Measurements and procedures for NR localization

Abstract

The invention relates to measurements and procedures for NR localization. User equipment (UE) positioning within a 5G new radio (NR) network may be determined by receiving a set of downlink (DL) position reference signal (PRS) resources indicating a plurality of DL PRS resources, and receiving a DL PRS reporting configuration indicating a set of measurements to be performed by the UE for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the set of DL PRS resources. A location measurement may be performed for each of a plurality of DL PRS resources within a set of DL PRS resources, including generating a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) measurement by estimating a timing of a first arrival path from at least two of the plurality of DL PRS resources, and determining a reference signal received power (RSRP) metric or a signal to noise interference ratio (SINR) metric associated with the at least two DL PRS resources. The performed position measurements may be reported.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of the invention patent application with application date of April 1, 2020, application number 202080025385.0, and titled “Measurements and Processes for NR Positioning”.

[0002] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0003] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 827,753, filed on April 1, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0004] The present application relates generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to positioning of user equipment (UE) within 5G New Radio (NR) networks. Background Art

[0005] Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between base stations and wireless mobile devices. Wireless communication system standards and protocols may include the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) (e.g., 4G) or New Radio (NR) (e.g., 5G); the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard, which is often referred to by industry organizations as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX); and the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless local area networks (WLANs), which is often referred to by industry organizations as Wi-Fi. In a 3GPP radio access network (RAN) in an LTE system, a base station may include a RAN node such as an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (also often referred to as an Evolved Node B, an Enhanced Node B, an eNodeB, or an eNB) and / or a Radio Network Controller (RNC) in an E-UTRAN, which communicates with a wireless communication device referred to as a User Equipment (UE). In a fifth generation (5G) wireless RAN, a RAN node may include a 5G node, an NR node, or a gNodeB (gNB).

[0006] The RAN uses radio access technologies (RATs) to communicate between RAN nodes and UEs. The RAN may include a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), an Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution (EDGE) RAN (GERAN), a Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), and / or an E-UTRAN, which provides access to communication services through a core network. Each of the RANs operates according to a specific 3GPP RAT. For example, the GERAN implements GSM and / or EDGE RAT, the UTRAN implements the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) RAT or other 3GPP RAT, and the E-UTRAN implements the LTE RAT. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit(s) in a reference number refers to the drawing number that first introduces the element.

[0008] Figure 1 A project according to one embodiment is shown.

[0009] Figure 2 A and Figure 2 B shows a representation according to one embodiment.

[0010] Figure 3 A representative timeline according to one embodiment is shown.

[0011] Figure 4 A representative timeline according to one embodiment is shown.

[0012] Figure 5 A method according to one embodiment is shown.

[0013] Figure 6 A system according to one embodiment is shown.

[0014] Figure 7 Infrastructure equipment according to one embodiment is shown.

[0015] Figure 8 A platform according to one embodiment is shown.

[0016] Fig. 9 An apparatus according to one embodiment is shown.

[0017] Fig.10 An exemplary interface according to one embodiment is shown.

[0018] Fig.11 Components according to one embodiment are shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] The following specific embodiments relate to the accompanying drawings. The same figure numbers may be used to identify the same or similar elements in different drawings. In the following description, for the purpose of illustration and not limitation, specific details, such as specific structures, architectures, interfaces, technologies, etc., are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art who benefit from the present disclosure that various aspects of various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that deviate from these specific details. In some cases, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so that the description of various embodiments will not be obscured by unnecessary details. For the purposes of this document, the phrase "A or B" refers to (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0020] This document discusses the reporting structure for positioning measurements in 5G New Radio (NR) systems and the principles of reporting granularity configuration for both user equipment (UE) and gNodeB (gNB) nodes. In addition, three new measurement concepts are discussed that can improve the efficiency of NR positioning operations. The first measurement concept is the measurement of the so-called soft LOS metric, which characterizes the estimated channel and provides information about the channel flatness. The second measurement concept is based on the measurement of the synchronization error between gNBs in the system and the compensation of this error on the network side or the UE side. The third measurement concept involves the measurement of the synchronization error between the UE and the gNB. The compensation method provides an opportunity to synchronize the UE and gNB in ​​the system and obtain arrival time (TOA) measurements instead of reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurements. In addition, in the present disclosure, the concept of cell-centric and UE-centric downlink (DL) positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration is described, which provides a mechanism for DL ​​PRS optimization for a specific UE or a group of UEs. Finally, details of UE TA behavior, power control procedures for UL PRS (sounding reference signal (SRS)) transmission, and association of DL / uplink (UL) PRS transmission are provided. Therefore, the present disclosure provides a report structure configuration for an NR positioning system, which improves the efficiency of positioning services in an NR communication system and provides flexibility in positioning reference signal configuration in an NR communication system.

[0021] 1. UE measurements for NR positioning

[0022] 1.1.UE measurement report structure

[0023] Figure 1 The association between the DL PRS report configuration and the DL PRS resource / DL PRS resource set is shown. Figure 1 The DL PRS report configuration-1 102 is associated with a DL PRS resource set-1 104. The DL PRS resource set-1 104 includes a plurality of DL PRS resources, as shown by DL PRS resource opportunity-1 106 to DL PRS resource opportunity-M 108. In addition, the DL PRS Figure 2Reporting Configuration-N 110 illustrates that the principles described herein can be used with any number of DL PRS reporting configurations and any number of associated DL PRS resource sets (i.e., as shown by DL PRS resource set-K 112) and any number of DL PRS resources (i.e., as shown by DL PRS resource opportunity-S 114 to DL PRS resource opportunity-P 116). For NR positioning, the UE performs measurements on DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set configured for UE measurement and reporting. The configuration of the DL PRS resource set and DL PRS reporting is independent signaling. The UE is expected to follow the DL PRS reporting configuration for UE DL measurements.

[0024] NR supports DL PRS reporting configuration information signaled by higher layers to the UE. DL PRS reporting is configured independently of the DL PRS resource set and indicates a set of measurements that the UE will make for the indicated DL PRS resource set ID or DL ​​PRS resource ID.

[0025] An open problem is how to perform UE measurements and report them to the network / location server. One or a combination of the alternatives discussed below can be used as reporting method.

[0026] In some embodiments, the UE reports a single measurement per DL PRS resource set. In such embodiments, the following options may be utilized: Option 1. The DL PRS resource used for measurement is indicated by higher layer signaling from the network side (e.g., the UE is configured with a dedicated DL PRS resource Id for measurement); Option 2. The DL PRS resource used for measurement is selected by the UE (e.g., the resource used for reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement is selected based on pre-configured criteria—one or more of the following options may be used as selection criteria: the measurement with the best PRS SNR / RSRP / RSRQ value; the measurement with the best estimation accuracy; and / or the measurement with the best soft LOS metric, as further described below); Option 3. A single measurement is reported based on processing of all DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set (e.g., post-processing of the measurement results for each DL PRS resource (e.g., averaging of timing estimates, etc.)). It is worth noting that the following formula can be used for propagation delay measurement selection: Propagation delay = minimum {propagation delay from the i-th DL PRS resource}

[0027] In other embodiments, the UE reports multiple measurements (e.g., reports of M measurements) per DL PRS resource set. In such embodiments, the following options may be utilized: Option 1. The UE is configured to perform measurements and provide reports for M resources within a DL PRS resource set, where M is configured for each PRS resource set; Option 2. The UE is configured to select M resources for measurement and provide reports within a DL PRS resource set, where M is configured for each PRS resource set and its maximum value is limited by the size of the DL PRS resource set; Option 3. The UE is configured to perform a set of measurements selected by pre-configured criteria. One or a combination of the following options may be used as selection criteria: measurements of PRS SNR / RSRP / RSRQ values ​​above a predefined threshold and / or measurements of soft LOS metric values ​​above a predefined threshold.

[0028] 1.2UE reporting behavior

[0029] Based on the above discussion, there may be questions about whether the UE should have any freedom to select DL PRS resources for measurement and reporting (e.g., the UE selects the best M resources for reporting) or whether the resources for measurement should be directly configured by the network. For network-based positioning schemes, it may be advantageous to have all measurements made by the UE be directly requested by the network and performed according to the configuration provided by the network. The network may request the UE to provide some assistance information in order to configure the UE with appropriate resources for measurements to be reported to the network.

[0030] In the case of UE-based network-assisted positioning, the network may request the UE to provide an estimate of the UE position using measurements from DL PRS resources (e.g., DL PRS resource IDs) provided by the network. This may be considered as assistance information (e.g., recommended resources so that the UE does not need to select DL PRS resources by itself). This assistance information may be provided by the network without even requesting an estimate of the UE position, and may simply signal a list of DL PRS resource IDs recommended for measurement.

[0031] In case of UE-based autonomous positioning, the UE does not expect the network to provide information about DL PRS resources for measurement, and autonomously selects corresponding resources based on a signaled DL PRS resource set broadcasted to all UEs.

[0032] 1.3 Reference Resource ID Selection for DL ​​PRSDL Timing-Based Measurements

[0033] DL RSTD measurements require definition of a reference DL PRS resource associated with a reference TRP / cell. The reference DL PRS resource ID may be provided by the network to the UE as part of assistance information or selected by the UE. Thus, one or a combination of reference resource ID selections are used for DL-TDOA and RTT measurements: the DL PRS reference resource ID is provided by the network using higher layer signaling (e.g., as part of the DL PRS reporting configuration), or if the DL PRS reference resource ID is not provided by the network, it is selected by the UE and indicated to the network as part of the UE report.

