Method of wireless communication performed by user equipment and user equipment

Abstract

A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment and the user equipment are disclosed. A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) includes transmitting, to a network entity, one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), where the one or more capabilities indicate at least a duration of the PRS that the UE can process within a measurement window without a measurement gap, where the one or more capabilities indicate at least a duration of the PRS that the UE can process within the measurement window without a measurement gap. The one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a last PRS resource of the PRS instance and an end of the measurement window, and wherein the UE is not desirable to process PRS resources close to the minimum gap from the end of the measurement window; and performing one or more positioning measurements on the one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for a duration of the PRS.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of the Chinese invention patent application with application date of April 20, 2021 and application number 202180029753.3.

[0002] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0003] This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 016,967, filed on April 28, 2020, entitled “MINIMUM POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNAL (PRS) PROCESSING WHEN MEASUREMENT GAPS ARE NOT CONFIGURED,” and U.S. Non-Provisional Application No. 17 / 233,844, filed on April 19, 2021, entitled “MINIMUM POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNAL (PRS) PROCESSING WHEN MEASUREMENT GAPS ARE NOT CONFIGURED,” both of which have been assigned to their assignees and are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Technical Field

[0004] Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communications. Background Art

[0005] Wireless communication systems have evolved through generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including temporary 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third generation (3G) high speed data, Internet-enabled wireless services, and fourth generation (4G) services (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). Currently, many different types of wireless communication systems are used, including cellular and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include cellular analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), etc.

[0006] The fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, known as New Radio (NR), calls for higher data transfer speeds, more connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. The 5G standard according to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to tens of thousands of users and 1 gigabit per second to tens of thousands of employees on an office floor. To support large sensor deployments, hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported. As a result, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobile communications should be significantly improved compared to the current 4G standard. In addition, signaling efficiency should be improved and latency should be significantly reduced compared to the current standard. Summary of the invention

[0007] The following presents a simplified summary of the invention related to one or more aspects disclosed herein. Therefore, the following summary should not be considered as an extensive review related to all expected aspects, nor should the following summary be considered to identify key or important elements related to all expected aspects or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect. Therefore, the following summary has the following sole purpose: to present certain concepts related to one or more aspects related to the mechanisms disclosed herein in a simplified form to precede the implementation presented below.

[0008] In one aspect, a wireless communication method performed by a user equipment (UE) includes: sending one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of the PRS that the UE can process within a measurement window without a measurement gap; and performing one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for a duration of the PRS.

[0009] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor being configured to: cause the at least one transceiver to send one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of a PRS that the UE can process within a measurement window without a measurement gap; and perform one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for a duration of the PRS.

[0010] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes: a component for sending one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of a PRS that the UE can process within a measurement window without a measurement gap; and a component for performing one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for the duration of the PRS.

[0011] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-executable medium storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a user equipment (UE), causes the UE to: send one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of a PRS that the UE can process within a measurement window without a measurement gap; and perform one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for the duration of the PRS.

[0012] In one aspect, a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: sending one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), wherein the one or more capabilities indicate at least a duration of a PRS that the UE is able to process within a measurement window without a measurement gap, wherein the one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a last PRS resource of a PRS instance and an end of the measurement window, and wherein the UE is not expected to process PRS resources that are closer to the end of the measurement window than the minimum gap; and performing one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for a duration of the PRS.

[0013] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) comprises: one or more memories; one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors being configured, individually or in combination, to: send one or more capability messages to a network entity via the one or more transceivers, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), wherein the one or more capabilities indicate at least a duration of a PRS that the UE is able to process within a measurement window without a measurement gap, wherein the one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a last PRS resource of a PRS instance and an end of the measurement window, and wherein it is not expected that the UE processes PRS resources that are closer to the end of the measurement window than the minimum gap; and perform one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for the duration of the PRS.

[0014] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) comprises: a component for sending one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), wherein the one or more capabilities indicate at least a duration of a PRS that the UE can process within a measurement window without a measurement gap, wherein the one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a last PRS resource of a PRS instance and an end of the measurement window, and wherein the UE is not expected to process PRS resources that are closer to the end of the measurement window than the minimum gap; and a component for performing one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for the duration of the PRS.

[0015] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, when the instructions are executed by a user equipment (UE), causes the UE to: send one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), wherein the one or more capabilities indicate at least a duration of a PRS that the UE is able to process within a measurement window without a measurement gap, wherein the one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a last PRS resource of a PRS instance and an end of the measurement window, and wherein the UE is not expected to process PRS resources that are closer to the end of the measurement window than the minimum gap; and perform one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for the duration of the PRS.

[0016] Other objects and advantages associated with the aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the accompanying drawings and detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in describing various aspects of the disclosure and are provided solely for illustration of the aspects and not limitation thereof.

[0018] Figure 1 An exemplary wireless communication system in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is shown.

[0019] Figure 2A and 2B An exemplary wireless network architecture according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown.

[0020] Figure 3A , 3B 3C are simplified block diagrams of several exemplary aspects of components that may be employed in a user equipment (UE), a base station, and a network entity, respectively, and configured to support communications as taught herein.

[0021] Figure 4A and 4B is a diagram illustrating exemplary frame structures and channels within the frame structures according to aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] Figure 5 is an illustration of an exemplary positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration for PRS transmissions of a given base station in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0023] Figure 6 is an illustration of example PRS resource sets with different time gaps in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0024] Figure 7 is a diagram of an exemplary radio frequency (RF) signal processing procedure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0025] Figure 8 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary PRS instance according to aspects of the present disclosure.

[0026] Fig. 9

[0013] An exemplary method of wireless communication according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] Various aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and in the relevant illustrations for various examples provided for illustrative purposes. Alternative aspects may be designed without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted to avoid blurring the relevant details of the present disclosure.

[0028] The words "exemplary" and / or "exemplary" are used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" and / or "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term "aspects" of the present disclosure does not require that all aspects of the present disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage, or mode of operation.

[0029] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that any of a variety of different technologies and techniques may be used to represent the information and signals described below. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the following description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof, depending on the specific application, partly on the desired design, partly on the corresponding technology, etc.

[0030] In addition, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions performed, for example, by elements of a computing device. It will be appreciated that the various actions described herein may be performed by specific circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of the two. In addition, it may be considered that the sequences of actions described herein are fully embodied in any form of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a corresponding set of computer instructions, which, when executed, will cause or instruct the associated processor of the device to perform the functionality described herein. Therefore, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in many different forms, all of which are considered to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each aspect described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect may be described herein as, for example, "logic configured to perform the described actions."

[0031] As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" are not intended to be specific to or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT). In general, a UE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a consumer asset location device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, glasses, augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR)) headset, etc.), a vehicle (e.g., a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, etc.), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network. A UE may be mobile, or may be stationary (e.g., at certain times), and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" may be interchangeably referred to as an "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber device", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or "UT", "mobile device", "mobile terminal", "mobile station" or variations thereof. In general, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network, the UE may connect to external networks such as the Internet and to other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms are also possible for the UE, such as connecting to the core network and / or the Internet through a wired access network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, etc.), etc.

[0032] A base station may operate according to one of several RATs for communicating with a UE, depending on the network in which it is deployed, and may be alternatively referred to as an access point (AP), a network node, a NodeB, an evolved NodeB (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a new radio (NR) NodeB (also referred to as a gNB or gNodB), etc. A base station may be primarily used to support wireless access for UEs, including supporting data, voice, and / or signaling connections for supported UEs. In some systems, a base station may purely provide edge node signaling functions, while in other systems, it may provide additional control and / or network management functions. The communication link through which a UE may signal a base station is referred to as an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). The communication link through which a RAN may signal a base station is referred to as a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) may refer to an uplink / reverse or downlink / forward traffic channel.

[0033] The term "base station" may refer to a single physical transmit receive point (TRP), or to multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be co-located. For example, where the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station that corresponds to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. Where the term "base station" refers to multiple co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be an antenna array of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or where the base station employs beamforming). Where the term "base station" refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transmission medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-co-located physical TRP may be a serving base station that receives measurement reports from a UE and an adjacent base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signal the UE is measuring. Because a TRP is a point from which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, as used herein, references to transmitting from a base station or receiving at a base station will be understood to refer to a specific TRP of a base station.

[0034] In some embodiments of supporting UE positioning, the base station may not support wireless access of the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections of the UE), but may send signals to the UE for the UE to measure and / or may receive and measure signals sent by the UE. Such base stations may be referred to as positioning beacons (e.g., when sending signals to the UE) and / or position measurement units (e.g., when receiving and measuring signals from the UE).

[0035] An "RF signal" includes an electromagnetic wave of a given frequency that transmits information through the space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels, a receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between a transmitter and a receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal.

[0036] Figure 1An exemplary wireless communication system 100 according to various aspects of the present disclosure is shown. The wireless communication system 100 (which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 (labeled as "BS") and various UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macro cell base stations (high power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low power cellular base stations). In one aspect, the macro cell base station may include an eNB and / or ng-eNB in ​​which the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network, or a gNB in ​​which the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an NR network, or a combination of the two, and the small cell base station may include a femto cell, a pico cell, a micro cell, etc.

[0037] The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC)) via a backhaul link 122, and interface to one or more location servers 172 (e.g., a location management function (LMF) or a secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP)) via the core network 170. The location server 172 may be part of the core network 170 or may be external to the core network 170. The base stations 102 may perform, among other functions, functions related to one or more of: transmitting user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and warning messaging. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (eg, via EPC / 5GC) via a backhaul link 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0038] Base station 102 can communicate wirelessly with UE 104. Each of base stations 102 can provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographic coverage area 110. In one aspect, one base station 102 in each geographic coverage area 110 can support one or more cells. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used to communicate with a base station (e.g., through a certain frequency resource, referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, band, etc.), and can be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCI), an enhanced cell identifier (ECI), a virtual cell identifier (VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI), etc.) for distinguishing cells operating via the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells can be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband IoL (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or other protocol types) that can provide access to different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a specific base station, the term "cell" can refer to one or both of the logical communication entity and the base station supporting it, depending on the context. In addition, because the TRP is generally the physical transmission point of the cell, the terms "cell" and "TRP" can be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term "cell" can also refer to the geographic coverage area (e.g., sector) of a base station, as long as the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within a portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0039] Although the geographic coverage areas 110 of adjacent macrocell base stations 102 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover region), some geographic coverage areas 110 may be substantially overlapped by a larger geographic coverage area 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' (labeled "SC," for "small cell") may have a geographic coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the geographic coverage areas 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell and macrocell base stations may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a home eNB (HeNB) (HeNB), which may provide services to a restricted group referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG).

