Positioning in mobile communication system
By identifying and adding non-collinear nodes in the mobile communication system, the problem of low positioning signal accuracy is solved and the positioning accuracy of the target device is improved.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202280095772.0
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2022-04-05
- Publication Date
- 2024-12-13
AI Technical Summary
In mobile communication systems, it is difficult for the prior art to effectively improve the accuracy of the positioning signal, especially when collinearity between the target device and multiple nodes occurs, resulting in a decrease in positioning accuracy.
Reference data from multiple nodes is received by the target device, the distance relationship and angle between nodes is determined, collinear nodes are identified, and new nodes are dynamically added to the positioning session to improve the accuracy of the positioning signal.
By identifying and adding non-collinear nodes, the geometric accuracy dilution is reduced, the positioning accuracy of the target equipment is improved, and the accuracy of the positioning signal is enhanced.
Smart Images
Figure CN119137496A_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The present description relates to positioning in mobile communication systems. Background Art
[0002] It is known to use positioning signals to determine the position of fixed nodes and mobile nodes of a mobile communication system. However, there is still a need for further improvements in this area. Summary of the invention
[0003] The scope of protection sought for various embodiments of the invention is set out by the independent claims. Embodiments and features described in this specification that do not fall under the scope of the independent claims, if any, should be interpreted as examples that aid in understanding the various embodiments of the invention.
[0004] According to a first aspect, an apparatus is described, comprising components for performing the following operations: the apparatus comprising components for performing the following operations: receiving, by a target device of a mobile communication network, reference data from each of a plurality of nodes associated with a first positioning session, the reference data from a particular node representing a position of the particular node; determining, by the target device, for each of a plurality of pairs of nodes, whether the first node and the second node are co-linear based at least in part on the reference data from the first node and the second node of the pair; and in response to determining that at least one of the pairs has a first node and a second node that are co-linear, adding one or more new nodes that are not associated with the first positioning session to a subsequent positioning session having at least some of the nodes of the first positioning session, wherein the nodes are configured to send positioning signals to the target device for the target device to determine its own position.
[0005] The apparatus may also include a component for determining, for each pair of nodes, a first distance (L1) between the first node and the second node, a second distance (L2) between the target device and the first node, and a third distance (L3) between the target device and the second node based on received reference data from the first node and the second node, wherein determining whether the first node and the second node of the pair are collinear is based on the first distance (L1), the second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3).
[0006] Collinearity can be determined for a particular pair of nodes if:
[0007] L1 ≈ L3 - L2, or
[0008] L1≈L2+L3.
[0009] Collinearity can be determined for a particular pair of nodes if:
[0010] a≤a m ,or
[0011] |(a-180)|≤a m
[0012] where a is the angle in degrees between the directions of the first node and the second node of a particular pair as seen from the target device, and a m is a predetermined threshold.
[0013] The value a can be determined by the following formula:
[0014]
[0015] The plurality of nodes may be user equipment of a mobile communication network.
[0016] Positioning signals and / or reference data may be transmitted via respective sidelinks between the target device and the plurality of nodes.
[0017] The apparatus may further include a component for performing, by the target device, a sidelink discovery process for identifying a plurality of nodes based on proximity of the plurality of nodes to the target device, and for establishing a sidelink between the target device and each of the plurality of nodes.
[0018] The reference data from a specific node among the plurality of nodes may represent the absolute position coordinates of the specific node.
[0019] The second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3) may be determined based on respective ranging signals sent by the target device to the first node and the second node of the particular node pair.
[0020] The second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3) may be determined based on round trip time (RTT) measurements from sending respective ranging signals to the first node and the second node and receiving response reference signals therefrom.
[0021] The apparatus may also include means for re-performing the determining and adding operations for nodes of subsequent positioning sessions until at least three non-collinear nodes are identified.
[0022] The apparatus may also include means for determining an updated location of the target device based on the received positioning signals from the at least three non-collinear nodes.
[0023] A previous position of the target device based on a node associated with a first positioning session may be assigned a first weight W1, and an updated position of the target device based on a node associated with a subsequent positioning session may be assigned a second weight W2>W1, in which case the device may also be configured to generate the position of the target device based on a weighted combination of the previous position and the updated position.
[0024] The apparatus may be a target device.
[0025] The component may include: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause execution of the apparatus.