[0034] 1.4 Measurement and reporting of K factors of detected channel components

[0035] For RSTD measurement, the UE needs to estimate the timing of the first arrival path based on two DL PRS resources (i.e., the target resource and the reference resource). The quality of a given RSTD measurement will be dominated by the DL PRS resource with the lower RSRP or SINR metric. In other words, more weight may be given to a given RSTD measurement when the associated DL PRS resource has a lower RSRP or SINR metric compared to other DL PRS resources. Therefore, in addition to the RSTD measurement itself, knowledge of these metrics may also be utilized. Regarding RSTD, a DL PRS-RSRP measurement may be introduced as follows: Option 1: RSRP (RSRP) from all multipath components; or Option 2: RSRP (RSRP) of the first arrival path component FAP ).

[0036] The following ratio can be used as an estimate of the K factor (or a measure of frequency selectivity): RSRP FAP / RSRP; (RSRP FAP / (RSRP-RSRP FAP )).

[0037] A high value of the K factor can be a good indicator of the LOS propagation type. Information about LOS propagation conditions can be used for UE positioning and can therefore be considered as a candidate for NR positioning.

[0038] Figure 2 A and Figure 2 B shows the low K factor and high K factor as the ratio of the power of the first detected channel component to the power of all other detected channel components. In other words, Figure 2 A and Figure 2 B shows the K factor variation for different estimated channel instances. As shown in the figure, Figure 2 A includes the first detected channel component 202 and other detected channel components 204 to 208. Similarly, Figure 2B includes the first detected channel component entry 210 and the other detected channel components 212 to 218 .

[0039] For NR positioning techniques based on DL timing estimation, a soft LOS metric describing the ratio of the first detected channel component to all other detected channel components is supported for DL ​​PRS measurement reports. The gNB can also estimate the soft LOS metric based on the same principle.

[0040] 1.5g NB internal synchronization error measurement

[0041] An additional UE measurement that can be used to support RTT-based positioning with multiple cells is the UE Tx-Rx time difference. In order to obtain such measurements for multiple cells on the UE side, the following options can be considered: Option 1. Ranging (RTT estimation) using RSTD measurements of the serving (or reference) cell / TRP and neighboring cells / TRP relative to the serving (or reference) cell / TRP (this option has benefits in terms of coverage because most measurements are made for DL ​​PRS which should have much larger coverage than UL SRS (PRS) due to the UE and gNB TX power difference. The disadvantage of this option is that it requires accurate network synchronization or knowledge of the synchronization error (TX timing offset between cells / TRPs) on the UE side. This TX timing offset can be provided by the network or compensated directly on the gNB side considering that it is known (e.g., it can be measured by the gNB)); or Option 2. Ranging (RTT estimation) using multiple cells / TRPs (the main disadvantage of this option is that it requires timing measurements from each UE across multiple cells / TRPs, which can become a UL limitation in terms of link budget. The bottleneck is SRS (PRS) processing. In addition, this option has much lower scaling capabilities in terms of the ability to locate users from a UL overhead and spectral efficiency perspective. If RTT measurements are available in conjunction with gNBTX-RX time difference measurements, this can be done (depending on the protocol, on the UE side (see Figure 3 ) or at the gNB side) to estimate and compensate for the inter-cell timing synchronization error). Therefore, Figure 3 An example of measuring the inter-cell time synchronization offset on the UE side is shown.

[0042] For RTT-based positioning, NR supports the following two methods: Method 1. Ranging using the serving (or reference) cell / TRP for RTT estimation and RSTD measurement relative to the serving (or reference) cell / TRP (this process assumes that the network is synchronized (for example, the transmission timing offset between TRP / gNB is zero) or the timing offset of TRP / gNB relative to the serving (or reference) cell / TRP is indicated by the network); Method 2: Ranging using multiple cells / TRPs (including the serving / reference cell / TRP and neighboring cells / TRP) (this process assumes that the network measures the gNB TX-RX time difference of the UE in the serving cell and the neighboring cell; the measured gNB TX-RX time difference is reported to the UE or LMF).

[0043] 1.6UE-gNB synchronization measurement and compensation

[0044] like Figure 3 As shown, during the RTT process, assuming that time instances t1-4 are known, the synchronization offset Δi between the UE and the gNB time window can be estimated. Based on the knowledge of Δi, assuming that the estimated synchronization is relatively accurate, the TOA measurement between the UE and gNBi can be obtained.

[0045] To support UE-based synchronization error estimation, time instances t2 and t3 need to be signaled from the gNB to the UE during the RTT measurement procedure. Due to sampling clock drift on the UE side and the gNB side, the synchronization error has a trend that varies over time, but depending on the clock accuracy, there are still time intervals of quasi-steady-state time synchronization where the estimated error will be applicable.

[0046] The period of quasi-steady-state time synchronization - TQS depends on the UE and gNB capabilities and can be defined in a UE-gNB specific manner or as a single value for all networks. The time period required for the RTT measurement process between the UE and the gNB, during which the synchronization error between the current UE and the gNB - TQS_RTT is estimated and defined in part of TQS_RTT. The time period TQS_TOA defined for the TOA measurement process between the UE and the gNB, during which the synchronization error between the current UE and the gNB is assumed to be constant. The value of TQS_TOA is calculated according to the following formula: TQS_TOA = TQS - TQS_RT.

[0047] The principles described in this paper help improve DL-only positioning performance. For example, Figure 4 The system time period configuration is shown: TQS and TQS_RTT. During the TQS_RTT period, the UE and a group of gNBs will operate in RTT measurement mode, and during the expansion period TOS-TQS_RTT, the synchronized UE-gNB can operate in TOA mode.

[0048] 1.7. DL PRS measurements for NR DL-AoD based positioning

[0049] If DL PRS RSRP FAP is defined, it may be possible to estimate DL-AoD based on the reportable legacy DL-PRS RSRP or DL ​​PRS RSRP FAP criteria (e.g., resource ID with maximum DL PRS-RSRP or maximum DL PRS-RSRP FAP). In addition, the UE may be able to report measurements using both criteria. In this case, two assumptions may be analyzed on the network side. In terms of LOS propagation conditions, both criteria may produce the same results, which may further increase the confidence in the LOS radio conditions and K factor measurements.

[0050] 1.8.UE Capability Considerations

[0051] UE DL PRS resource handling may generally be restricted. For example, the UE may limit the maximum number of DL PRS resources and DL PRS resource sets that can be configured. In addition, the number of measurements and reports, including the value of processing delays, may also be restricted. For network-based positioning schemes, the UE is expected to be configured with a DL PRS reporting configuration that is aligned with the UE capabilities. One or a combination of the following options may be used for positioning capability signaling by the UE: a fixed set of UE types with different positioning capabilities; the UE signals positioning capabilities based on the DL PRS resources it can proceed with, assuming that the positioning BWP in the system is known on the UE side; the UE signals positioning capabilities through the maximum number of DL PRS resources it can proceed with, assuming a predefined positioning BWP configuration; the number of DL PRS resources supported by the UE for measurement is a function of the DL PRS resource bandwidth.

[0052] 2. GNB measurement for NR positioning

[0053] 2.1.GNB Report

[0054] Two types of gNB reporting can be considered: gNB shares measurements to the network (LMF / location server) (generally speaking, the corresponding signaling for this type of reporting may be developed by RAN2, however RAN1 may need to work and decide on the parameters to be included in the signaling); gNB shares measurement results to UE (directly or through LMF / location server) (the signaling details for sharing gNB measurement results to UE may be discussed in the RAN2 WG, however RAN1 may provide recommendations on parameters and measurements to be shared).

[0055] 3.DL PRS Configuration

[0056] In order to process the DL PRS signal for NR positioning DL measurements, the UE is expected to be configured with a DL PRS resource set carrying information about the DL PRS resources and additionally with a DL PRS reporting configuration.

[0057] The list of DL PRS resource sets can provide the UE with complete information about the DL PRS transmission schedule, so that the UE knows which signal is transmitted on which resources. Each DL PRS resource is associated with the geographical coordinates and angle information (beam transmission direction) of the transmission reception point.

[0058] DL PRS can be used for DL ​​receive timing estimation, RSTD, RSRP, SINR, UE TX-RX time difference measurement. For DL ​​PRS resources associated with a DL PRS resource set. For NR positioning (especially operation in FR2), two types of DL PRS resource allocations can be utilized depending on the use case and scenario.

[0059] The first type of DL PRS resource allocation is referred to herein as cell-centric DL PRS resource allocation. Cell-centric DL PRS resource allocation is intended to support all UEs interested in positioning services and is not optimized for any specific UE in terms of DL signaling and PRS allocation. In contrast, cell-centric DL PRS resource allocation is intended to serve all UEs in a cell and more DL PRS resources can be configured compared to the second type of DL PRS resource allocation (i.e., UE-centric). For cell-centric DL PRS resource allocation, the UE can process the configured DL PRS resources and provide feedback reports, aiming to construct UE-centric DL PRS resource allocation.

[0060] The second type of DL PRS resource allocation is referred to herein as UE-centric DL PRS resource allocation. UE-centric DL PRS resource allocation assumes that the UE has provided feedback to the network based on the processing of cell-centric DL PRS resources or Rel-15 legacy signals (such as SSB or CSI-RS for BM). UE feedback can be used to construct UE-centric DL PRS resource configuration. Given that the UE can only configure and monitor a subset of resources, this type of operation can be beneficial in reducing UE processing complexity and measurement delays.