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

[0041] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 that communicates with a WLAN station (STA) 152 in an unlicensed frequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz) via a communication link 154. When communicating in the unlicensed frequency spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) or a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure prior to communication to determine whether a channel is available.

[0042] The small cell base station 102' can operate in licensed and / or unlicensed frequency spectrum. When operating in the unlicensed frequency spectrum, the small cell base station 102' can adopt LTE or NR technology and use the same 5GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102' adopting LTE / 5G in the unlicensed frequency spectrum can increase the coverage of the access network and / or increase its capacity. NR in the unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as NR-U. LTE in the unlicensed frequency spectrum can be referred to as LTE-U, unlicensed assisted access (LAA) or MulteFire.

[0043] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a millimeter wave (mmW) base station 180, which can communicate with UE 182 in mmW frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is part of RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30GHz to 300GHz and a wavelength between 1 mm and 10 mm. The radio waves in this band may be called millimeter waves. Near mmW may extend down to a 3GHz frequency with a wavelength of 100 mm. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3GHz and 30GHz and is also called centimeter waves. Communication using mmW / near mmW radio frequency bands has high path loss and a relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and UE 182 can utilize beamforming (transmitting and / or receiving) on ​​the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short distance. In addition, it should be understood that in an alternative configuration, one or more base stations 102 may also use mmW or near mmW and beamforming to send. Therefore, it should be understood that the foregoing illustrations are only examples and should not be interpreted as limiting the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0044] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in a specific direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, the network node broadcasts the signal in all directions (omnidirectionally). Using transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that specific direction, thereby providing a faster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal to the receiving device. In order to change the directionality of an RF signal when transmitting, a network node may control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of one or more transmitters that are broadcasting the RF signal. For example, a network node may use an antenna array (referred to as a "phased array" or "antenna array") that generates beams of RF waves that can be "steered" to point to different directions without actually moving the antenna. Specifically, the RF current from the transmitter is fed to separate antennas in the correct phase relationship so that the radio waves from the separate antennas can be added together to increase the radiation in the desired direction while canceling to suppress the radiation in the undesired direction.

[0045] The transmit beams can be quasi-colocated, which means that they appear to the receiver (e.g., UE) to have the same parameters, regardless of whether the transmit antennas of the network nodes themselves are physically colocated. In NR, there are four types of quasi-colocated (QCL) relationships. Specifically, a given type of QCL relationship means that certain parameters about the second reference RF signal on the second beam can be derived from information about the source reference RF signal on the source beam. Therefore, if the source reference RF signal is QCL type A, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread of the second reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type B, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of the second reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type C, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and average delay of the second reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type D, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the spatial reception parameters of the second reference RF signal sent on the same channel.

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

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

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

[0049] In 5G, the frequency spectrum in which wireless nodes (e.g., base stations 102 / 180, UEs 104 / 182) operate is divided into multiple frequency ranges: FR1 (from 450MHz to 6000MHz), FR2 (from 24250MHz to 52600MHz), FR3 (above 52600MHz), and FR4 (between FR1 and FR2). The millimeter wave frequency band generally includes the FR2, FR3, and FR4 frequency ranges. Thus, the terms "mmW" and "FR2" or "FR3" or "FR4" are generally used interchangeably.

[0050] In a multi-carrier system such as 5G, one of the carrier frequencies is referred to as the "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell", while the remaining carrier frequencies are referred to as "secondary carriers" or "secondary serving cells" or "SCells". In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is a carrier that operates on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by the UE 104 / 182 and the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 performs an initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection reestablishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific control channels and may be a carrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case). A secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2) that may be configured and may be used to provide additional radio resources once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier. In some cases, the secondary carrier may be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier may contain only necessary signaling information and signals, for example, those signaling information and signals specific to the UE may not be present in the secondary carrier, because both the primary uplink and downlink carriers are typically UE-specific. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplink primary carrier. The network is able to change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. For example, this is done to balance the load on different carriers. Because a "serving cell" (whether a PCell or an SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier on which a base station is communicating, the terms "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. can be used interchangeably.

[0051] For example, still refer to Figure 1 , one of the frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or "PCell"), while the other frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers ("SCells"). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers enables the UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rate. For example, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically result in a two-fold increase in data rate (i.e., 40 MHz) compared to that achieved by a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0052] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a UE 164, which may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 via a communication link 120 and / or communicate with the mmW base station 180 via a mmW communication link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0053] exist Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 1 , one or more Earth-orbiting satellite positioning system (SPS) spacecraft (SV) 112 (eg, satellites) may be used as the UEs shown (for simplicity, in FIG. 1 ). Figure 1 The SPS may be an independent location information source for any of the UEs 104 (shown as a single UE 104). The UE 104 may include one or more dedicated SPS receivers specifically designed to receive SPS signals 124 to derive geographic location information from the SV 112. The SPS typically includes a system of transmitters (e.g., SV 112) positioned so that a receiver (e.g., UE 104) can determine the location of the receiver on or above the earth based at least in part on a signal (e.g., SPS signal 124) received from the transmitter. Such transmitters typically transmit signals of a repeating pseudo-random noise (PN) code marked with a certain number of chips. Although typically located in the SV 112, the transmitter may sometimes be located on a ground-based control station, base station 102, and / or other UE 104.

[0054] The use of the SPS signal 124 may be enhanced by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) that may be associated with or otherwise enabled for use with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems. For example, the SBAS may include augmentation systems that provide integrity information, differential corrections, etc., such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the Multifunction Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), the Global Positioning System (GPS) Assisted Geographic Augmentation Navigation, or the GPS and Geographic Augmentation Navigation System (GAGAN), etc. Thus, as used herein, an SPS may include any combination of one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems and / or augmentation systems, and the SPS signal 124 may include an SPS signal, a SPS-like signal, and / or other signals associated with such one or more SPSs.

[0055] The wireless communication system 100 may also include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, that are indirectly connected to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) or peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as “side links”). Figure 1In the example of FIG. 1 , UE 190 has: a D2D P2P link 192 with one of UEs 104 connected to one of base stations 102 (e.g., UE 190 can indirectly obtain cellular connectivity through this link); and a D2D P2P link 194 with a WLAN STA 152 connected to a WLAN AP 150 (UE 190 can indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity through this link). In the example, the D2D P2P links 192 and 194 can be provided by any well-known D2D RAT (such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), etc.) support.

[0056] Figure 2A An exemplary wireless network architecture 200 is shown. For example, the 5GC 210 (also referred to as the Next Generation Core (NGC)) can be functionally viewed as a control plane (C-plane) function 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and a user plane (U-plane) function 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data networks, IP routing, etc.) that operate in concert to form a core network. A user plane interface (NG-U) 213 and a control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 to the 5GC 210, specifically to the user plane function 212 and the control plane function 214, respectively. In an additional configuration, the ng-eNB 224 can also be connected to the 5GC 210 via the NG-C 215 to the control plane function 214 and the NG-U 213 to the user plane function 212. In addition, the ng-eNB 224 can communicate directly with the gNB 222 via the backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the next generation RAN (NG-RAN) 220 may have one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more ng-eNBs 224 and gNB 222. Either (or both) the gNB 222 or the ng-eNB 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

[0057] Another optional aspect may include a location server 230 that can communicate with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance for the UE 204. The location server 230 can be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively can each correspond to a single server. The location server 230 can be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204, which can be connected to the location server 230 via the core network, the 5GC 210, and / or via the Internet (not shown). In addition, the location server 230 can be integrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively can be external to the core network (e.g., a third-party server, such as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) server or a service server).

[0058] Figure 2B Another exemplary wireless network structure 250 is shown. 5GC 260 (which may correspond to Figure 2AThe 5GC 210 in the 5GC 210 can be functionally considered as a control plane function provided by an access and mobility management function (AMF) 264 and a user plane function provided by a user plane function (UPF) 262, which operate in conjunction to form a core network (i.e., 5GC 260). The functions of the AMF 264 include registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, transmission of session management (SM) messages between one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein) and a session management function (SMF) 266, a transparent proxy service for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transmission of short message service (SMS) messages between the UE 204 and a short message service function (SMSF) (not shown), and a security anchor functionality (SEAF). The AMF 264 also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and the UE 204, and receives an intermediate key established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In the case of authentication based on the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), the AMF 264 retrieves security materials from the AUSF. The functions of the AMF 264 also include security context management (SCM). The SCM receives keys from the SEAF, which are used to derive access network specific keys. The functionality of the AMF 264 also includes location service management for regulatory services, for the transmission of location service messages between the UE 204 and the Location Management Function (LMF) 270 (which acts as a location server 230), for the transmission of location service messages between the NG-RAN 220 and the LMF 270, for the allocation of Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer identifiers for interworking with EPS, and for UE 204 mobility event notifications. In addition, the AMF 264 also supports the functionality of non-3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) access networks.

[0059] The functions of UPF 262 include acting as an anchor point for intra-RAT / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an interconnection point for external protocol data unit (PDU) sessions with a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usage reporting, user plane quality of service (QoS) processing (e.g., uplink / downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in downlink), uplink traffic verification (traffic data flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and issuing and forwarding one or more "end markers" to the source RAN node. UPF 262 can also support the transmission of location service messages on the user plane between UE 204 and a location server such as SLP 272.

[0060] The functions of SMF 266 include session management, UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, service steering configuration at UPF 262 for routing services to the correct destination, policy part execution and QoS control, and downlink data notification. The interface over which SMF 266 communicates with AMF 264 is called the N11 interface.

[0061] Another optional aspect may include LMF 270, which can communicate with 5GC 260 to provide location assistance for UE 204. LMF 270 can be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separated servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed on multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively can each correspond to a single server. LMF 270 can be configured to support one or more location services for UE 204, which can be connected to LMF 270 via the core network, 5GC 260 and / or via the Internet (not shown). SLP 272 can support similar functions as LMF 270, but LMF 270 can communicate with AMF 264, NG-RAN 220 and UE 204 through a control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to convey signaling messages rather than voice or data), while SLP 272 can communicate with UE 204 and external clients (e.g., using protocols intended to carry voice and / or data, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and / or IP) through a user plane (e.g., using protocols intended to carry voice and / or data, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and / or IP) Figure 2B (not shown) communications.

[0062] The user plane interface 263 and the control plane interface 265 connect the 5GC 260, specifically the UPF 262 and the AMF 264, respectively, to one or more gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 in the NG-RAN 220. The interface between the gNB 222 and / or ng-eNB 224 and the AMF 264 is referred to as the "N2" interface, and the interface between the gNB 222 and / or ng-eNB 224 and the UPF 262 is referred to as the "N3" interface. The gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 of the NG-RAN 220 may communicate directly with each other via a backhaul connection 223 referred to as an "Xn-C" interface. One or more of the gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 via a wireless interface referred to as a "Uu" interface.