[0026] According to a second aspect, a method is described, comprising: reference data received by a target device of a mobile communication network from each of a plurality of nodes associated with a first positioning session, the reference data from a particular node representing a position of the particular node; determining by the target device, for each of a plurality of pairs of nodes, whether the first node and the second node are co-linear based at least in part on the reference data of the first node and the second node of the pair; and in response to determining that at least one of the pairs has a first node and a second node that are co-linear, adding one or more new nodes that are not associated with the first positioning session to a subsequent positioning session having at least some of the nodes of the first positioning session, wherein the nodes are configured to send positioning signals to the target device for the target device to determine its own position.
[0027] The method may also include: for each pair of nodes, determining a first distance (L1) between the first node and the second node based on reference data received from the first node and the second node, a second distance (L2) between the target device and the first node, and a third distance (L3) between the target device and the second node, wherein determining whether the first node and the second node of the pair are collinear is based on the first distance (L1), the second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3).
[0028] Collinearity can be determined for a particular pair of nodes if:
[0029] L1 ≈ L3 - L2, or
[0030] L1≈L2+L3.
[0031] Collinearity can be determined for a particular pair of nodes if:
[0032] a≤a m ,or
[0033] |(a-180)|≤a m
[0034] where a is the angle in degrees between the directions of the first node and the second node of a particular pair as seen from the target device, and a m is a predetermined threshold.
[0035] The value a can be determined by the following formula:
[0036]
[0037] The plurality of nodes may be user equipment of a mobile communication network.
[0038] Positioning signals and / or reference data may be transmitted via respective sidelinks between the target device and the plurality of nodes.
[0039] The method may also include performing, by the target device, a sidelink discovery process for identifying a plurality of nodes based on proximity of the plurality of nodes to the target device and for establishing a sidelink between the target device and each of the plurality of nodes.
[0040] The reference data from a specific node among the plurality of nodes may represent the absolute position coordinates of the specific node.
[0041] The second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3) may be determined based on respective ranging signals sent by the target device to the first node and the second node of the particular node pair.
[0042] The second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3) may be determined based on round trip time (RTT) measurements from sending respective ranging signals to the first node and the second node and receiving response reference signals therefrom.
[0043] The method may also include re-performing the determining operation and the adding operation for nodes of subsequent positioning sessions until at least three non-collinear nodes are identified.
[0044] The method may also include determining an updated location of the target device based on the received positioning signals from the at least three non-collinear nodes.
[0045] A previous position of the target device based on a node associated with a first positioning session may be assigned a first weight W1, and an updated position of the target device based on a node associated with a subsequent positioning session may be assigned a second weight W2>W1, in which case the method may further include generating a position of the target device based on a weighted combination of the previous position and the updated position.
[0046] The method may be performed by a target device.
[0047] According to a third aspect, a computer program product is provided, which includes an instruction set, which when executed on an apparatus is configured to cause the apparatus to perform the following method: receiving, by a target device of a mobile communication network, reference data from each of a plurality of nodes associated with a first positioning session, the reference data from a particular node representing the position of the particular node; determining, by the target device for each of a plurality of pairs of nodes, whether the first node and the second node are co-linear based at least in part on the reference data of the first node and the second node of the pair; and in response to determining that at least one of the pairs has a co-linear first node and a second node, adding one or more new nodes not associated with the first positioning session to a subsequent positioning session having at least some of the nodes of the first positioning session, wherein the nodes are configured to send positioning signals to the target device for the target device to determine its own position.
[0048] According to a fourth aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium is provided, comprising program instructions stored thereon for executing a method, the method comprising: receiving, by a target device of a mobile communication network, reference data from each of a plurality of nodes associated with a first positioning session, the reference data from a particular node representing the position of the particular node; determining, by the target device, for each of a plurality of pairs of nodes, whether the first node and the second node are co-linear based at least in part on the reference data of the first node and the second node of the pair; and in response to determining that at least one of the pairs has a co-linear first node and a second node, adding one or more new nodes not associated with the first positioning session to a subsequent positioning session having at least some of the nodes of the first positioning session, wherein the nodes are configured to send positioning signals to the target device for the target device to determine its own position.