[0061] Another possible option for operating NR positioning is to use cell-centric DL PRS resource allocation and configure the UE with UE-centric DL PRS measurement reporting, which will request measurements on a subset of the cell-centric DL PRS resources.

[0062] 3.1. UE Assistance Information for UE-centric Resource or Measurement Report Configuration

[0063] For UE-centric DL PRS resource allocation or construction of DL PRS measurement report (DPMR), the UE may provide the following information to the network / location server: cell ID; SSB index (e.g., corresponding to the maximum SS-RSRP value); CSI-RS resource ID (e.g., corresponding to the maximum L1-RSRP value); UE location information (e.g., if the UE has prior knowledge of its coordinates); UE TX-RX measurements based on Rel.15 reference signals; recommended DL PRS resources (resource ID) based on processing of cell-centric DL PRS resources.

[0064] 4.DL PRS processing

[0065] In FR2, DL PRS processing may support gNB TX and UE RX beam scanning. For each DL TX beam, the UE may adjust the RX beam and apply it to reception if capable, otherwise the UE may use a fixed RX beam. During RX processing, the UE may select an RX beam for each DL PRS resource in all configured DL PRS resource sets. One or a combination of the following rules may be applied for DL ​​PRS transmission / reception: The UE applies RX beam scanning for a given DL PRS resource processing only if DL TX beam scanning is turned off on the given DL PRS resource, which should be signaled as part of the DL PRS resource attributes; The UE RX beam scanning process during DL PRS reception is determined by the UE specific implementation (e.g., the process of whether and how to select the UE RX beam for DL ​​PRS reception is not specified); RAN1 assumes that for each DL PRS resource, the UE may select a different RX beam and establish an association between the DL PRS resource and the UE RX beam (e.g., the association of the DL PRS resource with the UE RX beam is determined by the UE specific implementation).

[0066] 5.DL PRS and UL SRS transmission

[0067] Support for RTT positioning may utilize transmission of reference signals and measurements in DL and UL. Transmission of DL reference signals may also be beneficial and used for UL-TDOA if configured.

[0068] As discussed herein, for operation in Mode 2, it is assumed that the UE can measure across DL PRS resources of different DL PRS resource sets and associate its RX beam with each configured DL PRS resource. In this case, if the UE supports beam correspondence, it can apply the RX beam for UL transmission. This UE behavior may be beneficial, at least from a link budget perspective. In order to support such operation from a specification perspective, DL PRS resources and UL SRS (PRS) resources may be associated with each other.

[0069] 6. TA process of UL-TDOA and RTT

[0070] UE TA behavior for UL-TDOA and RTT includes the following options: Option 1: UE applies the same timing advance as for the serving cell (reference) for all UL SRS (PRS) resources in all UL SRS (PRS) resource sets; Option 2: UE applies the timing advance corresponding to one of the neighboring cells for all UL SRS (PRS) resources in all UL SRS (PRS) resource sets; Option 3: UE applies separate timing advances for all UL SRS (PRS) resources in all UL SRS (PRS) resource sets; Option 4: UE applies a common timing offset for transmissions on all UL SRS (PRS) resources in all UL SRS (PRS) resource sets. The value of the common timing offset is indicated by the gNB independently of the timing advance. The common timing offset is defined relative to the DL receive timing or the DL receive timing and the timing advance.

[0071] 7. Power Control Process of UL-TDOA and RTT

[0072] Regarding power control of UL SRS (PRS) transmission, it should be noted that the UL SRS resource set configuration contains a reference to the DL RS to be used for path loss estimation and finally contains the OL PC settings and α power control parameters controlled by P0. For UL SRS (PRS) power control, the following options can be considered: Option 1: UL SRS power control behavior is reused for NR positioning; Option 2: UL SRS resource set refers to the DL RS resources (e.g., DL PRS, CSI-RS) used for path loss estimation in neighboring cells; and Option 3: UL SRS resource set is configured with a path loss value to be used for open-loop power control.

[0073] Figure 5A flow chart of a method 500 for determining a user equipment (UE) location within a 5G New Radio (NR) network is shown. In box 502, the method 500 receives a downlink (DL) position reference signal (PRS) resource set indicating a plurality of DL PRS resources. In box 504, the method 500 receives a DL PRS reporting configuration indicating a set of measurements to be performed by the UE for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set. In box 506, the method 500 performs a position measurement for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set, wherein performing the position measurement includes: In box 508, the method 500 generates a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement by estimating a timing of a first arrival path based on at least two of the plurality of DL PRS resources. In block 510, the method 500 determines a reference signal received power (RSRP) metric or a signal-to-noise-and-interference ratio (SINR) metric associated with at least two DL PRS resources, wherein the RSTD measurement is weighted based on the determined RSRP metric or SINR metric associated with at least two DL PRS resources. In block 512, the method 500 reports the performed location measurements.

[0074] Figure 6 An exemplary architecture of a network system 600 according to various embodiments is shown. The following description is provided for an example system 600 operating in conjunction with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited in this regard, and the embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), and the like.

[0075] like Figure 6As shown, system 600 includes UE 602 and UE 604. In this example, UE 602 and UE 604 are shown as smart phones (e.g., handheld touch screen mobile computing devices that can connect to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing devices, such as consumer electronic devices, mobile phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument clusters (ICs), heads-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine electronic control units (ECUs), electronic / engine electronic control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or "smart" appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, etc.

[0076] In some embodiments, UE 602 and / or UE 604 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device via PLMN, ProSe or D2D communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. M2M or MTC data exchanges may be machine-initiated data exchanges. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0077] UE 602 and UE 604 may be configured to be connected, e.g., communicatively coupled, to an access node or radio access node (shown as (R) AN 616). In an embodiment, (R) AN 616 may be an NG RAN or SG RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a traditional RAN, such as a UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN" or the like may refer to an (R) AN 616 operating in an NR or SG system, and the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to an (R) AN 616 operating in an LTE or 4G system. UE 602 and UE 604 utilize connections (or channels) (shown as connection 606 and connection 608, respectively), each connection comprising a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0078] In this example, connection 606 and connection 608 are air interfaces to achieve communication coupling, and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a SG protocol, a NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In an embodiment, UE 602 and UE 604 may also directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 610. The ProSe interface 610 may alternatively be referred to as a side link (SL) interface 110, and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0079] UE 604 is shown as being configured to access AP 612 (also referred to as a "WLAN node," "WLAN," "WLAN terminal," "WT," etc.) via connection 614. Connection 614 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where AP 612 would include Wireless Fidelity. router. In this example, AP 612 may be connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, UE 604, (R) AN 616, and AP 612 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. LWA operation may involve UE 604 in RRC_CONNECTED configured by RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve UE 604 using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 614) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent through connection 614. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0080] (R)AN 616 may include one or more nodes that implement connection 606 and connection 608, such as RAN node 618 and RAN node 620. As used herein, the terms "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functions for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP or TRP, etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the terms "NG RAN node" and the like may refer to RAN nodes (e.g., gNBs) operating in NR or SG systems, while the terms "E-UTRAN nodes" and the like may refer to RAN nodes (e.g., eNBs) operating in LTE or 4G systems 600. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 618 or the RAN node 620 may be implemented as one or more of dedicated physical devices such as a macrocell base station and / or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0081] In some embodiments, all or part of the RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a CRAN and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional splits, such as PDCP splits, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, while other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes (e.g., RAN node 618 or RAN node 620); MAC / PHY splits, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes (e.g., RAN node 618 or RAN node 620); or "lower PHY" splits, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers, and upper portions of the PHY layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower portions of the PHY layers are operated by individual RAN nodes. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of the RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 to execute other virtualized applications. In some specific implementations, each RAN node may represent a node via each F1 interface ( Figure 6In some implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs, and the gNB-CUs may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the (R)AN 616 or by a server pool in a manner similar to the CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, the RAN node 618 or one or more of the RAN nodes 620 may be a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals to the UE 602 and the UE 604 and is connected to the SGC via an NG interface (discussed below). In a V2X scenario, the RAN node 618 or one or more of the RAN nodes 620 may be an RSU or act as an RSU.

[0082] The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" may refer to any traffic infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, wherein an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs (vUEs). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuits for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz direct short range communication (DSRC) band to provide extremely low latency communications required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate on a cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low-latency communications as well as other cellular communications services. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and / or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. Some or all of the computing device and the RSU's RF circuitry may be packaged in a weather-resistant enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and / or backhaul network.

[0083] The RAN node 618 and / or the RAN node 620 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 602 and the UE 604. In some embodiments, the RAN node 618 and / or the RAN node 620 may perform various logical functions of the (R)AN 616, including but not limited to the functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0084] In an embodiment, UE 602 and UE 604 may be configured to communicate with each other or with RAN node 618 and / or RAN node 620 over a multi-carrier communication channel using OFDM communication signals according to various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or SC-FDMA communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0085] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from RAN node 618 and / or RAN node 620 to UE 602 and UE 604, while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each time slot. For OFDM systems, such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice, which makes wireless resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0086] According to various embodiments, UE 602 and UE 604 and RAN node 618 and / or RAN node 620 communicate (e.g., transmit and receive) data through a licensed medium (also referred to as a "licensed spectrum" and / or a "licensed frequency band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as an "unlicensed spectrum" and / or an "unlicensed frequency band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, and the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5 GHz frequency band.

