, The first time domain impulse response is the first time domain impulse response after maximum value normalization processing.

12. The communication device of claim 10, wherein, The processor is used for reading the computer program in the memory and performing the following operations: Obtain the first frequency domain impulse response of the positioning signal; The first frequency domain impulse response is transformed into the first time domain impulse response.

13. The communication device of claim 10, wherein, The processor is used for reading the computer program in the memory and performing the following operations: The first time domain impulse response is windowed by a window function based on the time domain sample point of the first path to obtain at least one target time domain impulse response located in a first window; wherein the at least one target time domain impulse response comprises a time domain impulse response corresponding to the time domain sample point of the first path; The target time domain impulse response in the first window is shifted towards a direction smaller than a time domain position of the target time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response.

14. The communication device of claim 13, wherein, The window function is as follows: wherein h(n)' represents a first time domain impulse response corresponding to an n th sample point after normalization processing, h(n)'' represents a target time domain impulse response corresponding to the n th sample point after windowing processing, M represents the time domain sample point of the first path, and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

15. The communication device of claim 10 or 13, wherein, The time domain sample point of the first path is calculated by the following formula: M = arg min n |h(n)′| 2 >P th wherein P th represents a first threshold of the first time-domain impulse response, M is a time-domain sample point of the first path, and h(n)' represents a normalized first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the nth sample point.

16. The communication device of claim 13, wherein, The processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations: The position movement amount is determined as a first time length according to the time domain sample point of the first path; All target time domain impulse responses in the first window are moved towards a direction smaller than a time domain position of the target time domain impulse response by the first time length to obtain the second time domain impulse response; wherein the time domain sample point corresponding to the second time domain impulse response is not a negative value.

17. The communication device of claim 16, wherein, The processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations: The second time domain impulse response is calculated by the following formula: h(M-L+i)'''=h(M+i)''-Q≤i≤Q wherein h(M+i)'' represents all target time domain impulse responses in the first window; M represents the time domain sample point of the first path, i represents other time domain sample points in the first window except the time domain sample point of the first path; h(M-L+i)''' represents the second time domain impulse response, L represents the first time length; and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

18. An apparatus for estimating a time of arrival, the apparatus comprising: comprises: The first acquisition unit is configured to acquire a first time domain impulse response according to a positioning signal; The second acquisition unit is configured to acquire a time domain sample point of a first path from the first time domain impulse response; wherein the time domain sample point of the first path refers to a time domain sample point corresponding to a first impulse response peak value greater than a first threshold; The first processing unit is configured to shift the first time domain impulse response to obtain a second time domain impulse response, wherein a position movement amount of the shifting is related to the time domain sample point of the first path; The second processing unit is configured to perform a spectrum peak search on a pseudo-spectrum function according to the second time domain impulse response to obtain a first estimation value of a time of arrival; The third acquisition unit is configured to acquire a second estimation value of the time of arrival according to the position movement amount and the first estimation value; The first processing unit is specifically configured to shift the first time domain impulse response towards a direction smaller than a time domain position of the first time domain impulse response to obtain the second time domain impulse response; The position shift amount of the shift processing is related to the time domain sample point of the first path, which means that the time domain sample point of the first path after the first time domain impulse response is shifted is not negative.

19. A processor-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program, characterized in that The computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the method for estimating the time of arrival according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

Images