[0049] According to a fifth aspect, a device is provided, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory, comprising computer program code, which, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the device to: receive reference data from each of a plurality of nodes associated with a first positioning session by a target device of a mobile communication network, the reference data from a specific node representing the position of the specific node; determine by the target device, for each of a plurality of pairs of nodes, whether the first node and the second node are co-linear based at least in part on the reference data of the first node and the second node of the pair; and in response to determining that at least one pair of the pairs has a co-linear first node and a second node, add one or more new nodes not associated with the first positioning session to a subsequent positioning session having at least some of the nodes of the first positioning session, wherein the nodes are configured to send positioning signals to the target device for the target device to determine its own position. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0050] Example embodiments will now be described by way of non-limiting examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0051] Figure 1 is a block diagram of a system according to an example embodiment.
[0052] Figure 2A is based on Figure 1 A block diagram of the first system scenario;
[0053] Figure 2B is based on Figure 1 A block diagram of the second system scenario;
[0054] Figure 3 is based on Figure 1 A block diagram of a third system scenario for determining collinearity according to an example embodiment;
[0055] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the third system scenario used to determine collinearity;
[0056] Figure 5A , Figure 5B and Figure 5C is based on Figure 1 Corresponding block diagrams of other system scenarios;
[0057] Figure 6 is a flow chart illustrating processing operations according to an example embodiment;
[0058] Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating processing operations according to another example embodiment;
[0059] Figure 8 is a sequence diagram according to an example embodiment;
[0060] Fig. 9 is a device in which one or more example embodiments may be implemented; and
[0061] Fig.10 is a non-transitory medium that can store or carry computer readable code. The computer readable code is stored in a computer program such as Fig. 9 One or more example embodiments may be implemented when executed on a device of a device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0062] Example embodiments relate to positioning in mobile communication systems.
[0063] In a mobile communication system, it may be important to determine the location of a target device that may change position. For example, the target device may be a user equipment (UE), such as a smart phone, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a wearable device or even a vehicle. To give some examples, knowing the location of the UE may help optimize radio resources, provide location-based services, guidance and / or alarm generation. The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has developed various standards and proposals that relate to locating the target device via various methods, which are based on, for example, fourth generation (4G) and fifth generation (5G) radio access technologies (RATs) and future RATs. Some positioning technologies rely on the target device to communicate with a node with a corresponding known position. The location of the target device can be determined based on the distance between the target device and at least three of the nodes using a multi-point positioning method.
[0064] In this context, example embodiments may be particularly directed to apparatus, methods, and computer programs for determining collinearity of a first node and a second node in a plurality of nodes in a positioning session that provide positioning signals to a target device. In the event that collinearity is determined, one or more additional nodes may be added to the plurality of nodes to improve positioning accuracy.
[0065] The term "target UE" will be used hereinafter, assuming that it is the location of the UE we are interested in. However, the example embodiments are applicable to any form of target device.
[0066] In some example embodiments, at least some of the nodes providing positioning signals to the target UE are other UEs communicating with the target UE using a so-called sidelink connection or "sidelink".
[0067] Figure 1 is a block diagram of a system, generally indicated by the reference number 100 , according to an example embodiment.
[0068] The system 100 may include a target UE 102 that, according to some example embodiments, may be configured to determine its own position using positioning signals received from three or more other UEs (which may be referred to as anchor UEs). In the example shown, there are a first anchor UE 104, a second anchor UE 106, and a third anchor UE 108.
[0069] The target UE 102 may be, for example, a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, a wearable device or even a vehicle. The first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106 and the third anchor UE 108 may also be any form of UE with a known location so that the target UE 102 can determine its own location using a multi-lateration method.
[0070] The target UE 102 may communicate with the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106 and the third anchor UE 108 using respective sidelinks 112, 114, 116. The use of so-called "sidelinks" for direct communication between UEs without the need for signals to pass through a base station was proposed in 3GPP Release 12. New Radio (NR) sidelinks were introduced in 3GPP Release 16, and with respect to positioning, new NR sidelinks were also introduced in 3GPP Release 18. The sidelinks employ the so-called PC5 interface between pairs of UEs.
[0071] Initially, the target UE 102 may initiate a positioning session to determine its own position using positioning signals from three or more anchor UEs that will become part of (or associated with) the positioning session. This may be self-triggered or may be triggered by some external event or device.
[0072] The target UE 102 may perform a sidelink discovery procedure. For example, the sidelink discovery procedure may involve the target UE 102 broadcasting a request, such as a discovery solicitation request, which includes an indication of what the target UE 102 wants to discover. For example, the discovery solicitation request may include a Proximity Service (ProSe) application identifier and an indication that the target UE 102 wishes to receive positioning signals. In fact, the discovery solicitation request may include any appropriate request to ask other nearby UEs to become anchor UEs for a positioning session.