[0063] The functionality of the gNB 222 is divided between the gNB Central Unit (gNB-CU) 226 and one or more gNB Distributed Units (gNB-DU) 228. The interface 232 between the gNB-CU 226 and one or more gNB-DUs 228 is referred to as the "F1" interface. The gNB-CU 226 is a logical node that includes base station functions such as transmitting user data, mobility control, radio access network sharing, positioning, session management, etc., except for those functions that are specifically assigned to the gNB-DU 228. More specifically, the gNB-CU 226 hosts the Radio Resource Control (RRC), Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) protocols of the gNB 222. The gNB-DU 228 is a logical node that hosts the Radio Link Control (RLC), Medium Access Control (MAC), and Physical (PHY) layers of the gNB 222. Its operation is controlled by the gNB-CU 226. One gNB-DU 228 may support one or more cells, and one cell is supported by only one gNB-DU 228. Therefore, the UE 204 communicates with the gNB-CU 226 via the RRC, SDAP, and PDCP layers and communicates with the gNB-DU 228 via the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers.

[0064] Figure 3A , 3B 3C shows a network entity 306 (which may correspond to or embody any of the network functions described herein, including the location server 230 and the LMF 270), which may be combined with a UE 302 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein), a base station 304 (which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein), and a network entity 306 (which may correspond to or embody any of the network functions described herein, including the location server 230 and the LMF 270, or alternatively may be independent of Figure 2A and 2BNG-RAN 220 and / or 5GC 210 / 260 infrastructure depicted in the figure, such as a dedicated network) to support several exemplary components (represented by corresponding boxes) of file sending operations as taught herein. It should be understood that these components can be implemented in different types of devices (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system on a chip (SoC), etc.) in different embodiments. The components shown may also be incorporated into other devices in the communication system. For example, other devices in the system may include components similar to the components described to provide similar functionality. Moreover, a given device may contain one or more of the components. For example, a device may include multiple transceiver components that enable the device to operate on multiple carriers and / or communicate via different technologies.

[0065] UE 302 and base station 304 each include one or more wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceivers 310 and 350, respectively, which provide components (e.g., transmission components, reception components, measurement components, tuning components, components for prohibiting transmission) for communicating via one or more wireless communication networks (not shown) such as NR networks, LTE networks, GSM networks, etc. WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 can each be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356, respectively, to communicate with other network nodes (such as other vehicle UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc.) via at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) through a wireless communication medium of interest (e.g., a certain set of time / frequency resources in a specific frequency spectrum). The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be configured differently to transmit and encode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.) according to a specified RAT, and conversely, to receive and decode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.). Specifically, the WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 include one or more transmitters 314 and 354 for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358, respectively, and one or more receivers 312 and 352 for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively.

[0066] UE 302 and base station 304 each also include, at least in some cases, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360, respectively. Short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 can be connected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, and provide for communication via at least one designated RAT (e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 are components (e.g., sending components, receiving components, measuring components, tuning components, components for prohibiting transmission) for communicating with other network nodes (such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc.) through a wireless communication medium of interest (such as PC5, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), wireless access in vehicular environment (WAVE), near field communication (NFC), etc.). The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 can be configured differently to send signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.) and encode the signals according to the specified RAT, and conversely, to receive signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.) and decode the signals. Specifically, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 respectively include one or more transmitters 324 and 364 for sending signals 328 and 368 and encoding the signals, and one or more receivers 322 and 362 for receiving signals 328 and 368 and decoding them. As a specific example, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be WiFi transceivers, Transceiver, and / or transceiver, NFC transceiver or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and / or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) transceiver.

[0067] UE 302 and base station 304 also include, at least in some cases, satellite positioning system (SPS) receivers 330 and 370. SPS receivers 330 and 370 may be connected to one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, and may provide components for receiving and / or measuring SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively, such as global positioning system (GPS) signals, global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, Beidou signals, Indian regional navigation satellite system (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. SPS receivers 330 and 370 may include any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively. SPS receivers 330 and 370 appropriately request information and operations from other systems, and use measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithm to perform calculations required to determine the location of UE 302 and base station 304.

[0068] The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include one or more network transceivers 380 and 390, respectively, to provide means (e.g., sending means, receiving means, etc.) for communicating with other network entities (e.g., other base stations 304, other network entities 306). For example, the base station 304 may employ the network transceiver 380 to communicate with other base stations 304 or network entities 306 via one or more wired or wireless backhaul links. As another example, the network entity 306 may employ the network transceiver 390 to communicate with one or more base stations 304 via one or more wired or wireless backhaul links, or to communicate with other network entities 306 via one or more wired or wireless core network interfaces.

[0069] The transceiver can be configured to communicate over a wired or wireless link. The transceiver (whether a wired transceiver or a wireless transceiver) includes a transmitter circuit (e.g., transmitter 314, 324, 354, 364) and a receiver circuit (e.g., receiver 312, 322, 352, 362). In some embodiments, the transceiver can be an integrated device (e.g., embodying a transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit in a single device), in some embodiments can include a separate transmitter circuit and a separate receiver circuit, or in other embodiments. The transmitter circuit and the receiver circuit of a wired transceiver (e.g., in some embodiments, network transceivers 380 and 390) can be coupled to one or more wired network interface ports. The wireless transmitter circuit (e.g., transmitter 314, 324, 354, 364) may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as antenna arrays, which allow the corresponding device (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform transmit "beamforming" as described herein. Similarly, the wireless receiver circuit (e.g., receiver 312, 322, 352, 362) may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as antenna arrays, which allow the corresponding device (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform receive beamforming as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitter circuit and the receiver circuit may share the same multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) so that the corresponding device can only receive or transmit at a given time, rather than receive and transmit at the same time. The wireless transceivers (eg, WWAN transceivers 310 and 350, short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360) may also include a network listening module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

[0070] As used herein, various wireless transceivers (e.g., transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, and network transceivers 380 and 390 in some embodiments) and wired transceivers (e.g., network transceivers 380 and 390 in some embodiments) may be generally characterized as a "transceiver," "at least one transceiver," or "one or more transceivers." Thus, whether a particular transceiver is a wired transceiver or a wireless transceiver may be inferred from the type of communication being performed. For example, backhaul communications between network devices or servers typically involve signaling via a wired transceiver, while wireless communications between a UE (e.g., UE 302) and a base station (e.g., base station 304) typically involve signaling via a wireless transceiver.

[0071] UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 also include other components that can be used in conjunction with the operations disclosed herein. UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 include one or more processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, to provide functionality related to, for example, wireless communication and to provide other processing functionality. Processors 332, 384, and 394 can therefore provide processing components, such as determining components, calculating components, receiving components, sending components, indicating components, etc. On the one hand, processors 332, 384, and 394 can include, for example, one or more general-purpose processors, multi-core processors, central processing units (CPUs), ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), other programmable logic devices or processing circuits, or various combinations thereof.

[0072] UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 include memory circuits implementing memories 340, 386, and 396 (e.g., each including a memory device) for storing information (e.g., information indicating reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). Memories 340, 386, and 396 can therefore provide for storing means, retrieving means, maintaining means, etc. In some cases, UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 can include positioning components 342, 388, and 398, respectively. Positioning components 342, 388, and 398 can be hardware circuits that are part of or coupled to processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, which, when executed, cause UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. In other aspects, positioning components 342, 388, and 398 can be external to processors 332, 384, and 394 (e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated with another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the positioning components 342, 388 and 398 can be memory modules stored in the memories 340, 386 and 396, respectively, which when executed by the processors 332, 384 and 394 (or a modem processing system, another processing system, etc.), cause the UE 302, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. Figure 3A Possible locations are shown for a location component 342, which may be, for example, part of the WWAN transceiver 310, the memory 340, the processor 332, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component. Figure 3B Possible locations are shown for a location component 388, which may be, for example, part of the WWAN transceiver 350, the memory 386, the processor 384, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component. Figure 3C Possible locations are shown for a location component 398, which may be, for example, part of the network transceiver 390, the memory 396, the processor 394, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component.

[0073] UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to processor 332 to provide components for sensing or detecting movement and / or orientation information that is independent of motion data derived from signals received by WWAN transceiver 310, short-range wireless transceiver 320, and / or SPS receiver 330. For example, sensor 344 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a pressure altimeter), and / or any other type of motion detection sensor. In addition, sensor 344 may include multiple different types of devices and combine their outputs to provide motion information. For example, sensor 344 may use a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and an orientation sensor to provide the ability to calculate a position in a two-dimensional (2D) and / or three-dimensional (3D) coordinate system.

[0074] In addition, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346 that provides means for providing indications (e.g., audible and / or visual indications) to a user and / or for receiving user input (e.g., upon user actuation of a sensing device such as a keypad, touch screen, microphone, etc.). Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 may also include a user interface.

[0075] Referring to the processor 384 in more detail, in a downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the processor 384. The processor 384 may implement functionality for an RRC layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a medium access control (MAC) layer. The processor 384 may provide RRC layer functionality associated with broadcasting of system information (e.g., master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression, security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality associated with transmission of upper layer PDUs, error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ), concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, scheduling information reporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0076] The transmitter 354 and the receiver 352 may implement layer 1 (L1) functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1, including the physical (PHY) layer, may include error detection on the transport channel, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of the transport channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, modulation / demodulation of the physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 354 handles mapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), M-phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be segmented into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., a pilot) in the time and / or frequency domain, and then combined together using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a time domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol stream is spatially precoded to generate multiple spatial streams. The channel estimate from the channel estimator can be used to determine the coding and modulation schemes, as well as for spatial processing. The channel estimate can be derived from a reference signal and / or channel condition feedback sent by the UE 302. Each spatial stream can then be provided to one or more different antennas 356. The transmitter 354 can modulate the RF carrier with the corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0077] At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives the signal through its corresponding antenna 316. The receiver 312 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to the processor 332. The transmitter 314 and the receiver 312 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. The receiver 312 can perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for the UE 302. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE 302, they can be combined into a single OFDM symbol stream by the receiver 312. The receiver 312 then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time domain to the frequency domain using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal includes a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. By determining the most likely signal constellation point sent by the base station 304, the symbols on each subcarrier and the reference signal are recovered and demodulated. These soft decisions can be based on channel estimates calculated by a channel estimator. The decision blocks are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals originally sent by the base station 304 on the physical channel. The data and control signals are then provided to the processor 332, which implements Layer 3 (L3) and Layer 2 (L2) functionality.

