System and method for location verification in non-terrestrial networks

Abstract

Systems and methods for location verification in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) are presented. A core network may receive assistance information from at least one node of a radio access network (RAN) to perform location verification of a wireless communication device of the RAN.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, including but not limited to systems and methods for location verification in non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). Background Art

[0002] The third generation partnership project (3GPP), a standardization organization, is currently developing a new radio interface called 5G New Radio (5G NR), as well as the next generation packet core network (NG-CN or NGC). 5G NR will have three main components: 5G access network (5G-AN), 5G core network (5GC) and user equipment (UE). To facilitate the realization of different data services and requirements, the elements of 5GC (also known as network functions) have been simplified, some of which are software-based and some are hardware-based so that they can be adjusted as needed. Summary of the invention

[0003] The example embodiments disclosed herein are intended to solve problems related to one or more of the problems raised in the prior art, as well as to provide additional features that will become clear by reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. According to various embodiments, example systems, methods, devices, and computer program products are disclosed herein. However, it should be understood that these embodiments are presented by way of example, not limitation, and it will be clear to a person of ordinary skill in the art reading this disclosure that various modifications may be made to the disclosed embodiments (e.g., including combining features from various disclosed examples, embodiments, and / or implementations) while remaining within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0004] At least one aspect relates to the following system, method, apparatus, or computer-readable medium. A core network may receive assistance information from at least one node (e.g., UE and / or BS) of a radio access network (RAN) to perform location verification of a wireless communication device (e.g., UE) of the RAN. In some embodiments, the assistance information may include ephemeris information of a satellite. The core network may use the assistance information to perform location verification of the wireless communication device.

[0005] In some embodiments, at least one node may include a base station. The assistance information may include first assistance information. The first assistance information may include at least one of the following: ephemeris information of at least one satellite; a common timing advance (TA) parameter of at least one satellite; at least one of an angle of arrival (AoA) or an angle of departure (AoD) at at least one satellite; an estimate of the position of the wireless communication device by the base station; at least one parameter of the TA reported by the wireless communication device; assistance information reported by the wireless communication device to the base station, the assistance information including at least one of the following: the position of the wireless communication device, the mobility state of the wireless communication device, the trajectory of the wireless communication device, a measurement of the reference signal received power (RSRP) or the reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of the serving cell or at least one neighboring cell, ephemeris information applied at the wireless communication device, or a common TA parameter; time information corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned information; at least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned information; or a beam ID corresponding to at least one defined measurement result.

[0006] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be indicated via a next generation (NG) interface or an N2 interface. The core network may send signaling to trigger or request a report of the first auxiliary information (e.g., periodically or once (to trigger a series of periodic reports)). The signaling may be sent using the New Radio Positioning Protocol A (NRPPa) protocol. The signaling may be sent via a next generation (NG) interface or an N2 interface.

[0007] In some embodiments, the core network may receive assistance information reported by the wireless communication device to the base station in a defined container message from the base station. At least one node may include a wireless communication device. The assistance information may include second assistance information. The second assistance information may include at least one of the following: timing advance (TA) applied at the wireless communication device; ephemeris information applied at the wireless communication device (e.g., applied to UL pre-compensation); common timing advance (TA) parameters applied at the wireless communication device; the location of the wireless communication device; at least one of the mobility state or trajectory of the wireless communication device; a measurement of reference signal received power (RSRP) or reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of the serving cell or at least one neighboring cell; time information corresponding to one or more of the foregoing information; at least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the foregoing information; or a beam ID corresponding to at least one defined measurement result. The assistance information may be indicated via the N1 interface. The core network may send signaling to trigger or request reporting of the second assistance information to the wireless communication device. The signaling may be sent using the New Radio Positioning Protocol (NRPP) protocol. The signaling may be sent via the N1 interface.

[0008] In some embodiments, the core network may send a first signaling to trigger or request reporting of auxiliary information to the base station. The base station may send a second signaling to the wireless communication device to trigger or request reporting of auxiliary information. The first signaling may be sent via a next generation (NG) interface or an N2 interface. The second signaling may be sent via a Uu interface.

[0009] In some embodiments, at least one node of the RAN may include a base station. The wireless communication device may send at least one location verification measurement result to the base station. The core network may receive at least one location verification measurement result from the base station. The at least one location verification measurement result may form at least a part of the assistance information.