[0087] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, UE 602 and UE 604 and RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these specific implementations, UE 602 and UE 604 and RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and / or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0088] LBT is a mechanism for equipment (e.g., UE 602 and UE 604, RAN node 618 or RAN node 620, etc.) to sense a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmit when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED to determine whether other signals are present on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or idle. The LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy over a period of time on an expected transmission band, and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0089] Typically, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs use a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 602, AP 612, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. In addition, in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid conflicts. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS that increases exponentially when a conflict occurs and is reset to a minimum value when the transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA / CA of WLAN. In some specific implementations, the LBT process for a DL or UL transmission burst (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmission) may have a LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values ​​of the CWS of LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmissions may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and MCOT (eg, transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0090] The LAA mechanism is built on the CA technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a CC. A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five CCs can be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In an FDD system, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL ​​and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, each CC may have a different bandwidth from other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are typically the same for DL ​​and UL.

[0091] CA also includes individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell may provide the PCC for both UL and DL, and may handle activities related to RRC and NAS. Other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell may provide individual SCCs for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, and changing PCCs may require the UE 602 to undergo switching. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in an unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are assisted by the PCells operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0092] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 602 and UE 604. The PDCCH carries, among other information, information about the transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. It may also inform the UE 602 and UE 604 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 604 within the cell) may be performed at either the RAN node 618 or the RAN node 620 based on channel quality information fed back from either the UE 602 and UE 604. Downlink resource allocation information may be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the UE 602 and UE 604.

[0093] PDCCH uses CCE to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, which can then be arranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, respectively, called REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0094] Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments may utilize EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs may be used to transmit EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, referred to as EREG. In some cases, ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

[0095] The RAN node 618 or the RAN node 620 may be configured to communicate with each other via an interface 622. In an embodiment where the system 600 is an LTE system (e.g., when the CN 630 is an EPC), the interface 622 may be an X2 interface. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC. In some specific implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted over the X2 interface, and may be used to transmit information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from the MeNB to the SeNB; information about the successful delivery of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 602 in sequence for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that are not delivered to the UE 602; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the Se NB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. X2-C can provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0096] In an embodiment where the system 600 is a SG or NR system (e.g., when the CN 630 is an SGC), the interface 622 may be an Xn interface. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the SGC, between a RAN node 618 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the SGC, and / or between two eNBs connected to a 5GC (e.g., CN 630). In some specific implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE 602 in a connected mode (e.g., a CM connection) includes functions for managing UE mobility in a connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 618 or RAN nodes 620. The mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 618 to the new (target) serving RAN node 620; and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 618 and the new (target) serving RAN node 620. The protocol stack of Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and / or IP layer for carrying user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP may be on top of the IP layer and may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transport is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other specific implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0097] (R)AN 616 is shown as being communicatively coupled to the core network—in this embodiment, communicatively coupled to CN 630. CN 630 may include one or more network elements 632 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 602 and UE 604) connected to CN 630 via (R)AN 616. The components of CN 630 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the above-mentioned network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of CN 630 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 630 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0098] In general, the application server 634 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 634 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.) for the UE 602 and UE 604 via the EPC. The application server 634 may communicate with the CN 630 via the IP communication interface 636.

[0099] In an embodiment, CN 630 may be an SGC, and (R)AN 116 may be connected to CN 630 via an NG interface 624. In an embodiment, NG interface 624 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 626, which carries traffic data between RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 and UPF; and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 628, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 and AMF.

[0100] In an embodiment, CN 630 may be an SG CN, while in other embodiments, CN 630 may be an EPC. In the case where CN 630 is an EPC, (R)AN 116 may be connected to CN 630 via an S1 interface 624. In an embodiment, S1 interface 624 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 626, which carries traffic data between RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 and S-GW; and an S1-MME interface 628, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 and MME.

[0101] Figure 7 An example of infrastructure equipment 700 according to various embodiments is shown. The infrastructure equipment 700 can be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node, an AN, an application server, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, the infrastructure equipment 700 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0102] The infrastructure equipment 700 includes application circuits 702, baseband circuits 704, one or more radio front end modules 706 (RFEM), memory circuits 708, power management integrated circuits (shown as PMIC 710), power tee circuits 712, network controller circuits 714, network interface connectors 720, satellite positioning circuits 716, and user interface circuits 718. In some embodiments, the infrastructure equipment 700 may include additional elements such as memory / storage devices, displays, cameras, sensors, or input / output (I / O) interfaces. In other embodiments, these components may be included in more than one device. For example, the circuits may be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other similar implementations. The application circuits 702 include, for example, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more low dropout regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, l 2C or general programmable serial interface module, real-time clock (RTC), timer-counter including interval timer and watchdog timer, general input / output (I / O or IO), memory card controller such as secure digital (SD) multimedia card (MMC) or similar products, universal serial bus (USB) interface, mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) interface and joint test access group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 702 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the infrastructure equipment 700. In some specific implementations, the memory / storage element may be an on-chip memory circuit that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0103] The processor of the application circuit 702 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 702 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 702 may include one or more Intel FPGAs. or Processor: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor, Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) or Processor; ARM-based processors licensed by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A series processors provided by Cavium (TM), Inc. and MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior P-class processor; etc. In some embodiments, the infrastructure equipment 700 may not utilize the application circuit 702, and instead may include a dedicated processor / controller to process IP data received, for example, from the EPC or 5GC.

[0104] In some implementations, the application circuit 702 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. For example, the programmable processing device may be one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such implementations, the circuits of the application circuit 702 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, as well as other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 702 may include a memory unit (e.g., an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, a static memory (e.g., a static random access memory (SRAM), an anti-fuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in a look-up table (LUT), etc. The baseband circuit 704 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits.

[0105] The user interface circuitry 718 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the infrastructure equipment 700 or a peripheral component interface designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with the infrastructure equipment 700. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio transmitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0106] The radio front end module 706 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) radio front end module (RFEM) and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical radio front end module 706 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0107] The memory circuit 708 may include one or more of the following: a volatile memory including a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM); and a non-volatile memory (NVM) including a high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as “flash memory”), a phase change random access memory (PRAM), a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may be combined with and The memory circuit 708 may be implemented as one or more of: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0108] The PMIC 710 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 712 may provide power extracted from a network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 700 using a single cable.

[0109] The network controller circuit 714 may provide a connection to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on a GRE tunnel, Ethernet based on a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. A physical connection may be used to provide a network connection to / from the infrastructure equipment 700 via a network interface connector 720, which may be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 714 may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some specific implementations, the network controller circuit 714 may include multiple controllers for providing connections to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0110] The positioning circuit 716 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by a positioning network of a global satellite navigation system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., using the Indian constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's Doppler Orbit Chart and Satellite Integrated Radio Positioning (DORIS), etc. for navigation), etc. The positioning circuit 716 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communications) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 716 may include a micro technology (micro PNT) IC for positioning, navigation, and timing that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 716 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 704 and / or the radio front end module 706 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 716 may also provide location data and / or time data to the application circuit 702, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures, etc. Figure 7 The components shown may communicate with each other using interface circuitry that may include any number of bus and / or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Extended ISA (EISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended (PCix), PCI express (PCie), or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus / IX systems may be included, such as I 2 C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface and power bus, etc.

[0111] Figure 8 An example of a platform 800 according to various embodiments is shown. In an embodiment, the computer platform 800 may be suitable for use as a UE, an application server, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. The platform 800 may include any combination of components shown in the example. The components of the platform 800 may be implemented as an integrated circuit (IC), part of an IC, a discrete electronic device, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the computer platform 800, or implemented as components otherwise incorporated within the chassis of a larger system. Figure 8 The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of computer platform 800. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

[0112] Application circuit 802 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and LDO, interrupt controller, serial interface (such as SPI), I 2 C or general programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer (including interval timer and watchdog timer), general IO, memory card controller (such as SD MMC or similar controller), USB interface, MIPI interface and JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 802 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage element to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the platform 800. In some specific implementations, the memory / storage element may be an on-chip memory circuit that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0113] The processor of the application circuit 802 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multi-threaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 802 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments herein.

[0114] As an example, the processor of the application circuit 802 may include a processor based on Architecture TM Processors such as Quark TM 、Atom TM , i3, i5, i7 or MCU-class processors, or can be purchased from The processor of application circuit 802 may also be one or more of the following: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor or Accelerated Processing Unit (APU); from Inc.'s AS-A9 processor, Snapdragon by Technologies, Inc.TM Processor, Texas Instruments, OpenMultimedia Applications Platform(OMAP) TM processors; MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors; etc. In some implementations, the application circuit 802 can be part of a system on a chip (SoC), in which the application circuit 802 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package, such as available from Edison Corporation TM or Galileo TM SoC board.

[0115] Additionally or alternatively, the application circuit 802 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more field programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs, etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 802 may include logic blocks or logic structures, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 802 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic structures, data, etc. in a lookup table (LUT), etc.

[0116] Baseband circuitry 804 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits.

[0117] The radio front end module 806 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) radio front end module (RFEM) and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical radio front end module 806 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0118] The memory circuit 808 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a fixed amount of system memory. For example, the memory circuit 808 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and / or synchronous dynamic RAM (SD RAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuit 808 may be developed according to the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) based low power double data rate (LPDDR) design such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 808 may be implemented as one or more of the following: solder-in package integrated circuit, single die package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package (Q17P), socket memory module, dual in-line memory module (DIMM) (including micro DIMM or mini DIMM, and / or soldered to the motherboard via ball grid array (BGA)). In a low-power implementation, the memory circuit 808 may be an on-chip memory or register associated with the application circuit 802. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 808 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, among others, a solid-state disk drive (SSDD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, a resistive change memory, a phase change memory, a holographic memory, or a chemical memory. For example, the computer platform 800 may be combined with a memory device obtained from and Three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memory.