[0078] In the uplink, processor 332 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. Processor 332 is also responsible for error detection.

[0079] Similar to the functionality described in conjunction with downlink transmissions of base station 304, processor 332 provides RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression and security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality associated with transmission of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs, resegmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs to TBs, demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from transport blocks (TBs), scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0080] Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from a reference signal or feedback sent by the base station 304 may be used by the transmitter 314 to select appropriate coding and modulation schemes and facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter 314 may be provided to different antennas 316. The transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with the corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0081] The uplink transmissions are processed in the base station 304 in a manner similar to that described in conjunction with the receiver functionality at the UE 302. The receiver 352 receives the signal through its respective antenna 356. The receiver 352 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to the processor 384.

[0082] In the uplink, processor 384 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from UE 302. IP packets from processor 384 may be provided to the core network. Processor 384 is also responsible for error detection.

[0083] For convenience, UE 302, base station 304 and / or network entity 306 may be configured to: Figure 3A , 3B 3C are shown to include various components that can be configured according to various examples described herein. However, it should be understood that the components shown may have different functionality in different designs.

[0084] The various components of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 may communicate with each other via data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392, respectively. In one aspect, the data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392 may form or be part of a communication interface for the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306, respectively. For example, when different logical entities are embodied in the same device (e.g., gNB and location server functionality are combined into the same base station 304), the data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392 may provide communication between them.

[0085] Figure 3A , 3B The components of 3C can be implemented in various ways. In some embodiments, Figure 3A , 3B The components of 3C may be implemented in one or more circuits, such as, for example, implemented in one or more processors and / or one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors). Here, each circuit may use and / or incorporate at least one memory component for storing information or executable code used by the circuit to provide the functionality. For example, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 310 to 346 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of UE 302 (e.g., by the execution of appropriate code and / or by the appropriate configuration of the processor components). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 350 to 388 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of base station 304 (e.g., by the execution of appropriate code and / or by the appropriate configuration of the processor components). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390 to 398 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of network entity 306 (e.g., by the execution of appropriate code and / or by the appropriate configuration of the processor components). For simplicity, various operations, actions and / or functions are described herein as being performed "by a UE," "by a base station," "by a network entity," etc. However, as will be appreciated, such operations, actions and / or functions may actually be performed by specific components or combinations of components of the UE 302, base station 304, network entity 306, etc. (such as processors 332, 384, 394, transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, memories 340, 386, and 396, positioning components 342, 388, and 398, etc.).

[0086] In some designs, the network entity 306 may be implemented as a core network component. In other designs, the network entity 306 may be distinct from a network operator or an operator of a cellular network infrastructure (e.g., NG RAN 220 and / or 5GC 210 / 260). For example, the network entity 306 may be a component of a dedicated network that may be configured to communicate with the UE 302 via the base station 304 or independently of the base station 304 (e.g., via a non-cellular communication link such as WiFi).

[0087] NR supports a variety of cellular network-based positioning technologies, including downlink-based, uplink-based, and downlink-and-uplink-based positioning methods. Downlink-based positioning methods include observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) in LTE, downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA) in NR, and downlink angle of deviation (DL-AoD) in NR. In the OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, the UE measures the difference between the arrival time (ToA) of the reference signal (e.g., positioning reference signal (PRS)) received from the base station pair, which is called the reference signal time difference (RSTD) or arrival time difference (TDOA) measurement value, and reports them to the positioning entity. More specifically, the UE receives the identifier (ID) of the reference base station (e.g., serving base station) and multiple non-reference base stations in the auxiliary data. The UE then measures the RSTD between the reference base station and each of the non-reference base stations. Based on the known positions of the base stations involved and the RSTD measurements, the positioning entity can estimate the position of the UE.

[0088] For DL-AoD positioning, the positioning entity uses beam reports of received signal strength measurements of multiple downlink transmit beams from the UE to determine the angle between the UE and the transmitting base station. The positioning entity can then estimate the UE's position based on the determined angle and the known location of the transmitting base station.

[0089] Uplink-based positioning methods include uplink time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA) and uplink angle of arrival (UL-AoA). UL-TDOA is similar to DL-TDOA, but is based on uplink reference signals (e.g., sounding reference signals (SRS)) sent by the UE. For UL-AoA positioning, one or more base stations measure the received signal strength of one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) received from the UE on one or more uplink receive beams. The positioning entity uses the signal strength measurement and the angle of the receive beam to determine the angle between the UE and the base station. Based on the determined angle and the known location of the base station, the positioning entity can then estimate the position of the UE.

[0090] Downlink and uplink-based positioning methods include enhanced cell ID (E-CID) positioning and multi-round trip time (RTT) positioning (also known as "multi-cell RTT"). In the RTT procedure, the initiator (base station or UE) sends an RTT measurement signal (e.g., PRS or SRS) to the responder (UE or base station), and the responder (UE or base station) sends an RTT response signal (e.g., SRS or PRS) back to the initiator. The RTT response signal includes the difference between the ToA of the RTT measurement signal and the transmission time of the RTT response signal, which is called the received to transmitted (Rx-Tx) time difference. The initiator calculates the difference between the transmission time of the RTT measurement signal and the ToA of the RTT response signal, which is called the transmitted to received (Tx-Rx) time difference. The propagation time (also known as "flight time") between the initiator and the responder can be calculated based on the Tx-Rx and Rx-Tx time differences. Based on the propagation time and the known speed of light, the distance between the initiator and the responder can be determined. For multi-RTT positioning, the UE performs RTT procedures with multiple base stations so that its position can be determined based on the known positions of the base stations (e.g., using multi-lateration). RTT and multi-RTT methods can be combined with other positioning techniques (such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD) to improve positioning accuracy.

[0091] The E-CID positioning method is based on radio resource management (RRM) measurements. In E-CID, the UE reports the serving cell ID, timing advance (TA), and the identifiers, estimated timing, and signal strength of detected neighboring base stations. The UE's position is then estimated based on this information and the known locations of the base stations.

[0092] To assist the positioning operation, a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) may provide assistance data to the UE. For example, the assistance data may include an identifier of the base station (or cell / TRP of the base station) from which the reference signal is measured, reference signal configuration parameters (e.g., the number of consecutive positioning subframes, the periodicity of the positioning subframes, the silent sequence, the frequency hopping sequence, the reference signal identifier, the reference signal bandwidth, etc.), and / or other parameters applicable to a particular positioning method. Alternatively, the assistance data may originate directly from the base station itself (e.g., in an overhead message that is broadcast periodically, etc.). In some cases, the UE is able to detect neighboring network nodes by itself without using assistance data.

[0093] In the case of OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedures, the assistance data may also include an expected RSTD value and an associated uncertainty or search window around the expected RSTD. In some cases, the value range of the expected RSTD may be + / -500 microseconds (μs). In some cases, when any one of the resources used for positioning measurements is in FR1, the value range of the expected RSTD uncertainty may be + / -32μs. In other cases, when all resources used for positioning measurements are in FR2, the value range of the expected RSTD uncertainty may be + / -8μs.

[0094] The location estimate may be referred to by other names, such as location estimate, location, fix, location fix, fix, etc. The location estimate may be geographic and include coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude), or may be urban and include a street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of a location. The location estimate may be further defined relative to some other known location, or defined in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). The location estimate may include expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume within which the location is expected to be included with some specified or default confidence level).

[0095] Various frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (eg, base stations and UEs). Figure 4A is a diagram 400 showing an example of a downlink frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 4B is a diagram 430 showing an example of channels within a downlink frame structure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Other wireless communication technologies may have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0096] LTE (and in some cases NR) utilizes OFDM on the downlink and single carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. However, unlike LTE, NR can also choose to use OFDM on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDM divide the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarrier can be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain using OFDM and in the time domain using SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers can be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) can depend on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers can be 15 kilohertz (kHz) and the minimum resource allocation (resource block) can be 12 subcarriers (or 180kHz). Therefore, for system bandwidths of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), the nominal FFT size can be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048, respectively. The system bandwidth may also be divided into subbands. For example, one subband may cover 1.08 MHz (ie, 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for system bandwidths of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz, respectively.

[0097] LTE supports a single digital parameter (subcarrier spacing (SCS), symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR can support multiple digital parameters (μ), for example, 15kHz subcarrier spacing (μ=0), 30kHz subcarrier spacing (μ=1), 60kHz subcarrier spacing (μ=2), 120kHz subcarrier spacing (μ=3), and 240kHz subcarrier spacing (μ=4) or larger subcarrier spacing is available. In each subcarrier spacing, there are 14 symbols per time slot. For 15kHz SCS (μ=0), there is one time slot per subframe, 10 time slots per frame, the time slot duration is 1 millisecond (ms), the symbol duration is 66.7 microseconds (μs), and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with 4K FET size is 50. For 30kHz SCS (μ=1), there are two slots per subframe, 20 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.5ms, the symbol duration is 33.3μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FET size is 100. For 60kHz SCS (μ=2), there are four slots per subframe, 40 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.25ms, the symbol duration is 16.7μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FET size is 200. For 120kHz SCS (μ=3), there are eight slots per subframe, 80 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.125ms, the symbol duration is 8.33μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FET size is 400. For 240kHz SCS (μ=4), there are 16 time slots per subframe, 160 time slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.0625ms, the symbol duration is 4.17μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with 4K FET size is 800.

[0098] exist Figure 4A and 4B In the example of , a digital parameter of 15kHz is used. Therefore, in the time domain, a 10ms frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes of 1ms each, and each subframe includes one time slot. Figure 4A and 4B , time is represented horizontally (on the X-axis) as time increases from left to right, and frequency is represented vertically (on the Y-axis) as frequency increases (or decreases) from bottom to top.

[0099] A resource grid may be used to represent a time slot, each of which includes one or more time-concurrent resource blocks (RBs) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) in the frequency domain. A resource grid is further divided into multiple resource elements (REs). One RE may correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain. Figure 4A and 4B In the digital parameters, for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB can contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and seven consecutive symbols in the time domain for a total of 84 REs. For an extended cyclic prefix, an RB can contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and six consecutive symbols in the time domain for a total of 72 REs. The number of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0100] Some REs carry downlink reference (pilot) signals (DL-RS). DL-RS may include positioning reference signal (PRS), tracking reference signal (TRS), phase tracking reference signal (TRS), cell-specific reference signal (CRS), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signal (DMRS), primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), synchronization signal block (SSB), etc. Figure 4A Exemplary locations of REs carrying PRSs are shown (labeled "R").