[0010] In some embodiments, at least one location verification measurement result may include at least one of the following: a difference in measurement of round trip time (RTT) or a difference between reception and transmission (Rx-Tx) time; at least one measurement of reference signal time difference (RSTD); at least one measurement of relative time of arrival (RTOA); a timestamp or time information of at least one of the aforementioned measurements; or at least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned measurements. The core network may send a first signaling to trigger or request reporting of at least one defined measurement result to the base station. The core network may cause the base station to send a second signaling to the wireless communication device to trigger or request reporting of at least one defined measurement result. The first signaling may include at least one of the following: radio resource control (RRC) signaling, media access control control element (MAC CE) signaling, or downlink control information (DCI) signaling. RSTD or RTOA may correspond to: a time difference between arrival times (TOAs) corresponding to the same transmit receive point (TRP) at different time instances. RSTD or RTOA may correspond to the time difference between the times of arrival (TOA) corresponding to the same transmit reception point (TRP) at different time instances minus the time difference between reference signal transmissions.

[0011] In some embodiments, at least one node (eg, UE and / or BS) of a radio access network (RAN) may send assistance information to a core network to perform location verification of a wireless communication device (eg, UE) of the RAN. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] Various example embodiments of the present solution are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings or figures. The drawings are provided for illustrative purposes only and depict only example embodiments of the present solution to facilitate the reader's understanding of the present solution. Therefore, the drawings should not be considered as limiting the breadth, scope or applicability of the present solution. It should be noted that for clarity and ease of description, these drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

[0013] Figure 1 illustrates an example cellular communication network in which the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0014] Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram of example base station and user equipment devices according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0015] Figure 3 illustrates an example non-terrestrial network (NTN) according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0016] Figure 4 illustrates an example multi-cell round trip time (multi-RTT) method according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0017] Figure 5 illustrates an example of positioning by a single satellite / vehicle according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0018] Figure 6 A flow chart for location verification in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] 1. Mobile communication technology and environment

[0020] Figure 1 An example wireless communication network and / or system 100 is illustrated in which the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the following discussion, the wireless communication network 100 may be any wireless network, such as a cellular network or a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network, and is referred to herein as "network 100." Such an example network 100 includes a base station 102 (hereinafter referred to as "BS 102"; also referred to as a wireless communication node) and a user equipment device 104 (hereinafter referred to as "UE 104"; also referred to as a wireless communication device) that may communicate with each other via a communication link 110 (e.g., a wireless communication channel), and a cluster of cells 126, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, and 140 covering a geographic area 101. Figure 11 , BS 102 and UE 104 are contained within respective geographic boundaries of cell 126. Each of the other cells 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, and 140 may include at least one base station operating within its allocated bandwidth to provide adequate radio coverage to its intended users.

[0021] For example, BS 102 may operate with the allocated channel transmission bandwidth to provide sufficient coverage to UE 104. BS 102 and UE 104 may communicate via downlink radio frames 118 and uplink radio frames 124, respectively. Each radio frame 118 / 124 may be further divided into subframes 120 / 127, which may include data symbols 122 / 128. In the present disclosure, BS 102 and UE 104 are described herein as non-limiting examples of "communication nodes", which may generally practice the methods disclosed herein. According to various embodiments of the present solution, such communication nodes may be capable of wireless and / or wired communication.

[0022] Figure 2 A block diagram of an example wireless communication system 200 for sending and receiving wireless communication signals (e.g., OFDM / OFDMA signals) according to some embodiments of the present solution is illustrated. The system 200 may include components and elements configured to support known or conventional operating features that need not be described in detail herein. In an illustrative embodiment, the system 200 may be used in applications such as Figure 1 The data symbols are communicated (eg, sent and received) in a wireless communication environment such as the wireless communication environment 100 of FIG. 1 , as described above.

[0023] System 200 generally includes a base station 202 (hereinafter referred to as "BS 202") and a user equipment device 204 (hereinafter referred to as "UE 204"). BS 202 includes a BS (base station) transceiver module 210, a BS antenna 212, a BS processor module 214, a BS memory module 216, and a network communication module 218, each of which is coupled to and interconnected with each other via a data communication bus 220 as needed. UE 204 includes a UE (user equipment) transceiver module 230, a UE antenna 232, a UE memory module 234, and a UE processor module 236, each of which is coupled to and interconnected with each other via a data communication bus 240 as needed. BS 202 communicates with UE 204 via a communication channel 250, which may be any wireless channel or other medium suitable for data transmission as described herein.