[0119] Removable memory circuitry 814 may include devices, circuitry, housings / casings, ports or receptacles, etc., for coupling portable data storage devices to platform 800. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage, and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD picture cards, etc.), as well as USB flash drives, optical disks, external HDDs, etc.

[0120] Platform 800 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) for connecting external devices to platform 800. External devices connected to platform 800 via the interface circuitry include sensors 810 and electromechanical components (shown as EMC 812), as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memory 814.

[0121] Sensors 810 include devices, modules, or subsystems that are designed to detect events or changes in their environment and send information about the detected events (sensor data) to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, among others: an inertial measurement unit (IMU) including an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) including a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a level sensor; a flow sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; a barometric pressure sensor; a gravity meter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other similar audio capture device; etc.

[0122] EMC 812 includes devices, modules or subsystems for the purpose of enabling platform 800 to change its state, position and / or orientation or to move or control mechanisms or (sub) systems. In addition, EMC 812 may be configured to generate messages / signaling and send messages / signaling to other components of platform 800 to indicate the current state of EMC 812. Examples of EMC 812 include one or more power switches, relays (including electromechanical relays (EMR) and / or solid-state relays (SSR)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks and / or other similar electromechanical components. In an embodiment, platform 800 is configured to operate one or more EMC 812 based on one or more capture events and / or instructions or control signals received from service providers and / or various clients. In some specific implementations, an interface circuit may connect platform 800 to positioning circuit 822. The positioning circuit 822 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by a positioning network of a GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou navigation satellite system, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.), etc. The positioning circuit 822 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communications) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 822 may include a micro PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 822 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 804 and / or the radio front-end module 806 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. Positioning circuitry 822 may also provide position data and / or time data to application circuitry 802 , which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (eg, radio base stations) for use in turn-by-turn navigation applications, and the like.

[0123] In some implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 800 to a near field communication circuit (shown as NFC circuit 820). The NFC circuit 820 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, wherein magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between the NFC circuit 820 and an NFC-enabled device (e.g., an "NFC touch point") external to the platform 800. The NFC circuit 820 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip / IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuit 820 by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit a short-range RF signal. The RF signal may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to the NFC circuit 820, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 820 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smart phone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) near the platform 800.

[0124] The driver circuit 824 may include software and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 800. The driver circuit 824 may include various drivers to allow other components of the platform 800 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present in or connected to the platform 800. For example, the driver circuit 824 may include a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touch screen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touch screen interface of the platform 800, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor 810 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor 810, an EMC driver for obtaining actuator positions of the EMC 812 and / or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 812, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0125] A power management integrated circuit (shown as PMIC 816) (also referred to as a "power management circuit") can manage the power provided to various components of the platform 800. In particular, the PMIC 816 can control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion with respect to the baseband circuit 804. The PMIC 816 can typically be included when the platform 800 is capable of being powered by a battery 818, such as when the device is included in a UE.

[0126] In some embodiments, the PMIC 816 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 800. For example, if the platform 800 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which the platform is still connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, then after a period of inactivity, the platform may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 800 may be powered off for short time intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the platform 800 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which the platform is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handovers, etc. are performed. The platform 800 enters an extremely low power state and performs paging, in which the platform periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers off again. The platform 800 may not receive data in this state; in order to receive data, the platform must transition back to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power saving modes may prevent the device from using the network for longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and can be completely powered off. Any data sent during this time will be significantly delayed, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0127] The battery 818 can provide power to the platform 800, but in some examples, the platform 800 can be mounted in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to a power grid. The battery 818 can be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc. In some implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 818 can be a typical lead-acid car battery.

[0128] In some implementations, the battery 818 may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform 800 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 818. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 818, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery 818 to provide fault prediction. The BMS may transmit information about the battery 818 to the application circuit 802 or other components of the platform 800. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 802 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 818 or the current from the battery 818. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 800 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0129] A power block or other power source coupled to the grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 818. In some examples, the power block can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 800. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit can be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected can depend on the size of the battery 818 and therefore the current required. Charging can be performed using the aviation fuel standard published by the Aviation Fuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance.

[0130] The user interface circuit 826 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present in or connected to the platform 800, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to implement user interaction with the platform 800 and / or a peripheral component interface designed to implement interaction with the peripheral components of the platform 800. The user interface circuit 826 includes input device circuits and output device circuits. The input device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including, in particular, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise conveying information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information). The output device circuitry may include any number and / or combination of audio or visual displays, particularly including one or more simple visual outputs / indicators such as binary status indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touch screens (e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCDs), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), where outputs of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. are generated or produced by the operation of the platform 800. The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printers, etc. In some embodiments, the sensor 810 may be used as an input device circuit (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.) and one or more EMCs may be used as output device circuits (e.g., an actuator for providing tactile feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag and / or connect to another NFC-enabled device, the NFC circuit including an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0131] Although not shown, the components of platform 800 may communicate with each other using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCix, PCie, a time-triggered protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus / IX, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus / IX systems, such as I 2 C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface and power bus, etc.

[0132] Fig. 9 Example components of a device 900 according to some embodiments are shown. In some embodiments, the device 900 may include at least an application circuit 902, a baseband circuit 904, a radio frequency (RF) circuit (shown as RF circuit 920), a front-end module (FEM) circuit (shown as FEM circuit 930), one or more antennas 932, and a power management circuit (PMC) (shown as PMC 934) coupled together as shown. The components of the exemplary device 900 may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some embodiments, the device 900 may include fewer elements (for example, the RAN node may not utilize the application circuit 902, but include a processor / controller to process IP data received from the EPC). In some embodiments, the device 900 may include additional elements, such as a memory / storage device, a display, a camera, a sensor, or an input / output (I / O) interface. In other embodiments, the following components may be included in more than one device (for example, the circuit may be separately included in more than one device for a cloud-RAN (C-RAN) specific implementation).

[0133] The application circuit 902 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuit 902 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The one or more processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). These processors may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage device and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 900. In some embodiments, the processor of the application circuit 902 may process IP data packets received from the EPC.

[0134] The baseband circuit 904 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuit 904 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic components to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 920 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 920. The baseband circuit 904 may interact with the application circuit 902 to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuit 920. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 904 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor (3G baseband processor 906), a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor (4G baseband processor 908), a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor (5G baseband processor 910) or other baseband processors 912 of other existing generations, under development or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuit 904 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors) may handle various radio control functions that implement communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 920. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the exemplary baseband processor may be included in a module stored in the memory 918 and executed via the central processing unit (CPU 914). The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuit of the baseband circuit 904 may include a fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping function. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuit of the baseband circuit 904 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. The implementation of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions is not limited to these examples, and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

[0135] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 904 may include a digital signal processor (DSP), such as one or more audio DSPs 916. The one or more audio DSPs 916 may include elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. In some embodiments, the components of the baseband circuit may be appropriately combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 904 and the application circuit 902 may be implemented together, such as on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0136] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 904 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 904 may support communications with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuit 904 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

[0137] RF circuit 920 may communicate with a wireless network through a non-solid medium using modulated electromagnetic radiation. In various embodiments, RF circuit 920 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with a wireless network. RF circuit 920 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry for down-converting an RF signal received from FEM circuit 930 and providing a baseband signal to baseband circuit 904. RF circuit 920 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry for up-converting a baseband signal provided by baseband circuit 904 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to FEM circuit 930.

[0138] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuit 920 may include a mixer circuit 922, an amplifier circuit 924, and a filter circuit 926. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 920 may include a filter circuit 926 and a mixer circuit 922. The RF circuit 920 may also include a synthesizer circuit 928 for synthesizing frequencies used by the mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 930 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 928. The amplifier circuit 924 may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 926 may be a low pass filter (LPF) or a band pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to the baseband circuit 904 for further processing. In some embodiments, although this is not required, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0139] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 922 of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 928 to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 930. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuit 904 and may be filtered by filter circuit 926.

[0140] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 922 of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 922 of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image suppression (e.g., Hartley image suppression). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 922 of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 922 of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0141] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 920 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 904 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuit 920.

[0142] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0143] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 928 may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard, as other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 928 may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0144] Synthesizer circuit 928 may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on a frequency input and a divider control input for use by mixer circuit 922 of RF circuit 920. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 928 may be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0145] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by baseband circuitry 904 or application circuitry 902 (such as an application processor) according to the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by application circuitry 902.

[0146] The synthesizer circuit 928 of the RF circuit 920 may include a frequency divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a cascaded, tunable, delay element, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop set. In these embodiments, the delay element may be configured to divide the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0147] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 928 can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and can be used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals with multiple different phases relative to each other at the carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 920 can include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0148] The FEM circuitry 930 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 932, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 920 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 930 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by the RF circuitry 920 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 932. In various embodiments, amplification by the transmit or receive signal path may be accomplished only in the RF circuitry 920, only in the FEM circuitry 930, or in both the RF circuitry 920 and the FEM circuitry 930.

[0149] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 930 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmission mode and reception mode operation. The FEM circuit 930 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 930 may include an LNA to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 920). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 930 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify the input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 920), and one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., through one or more of the one or more antennas 932).