[0073] Nearby UEs (e.g., the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108) may respond to accept the request based on their proximity to the target UE 102 and may provide positioning signals to the target UE 102. The first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108 become part of the positioning session and may exchange data using the respective sidelinks 112, 114, 116 established at this time.
[0074] In other scenarios, there may be more than three anchor UEs.The locations of the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108 may be different than shown, and these locations may change over time.
[0075] For example, as part of the acceptance process described above, or at a later time, each of the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108 may transmit reference data including its own position (i.e., its absolute position in any suitable form, such as coordinates) via the respective sidelinks 112, 114, 116. Each of the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108 may also transmit a positioning reference signal (PRS) or similar signal via the respective sidelinks 112, 114, 116. Figure 1 The symbol SL-PRS in indicates that the PRS is provided using the sidelinks 112, 114, 116. The target UE 102 may determine its range or distance to each of the first, second, and third anchor UEs 104, 106, 108 using conventional methods based on received PRS, such as using a round trip time (RTT) method.
[0076] With range estimates to each of the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 106 and knowledge of their positions, the location of the target UE 102 may be estimated with a reasonable amount of accuracy using multilateration.
[0077] In some cases, the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108 may be static, for example, they are fixed units, or one or more of the anchor UEs may be semi-static or may be freely movable. When two or more of the anchor UEs 104, 106, 108 become collinear from the perspective of the target UE 102, the target UE may experience a so-called high geometric dilution of precision (GDOP), which reduces the accuracy of its position estimate. Collinear means that the two or more anchor UEs 104, 106, 108 are generally aligned when "seen" from the position of the target UE 102.
[0078] refer to Figure 2A and Figure 2B Briefly explains the problem.
[0079] Figure 2A A scenario 200 is shown where the first anchor UE 104 and the second anchor UE 106 are not collinear with the target UE 102. There will be a certain amount of measurement error (ME) in the range, indicated by the dashed concentric circles around each of the first anchor UE 104 and the second anchor UE 106. Therefore, it will be seen that the determined position of the target UE 102 will be somewhere within the shaded area 204. The shaded area 204 is relatively small and therefore the GDOP is low. Figure 2BA different scenario 202 is shown, where the first anchor UE 104 and the second anchor UE 106 are collinear with the target UE 102. Here, due to this collinearity, the shadow area 206 is much larger and thus the GDOP is higher. The positioning accuracy will be lower.
[0080] Example embodiments are directed to alleviating or overcoming such problems by detecting, at the target UE 102, for each pair of nodes associated with a positioning session, whether the nodes of the pair are co-linear or nearly co-linear. Figure 1 In the scenario 100 where there are first anchor UE 104, second anchor UE 106 and third anchor UE 108 (as examples of nodes), there are three pair combinations. If one of these pair combinations is determined to be collinear, one or more new anchor UEs (e.g., fourth anchor UE) can be added to the existing set of nodes by the target UE 102 through the above-mentioned discovery process as part of a new positioning session. This can reduce GDOP and improve accuracy.
[0081] In some example embodiments, after adding one or more new nodes, the process of determining collinearity may be re-executed.
[0082] Regarding how to detect the co-line at the target UE 102, Figure 3 A scenario 300 is shown in which a target UE 102 moves along a circular path 302 relative to a first anchor UE 104 and a second anchor UE 106. The first anchor UE 104 and the second anchor UE 106 are seen to be collinear relative to the target UE 102 at locations indicated as "A" and "B".
[0083] Go to Figure 4 In the upper part, the arrangement of the target UE 102, the first anchor UE 104, and the second anchor UE 106 is shown when the target UE is in position "A". A first distance (L1) is indicated between the first anchor UE 104 and the second anchor UE 106, a second distance (L2) is indicated between the target UE 102 and the first anchor UE, and a third distance (L3) is indicated between the target UE and the second anchor UE. In this case, it can be concluded that collinearity exists if there are the following terms:
[0084] L1≈L3-L2(1)
[0085] Go to Figure 4 The lower part shows the arrangement of the target UE 102, the first anchor UE 104 and the second anchor UE 106 when the target UE is in position "B". Again, the first distance (L1), the second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3) are indicated. In this case, it can be concluded that there is collinearity if there are the following terms:
[0086] L1≈L2+L3(2)
[0087] It can be seen that collinearity can be detected when condition (1) or condition (2) occurs.