[0024] As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the system 200 may also include Figure 2Any number of modules outside the modules shown. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the various illustrative blocks, modules, circuits, and processing logic described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in hardware, computer-readable software, firmware, or any actual combination thereof. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability and compatibility of hardware, firmware, and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are generally described according to their functions. Whether such functions are implemented as hardware, firmware, or software may depend on specific applications and design constraints imposed on the entire system. People familiar with the concepts described herein can implement such functions in a suitable manner for each specific application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure.

[0025] According to some embodiments, the UE transceiver 230 may be referred to herein as an "uplink" transceiver 230, which includes a radio frequency (RF) transmitter and an RF receiver, each of which includes circuitry coupled to an antenna 232. A duplex switch (not shown) may alternatively couple the uplink transmitter or receiver to the uplink antenna in a time duplex manner. Similarly, according to some embodiments, the BS transceiver 210 may be referred to herein as a "downlink" transceiver 210, which includes an RF transmitter and an RF receiver, each of which includes circuitry coupled to an antenna 212. The downlink duplex switch may alternatively couple the downlink transmitter or receiver to the downlink antenna 212 in a time duplex manner. The operation of the two transceiver modules 210 and 230 may be coordinated in time such that the uplink receiver circuitry is coupled to the uplink antenna 232 for reception of transmissions over the wireless transmission link 250 when the downlink transmitter is coupled to the downlink antenna 212. Conversely, the operation of the two transceivers 210 and 230 may be coordinated in time such that the downlink receiver is coupled to the downlink antenna 212 for reception of transmissions over the wireless transmission link 250 when the uplink transmitter is coupled to the uplink antenna 232. In some embodiments, there is tight time synchronization with minimal guard times between changes in duplex direction.

[0026] The UE transceiver 230 and the base station transceiver 210 are configured to communicate via a wireless data communication link 250 and cooperate with an appropriately configured RF antenna arrangement 212 / 232 capable of supporting a specific wireless communication protocol and modulation scheme. In some illustrative embodiments, the UE transceiver 210 and the base station transceiver 210 are configured to support industry standards such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and emerging 5G standards. However, it should be understood that the present disclosure is not necessarily limited to application to specific standards and related protocols. Instead, the UE transceiver 230 and the base station transceiver 210 can be configured to support alternative or additional wireless data communication protocols, including future standards or variants thereof.

[0027] According to various embodiments, for example, BS 202 may be an evolved Node B (eNB), a serving eNB, a target eNB, a femtocell or a microcell. In some embodiments, UE 204 may be embodied in various types of user equipment, such as a mobile phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a wearable computing device, etc. Processor modules 214 and 236 may be implemented or implemented with a general purpose processor, a content addressable memory, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array, any suitable programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic, a discrete hardware component, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. In this way, the processor may be implemented as a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a state machine, etc. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a digital signal processor core, or any other such configuration.

[0028] In addition, the steps of the methods or algorithms described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein may be directly embodied in hardware, in firmware, in software modules executed by the processor modules 214 and 236, respectively, or in any practical combination thereof. The memory modules 216 and 234 may be implemented as RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. In this regard, the memory modules 216 and 234 may be coupled to the processor modules 210 and 230, respectively, so that the processor modules 210 and 230 may read information from and write information to the memory modules 216 and 234, respectively. The memory modules 216 and 234 may also be integrated into their respective processor modules 210 and 230. In some embodiments, the memory modules 216 and 234 may each include a cache memory for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during the execution of instructions to be executed by the processor modules 210 and 230, respectively. Memory modules 216 and 234 may also each include non-volatile memory for storing instructions to be executed by processor modules 210 and 230, respectively.

[0029] The network communication module 218 generally represents the hardware, software, firmware, processing logic and / or other components of the base station 202 for enabling bidirectional communication between the base station transceiver 210 and other network components and communication nodes configured to communicate with the network base station 202. For example, the network communication module 218 can be configured to support Internet or WiMAX services. In a typical deployment, without limitation, the network communication module 218 provides an 802.3 Ethernet interface so that the base station transceiver 210 can communicate with a conventional Ethernet-based computer network. In this way, the network communication module 218 can include a physical interface for connection to a computer network (e.g., a mobile switching center (MSC)). The terms "configured for", "configured to" and their variations as used herein with respect to the specified operation or function refer to devices, components, circuits, structures, machines, signals, etc. that are physically constructed, programmed, formatted and / or arranged to perform the specified operation or function.