[0150] In some embodiments, the PMC 934 can manage the power provided to the baseband circuit 904. Specifically, the PMC 934 can control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. When the device 900 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device 900 is included in a UE, the PMC 934 can generally be included. The PMC 934 can improve power conversion efficiency while providing a desired specific implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

[0151] Fig. 9 PMC 934 is shown coupled only to baseband circuitry 904. However, in other embodiments, PMC 934 may additionally or alternatively be coupled to other components (such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 902, RF circuitry 920, or FEM circuitry 930) and perform similar power management operations for these components.

[0152] In some embodiments, the PMC 934 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the device 900. For example, if the device 900 is in the RRC_Connected state, where the device is still connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic immediately, then after a period of inactivity, the device may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the device 900 may be powered off for short time intervals, thereby saving power.

[0153] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the device 900 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which the device is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 900 enters a very low power state and performs paging, in which the device periodically wakes up again to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device 900 cannot receive data in this state, and in order to receive data, the device must transition back to the RRC_Connected state.

[0154] An additional power saving mode can keep a device from using the network for longer than the paging interval (which can range from a few seconds to several hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and can be completely powered down. Any data sent during this time will be significantly delayed, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0155] The processor of the application circuit 902 and the processor of the baseband circuit 904 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 904 can be used alone or in combination to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuit 902 can utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., transport communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include a radio resource control (RRC) layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include a physical (PHY) layer of a UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0156] Fig.10 An exemplary interface 1000 of a baseband circuit according to some embodiments is shown. As described above, Fig. 9 The baseband circuit 904 may include a 3G baseband processor 906, a 4G baseband processor 908, a 5G baseband processor 910, other baseband processors 912, a CPU 914, and a memory 918 used by the processor. As shown, each of these processors may include a corresponding memory interface 1002 to send data to / receive data from the memory 918.

[0157] The baseband circuit 904 may also include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuits / devices, such as a memory interface 1004 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving data to / from a memory external to the baseband circuit 904), an application circuit interface 1006 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving data to / from a memory external to the baseband circuit 904), and an application circuit interface 1007 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving data to / from a memory external to the baseband circuit 904). Fig. 9 1008 (for example, an interface for sending / receiving data to / from the application circuit 902) and an RF circuit interface 1008 (for example, an interface for sending / receiving data to / from the application circuit 902). Fig. 9 an interface for sending / receiving data to / from a RF circuit 920), a wireless hardware connection interface 1010 (e.g., for sending / receiving data to / from a near field communication (NFC) component, Parts (e.g. Low power consumption), components and other communication components to send / receive data) and a power management interface 1012 (for example, an interface for sending / receiving power or control signals to / from the PMC 934).

[0158] Fig.11 1 is a block diagram illustrating a component 1100 capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and capable of performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments. Specifically, Fig.11 A diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1102 is shown including one or more processors 1112 (or processor cores), one or more memory / storage devices 1118, and one or more communication resources 1120, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1122. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1104 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1102.

[0159] Processor 1112 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) (such as a baseband processor), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, processor 1114 and processor 1116.

[0160] The memory / storage device 1118 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1118 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0161] The communication resources 1120 may include interconnect or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1106 or one or more databases 1108 via the network 1110. For example, the communication resources 1120 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a universal serial bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, Parts (e.g. Low power consumption), components and other communication components.

[0162] The instructions 1124 may include software, programs, applications, applet, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 1112 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1124 may reside in whole or in part within at least one of the processor 1112 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 1118, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 1124 may be transmitted to the hardware resources 1102 from any combination of the peripheral device 1106 or the database 1108. Thus, the memory of the processor 1112, the memory / storage device 1118, the peripheral device 1106, and the database 1108 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0163] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components shown in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes and / or methods described in the following examples section. For example, the baseband circuit described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the following embodiments. For another example, the circuits associated with the UE, base station, network element, etc. described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the embodiments shown in the examples section below.

[0164] Examples

[0165] The following examples relate to additional embodiments.

[0166] Embodiment 1a may include a method for determining the positioning of a user equipment (UE) within a 5G new radio (NR) network, the method comprising: receiving a downlink (DL) position reference signal (PRS) resource set indicating a plurality of DL PRS resources; receiving a DL PRS reporting configuration indicating a set of measurements to be performed by the UE for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set; performing a position measurement for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set, wherein performing the position measurement comprises: generating a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement by estimating the timing of a first arrival path based on at least two of the plurality of DL PRS resources; and determining a reference signal received power (RSRP) metric or a signal-to-noise-and-interference ratio (SINR) metric associated with the at least two DL PRS resources, wherein the RSTD measurement is weighted based on the determined RSRP metric or SINR metric associated with the at least two DL PRS resources; and reporting the performed position measurement.

[0167] Embodiment 2a may include the method of embodiment 1a, wherein the UE reports multiple measurements for each DL PRS resource set.

[0168] Embodiment 3a may include the method of embodiment 1a, wherein the UE reports a single measurement for each DL PRS resource set.

[0169] Embodiment 4a may include the method of embodiment 1a, wherein performing location measurements further comprises generating ranging round trip time (RTT) estimates for multiple cells of the 5G NR network.

[0170] Embodiment 5a may include the method of embodiment 4a, wherein generating the ranging RTT estimate is performed with respect to a serving cell and includes RSTD measurements of neighboring cells relative to the serving cell.

[0171] Embodiment 6a may include the method of embodiment 4a, wherein the received DL PRS reporting configuration is aligned with one or more positioning capabilities of the UE.

[0172] Embodiment 7a may include the method of embodiment 1a, wherein the DL PRS resource allocation is cell-centric so as to support each UE attempting to provide location services within 5G NR.

[0173] Embodiment 8a may include a user equipment (UE) device, the device comprising: one or more processors, the one or more processors configured to: receive a downlink (DL) position reference signal (PRS) resource set indicating multiple DL PRS resources; receive a DL PRS reporting configuration, the DL PRS reporting configuration indicating a set of measurements that the UE is to perform for each of the multiple DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set; perform a position measurement for each of the multiple DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set, wherein performing the position measurement comprises: generating a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement by estimating the timing of a first arrival path based on at least two of the multiple DL PRS resources; and determining a reference signal received power (RSRP) metric or a signal-to-noise-and-interference ratio (SINR) metric associated with the at least two DL PRS resources, wherein the RSTD measurement is weighted based on the determined RSRP metric or SINR metric associated with the at least two DL PRS resources; and reporting the performed position measurement; and a memory configured to store the DL PRS reporting configuration.

[0174] Embodiment 9a may include the apparatus of embodiment 8a, wherein the UE reports multiple measurements for each DL PRS resource set.

[0175] Embodiment 10a may include the apparatus of embodiment 8a, wherein the UE reports a single measurement for each DL PRS resource set.

[0176] Embodiment 11a may include the apparatus of embodiment 8a, wherein performing location measurements further comprises generating ranging round trip time (RTT) estimates for multiple cells of the 5G NR network.

[0177] Embodiment 12a may include the apparatus of embodiment 11a, wherein generating the ranging RTT estimate is performed with respect to a serving cell and includes RSTD measurements of neighboring cells relative to the serving cell.

[0178] Embodiment 13a may include the apparatus of embodiment 11a, wherein the received DL PRS reporting configuration is aligned with one or more positioning capabilities of the UE.

[0179] Embodiment 14a may include the apparatus of embodiment 8a, wherein the DL PRS resource allocation is cell-centric so as to support each UE attempting to provide location services within 5G NR.

[0180] Embodiment 15a may include a device of a user equipment (UE) within a 5G New Radio (NR) network, the device comprising: one or more processors configured to: provide UE positioning configuration information to a node of the 5G NR network; receive a downlink (DL) position reference signal (PRS) resource set indicating multiple DL PRS resources; receive a DL PRS reporting configuration indicating a set of measurements that the UE is to perform for each of the multiple DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set; perform location measurements for each of the multiple DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set, wherein performing location measurements comprises: generating a ranging round trip time (RTT) estimate associated with a serving cell of the 5G NR network; and generating a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement relative to the serving cell associated with multiple neighboring cells; and reporting the performed location measurements; and a memory configured to store the DL PRS reporting configuration.

[0181] Embodiment 16a may include the apparatus of embodiment 15a, wherein the DL PRS resources are configured specifically for the UE based on UE positioning configuration information provided to a node of the 5G NR network.

[0182] Embodiment 17a may include the apparatus of embodiment 15a, wherein performing position measurements further comprises generating a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement by estimating a timing of a first arrival path based on at least two DL PRS resources of the plurality of DL PRS resources.

[0183] Embodiment 18a may include the apparatus of embodiment 17a, wherein performing location measurement further comprises determining a reference signal received power (RSRP) metric or a signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SINR) metric associated with at least two DL PRS resources, wherein the RSTD measurement is weighted based on the determined RSRP metric or SINR metric associated with at least two DL PRS resources.

[0184] Embodiment 19a may include the apparatus of embodiment 18a, wherein RSRP measurements are performed with respect to all multipath components.

[0185] Embodiment 20a may include the apparatus of embodiment 18a, wherein the RSRP measurement is performed on a first arrival path component.

[0186] Embodiment 1b may include a method for NR positioning, wherein the positioning operation includes: NR DL PRS resource configuration process; NRUL PRS resource configuration process; NR DL PRS transmission process; NR UL PRS transmission process; positioning parameter measurement based on NR DL PRS; positioning parameter measurement based on NR UL PRS; and signaling of the measured positioning parameters.