[0088] The value of L1 may be determined by the target UE 102 based on location data received from each of the first anchor UE 104 and the second anchor UE 106 as part of the sidelink discovery and acceptance process described above or a similar process.
[0089] The values of L2 and L3 may be determined by the target UE 102 based on a conventional ranging method (eg, the RTT-based method described above).
[0090] Thus, the target UE 102 may be caused to use data and signals received via its sidelink to estimate whether a given pair of nodes (such as the first UE 104 and the second UE 106) are co-linear, and act accordingly.
[0091] In some example embodiments, the above collinearity detection criteria may be relaxed to account for measurement errors, estimation errors and / or noise conditions. An angle-based approach may be used for this purpose, but the approach still uses the values of L1, L2 and L3 that may be determined by the target UE 102.
[0092] For example, Figure 5A , Figure 5B and Figure 5C Three different scenarios 500A, 500B, 500C are shown, where the first anchor UE 104 and the second anchor UE 106 are not collinear in a strict geometric sense, but may still result in high GDOP. If certain conditions are met, we can still consider them to be collinear. This may be because the angle a between the first anchor UE 104 and the second anchor UE 106 from the direction of the target UE 102 is relatively small (as in the first scenario 500A and the second scenario 500B) or the angle a is relatively large, such as close to 180 degrees (as in the third scenario 500C).
[0093] To detect collinearity based on angle, we can set a predetermined threshold “a m ”, and collinearity is determined for the first anchor UE 104 and the second anchor UE 106 assuming that:
[0094] a≤a m ,or
[0095] |(a-180)|≤a m (3)
[0096] For example, you can m The value of is set to around 20 degrees, for example.
[0097] Note that this article uses degrees to measure angles, and that the equivalent measure of radians can be used as an alternative.
[0098] The value of a may be determined at the target UE 102 using the following formula:
[0099]
[0100] Figure 6 is a flow chart illustrating operations according to one or more example embodiments. The operations may be processing operations performed by hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof.
[0101] The first operation 602 may include receiving reference data from each of a plurality of nodes associated with a first positioning session, the reference data from a particular node representing a location of the particular node.
[0102] The second operation 604 may include determining, for each of the plurality of pairs of nodes, whether the first node and the second node are collinear based at least in part on reference data for the first node and the second node of the pair.
[0103] A third operation 606 performed in response to determining that at least one of the pairs has a co-linear first node and a second node may include adding one or more new nodes not associated with the first positioning session to a subsequent positioning session with at least some of the nodes of the first positioning session.
[0104] The first operation 602, the second operation 604, and the third operation 606 may be performed by a target device. The target UE 102 described above is an example of a target device. The first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108 described above are examples of "nodes" mentioned herein.
[0105] The subsequent positioning session may be a new positioning session or a new version of the first positioning session, depending on the implementation.
[0106] As used herein, a node may be configured to send a positioning signal to a target device to enable the target device to determine its own location.
[0107] The second operation 604 can be performed using the values of the first distance (L1), the second distance (L2), and the third distance (L3) for each pair of nodes. As noted, the target device can determine, for each pair of nodes, a first distance (L1) between the first node and the second node based on reference data received from the first node and the second node of the pair, a second distance (L2) between the target device and the first node, and a third distance (L3) between the target device and the second node.
[0108] If any of the above conditions (1), (2), or (3) is met (depending on the implementation), collinearity can be detected.
[0109] A sidelink as defined above may be used to transmit positioning signals and / or reference data between each node and the target device. This may include the target device performing a sidelink discovery process or procedure to identify multiple nodes based on their proximity, and to establish corresponding sidelinks using known methods. The reference data referenced in the first operation 602 may represent the absolute position coordinates of a particular node.
[0110] The second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3) may be determined based on a corresponding ranging signal sent by the target device to a first node and a second node of a particular node pair. For example, the second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3) may be determined based on a round trip time (RTT) measurement from sending the corresponding ranging signal to the first node and the second node and receiving a response reference signal therefrom.
[0111] In some example embodiments, the target device may be configured to re-perform the second operation 604, and possibly the third operation 606, for nodes of subsequent positioning sessions until at least three non-collinear nodes are identified.