[0030] The open systems interconnection (OSI) model (referred to herein as the "open systems interconnection model") is a concept and logical layout that defines network communications used by systems (e.g., wireless communication devices, wireless communication nodes) that are open to interconnect and communicate with other systems. The model is divided into seven subcomponents or layers, each of which represents a conceptual set of services provided to the layers above and below it. The OSI model also defines a logical network and effectively describes computer packet transmission by using different layer protocols. The OSI model may also be referred to as a seven-layer OSI model or a seven-layer model. In some embodiments, the first layer may be a physical layer. In some embodiments, the second layer may be a media access control (MAC) layer. In some embodiments, the third layer may be a radio link control (RLC) layer. In some embodiments, the fourth layer may be a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer. In some embodiments, the fifth layer may be a radio resource control (RRC) layer. In some embodiments, the sixth layer may be a non-access stratum (NAS) layer or an Internet Protocol (IP) layer, and the seventh layer is another layer.

[0031] Various example embodiments of the present solution are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the present solution. As will be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art, after reading this disclosure, various changes or modifications may be made to the examples described herein without departing from the scope of the present solution. Therefore, the present solution is not limited to the example embodiments and applications described and illustrated herein. In addition, the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed herein are merely example methods. Based on design preferences, the specific order or hierarchy of steps of the disclosed methods or processes may be rearranged while remaining within the scope of the present solution. Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the methods and techniques disclosed herein present various steps or actions in an example order, and unless otherwise expressly stated, the present solution is not limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented. 2. System and method for location verification in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) Law

[0032] Non-terrestrial network (NTN) cells can be much larger than terrestrial network (TN) cells. NTN can cover an area larger than one country. In order to meet service and regulatory requirements, the network may roughly know the location of the user equipment (UE). The location of the NTN UE can be obtained through global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning. However, the GNSS system is independent of the 3GPP communication system and may not be trusted by the network. Therefore, network verification of the UE's location may be performed (e.g., as a requirement).

[0033] For location verification in NTN, some additional information may need to be reported due to the mobility of satellites. For example, the core network (CN) may know the satellite for verification. However, the location verification may be generated by the control center of the satellite and may be directly indicated to the gateway or evolved node-based station (eNB) / next generation node-based station. In this case, reporting of ephemeris from eNB / gNB to CN may be supported. Similarly, other additional information specific to location verification in NTN may also be reported. Reporting information and triggering procedures are considered in the present disclosure.

[0034] Figure 3 An example representation of an NTN is illustrated, such as a transparent NTN. In some embodiments, the link between the UE and the satellite may be a serving link. The link between the base station (BS) and the satellite may be a feeder link. The feeder link may be common to all UEs in the same cell.

[0035] To verify the location of the UE, the network can perform trusted positioning (e.g., network-based positioning or RAT-related positioning) to obtain the location of the UE. TN can have multiple RAT-related positioning methods that can be considered trusted. However, in NTN, since the UE may not be able to communicate with multiple base stations (e.g., satellites) at the same time, the adaptation of the positioning method can be studied.

[0036] For example, Figure 4 The multi-RTT method shown is a positioning method in TN. The network can estimate multiple RTTs between the UE and different BSs. The network may then be able to determine the distance between the UE and several reference points (e.g., BS locations) and perform positioning through geometric calculations. In NTN, there may not be enough satellites available for communication at the same time. Figure 5 An example of positioning using a single satellite / aircraft is illustrated. Multiple RTTs corresponding to the same BS / satellite / aircraft at different time points can be estimated in the NTN. In addition, RTT measurements can be replaced with TA reports or UL RS measurements for positioning.

[0037] Implementation Example 1: Additional information to be reported to the CN for location verification

[0038] Information for location verification of the UE may be acquired / collected in the Radio Access Network (RAN). However, the Location Service (LCS) may be performed in the Core Network (CN) by at least one of the following: Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Location Management Function (LMF), Enhanced Serving Mobile Location Center (E-SMLC), or Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Location Platform (SLP) module. Therefore, information for location verification may be collected in the RAN and then may be reported to the CN. The reporting may be from the UE to the CN or from the gNB / eNB to the CN.