[0187] Embodiment 2b may include the method of embodiment 1b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the DL PRS resource configuration process includes: DL PRS resource pool configuration; DL PRS resource set configuration.

[0188] Embodiment 3b may include the method of embodiment 2b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the DL PRS resource set includes a unique set of DL PRS resources.

[0189] Embodiment 4b may include the method of embodiment 2b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the measurement of the positioning parameter comprises: a single measurement value; a collection of multiple measurement values.

[0190] Embodiment 5b may include the method of embodiment 4b or some other embodiments herein, wherein a single measurement report includes one or a combination of the following methods: a report of measurements indicating higher layer signaling from the network side, for example, a unique DLPRS resource Id may be signaled for measurement reporting; a selection rule is used on the UE side to determine the positioning measurement for reporting; the reported positioning measurement is a derivative function of the positioning measurement obtained from the DL PRS resources in the DL PRS resource set, as an example, the following formula can be used for propagation delay measurement selection: propagation delay measurement = minimum {propagation delay measurement from all DL PRS resources in the resource set}.

[0191] Embodiment 6b may include the method of embodiment 5b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the selection rule for a single positioning measurement dedicated to reporting includes one or a combination of the following methods: positioning measurement selection using the best PRS SNR / RSRP / RSRQ value; positioning measurement selection using the best estimation accuracy; positioning measurement selection using the best soft LOS metric.

[0192] Embodiment 7b may include the method of embodiment 4b or some other embodiments of the present invention, wherein the group of multiple measurement reports includes one or a combination of the following methods: a positioning measurement set predefined by a higher layer set of DL PRS resource Ids; a positioning measurement set selected by a UE set of DL PRS resource Ids; a positioning measurement set created according to a selection rule.

[0193] Embodiment 8b may include the method of embodiment 7b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the selection rules for multiple positioning measurements include one or a combination of the following methods: selection rules for measurements whose PRS SNR / RSRP / RSRQ values ​​are higher than a predefined threshold; selection rules for measurements whose soft LOS metric values ​​are higher than a predefined threshold.

[0194] Embodiment 9b may include the method of embodiment 8b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the threshold is defined by a higher layer.

[0195] Embodiment 10b may include the method of embodiment 1b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the positioning process may be applied to the UE side.

[0196] Embodiment 11b may include the method of embodiment 10b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the UE-based positioning includes one of the following options: UE-based network-assisted positioning; UE-based autonomous positioning.

[0197] Embodiment 12b may include the method of embodiment 11b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the UE-based network-assisted positioning supports signaling the coordinates calculated by the UE to the network so that the current coordinates may be used for DL ​​PRS resource configuration.

[0198] Embodiment 13b may include the method of embodiment 1b or some other embodiments herein, wherein NR DL PRS based positioning parameter measurements, propagation delay measurements such as reference signal time difference (RSTD) are estimated between the DLPRS resources of interest and the reference DL PRS resources.

[0199] Embodiment 14b may include the method of embodiment 13b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the reference DL PRS resource selection includes one or a combination of the following methods: the reference DL PRS resource ID is provided by the network using higher layer signaling (for example, as part of the DL PRS report configuration); if the reference DL PRS resource ID is not provided by the network, it is selected by the UE and indicated to the network as part of the UE report.

[0200] Embodiment 15b may include the method of embodiment 13b or some other embodiments herein, wherein RSTD measurement is obtained at the UE side, and a DL PRS RSRP measurement is calculated, which is defined as one of the following options: RSRP from all multipath components (RSRP); RSRP of the first arrival path component (RSRP); FAP ).

[0201] Embodiment 16b may include the method of embodiment 15b or some other embodiment herein, wherein DL PRSRSRP is measured, and the soft LOS metric is defined as one or a combination of the following methods: the ratio of the RSRP of the first detected component in the estimate to the total power of all detected channel components: RSRP FAP / RSRP; the ratio of the RSRP of the first detected component to the total power of other detected channel components in the estimation (RSRP FAP / (RSRP-RSRP FAP )).

[0202] Embodiment 17b may include the method of embodiment 16b or some other embodiment herein, wherein a soft LOS metric is calculated and the measured soft LOS metric is included in the positioning measurement report.

[0203] Embodiment 18b may include the method of embodiment 1b or some other embodiments herein, wherein NR DL PRS-based positioning parameter measurement, an RTT process is applied by providing RSTD measurement on the UE side using NR DL PRS from a specific gNB and providing reference gNB RSTD measurement on the gNB side using NR UL PRS from a specific UE and a reference gNB, wherein the following two options of the RTT process may be utilized: ranging (RTT estimation) using the serving (or reference) cell / TRP assuming RSTD measurement of the neighboring cell / TRP relative to the serving (or reference) cell / TRP; ranging (RTT estimation) using multiple cells / TRPs.

[0204] Embodiment 19b may include the method of embodiment 18b or some other embodiments herein, wherein an RTT measurement process is applied because the time instance measurement is estimated by node 1 and node 2 involved in the RTT operation: t1—time instance of initial PRS1 transmission on node 1; t2—time instance of PRS1 reception on node 2; t3—time instance of PRS2 transmission on node 2; t4—time instance of PRS1 reception on node 1.

[0205] Embodiment 20b may include the method of embodiment 18b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the RTT measurement is performed only with respect to the serving (reference) cell / TRP, and the synchronization error between the serving (reference) cell / TRP and other neighboring cells / TRP is reported to the UE side or used on the network side to improve the RSTD measurement accuracy.

[0206] Embodiment 21b may include the method of embodiment 18b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the RTT measurement is performed on multiple cells / TRPs, and the synchronization error between the serving (reference) cell / TRP and other neighboring cells / TRPs is measured by the UE. As an example, the following formula can be used to calculate the synchronization error between the serving (reference) cell / TRP and other neighboring cells / TRPs:

[0207] t1—UL transmission timing

[0208] t2—UL receive timing on TRP1 / gNB1

[0209] y2—UL receive timing on TRP2 / gNB2

[0210] t3—DL transmission timing on TRP1 / gNB1

[0211] y3—DL transmission timing on TRP2 / gNB2

[0212] t4 — DL reception timing RTT1 from TRP1 / gNB1 = [(t4-t1)-(t3-t2)]

[0213] y4 - DL reception timing RTT2 from TRP2 / gNB2 = [(y4-t1)-(y3-y2)]

[0214] Timing offset b / w TRP1 / gNB1 and TRP2 / gNB2

[0215] Δ TRP =y3-t3=(RTT2 / 2+(y3-y2))-(RTT1 / 2+(t3-t2))=(y4-RTT2 / 2)-(t4-RTT1 / 2)

[0216] Embodiment 22b may include the method of embodiment 21b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the synchronization error between the serving (reference) cell / TRP and other neighboring cells / TRPs is estimated on the UE side, and the time instances t1 and t2 measured on each gNB side are signaled to the UE.

[0217] Embodiment 23b may include the method of embodiment 18b or some other embodiments herein, wherein an RTT process is applied, and the synchronization time error between the UE and the cell / TRP is measured by the UE. As an example, the following formula may be used to calculate the synchronization time error between the UE and the cell / TRP:

[0218] t1—UL transmission timing

[0219] t2—UL receive timing on TRP1 / gNB1

[0220] y2—UL receive timing on TRP2 / gNB2

[0221] t3—DL transmission timing on TRP1 / gNB1 Timing offset b / w UE and TRP1 / gNB1

[0222] y3 — DL transmission timing on TRP2 / gNB2 Δ1 = [(t2-t1)-(t4-t3)]] / 2

[0223] t4—DL receive timing offset from TRP1 / gNB1 b / w UE and TRP2 / gNB2

[0224] y4 - DL reception timing from TRP2 / gNB2 Δ2 = [(y2-t1)-(y4-y3)] / 2

[0225] Embodiment 24b may include the method of embodiment 23b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the synchronization time error between the UE and the cell / TRP is measured, and the time instances t1 and t2 measured at each gNB side are signaled to the UE.

[0226] Embodiment 25b may include the method of embodiment 23b or some other embodiments of the present invention, wherein the synchronization time error between the UE and the cell / TRP is measured, and a quasi-synchronous operation is defined, which includes: defining a quasi-synchronous time period TQS, during which the sampling clocks on the UE and the cell / TRP have a constant synchronization error; a continuous time period TQS_RTT, which is dedicated to the RTT operation process between the UE and the cell / TRP; a continuous time period TQS_TOA = TQS-TQS_RTT, which is dedicated to the TOA measurement operation between the UE and the cell / TRP.

[0227] Embodiment 26b may include the method of embodiment 25b or some other embodiments of the present invention, wherein the synchronization time error between the UE and the cell / TRP is measured, and the quasi-synchronization time period TQS is defined as: a preconfigured value in the system; a value that depends on the cell / TRP and the UE sampling clock synchronization capability.

[0228] Embodiment 27b may include the method of embodiment 25b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the synchronization time error between the UE and the cell / TRP is measured, and the time period TQS_RTT is defined as: a preconfigured value in the system; a value depending on the cell / TRP and the UE sampling clock synchronization capability.

[0229] Embodiment 28b may include the method of embodiment 25b or some other embodiments herein, wherein a synchronization time error between the UE and the cell / TRP is measured, wherein the synchronization time error is defined as a TO measurement operation during a TQS_TOA time period, and assuming that no reference cell / TRP exists, the TOA measurement may be reported in a field of the RSTD measurement report structure.