[0101] A set of resource elements (REs) used to transmit PRS is called a "PRS resource". A set of resource elements may span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and 'N' (such as 1 or more) consecutive symbols within a slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol in the time domain, one PRS resource occupies consecutive PRBs in the frequency domain.

[0102] The transmission of PRS resources within a given PRB has a specific access comb size (also called "access comb density"). The access comb size 'N' represents the subcarrier spacing (or frequency / tone spacing) within each symbol of the PRS resource configuration. Specifically, for access comb size 'N', PRS is transmitted in every Nth subcarrier of a symbol of the PRB. For example, for comb-4, for each symbol of the PRS resource configuration, the REs corresponding to every fourth subcarrier (such as subcarriers 0, 4, 8) are used to transmit the PRS of the PRS resource. Currently, DL-PRS supports access comb sizes of comb-2, comb-4, comb-6, and comb-12. Figure 4A An exemplary PRS resource configuration for comb-6 (spanning six symbols) is shown. That is, the positions of shaded REs (labeled as "R") indicate the Comb-6 PRS resource configuration.

[0103] Currently, DL-PRS resources can span 2, 4, 6, or 12 consecutive symbols in a slot with a full frequency domain staggered pattern. DL-PRS resources can be configured in any higher layer configured downlink or flexible (FL) symbol in a slot. For all REs of a given DL-PRS resource, there can be a constant energy per resource element (EPRE). The following are the inter-symbol frequency offsets for access comb sizes 2, 4, 6, and 12 on 2, 4, 6, and 12 symbols. 2-symbol comb-2: {0, 1}; 4-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1}; 6-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1}; 12-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1}; 4-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1, 3}; 12-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3}; 6-symbol comb-6: {0, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5}; 12-symbol comb-6: {0, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5, 0, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5}; comb-12: {0, 6, 3, 9, 1, 7, 4, 10, 2, 8, 5, 11}.

[0104] A "PRS resource set" is a set of PRS resources used for transmission of a PRS signal, where each PRS resource has a PRS resource ID. In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP. A PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a specific TRP (identified by a TRP ID). In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set have the same periodicity (also known as a "duty cycle"), a common muting pattern configuration, and the same repetition factor (such as "PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor") in a time slot. The periodicity is the time from the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the first PRS instance to the same first repetition of the same first PRS resource of the next PRS instance. The periodicity may have a length selected from 2^μ*{4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 32, 40, 64, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2560, 5120, 10240} time slots, where μ=0, 1, 2, 3. The repetition factor may have a length selected from {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32} time slots.

[0105] The PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam (or beam ID) transmitted from a single TRP (where the TRP can transmit one or more beams). That is, each PRS resource in a PRS resource set can be transmitted on a different beam, and thus, a "PRS resource" or simply "resource" may also be referred to as a "beam". Note that this has no effect on whether the UE knows the TRP and the beam on which the PRS is transmitted.

[0106] A "PRS instance" or "PRS opportunity" is an instance of a periodically repeating time window (such as a set of one or more consecutive time slots) during which a PRS is expected to be transmitted. A PRS opportunity may also be referred to as a "PRS positioning opportunity", "PRS positioning instance", "positioning opportunity", "positioning instance", "positioning repetition", or simply "opportunity", "instance" or "repetition".

[0107] A "positioning frequency layer" (also referred to simply as a "frequency layer") is a collection of one or more PRS resource sets on one or more TRPs that have the same values ​​for certain parameters. Specifically, the set of PRS resource sets has the same subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix (CP) type (meaning that PRS also supports all digital parameters supported by PDSCH), the same A point, the same downlink PRS bandwidth value, the same starting PRB (and center frequency), and the same access comb size. The A point parameter takes the value of the parameter "ARFCN-ValueNR" (where "ARFCN" stands for "Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number") and is an identifier / code that specifies a pair of physical radio channels for transmission and reception. The granularity of the downlink PRS bandwidth can be four PRBs, with a minimum of 24 PRBs and a maximum of 272 PRBs. Currently, a maximum of four frequency layers are defined, and a maximum of two PRS resource sets can be configured per frequency layer per TRP.

[0108] The concept of frequency layer is somewhat similar to the concept of component carrier and bandwidth part (BWP), but the difference is that component carrier and BWP are used by one base station (or macro cell base station and small cell base station) to send data channels, while frequency layer is used by several (usually three or more) base stations to send PRS. The UE can indicate the number of frequency layers it can support when sending its positioning capabilities to the network (such as during an LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) session). For example, the UE can indicate whether it can support one or four positioning frequency layers.

[0109] Figure 4BExamples of various channels within a downlink timeslot of a radio frame are shown. In NR, the channel bandwidth or system bandwidth is divided into multiple BWPs. A BWP is a set of contiguous PRBs selected from a contiguous subset of common RBs of given digital parameters on a given carrier. Typically, up to four BWPs can be specified in the downlink and uplink. That is, a UE can be configured with up to four BWPs on the downlink and up to four BWPs on the uplink. Only one BWP (uplink or downlink) may be active at a given time, which means that the UE can only receive or transmit through one BWP at a time. On the downlink, the bandwidth of each BWP should be equal to or greater than the bandwidth of the SSB, but may or may not contain the SSB.

[0110] refer to Figure 4B , the UE uses the primary synchronization signal (PSS) to determine the subframe / symbol timing and physical layer identification. The UE uses the secondary synchronization signal (SSS) to determine the physical layer cell identification group number and radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identification and the physical layer cell identification group number, the UE can determine the PCI. Based on the PCI, the UE can determine the location of the above-mentioned DL-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH) carrying the MIB can be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form an SSB (also referred to as SS / PBCH). The MIB provides multiple RBs and system frame numbers (SFNs) in the downlink system bandwidth. The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcast system information not sent through the PBCH (such as system information blocks (SIBs)), and paging messages.

[0111] The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries downlink control information (DCI) within one or more control channel elements (CCEs), each CCE includes one or more RE group (REG) bundles (possibly spanning multiple symbols in the time domain), each REG bundle includes one or more REGs, each REG corresponds to 12 resource elements (one resource block) in the frequency domain and one OFDM symbol in the time domain. The set of physical resources used to carry PDCCH / DCI is called a control resource set (CORESET) in NR. In NR, the PDCCH is confined to a single CORESET and is transmitted with its own DMRS. This enables UE-specific beamforming for the PDCCH.

[0112] exist Figure 4B In the example in NR, there is one CORESET per BWP, and the CORESET spans three symbols in the time domain (although it could be just one or two symbols). Unlike LTE control channels that occupy the entire system bandwidth, in NR, the PDCCH channel is localized to a specific region (i.e., CORESET) in the frequency domain. Therefore, Figure 4B The frequency components of the PDCCH shown in are shown as being less than a single BWP in the frequency domain. It should be noted that although the CORESETs shown are continuous in the frequency domain, this is not necessarily the case. In addition, a CORESET may span less than three symbols in the time domain.

[0113] The DCI within the PDCCH carries information about uplink resource allocations (persistent and non-persistent) and a description of downlink data sent to the UE, referred to as uplink grants and downlink grants, respectively. More specifically, the DCI indicates resources scheduled for downlink data channels (e.g., PDSCH) and uplink data channels (e.g., PUSCH). Multiple (e.g., up to eight) DCIs can be configured in the PDCCH, and these DCIs can have one of a variety of formats. For example, there are different DCI formats for uplink scheduling, downlink scheduling, uplink transmit power control (TPC), etc. The PDCCH can be transmitted by 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs to accommodate different DCI payload sizes or decoding rates.

[0114] Figure 5 is a diagram of an exemplary PRS configuration 500 for PRS transmission by a given base station in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 5 In , time is represented horizontally, increasing from left to right. Each long rectangle represents a time slot, while each short (shaded) rectangle identifies an OFDM symbol. Figure 5 In the example of FIG. 5 , a PRS resource set 510 (labeled as “PRS resource set 1”) includes two PRS resources: a first PRS resource 512 (labeled as “PRS resource 1”) and a second PRS resource 514 (labeled as “PRS resource set 2”). The base station transmits PRS on the PRS resources 512 and 514 of the PRS resource set 510 .

[0115] The opportunity length (N_PRS) of the PRS resource set 510 is two slots, and the periodicity (T_PRS) is, for example, 160 slots or 160 milliseconds (ms) (for a 15 kHz subcarrier spacing). Thus, both PRS resources 512 and 514 are two consecutive slots in length and repeat every T_PRS slots starting from the slot in which the first symbol of the corresponding PRS resource appears. Figure 5 In the example of , the symbol length (N_symb) of the PRS resource 512 is two symbols, and the symbol length (N_symb) of the PRS resource 514 is four symbols. The PRS resource 512 and the PRS resource 514 may be transmitted on different beams of the same base station.

[0116] Each instance of a PRS resource set 510 (shown as instances 520a, 520b, and 520c) includes an opportunity of length '2' (i.e., N_PRS=2) for each PRS resource 512, 514 of the PRS resource set. The PRS resources 512 and 514 repeat once every T_PRS time slots until the muting sequence periodicity T_REP. Thus, a bitmap of length T_REP will be required to indicate which opportunities of the instances 520a, 520b, and 520c of the PRS resource set 510 are muted (i.e., not transmitted).

[0117] In one aspect, there may be additional constraints on the PRS configuration 500. For example, for all PRS resources (e.g., PRS resources 512, 514) in a PRS resource set (e.g., PRS resource set 510), the base station may configure the following parameters to be the same: (a) opportunity length (T_PRS), (b) number of symbols (N_symb), (c) access comb type, and / or (d) bandwidth. In addition, for all PRS resources in all PRS resource sets, the subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix may be configured to be the same for one base station or for all base stations. Whether for one base station or for all base stations may depend on the ability of the UE to support the first and / or second options.

[0118] With further reference to DL-PRS, DL-PRS has been defined for NR positioning to enable UEs to detect and measure more neighboring TRPs. Several configurations are supported to enable various deployments (e.g., indoor, outdoor, sub-6 GHz, mmW). In addition, PRS supports beam scanning to support PRS beam operation.

[0119] The following table shows the various types of reference signals that can be used for the various positioning methods supported in NR.

[0120]

[0121] Table 1

[0122] As mentioned above, NR supports various DL-PRS resource repetition and beam scanning options. The repetition of DL-PRS resources has multiple uses, including (1) receive beam scanning on repetition, (2) combining gain for coverage extension, and (3) intra-instance muting. The following table shows the parameters used to configure PRS repetition.