[0039] In terrestrial network (TN) positioning, report signaling of most information (e.g., round trip time (RTT) measurement of multi-RTT method) may be supported. However, some auxiliary information for position verification in NTN may be new and may be defined separately. For example, in non-terrestrial network (NTN), satellite positions at different time instances may be regarded as anchor points for positioning. The ephemeris information of at least one satellite may be known to the module to perform position verification to derive the anchor point. However, the ephemeris information of at least one satellite may be generated by the control center of at least one satellite located outside the CN. If the ephemeris information of at least one satellite is indicated to the CN via a specific interface, the CN may perform position verification based on a single satellite via implementation. However, if the ephemeris information is indicated to the gNB / eNB by the control center of at least one satellite, the CN may not know the ephemeris information of at least one satellite without a report from the RAN. Without the ephemeris information of at least one satellite, the CN may not know the position of the anchor node and cannot perform positioning. Therefore, it is possible to support reporting the ephemeris information of at least one satellite (which was not included in the previous report signaling) from the eNB / gNB to the CN for position verification in the NTN.

[0040] Some other additional auxiliary information reported from the eNB / gNB to the CN may be supported for location verification in the NTN, including at least the timing advance (TA) report from the UE to the eNB / gNB, or the angle of arrival (AoA) / angle of departure (AoD) at the satellite. AoA may be the reception angle of the signal from the UE at the satellite. AoD may be the transmission angle of the signal to the UE at the satellite. For TA, TA reporting by the UE to the BS may be supported. However, the reported TA is used for RAN operations, such as Koffset determination. If the TA report is used for location verification, the TA report may be further reported from the BS (e.g., eNB / gNB) to the CN. Common TA parameters may also be reported to the CN to enable calculation of the TA between the UE and the satellite. For AoA / AoD at the satellite, although UL-AoA and DL-AoD methods are supported in TN positioning, the AoA / AoD reporting may be performed at the eNB / gNB. AoA / AoD measurements and reporting of satellites may not be considered. Therefore, the reporting of AoA / AoD at the satellite may be a new type of signaling and may support location verification in the NTN.

[0041] In some embodiments, due to the mobility of the satellite, the above reported information may be valid only within a specific time period. In order to inform the CN of the time corresponding to the reported information, the eNB / gNB may report time information (e.g., timestamp) and auxiliary information for location verification to the CN.

[0042] Based on the above analysis, in order to support location verification in NTN, eNB / gNB can support reporting auxiliary information to CN. The auxiliary information may include at least one of the following: ephemeris information of at least one satellite; common timing advance (TA) parameters of at least one satellite; at least one of the angle of arrival (AoA) or angle of departure (AoD) at at least one satellite; a position estimate of a wireless communication device (e.g., UE) reported by a base station (e.g., eNB / gNB); at least one parameter of TA reported by a wireless communication device; the auxiliary information reported by the wireless communication device to the base station includes at least one of the following: the location of the wireless communication device, the mobility state of the wireless communication device, the trajectory of the wireless communication device, the measurement of the reference signal received power (RSRP) or the reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of the serving cell or at least one neighboring cell, the ephemeris information applied at the wireless communication device, or the common TA parameters; time information corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned information; at least one of the cell identifier (ID) or the beam ID corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned information; or a beam ID corresponding to at least one defined measurement result. At least one defined measurement result may be an RTT / receive and transmit (Rx-Tx) time difference measurement in a multi-RTT method, an RSTD measurement in a DL arrival time difference (TDOA) method, or a relative arrival time (RTOA) measurement in a UL-TDOA method.

[0043] The CN may indicate a trigger / request in signaling to the eNB / gNB to report the above information. The trigger / request may be indicated once or periodically via specific signaling. The signaling may be indicated by the NR Positioning Protocol A (NRPPa) protocol. The NRPPa protocol may be a signaling protocol between the BS and the CN. In addition, the message may be defined as a container for auxiliary information received by the eNB / gNB from the UE. The eNB / gNB may package information reported by the UE for location verification (e.g., at least one parameter of the TA reported by the UE, or auxiliary information reported by the UE to the eNB / gNB). The eNB / gNB may report the information to the CN via a signaling message. Time information and / or cell / beam ID corresponding to the auxiliary information may also be included in the message. The trigger signaling and report message may be sent using the next generation (NG) interface or the N2 interface.