[0112] In this context, non-collinearity may be satisfied if the nodes have low collinearity, for example if condition (3) is used as a test.
[0113] At this time, the target device may determine an updated position based on the positioning signals received from the at least three non-collinear nodes.
[0114] This can refer to Figure 7 To explain.
[0115] refer to Figure 7 , the first operation 702, the second operation 704, and the third operation 706 may correspond to reference Figure 6 A first operation 602, a second operation 604, and a third operation 606 are described.
[0116] As part of the first operation 702, it may be assumed, for example, that there are three nodes providing positioning signals to the target device as part of a first positioning session. The first positioning session may be established as part of the sidelink discovery process described above.
[0117] As part of the second operation 704, if it is determined that none of the three pairwise combinations are determined to be collinear, the second operation can move to a fourth operation 708 of using positioning signals from the three nodes to determine the location of the target device. If it is determined that one or more of the three pairwise combinations are collinear, the second operation 704 can move to a third operation 706, where one or more new nodes can be added to the subsequent positioning session. For example, a fourth node can be added.
[0118] At this point, the third operation 706 can move to a fourth operation 708 of using positioning signals from multiple nodes (now four in number) to determine the location of the target device. Alternatively, one of the co-linear nodes determined in the second operation 704 may not be used for location determination; the node used may be the node with the best received signal quality or its position relative to other existing nodes or the position of one or more new nodes. Using four nodes can result in improved accuracy, but there is still the possibility that the fourth node is co-linear with one of the existing three nodes.
[0119] Thus, alternatively or additionally, the third operation 706 may move back to the second operation 704 to re-perform the collinearity determination, and the process may repeat as before.
[0120] In the case where the first positioning session involves more than three nodes, if at least three nodes are not co-linear, the second operation 704 can move to a fourth operation 708. The fourth operation 708 can be performed using positioning signals from at least three non-co-linear nodes. Any node determined to be co-linear with another node may not be used in the fourth operation 708.
[0121] Figure 8 is a sequence diagram according to an example embodiment. Again, as an example, it can be assumed that there are three nodes providing positioning signals to a target device as part of a first positioning session. We can assume that the target device is a target UE 102, and the three nodes are the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108 mentioned above.
[0122] The first operation 802 may include the target UE 102 (UE-T) initiating a UE-based sidelink (SL) positioning session using conventional procedures. We may refer to this as a first positioning session.
[0123] The second operation 804 may include performing a sidelink (SL) discovery procedure involving the target UE 102 broadcasting a request (to act as a positioning anchor), which may be received by the first anchor UE 104 , the second anchor UE 106 , and the third anchor UE 108 .
[0124] In the third to fifth operations 806 , 808 , 810 , the first anchor UE 104 , the second anchor UE 106 , and the third anchor UE 108 may accept the request and send corresponding acceptance messages back to the target UE 102 together with reference data including location coordinates.
[0125] In a sixth operation 812, the target UE 102 may determine the respective distances or ranges from itself to the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108 using, for example, RTT-based measurements or similar methods. This may include a dedicated ranging session.
[0126] In a seventh operation 814, the target UE 102 may determine the distances between the resulting three pairwise combinations of the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108 using the corresponding location coordinates:
[0127] A first anchor UE 104 (UE_A1) and a second anchor UE 106 (UE_A2);
[0128] a first anchor UE 104 (UE_A1) and a third anchor UE 108 (UE_A3); and
[0129] A second anchor UE 106 (UE_A1) and a third anchor UE 108 (UE_A2).
[0130] In the eighth operation 816, for each pairwise combination, the target UE 102 may use the values of the first distance (L1), the second distance (L2), and the third distance (L3) and the above-mentioned conditions (1), (2), and / or (3) to determine or evaluate the collinearity of each of the above-mentioned pairwise combinations.
[0131] In a ninth operation 818, if co-linearity is determined for one of the paired combinations (e.g., the first anchor UE 104 (UE_A1) and the second anchor UE 106 (UE_A2)), a sidelink (SL) discovery process may be restarted by the target UE 102 to request another (in this case, the fourth) anchor UE 110 (UE-A4) to join a subsequent positioning session.
[0132] In a tenth operation 820, the fourth anchor UE 110 may accept the request, which is signaled back to the target UE 102 along with the fourth anchor UE 110's own reference data including the location coordinates.