[0123]

[0124] Table 2

[0125] Figure 6 is a diagram of exemplary PRS resource sets with different time gaps according to aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 6In the example of FIG. 1 , time is represented horizontally and frequency is represented vertically. Each block represents a time slot in the time domain and some bandwidth in the frequency domain.

[0126] Figure 6 Two DL-PRS resource set configurations are shown: a first DL-PRS resource set configuration 610 and a second DL-PRS resource set configuration 650. Each DL-PRS resource set configuration 610 and 650 includes four PRS resources (labeled "resource 1", "resource 2", "resource 3", and "resource 4") and has a repetition factor of four. A repetition factor of four means that each of the four PRS resources is repeated four times (i.e., is sent four times) in the DL-PRS resource set. That is, each of the four PRS resources in the DL-PRS resource set has four repetitions.

[0127] The DL-PRS resource set configuration 610 has a time interval of one slot, which means that each repetition of a PRS resource (e.g., "Resource 1") starts at the first slot after the previous repetition of the PRS resource. Therefore, as shown in the DL-PRS resource set configuration 610, four repetitions of each of the four PRS resources are grouped together. Specifically, the four repetitions of the PRS resource "Resource 1" occupy the first four slots of the DL-PRS resource set configuration 610 (i.e., slots n to n+3), the four repetitions of the PRS resource "Resource 2" occupy the second batch of four slots (i.e., slots n+4 to n+7), the four repetitions of the PRS resource "Resource 3" occupy the third batch of four slots (i.e., slots n+8 to n+11), and the four repetitions of the PRS resource "Resource 4" occupy the last four slots (i.e., slots n+12 to n+15).

[0128] In contrast, DL-PRS resource set configuration 650 has a time interval of four slots, which means that each repetition of a PRS resource (e.g., "Resource 2") begins the fourth slot after the previous repetition of the PRS resource. Thus, as shown in DL-PRS resource set configuration 650, four repetitions of each of the four PRS resources are scheduled once every four slots. For example, four repetitions of PRS resource "Resource 1" occupy slots 1, 5, 9, and 13 of DL-PRS resource set configuration 650 (i.e., slots n, n+4, n+8, and n+12).

[0129] Note that Figure 6 As shown, the duration spanned by a DL-PRS resource set containing repeated DL-PRS resources should not exceed the PRS periodicity. In addition, the UE receive beam scanning for receiving / measuring DL-PRS resource sets is not specified but depends on the UE implementation.

[0130] Figure 7700 is an illustration of an exemplary radio frequency (RF) signal processing procedure according to various aspects of the present disclosure. In order to identify the time of arrival (ToA) of an RF signal (e.g., a positioning reference signal (PRS)), a receiver (e.g., a UE) first buffers and then jointly processes all resource elements (REs) on the channel on which a transmitter (e.g., a base station) is transmitting an RF signal. The receiver then performs an inverse Fourier transform (FFT) to convert the received RF signal to the time domain. The conversion of the received RF signal to the time domain is called an estimate of the channel energy response (CER) or channel impulse response (CIR). The CER shows the peaks on the channel that vary over time, so the earliest "significant" peak should correspond to the ToA of the RF signal. Typically, the receiver will use a noise-related quality threshold to filter out false local peaks, thereby possibly correctly identifying the important peaks on the channel. For example, the receiver can select the ToA estimate that is the earliest local maximum of the CER, which is at least 'X' decibels (dB) higher than the median of the CER and a maximum of 'Y' dB lower than the main peak on the channel.

[0131] Therefore, reference Figure 7 At a fast Fourier transform (FFT) stage 710, a receiver (e.g., any of the UEs described herein) receives / measures and buffers a time domain RF signal (e.g., a PRS) and converts it to a frequency domain signal. At an association stage 720, the receiver generates a frequency domain channel impulse response from the frequency domain signal based on a descrambling sequence. At an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) stage 730, the receiver generates a time domain channel impulse response from the frequency domain channel impulse response output from the association stage 720. At an earliest peak detection stage 740, the receiver generates a detection indication and a ToA for the time domain RF signal received at the FFT stage 710 based on the time domain channel impulse response received from the IFFT stage 730.

[0132] In the case where the receiver is a UE, the UE may receive the time domain RF signal at one or more of the antennas 316. Subsequent stages (i.e., FFT stage 710, association stage 720, IFFT stage 730, earliest peak detection stage 740) may be processed by one or more receivers 312, one or more WWAN transceivers 310, and / or one or more processors 332, depending on the hardware implementation of the UE. Similarly, in the case where the receiver is a base station, the base station may receive the time domain RF signal at one or more of the antennas 356. Subsequent stages may be processed by one or more receivers 352, one or more WWAN transceivers 350, and / or one or more processors 384, depending on the hardware implementation of the base station.

[0133] As can be understood from the above, a receiver requires some time to buffer and process RF signals, such as PRS. The amount of time required may depend on various factors, such as the capabilities of the receiver, the number of REs carrying the RF signal, the bandwidth of the RF signal, etc.

[0134] Buffering is required because the receiver receives the RF signal at a certain time (e.g., at one or more symbols, time slots, subframes, etc.), but then needs to process the RF signal according to each time slot, each subframe, each resource, each instance, etc. For example, in the case where the UE measures the DL-PRS resource (including a certain number of symbols per time slot on one or more time slots per instance) to determine the ToA of the PRS resource, the UE needs to buffer and then process at least all symbols of the time slot that may contain the PRS RE in order to determine the ToA of the PRS resource. Therefore, the receiver stores the received / measured RF signal in a buffer when it is received in order to subsequently process the RF signal.

[0135] With specific reference to DL-PRS buffering and processing, different UEs have different DL-PRS buffering and processing capabilities. For example, the maximum number of DL-PRS resources for all TRPs in each time period that a UE can measure and process is limited. The following table shows various parameters that indicate UE capabilities.

[0136]

[0137] Table 3 below shows the various differences between PRS in LTE and NR.

[0138]

[0139] Table 4

[0140] As shown in the table above, there are two separate capabilities for PRS processing, one related to the number of PRS resources and one related to the number of PRS symbols. These two capabilities can be referred to as (1) a limit on the maximum number of DL-PRS resources 'N1' that the UE is expected to measure across all TRPs and frequency layers within a measurement window of 'T1' ms, which is reported as a pair list {N1, T1}, and (2) a limit on the maximum number of symbols 'N2' (in milliseconds) of PRS resources (e.g., 272 PRBs) containing the maximum bandwidth that the UE is expected to measure within a measurement window of 'T2' ms, which is reported as a pair list {'N2, T2}.

[0141] For UE DL-PRS processing capability, it has been proposed that the UE reports one (N, T) value combination per frequency band, where 'N' is the duration (in milliseconds) of the DL-PRS symbol that the UE can process every 'T' ms for a given maximum bandwidth 'B' (in MHz) supported by the UE. Here, 'N' and 'T' correspond to 'N2' and 'T2' above. In addition, the UE can report the number of DL-PRS resources that the UE can process in one time slot. This parameter can be reported per SCS per frequency band. The reported number of DL-PRS resources that the UE can process in one time slot is selected from a group {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64}. Currently, the following sets of values ​​for 'N', 'T', and 'B' are supported: N = {0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50} ms, T = {8, 16, 20, 30, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280} ms, and B = {5, 10, 20, 40, 50, 80, 100, 200, 400} MHz.

[0142] Alternatively, it is also proposed that the reporting of (N, T) values ​​for the maximum bandwidth 'B' (in MHz) does not depend on the SCS.

[0143] It is further proposed that the UE capability for simultaneous DL-PRS processing across positioning frequency layers is not supported. That is, for a UE supporting multiple positioning frequency layers, it is expected that the UE only processes one frequency layer at a time.

[0144] Yet another proposal is to define UE capabilities (e.g., 'N', 'T') for DL-PRS processing assuming that the UE is configured with measurement gaps. More specifically, different potential UE capabilities for DL-PRS processing may be defined assuming that the UE is configured with measurement gaps and that the maximum ratio of the measurement gap length (MGL) to the measurement gap repetition periodicity (MGRP) does not exceed 'X' percent (i.e., MGL / MGRP<=X%). The measurement gap is a time period configured by the serving base station during which the serving base station is prohibited from sending downlink data to the UE. The serving base station may also be prohibited from configuring the UE to send uplink data. In this way, during the measurement gap, the UE can measure the DL-PRS from neighboring base stations without interference from the serving base station.

[0145] If the UE requires measurement gaps to identify and measure intra-frequency cells and / or inter-frequency cells, and the UE does not support independent measurement gap patterns for different frequency ranges, the network may provide a single per-UE measurement gap pattern for concurrent monitoring of all frequency layers. If the UE requires measurement gaps to identify and measure intra-frequency cells and / or inter-frequency cells, and the UE supports independent measurement gap patterns for different frequency ranges, the network may provide per-frequency range measurement gap patterns for frequency ranges where the UE requires per-frequency range measurement gaps to independently concurrently monitor all frequency layers of each frequency range, or provide a single per-UE measurement gap pattern for concurrent monitoring of all frequency layers of all frequency ranges. Thus, the UE may be configured with a FR1 measurement gap pattern, a FR2 measurement gap pattern, or a UE-specific measurement gap pattern.

[0146] Figure 8 FIG. 8 is a diagram 800 illustrating an exemplary PRS instance according to aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 8 In , time is represented horizontally, and each block represents a time slot (1 ms in length for 15 kHz SCS) containing a PRS resource. A PRS resource may also be referred to as a PRS resource repetition, or simply a repetition, because a particular PRS resource is typically repeated a certain number of times within a PRS instance, as described above with reference to Figure 6 In Figure 8 In the example shown, the length of the PRS instance is 37ms (i.e., N_PRS=37ms) and the periodicity is 40ms (i.e., T_PRS=40ms). There are a total of 10 PRS resource repetitions for each PRS instance, and every four time slots contain one PRS resource, which means that within the 37ms PRS instance, the total length of the PRS resource is 10ms.

[0147] exist Figure 8 In the example of , the PRS instance is almost as long as the PRS periodicity, resulting in a very short gap between the last PRS resource repetition and the first PRS resource repetition of adjacent PRS instances. Figure 8 As shown, there is a 3 ms interval between the end of the last repetition of the last PRS resource of a PRS instance and the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the next PRS instance. Figure 7 , the UE will measure and buffer the PRS resources in the first 37ms of the PRS periodicity, and then process the measured PRS resources in the last 3ms of the PRS periodicity.

[0148] If the UE is configured with measurement gaps to measure the PRS instance shown, the length of the measurement gap will need to be at least 37ms (i.e., MGL=37ms) and the MGRP will need to be 40ms (i.e., MGRP=40ms). In this case, there will be only 3ms at the end of the 37ms PRS instance for PRS processing and communication with the serving base station. It can be understood that this is generally unacceptable.