[0044] In addition to the aforementioned auxiliary information reported from the eNB / gNB to the CN, new reporting signaling from the UE to the CN may also be defined. In the aforementioned analysis, it may be assumed that the information measured / calculated by the UE is reported to the eNB / gNB. The eNB / gNB may forward / report the measured / calculated information to the CN. However, for some information that the eNB / gNB may not use, the UE may report directly to the CN (e.g., via NAS signaling). The report message may be sent using the N1 interface. Therefore, the UE may support reporting auxiliary information to the CN. The assistance information may include at least one of the following: a timing advance (TA) applied at a wireless communication device (e.g., UE); ephemeris information applied at the wireless communication device (e.g., for UL pre-compensation); a common timing advance (TA) parameter applied at the wireless communication device; a location of the wireless communication device; at least one of a mobility state or trajectory of the wireless communication device; a measurement of a reference signal received power (RSRP) or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of a serving cell or at least one neighboring cell; time information corresponding to one or more of the foregoing information; at least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the foregoing information; or a beam ID corresponding to at least one defined measurement result. The TA applied at the UE may be a complete TA applied by the UE. The TA applied at the UE may be a sum of a UE-specific service link TA and a common TA. The common TA parameter applied at the UE may be a common TA parameter. The common TA parameter may be used to derive a common TA applied by the UE. The network may derive an accurate UE-specific TA applied by the UE by subtracting the complete TA from the common TA (derived using the TA parameter). The motivation is that in practical systems, ephemeris may be updated frequently to ensure a certain accuracy. The base station may update the broadcast common TA parameters frequently, but if the old ephemeris information still meets the accuracy requirement, the UE may not receive the updated broadcast common TA parameters every time. Therefore, the gNB may not know / understand the exact common TA parameters applied by the UE. If the gNB always reports the latest common TA parameters to the CN for positioning, there may be some misalignment that may cause positioning errors. At least one defined measurement result may be the RTT / Rx-Tx time difference measurement in the multi-RTT method, the RSTD measurement in the DL arrival time difference (TDOA) method, or the relative arrival time (RTOA) measurement in the UL-TDOA method.

[0045] The CN may indicate a trigger / request in signaling to the UE to report the above information. The trigger / request may be indicated once or periodically via specific signaling. The signaling may be indicated by the New Radio Positioning Protocol (NRPP) protocol. The NRPP protocol may be a signaling protocol between the UE and the CN. The trigger signaling may be sent via the N1 interface. Another possible way is that the CN indicates a trigger / request in signaling to the eNB / gNB to request the above information. The eNB / gNB may indicate a trigger / request in signaling to the UE to report the above information. In this case, the trigger signaling may be sent from the CN to the eNB / gNB via the N2 interface. The eNB / gNB may indicate the trigger signaling to the UE via the Uu interface.

[0046] It is worth noting that the UE may report the ephemeris information and / or common TA parameters applied by itself to the CN. The motivation is that the eNB / gNB may not know / understand when the UE updates its ephemeris information and common TA parameters. Therefore, due to propagation errors, the actual ephemeris information and common TA parameters applied by the UE for UL pre-compensation may not be exactly equal to the ephemeris information and TA parameters reported from the eNB / gNB to the CN. Therefore, the UE may report the ephemeris information and / or common TA parameters applied by it to the CN directly.