[0133] In an eleventh operation 822, the target UE 102 may perform positioning using positioning signals from non-collinear anchor UEs (in this case, the first anchor UE 104, the third anchor UE 108, and the fourth anchor UE 110 (UE_A1, UE_A3, UE_A4)) as part of a subsequent positioning session. This may be performed when at least three non-collinear anchor UEs are identified. In this case, the positioning signal from the second anchor UE 106 is not used as part of the positioning process.
[0134] In some example embodiments, the position of the target UE 102 determined based on the first anchor UE 104, the second anchor UE 106, and the third anchor UE 108 (associated with the first positioning session) may be assigned a first weight W1. The updated position of the target UE 102 based on the first anchor UE 104, the third anchor UE 108, and the fourth anchor UE 110 (associated with the subsequent positioning session) may be assigned a second weight W2>W1. The target UE 102 may be configured to generate the position of the target UE based on a weighted combination of the previous position and the updated position to improve accuracy.
[0135] Thus, example embodiments provide an apparatus, method, and computer program for updating positioning by a target device identifying collinearity and updating a positioning session to include additional nodes supplying positioning signals, thereby overcoming problems associated with high GDOP.
[0136] Example Device
[0137] Fig. 9 An example apparatus is shown. The apparatus may, for example, include the target UE 102 mentioned above, or the target device mentioned in the claims.
[0138] The device may include at least one processor 900 and at least one memory 910 directly or closely connected or coupled to the processor. The memory 910 may include at least one random access memory (RAM) 910a and at least one read-only memory (ROM) 910b. Computer program code (software) 920 may be stored in the ROM 910b. The device may be connected to a transmitter path and a receiver path to obtain corresponding signals or data. The device may be connected to a user interface (UI) to indicate the device and / or output data. At least one processor 900 and at least one memory 910 and computer program code 920 may be arranged so that the device at least performs the method described herein, such as reference Figure 6 and / or Figure 7 Describe the method.
[0139] Processor 900 may be a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, a microcontroller, or multiple microcontrollers.
[0140] Memory 910 may take any suitable form.
[0141] Fig.10 A non-transitory medium 1000 according to some embodiments is shown. The non-transitory medium 1000 is a computer readable storage medium. It may be, for example, a CD, a DVD, a USB stick, a Blu-ray disc, etc. The non-transitory medium 1000 stores computer program code that, when executed by a processor such as Figure 7 When executed by the processor 900, the device performs the above operations.
[0142] Any of the mentioned means and / or other features of the specifically mentioned means may be provided by means arranged so that they become configured to perform the desired operation only when enabled (e.g. turned on, etc.). In this case, they may not necessarily load appropriate software into active memory when not enabled (e.g. off state), but only load appropriate software when enabled (e.g. turned on state). The means may include hardware circuits and / or firmware. The means may include software loaded onto a memory. Such software / computer program may be recorded on the same memory / processor / functional unit and / or on one or more memories / processors / functional units.
[0143] In some examples, the specifically mentioned apparatus may be pre-programmed with appropriate software to perform the desired operations, and where the appropriate software may be enabled for use by a user downloading a "key", e.g., to unlock / enable the software and its associated functionality. Advantages associated with such examples may include a reduced requirement to download data when the device requires additional functionality, and this may be useful in examples where the device is deemed to have sufficient capacity to store such pre-programmed software for functionality that may not be enabled by the user.
[0144] Any mentioned device / circuit / element / processor may also have other functions in addition to the functions mentioned, and these functions may be performed by the same device / circuit / element / processor. One or more disclosed aspects may cover the electronic distribution of the associated computer program and the computer program (which may be source / transmission encoded) recorded on a suitable carrier (e.g. memory, signal).
[0145] Any "computer" described herein may include a collection of one or more separate processors / processing elements that may or may not be located on the same circuit board, or the same area / location of a circuit board, or even on the same device. In some examples, one or more of any of the processors mentioned may be distributed across multiple devices. The same or different processors / processing elements may perform one or more functions described herein.
[0146] The term "signaling" may refer to one or more signals sent as a series of electrical / optical signals that are sent and / or received. The series of signals may include one, two, three, four or even more individual signal components or distinct signals to make up the signaling. Some or all of these individual signals may be sent / received simultaneously, sequentially and / or in a manner such that they overlap in time with each other via wireless or wired communication.