[0149] Currently, only the measurement gap patterns listed in Table 5 are supported. The UE determines the measurement gap timing based on the gap offset configuration and the measurement gap timing advance configuration provided by higher layer signaling. Figure 8 As shown in Table 5, since the length of the PRS instance is greater than the maximum MGL (i.e., 6 ms), the UE may be configured with the maximum MGL. Specifically, the UE may be configured with a 6 ms MGL and a 40 ms MGRP (to match the PRS periodicity). Thus, the UE will only be able to measure PRS resources within a 6 ms measurement gap.

[0150]

[0151] Table 5

[0152] It has been proposed to add a limited number of new measurement gap patterns. Possible candidates include measurement gaps with MGL of {10, 20, 40, 50} ms and MGRP of {80, 160, 320, 640} ms.

[0153] The UE may not always be configured with measurement gaps. During the measurement gaps, as described above, there is no other communication, which increases latency and reduces throughput to the UE. This can be problematic for low-latency data streaming services such as Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services. When the UE is not configured with measurement gaps, it needs to report its ability to buffer and process inter-frequency PRS resources without the assistance of measurement gaps.

[0154] The present disclosure provides a technique for determining the minimum PRS processing capability of a UE when the UE is not configured with measurement gaps. With respect to PRS processing without measurement gaps, for each PRS periodicity length, the PRS instance length (e.g., Figure 8 There are several options for the worst case of 37 ms PRS instance length per 40 ms PRS periodicity length in the example of ) (or in other words, the ratio of PRS instance length to PRS periodicity length (e.g., N_PRS / T_PRS)).

[0155] As a first option, the PRS instance length per PRS periodicity length may be as much as the worst case MGL per MGRP (ie, MGL / MGRP) when measurement gaps are configured. For example, in Table 5 above, the worst case is an MGL of 6 ms and an MGRP of 20 ms.

[0156] As a second option, the UE may report a separate capability for the maximum PRS instance length for each PRS periodicity length that it can handle when no measurement gaps are configured. That is, there may be one capability for when measurement gaps are configured and another capability for when measurement gaps are not configured.

[0157] As a third option, there may be a minimum gap between the last repetition of the last PRS resource of a PRS instance and the first repetition of the first PRS resource of a subsequent PRS instance (eg, Figure 8 ms gap shown in ). As a first sub-option, there may be a minimum gap between the last repetition of the last PRS resource of a PRS instance and the first repetition of the first PRS resource of a subsequent PRS instance of the same frequency layer. Alternatively, as a second sub-option, there may be a minimum gap between the last repetition of the last PRS resource of a PRS instance and the first repetition of the first PRS resource of a subsequent PRS instance on all frequency layers. The minimum gap may depend on the SCS, or the slot duration, or the UE capability of additional reporting. In this option, the UE is not expected to process PRS resources closer than the minimum gap to the start of a PRS instance. The minimum gap may be equal to the minimum MGRP minus the specified MGL, or may be based on the MGL and MGRP supported by the UE.

[0158] As a fourth option, the worst case PRS instance length per PRS periodicity length (e.g., N_PRS / T_PRS) may be the MGL per MGRP or a factor (e.g., less than '1') of the MGRP minus the MGL. For example, it may be 50% of the worst case MGL per MGRP. That is, the PRS instance length per PRS periodicity length may be less than or equal to 0.5 times the worst case MGL per MGRP.

[0159] As another technique when measurement gaps are not configured, the UE may report the minimum number of PRS resources per time slot that it can support. As a first option, the minimum number of PRS resources per time slot may depend on the SCS, as follows: (1) 16 PRS resources per time slot in a 15kHz SCS, (2) 8 PRS resources per time slot in a 30kHz SCS, (3) 4 PRS resources per time slot in a 60kHz SCS (for both FR1 and FR2), and (4) two PRS resources per time slot in a 120kHz SCS. It may depend on the SCS due to the scaling factor of different SCSs. For example, for a first SCS (denoted as "SCS1"), each time slot supports 'X' PRS resources as the minimum number of PRS resources per time slot, then for a value of 'K' greater than '1', the second SCS (denoted as "SCS2") may be equal to 'SCS1' multiplied by 'K', and the UE may support at least 'X' per 'K' PRS resources per time slot.

[0160] As a second option, the minimum number of PRS resources per time slot can be a fixed number for FR1 and FR2, which is independent of the SCS within FR1 and FR2. For example, for all SCSs supported in FR1, there can be 16 PRS resources per time slot in FR1, and for all SCSs supported in FR2, there can be two PRS resources per time slot in FR2.

[0161] As a third option, when measurement gaps are configured, the minimum number of PRS resources per time slot may be less than (e.g., a fraction of) the reported value. For example, if the UE reports that it can handle 16 PRS resources per time slot when measurement gaps are configured, then if no measurement gaps are configured, it may be expected to support eight (0.5x16=8) PRS resources per time slot.

[0162] As another technique when measurement gaps are not configured, the minimum number of PRS symbols 'N' in a 'T' ms window (also referred to as (N, T) capability) can be based on the available MGL configuration and MGRP configuration. As a first option, the minimum number of PRS symbols 'N' that the UE can buffer can be the same as the currently specified minimum MGL. As shown in Table 5, this minimum number of symbols is 1.5 ms. As a second option, the minimum number of PRS symbols 'N' that the UE can process within a window of 'T' ms can be the same as the maximum MGL that the UE can support for FR1 and FR2 respectively. For example, if the UE reports a capability of MGL equal to 6 ms, then 'N' will also be 6 ms.

[0163] Regarding the 'T' value assumed when measurement gaps are not configured, as a first option, the 'T' value may be the minimum MGRP in Table 5, which is greater than the 'T' value reported when measurement gaps are configured. As a second option, the 'T' value may be the MGRP selected for FR1 and FR2 separately. As a third option, the minimum length of the measurement window 'T' may be the same as the maximum MGRP supported by the UE for FR1 and FR2 separately. As a fourth option, the minimum length of the measurement window 'T' may be the same as the maximum MGRP in Table 5 (i.e., 160ms).

[0164] On the one hand, when no measurement gap is configured, for different PRS periodicities, it is assumed that the different numbers of PRS symbols supported by the UE (in milliseconds) can be equal to (1) one of the combinations of supported (MGL, MGRP) modes in Table 5, or (2) (N, T), which are individually equal to all supported (MGL, MGRP) modes in FR1 and FR2.

[0165] In one aspect, when measurement gaps are not configured, (N, T) may be selected such that for different SCS or FR1 / FR2, all UEs must support (1) a value of 'N' selected from {0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50} ms or (2) a value of 'T' selected from {8, 16, 20, 30, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280} ms. In addition, the maximum bandwidth 'B' supported by the UE may be the same as the maximum bandwidth 'B' reported when measurement gaps are configured.

[0166] On the one hand, the UE can report the above capabilities to the location server in one or more LPP messages (e.g., LPP report capability message), or report the above capabilities to the serving base station in one or more RRC messages, one or more MAC control elements (MAC-CE) or uplink control information (UCI).

[0167] Fig. 9 An exemplary method 900 of wireless communication according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. In one aspect, the method X00 may be performed by a UE (eg, any of the UEs described herein).

[0168] At 910, the UE sends one or more capability messages to a network entity (e.g., a location server, a serving base station), the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process the PRS, the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of the PRS that the UE can process within the measurement window without a measurement gap. In one aspect, operation 910 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 310, one or more processors 332, memory 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered as means for performing the operation.

[0169] At 920, the UE performs one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for a duration of the PRS. In one aspect, operation 920 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 310, one or more processors 332, memory 340, and / or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered means for performing the operation.

[0170] As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of method 900 is that it enables a UE to report and subsequently be configured with PRS instances that the UE can measure without measurement gaps.

[0171] It can be seen in the above detailed description that different features are combined together in the examples. This disclosure should not be understood as an intention that the exemplary clauses have more features than the features explicitly mentioned in each clause. More precisely, various aspects of the present disclosure may include less than all the features of the disclosed individual exemplary clauses. Therefore, the following clauses should be considered to be combined in the specification, where each clause itself can be used as a separate example. Although each dependent clause can refer to a specific combination with one of the other clauses in the clause, the various aspects of the dependent clause are not limited to a specific combination. It should be understood that other exemplary clauses may also include a combination of the subject matter of the dependent clause aspect with any other dependent clause or independent clause, or any feature with other dependent clauses and independent clauses. Unless it is clearly expressed or it can be easily inferred that a specific combination is not intended (for example, contradictory aspects, such as defining an element as both an insulator and a conductor), the various aspects disclosed herein explicitly include these combinations. In addition, it is also intended that the various aspects of the clause can be included in any other independent clause, even if the clause is not directly dependent on the independent clause.

[0172] Examples of implementation are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0173] Clause 1. A wireless communication method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: sending one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of the PRS that the UE can process within a measurement window without a measurement gap; and performing one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for a duration of the PRS.

[0174] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein: the duration of the PRS is related to the PRS instance length, and the measurement window is related to PRS periodicity.

[0175] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, wherein a ratio of the PRS instance length to the PRS periodicity is equal to a ratio of a measurement gap length to a measurement gap repetition periodicity that the UE is capable of supporting when configuring measurement gaps.

[0176] Clause 4. A method as described in any of clauses 2 to 3, wherein the one or more capabilities further indicate a PRS instance length and a PRS periodicity that the UE is capable of processing with a measurement gap.

[0177] Clause 5. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 4, wherein the one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a last PRS resource of a PRS instance and a first repetition of a first PRS resource of a subsequent PRS instance.

[0178] Clause 6. The method of clause 5, wherein the last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instance is on the same frequency layer as the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the subsequent PRS instance.

[0179] Clause 7. The method of clause 5, wherein the last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instance is on a different frequency layer than the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the subsequent PRS instance.

[0180] Clause 8. A method according to any one of clauses 5 to 7, wherein the minimum gap depends on the subcarrier spacing or time slot duration of the last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instance and the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the subsequent PRS instance.

[0181] Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 5 to 8, wherein the UE is not expected to process PRS resources that are closer to the subsequent PRS instance than the minimum gap.

[0182] Clause 10. The method of any of clauses 5 to 9, wherein the minimum gap is equal to a ratio of a measurement gap length to a measurement gap repetition periodicity.

[0183] Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 2 to 10, wherein the ratio of the PRS instance length to the PRS periodicity is a factor of the ratio of a measurement gap length to a measurement gap repetition periodicity.

[0184] Clause 12. The method of clause 1, wherein: the duration of the PRS is indicated as a number of PRS resources and the measurement window is a time slot.