[0230] Embodiment 29b may include the method of embodiment 16b or some other embodiment herein, wherein a soft LOS metric is defined and an estimate of the DL AoD is calculated based on the DL PRS resource Id information with the heist soft LOS metric.

[0231] Embodiment 30b may include the method of embodiment 1b or some other embodiments herein, wherein positioning measurements are obtained based on the NR DL PRS and the UE signals its positioning reception capability.

[0232] Embodiment 31b may include the method of embodiment 30b or some other embodiments of the present invention, wherein the UE positioning capability is signaled to the network, and one or a combination of the following mechanisms may be used for signaling: the UE signals its positioning capability type Id, assuming that a fixed set of UE types with different positioning capabilities is predefined in the network; the UE signals the positioning capability based on the DL PRS resources it can proceed with, assuming that the positioning BWP in the system is known on the UE side; the UE signals the positioning capability through the maximum number of DL PRS resources it can proceed with, assuming a predefined positioning BWP configuration; the UE signals the number of supported DL PRS resources as a function of the DL PRS resource bandwidth.

[0233] Embodiment 32b may include the method of embodiment 1b or some other embodiments herein, wherein positioning measurements are obtained based on NR UL PRS, and the following two types of gNB reports may be considered: the gNB shares measurements with the network (LMF / location server); the gNB shares measurement results with the UE (directly or through the LMF / location server).

[0234] Embodiment 33b may include the method of embodiment 1b or some other embodiments herein, wherein an NR DL PRS resource configuration process is defined, and the following types of NR DL PRS allocation may be used: cell-centric DL PRS resource allocation, which may not be optimized for any UE in the network; UE-centric DL PRS resource allocation, which is based on the following UE feedback, i.e., based on the processing of cell-centric DL PRS resources or Rel-15 legacy signals (such as SSB or CSI-RS for BM) feedback to the network by the UE, the method of embodiment 33, wherein a UE-centric DL PRS resource allocation is defined, and one or a combination of the following parameters from UE feedback can be used for NR DL PRS resource allocation: cell ID; SSB index (e.g., corresponding to the maximum SS-RSRP value); CSI-RS resource ID (e.g., corresponding to the maximum L1-RSRP value); UE location information (e.g., if the UE has prior knowledge of its coordinates); UE TX-RX measurement based on Rel.15 reference signal; recommended DL PRS resources (resource ID) based on processing of cell-centric DLPRS resources.

[0235] Embodiment 34b may include the method of embodiment 1b or some other embodiments herein, wherein positioning measurements are obtained based on NR DL PRS and NR UL PRS, and if the UE supports beam correspondence, it applies the RX beam to the UL transmission of the NR UL PRS.

[0236] Embodiment 35b may include the method of embodiment 1b or some other embodiments herein, wherein the NR UL PRS transmission process is applied, and the UL TA selection corresponds to one or a combination of the following options: the UE applies the same timing advance as for the serving cell (reference) for all UL SRS (PRS) resources in all UL SRS (PRS) resource sets; the UE applies the timing advance corresponding to one of the neighboring cells for all UL SRS (PRS) resources in all UL SRS (PRS) resource sets; the UE applies a separate timing advance for all UL SRS (PRS) resources in all UL SRS (PRS) resource sets; the UE applies a common timing offset for transmission on all UL SRS (PRS) resources in all UL SRS (PRS) resource sets, the value of the common timing offset is indicated by the gNB independently of the timing advance, and the common timing offset is defined relative to the DL reception timing or the DL reception timing and the timing advance.

[0237] Embodiment 36b may include the method of embodiment 1b or some other embodiments herein, wherein an NR UL PRS transmission process is applied, and the power control process corresponds to one or a combination of the following options: UL SRS power control behavior is used again for NR positioning; UL SRS resource set refers to DL RS resources (e.g., DL PRS, CSI-RS) in a neighboring cell for path loss estimation; UL SRS resource set is configured with a path loss value to be used for open-loop power control.

[0238] Embodiment 1C may include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of the above embodiments or any other method or process described herein.

[0239] Embodiment 2C may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, which include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of the above embodiments or any other method or process described herein.

[0240] Embodiment 3C may include a device comprising logic components, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of the methods described in or related to any of the above embodiments or any other methods or processes described herein.

[0241] Embodiment 4C may include any of the methods, techniques or processes or parts or components thereof described in or related to the above embodiments.

[0242] Embodiment 5C may include a device comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, wherein the one or more computer-readable media include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, process, or portion thereof described in or related to any one of the above embodiments.

[0243] Embodiment 6C may include signals or portions or components thereof as described in or related to any of the above embodiments.

[0244] Embodiment 7C may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU) or message or a portion or component thereof as described in or related to any of the above embodiments, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0245] Embodiment 8C may include a signal encoded with data or a portion or component thereof as described in any of the above embodiments or related thereto, or as otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0246] Embodiment 9C may include a signal or a portion or component thereof encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, PDU or message as described in or related to any of the above embodiments, or described in other ways in the present disclosure.

[0247] Embodiment 10C may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors will cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or a portion thereof, described in or related to any of the above embodiments.

[0248] Embodiment 11C may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element will cause the processing element to perform a method, technique, or process, or a portion thereof, described in or related to any one of the above embodiments.

[0249] Embodiment 12C may include signals in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0250] Embodiment 13C may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0251] Embodiment 14C may include a system for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0252] Embodiment 15C may include an apparatus for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0253] Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any of the above embodiments may be combined with any other embodiment (or combination of embodiments). The foregoing description of one or more specific implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings or may be obtained from the practice of the various embodiments.

[0254] Embodiments and implementations of the systems and methods described herein may include various operations that may be embodied in machine executable instructions to be executed by a computer system. A computer system may include one or more general or special purpose computers (or other electronic devices). A computer system may include hardware components that include specific logic components for performing operations, or may include a combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware.

[0255] It should be appreciated that the systems described herein include descriptions of specific embodiments. These embodiments may be combined into a single system, partially incorporated into other systems, separated into multiple systems, or otherwise divided or combined. In addition, it is contemplated that parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of one embodiment may be used in another embodiment. For clarity, these parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. are described only in one or more embodiments, and it should be appreciated that unless otherwise stated herein, these parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. may be combined with or substituted for parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of another embodiment.

[0256] Although the foregoing has been described in considerable detail for the sake of clarity, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications may be made without departing from the principles of the invention. It should be noted that there are many alternative ways to implement both the processes and the apparatus described herein. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive, and the specification is not limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of a base station, comprising: transmitting a DL position reference signal (PRS) resource set indicating a plurality of downlink (DL) position reference signal (PRS) resources to a user equipment (UE); transmitting a DL PRS reporting configuration to the UE, the DL PRS reporting configuration indicating a set of measurements to be performed by the UE for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set; and A position measurement is received from the UE for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the set of DL PRS resources. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the position measurement comprises a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) measurement.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the RSTD measurement is weighted based on one of a SINR metric and an RSRP metric associated with at least two DL PRS resources of the plurality of DL PRS resources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein DL PRS resource allocation is cell-centric so that every UE attempting to provide location services is supported. 5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the DL PRS resource set based on assistance information received from the UE.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the information received from the UE comprises one or more of: a cell identifier ID, a synchronization signal block SSB index, a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS resource ID, UE location information, UE transmit-receive TX-RX measurements performed on reference signals, and recommended DL PRS resources.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the plurality of DLPRS resources to the UE using transmit TX beam scanning.

8. A base station device, comprising: one or more processors configured to cause the base station to: transmitting a DL position reference signal (PRS) resource set indicating a plurality of downlink (DL) position reference signal (PRS) resources to a user equipment (UE); transmitting a DL PRS reporting configuration to the UE, the DL PRS reporting configuration indicating a set of measurements to be performed by the UE for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set; and receiving, from the UE, a position measurement for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set; and A memory configured to store the DL PRS report configuration.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the position measurement comprises a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) measurement.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the RSTD measurement is weighted based on one of a SINR metric and an RSRP metric associated with at least two DL PRS resources of the plurality of DL PRS resources.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein DL PRS resource allocation is cell-centric so that every UE attempting to provide location services is supported.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the base station to select the DL PRS resource set based on assistance information received from the UE.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the auxiliary information received from the UE comprises one or more of the following: a cell identifier ID, a synchronization signal block SSB index, a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS resource ID, UE location information, UE transmit-receive TX-RX measurements performed on reference signals, and recommended DL PRS resources.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to transmit the plurality of DL PRS resources to the UE using transmit TX beam scanning.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a base station, cause the base station to: Receiving UE positioning configuration information from user equipment UE; transmitting to the UE a DL position reference signal (PRS) resource set indicating a plurality of downlink (DL) position reference signal (PRS) resources; transmitting a DL PRS reporting configuration to the UE, the DL PRS reporting configuration indicating a set of measurements to be performed by the UE for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set; and A position measurement is received from the UE for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the set of DL PRS resources. 16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the DLPRS resource set is configured specifically for the UE based on the UE positioning configuration information provided to the base station.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the position measurement comprises a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) measurement.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the RSTD measurement is weighted based on one of a SINR metric and an RSRP metric associated with at least two DL PRS resources of the plurality of DL PRS resources.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, further cause the base station to select the DL PRS resource set based on information received from the UE.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, further cause the base station to transmit the plurality of DL PRS resources to the UE using transmit TX beam scanning.

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