[0147] With reference to any discussion of any mention of computers and / or processors and memory (including, for example, ROM, CD-ROM, etc.), these may include computer processors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and / or other hardware components that have been programmed in a manner to carry out the functions of the invention.
[0148] The applicant hereby separately discloses each individual feature described herein and any combination of two or more such features, as long as such features or combinations can be implemented based on the entirety of this specification in view of the common knowledge of those skilled in the art, regardless of whether such features or combinations of features solve any problems disclosed herein, and do not limit the scope of the claims. The applicant points out that the disclosed aspects / examples may consist of any such individual features or combinations of features. In view of the above description, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made within the scope of the present disclosure.
[0149] Although the basic novel features as applied to the examples thereof have been shown and described and pointed out, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the described apparatus and methods may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and / or method steps that perform substantially the same function in substantially the same manner to achieve the same results are within the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, it should be recognized that the structures and / or elements and / or method steps shown and / or described in conjunction with any disclosed form or example may be incorporated into any other disclosed or described or suggested form or example as a general matter of design choice. In addition, the means-plus-function clause in the claims is intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the functions described, and not only structural equivalents, but also equivalent structures.
Claims
1. An apparatus comprising means for performing the following: receiving, by a target device of a mobile communication network, reference data from each of a plurality of nodes associated with a first positioning session, the reference data from a particular node representing a position of the particular node; determining, by the target device, for each of a plurality of pairs of the nodes, whether the first node and the second node are collinear based at least in part on the reference data from the first node and the second node of the pair; as well as In response to determining that at least one of the pairs has a first node and a second node that are co-linear, one or more new nodes that are not associated with the first positioning session are added to a subsequent positioning session with at least some of the nodes of the first positioning session, wherein the nodes are configured to send positioning signals to the target device for the target device to determine its own position.
2. The apparatus according to claim 1 further comprises a component for: for each pair of the nodes, determining a first distance (L1) between the first node and the second node based on the reference data received from the first node and the second node, a second distance (L2) between the target device and the first node, and a third distance (L3) between the target device and the second node, wherein determining whether the first node and the second node of the pair are collinear is based on the first distance (L1), the second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3).
3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein collinearity is determined for a particular pair of the nodes if: L1 ≈ L3 - L2, or L1≈L2+L3.
4. An apparatus according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein collinearity is determined for a particular pair of the nodes if: a≤a m ,or |(a-180)|≤a m Where a is the angle in degrees between the directions of the first node and the second node of the particular pair as seen from the target device, and a m is a predetermined threshold.
5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein a is determined by:
6. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the plurality of nodes are user equipment of a mobile communications network.
7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein positioning signals and / or reference data are transmitted via corresponding sidelinks between the target device and the plurality of nodes.
8. The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising: A component for performing a sidelink discovery process by the target device, the sidelink discovery process is used to identify the multiple nodes based on the proximity of the multiple nodes to the target device, and to establish the sidelink between the target device and each of the multiple nodes.
9. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3) are determined based on respective ranging signals sent by the target device to the first node and the second node of a particular node pair.
10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the second distance (L2) and the third distance (L3) are determined based on round trip time (RTT) measurements from sending the respective ranging signals to the first node and the second node and receiving response reference signals therefrom.
11. The apparatus of any preceding claim, further comprising means for re-performing the determining and adding operations for nodes of the subsequent positioning session until at least three non-collinear nodes are identified.
12. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising means for determining an updated position of the target device based on received positioning signals from at least three non-collinear nodes.
13. An apparatus according to claim 12, wherein a previous position of the target device based on the node associated with the first positioning session is assigned a first weight W1, and the updated position of the target device based on the node associated with the subsequent positioning session is assigned a second weight W2>W1, wherein the apparatus is further configured to generate the position of the target device based on a weighted combination of the previous position and the updated position.
14. An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the apparatus is the target device.
15. A method comprising: receiving, by a target device of a mobile communication network, reference data from each of a plurality of nodes associated with a first positioning session, the reference data from a particular node representing a position of the particular node; determining, by the target device, for each of a plurality of pairs of the nodes, whether the first node and the second node are collinear based at least in part on the reference data of the first node and the second node of the pair; as well as In response to determining that at least one of the pairs has a first node and a second node that are co-linear, one or more new nodes that are not associated with the first positioning session are added to a subsequent positioning session with at least some of the nodes of the first positioning session, wherein the nodes are configured to send positioning signals to the target device for the target device to determine its own position.