[0185] Clause 13. The method of clause 12, wherein a minimum value of the number of PRS resources within the time slot is based on a subcarrier spacing of the time slot.

[0186] Clause 14. A method according to clause 13, wherein the minimum number of the PRS resources within the time slot includes: 16 PRS resources with a subcarrier spacing of 15 kilohertz (kHz), 8 PRS resources with a subcarrier spacing of 30 kHz, 4 PRS resources with a subcarrier spacing of 60 kHz, and 2 PRS resources with a subcarrier spacing of 120 kHz.

[0187] Clause 15. The method of clause 13, wherein the minimum number of the PRS resources within the time slot comprises: 16 PRS resources for frequency range 1 (FR1) and 2 PRS resources for frequency range 2 (FR2).

[0188] Clause 16. A method as described in any of clauses 12 to 15, wherein the minimum value of the number of PRS resources in the time slot is less than the number of PRS resources in the time slot that the UE can support when a measurement gap is configured.

[0189] Clause 17. The method of clause 1, wherein: the duration of the PRS is indicated as a number of PRS symbols 'N' and the measurement window is indicated as a number of milliseconds 'T'.

[0190] Clause 18. The method of clause 17, wherein a minimum value of the number of PRS symbols 'N' is equal to a minimum measurement gap length that the UE can support.

[0191] Clause 19. The method of clause 17, wherein a minimum value of the number of PRS symbols 'N' is equal to a maximum measurement gap length that the UE can support.

[0192] Clause 20. The method of clause 19, wherein the minimum value of the number of PRS symbols 'N' is based on whether the PRS is in FR1 or FR2.

[0193] Clause 21. A method as described in any of clauses 17 to 20, wherein the number of milliseconds 'T' is equal to a minimum measurement gap repetition periodicity that is greater than a second number of milliseconds 'T' supported by the UE when supporting measurement gaps.

[0194] Clause 22. The method of any of clauses 17 to 20, wherein the number of milliseconds 'T' is equal to a first measurement gap repetition periodicity for FR1 or a second measurement gap repetition periodicity for FR2.

[0195] Clause 23. A method as set forth in any of clauses 17 to 20, wherein the number of milliseconds 'T' is equal to a maximum measurement gap repetition periodicity supported by the UE for FR1 or FR2.

[0196] Clause 24. A method as set forth in any of clauses 17 to 20, wherein the number of milliseconds 'T' is equal to a maximum measurement gap repetition periodicity supported by the UE.

[0197] Clause 25. A method as described in any of clauses 17 to 24, wherein: the number of PRS symbols 'N' is equal to the measurement gap length, and the number of milliseconds 'T' is equal to the measurement gap repetition periodicity.

[0198] Clause 26. The method of clause 25, wherein the measurement gap length and the measurement gap repetition periodicity are based on whether the PRS is in FR1 or FR2.

[0199] Clause 27. A method according to any one of clauses 17 to 26, wherein: the value of 'N' is selected from the group consisting of {0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50} ms, and the value of 'T' is selected from the group consisting of {8, 16, 20, 30, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280} ms.

[0200] Clause 28. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 27, wherein the maximum bandwidth supported by the UE when measurement gaps are not configured is the same as the maximum bandwidth supported by the UE when measurement gaps are configured.

[0201] Clause 29. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 28, wherein: the network entity is a location server and the one or more capability messages include one or more Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) messages.

[0202] Clause 30. A method according to any one of clauses 1 to 28, wherein: the network entity is a serving base station and the one or more capability messages include one or more radio resource control (RRC) messages, one or more medium access control elements (MAC-CE) or uplink control information.

[0203] Clause 31. An apparatus comprising a memory, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the memory, the at least one transceiver, and the at least one processor configured to perform a method according to any one of clauses 1 to 30.

[0204] Clause 32. An apparatus comprising means for performing the method of any one of clauses 1 to 30.

[0205] Clause 33. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising at least one instruction for causing a computer or a processor to perform the method according to any of clauses 1 to 30.

[0206] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that any of a variety of different technologies and techniques may be used to represent information and signals. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0207] In addition, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the various illustrative logic blocks, modules, circuits and algorithmic steps described in conjunction with the aspects disclosed herein can be implemented into electronic hardware, computer software or a combination of the two. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, frames, modules, circuits and steps have been generally described above in terms of their functions. Whether this functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints imposed on the entire system. The technician can implement the described functionality in different ways for each specific application, but this implementation decision should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0208] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device), discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but alternatively, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0209] The steps of the methods, sequences and / or algorithms described in conjunction with the aspects disclosed herein may be directly embodied in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software module may reside in a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to a processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. In an alternative, the storage medium may be integrated with the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). In an alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in a user terminal as discrete components.

[0210] In one or more exemplary aspects, the functions described can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions can be stored on a computer-readable medium or sent via the computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or codes. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media (including any media that facilitates the transfer of computer programs from one place to another). Storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store the desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer. Moreover, any connection is appropriately referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, if software is sent from a website, server, or other remote source using coaxial cable, optical cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwaves, coaxial cable, optical fiber cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwaves are included in the definition of the medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray disc, where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with the aid of lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0211] Although the foregoing disclosure shows the illustrative aspects of the present disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications may be made herein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and / or actions of the method claims according to the aspects of the present disclosure described herein do not need to be performed in any particular order. In addition, although the elements of the present disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, plural forms may be contemplated unless explicitly stated to be limited to the singular.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: sending one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), wherein the one or more capabilities indicate at least a duration of a PRS that the UE is capable of processing within a measurement window without a measurement gap, wherein the one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a last PRS resource of a PRS instance and an end of the measurement window, and wherein the UE is not expected to process PRS resources that are closer to an end of the measurement window than the minimum gap; and One or more positioning measurements are performed on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for a duration of the PRS.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The duration of the PRS is related to the PRS instance length, and The measurement window is related to the PRS periodicity.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The ratio of the PRS instance length to the PRS periodicity is equal to the ratio of the measurement gap length supported by the UE to the measurement gap repetition periodicity when the measurement gap is configured.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The one or more capabilities also indicate the PRS instance length and the PRS periodicity that the UE can handle with a measurement gap.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instance and the first repetition of the first PRS resource of a subsequent PRS instance are on the same frequency layer.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instance and the first repetition of the first PRS resource of a subsequent PRS instance are on different frequency layers.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein: in, The minimum gap depends on a subcarrier spacing or slot duration of the last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instance and the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the subsequent PRS instance.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The minimum gap is equal to the ratio of the measurement gap length to the measurement gap repetition periodicity.

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The ratio of the PRS instance length to the PRS periodicity is a factor of the ratio of the measurement gap length to the measurement gap repetition periodicity.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein: The duration of the PRS is indicated as a number of PRS resources, and The measurement window is a time slot.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The minimum value of the number of PRS resources within the time slot is based on the subcarrier spacing of the time slot.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein: The minimum value of the number of PRS resources in the time slot includes: 16 PRS resources with a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz, 8 PRS resources with a subcarrier spacing of 30kHz, 4 PRS resources with a subcarrier spacing of 60kHz, and 2 PRS resources with a subcarrier spacing of 120kHz.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein: The minimum value of the number of PRS resources in the time slot includes: 16 PRS resources in frequency range 1 (FR1), and 2 PRS resources for frequency range 2 (FR2).

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The minimum value of the number of PRS resources in the time slot is less than the number of PRS resources in the time slot that can be supported by the UE when a measurement gap is configured.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein: The duration of the PRS is indicated as the number of PRS symbols 'N', and The measurement window is indicated as a number of milliseconds 'T'.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The minimum value of the PRS symbol number 'N' is equal to the minimum measurement gap length that the UE can support.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The minimum value of the PRS symbol number 'N' is equal to the maximum measurement gap length that the UE can support.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein: The minimum value of the PRS symbol number 'N' is based on whether the PRS is in FR1 or FR2.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The number of milliseconds "T" is equal to a minimum measurement gap repetition period, and the minimum measurement gap repetition period is greater than a second number of milliseconds "T" supported by the UE when supporting measurement gaps.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The number of milliseconds 'T' is equal to the first measurement gap repetition periodicity for FR1 or the second measurement gap repetition periodicity for FR2.

21. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The number of milliseconds 'T' is equal to the maximum measurement gap repetition periodicity supported by the UE for FR1 or FR2.

22. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The number of milliseconds 'T' is equal to the maximum measurement gap repetition periodicity supported by the UE.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein: The number of PRS symbols 'N' is equal to the measurement gap length, and The number of milliseconds 'T' is equal to the measurement gap repetition periodicity.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein: The measurement gap length and the measurement gap repetition periodicity are based on whether the PRS is in FR1 or FR2.

25. The method of claim 15, wherein: The value of 'N' is selected from the group {0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50} ms, and The value of 'T' is selected from the group consisting of {8, 16, 20, 30, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280} ms.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein a maximum bandwidth supported by the UE when a measurement gap is not configured is the same as a maximum bandwidth supported by the UE when a measurement gap is configured.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein: The network entity is a location server, and The one or more capability messages include one or more Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) messages.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein: The network entity is a serving base station, and The one or more capability messages include one or more radio resource control (RRC) messages, one or more medium access control elements (MAC-CEs), or uplink control information.

29. A user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories; one or more transceivers; and One or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors individually or in combination configured to: sending, via the one or more transceivers, one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), wherein the one or more capabilities indicate at least a duration of a PRS that the UE is capable of processing within a measurement window without a measurement gap, wherein the one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a last PRS resource of a PRS instance and an end of the measurement window, and wherein the UE is not expected to process PRS resources that are closer to an end of the measurement window than the minimum gap; and One or more positioning measurements are performed on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for a duration of the PRS.

30. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for sending one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), wherein the one or more capabilities indicate at least a duration of a PRS that the UE is capable of processing within a measurement window without a measurement gap, wherein the one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a last PRS resource of a PRS instance and an end of the measurement window, and wherein the UE is not expected to process PRS resources that are closer to an end of the measurement window than the minimum gap; and Means for performing one or more positioning measurements on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for a duration of the PRS.

31. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: sending one or more capability messages to a network entity, the one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process a positioning reference signal (PRS), wherein: The one or more capabilities indicate at least a duration of a PRS that the UE is capable of processing within a measurement window without a measurement gap, wherein the one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a last PRS resource of a PRS instance and an end of the measurement window, and wherein it is undesirable for the UE to process PRS resources that are closer to an end of the measurement window than the minimum gap; and One or more positioning measurements are performed on one or more PRS resources during the measurement window for a duration of the PRS.

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