[0047] In addition, the UE may report at least one location verification measurement result to the eNB / gNB. The eNB / gNB may report at least one location verification measurement result to the CN. The reporting process from the UE to the eNB / gNB may be similar to data collection in a self-organizing network (SON) and / or a minimized driving test (MDT). In SON / MDT, the UE may report several measurements to the eNB / gNB to help improve network performance. Therefore, the UE may report measurement results for location verification or positioning to the eNB / gNB through similar reports. For example, the measurement results for location verification or positioning may be included in a report message designed for SON / MDT (e.g., a report of random access information (e.g., RACH report) or data collection signaling). In certain embodiments, new signaling may be defined for measurement reports for location verification or positioning, and the new signaling may be RRC signaling or MAC CE signaling. After the eNB / gNB collects the measurement results from the UE report, the eNB / gNB may perform location verification at the radio access network (RAN) layer. The eNB / gNB may also report the location verification results to the CN via the NG interface for location verification. In this way, if only location verification functionality is required, the UE may not need to support the positioning feature. Therefore, the UE may support reporting at least one location verification measurement result for positioning to the eNB / gNB. The at least one location verification measurement result may include at least one of the following: the difference in measurement of the round-trip time (RTT) in the multi-RTT method or the difference between the reception and transmission (Rx-Tx) time; at least one measurement of the reference signal time difference (RSTD); at least one measurement of the relative time of arrival (RTOA); at least one measurement of the reference signal received power (RSRP) or the reference signal received quality (RSRQ); the angle of arrival (AoA) or the angle of departure (AoD) at the UE; the timestamp or time information of at least one of the aforementioned measurements; or at least one of the cell identifiers (ID) or beam IDs corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned measurements. In addition, the UE may support reporting auxiliary information for positioning to the eNB / gNB, the auxiliary information including at least one of the following: a timing advance (TA) applied at a wireless communication device (e.g., UE); ephemeris information applied at the wireless communication device (e.g., for UL pre-compensation); a common timing advance (TA) parameter applied at the wireless communication device; the location of the wireless communication device; at least one of the mobility state or trajectory of the wireless communication device; time information corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned information; at least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned information; or a beam ID corresponding to at least one defined measurement result.

[0048] The eNB / gNB may report the aforementioned received information to the CN. The report from the UE may be triggered / requested by the eNB / gNB in ​​signaling. The signaling for triggering / requesting the report may be one-time or periodic. The trigger / request may be indicated by radio resource control (RRC) signaling, media access control control element (MAC CE) signaling, or downlink control information (DCI) signaling. In addition, the triggering / request of the aforementioned report by the eNB / gNB may be controlled by the CN. The CN may first indicate the triggering / request for the aforementioned information, and then the eNB / gNB may send a trigger / request to the UE for reporting.

[0049] In addition, compared with TN positioning, the definitions of RSTD measurement in DL-TDOA and RTOA measurement in UL-TDOA can be updated. In TN, RSTD / RTOA measurement can estimate the time difference of arrival time corresponding to different TRPs of the same subframe. In NTN, RSTD / RTOA can refer to / correspond to the time difference between arrival times (TOA) corresponding to the same transmit and receive point (TRP) at different time instances. In addition, RSTD / RTOA can refer to / correspond to the time difference between arrival times (TOA) corresponding to the same transmit and receive point (TRP) at different time instances minus the time difference between reference signal transmissions. For example, RSTD / RTOA=T_r2-T_r1-delta_T. T_r2 is the reception time of the second RS. T_r1 is the reception time of the first RS. delta_T is the time interval between the transmission times of the two RSs (for example, it can be known by configuration). In TN, two RSs can be transmitted from / to different TRPs at the same time. delta_T=0, and the delay difference of different anchor nodes can be directly calculated by the arrival time difference. In NTN, two RSs may transmit at different time instances, such that delta_T>0. In this case, if the delay difference of different anchor nodes is to be calculated, the transmission time interval may be subtracted from the arrival time difference. In some embodiments, if the definition of the arrival time difference is considered to subtract the transmission time difference, RSTD / RTOA may refer to / correspond to the time difference between the arrival times (TOA) corresponding to the same transmit reception point (TRP) at different time instances. By this further operation, RSTD / RTOA may reflect the change in propagation delay.

[0050] It should be understood that one or more features from the above-described embodiments are not exclusive to a particular implementation example, but may be combined in any manner (eg, in any priority and / or order, simultaneously or otherwise).

[0051] Figure 6A flowchart for coverage enhancement in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated. Figure 1-Figure 2 The method 600 may be implemented by any one or more of the components and devices described in detail. In summary, in some embodiments, the method 600 may be performed by a core network. Depending on the embodiment, more, fewer, or different operations may be performed in the method 600. At least one aspect of the operation involves a system, method, apparatus, or computer-readable medium.

[0052] The core network may receive assistance information from at least one node (e.g., UE and / or BS) of a radio access network (RAN) to perform location verification of a wireless communication device (e.g., UE) of the RAN. In some embodiments, the assistance information may include ephemeris information of a satellite. The core network may use the assistance information to perform location verification of the wireless communication device.

[0053] In some embodiments, at least one node may include a base station. The assistance information may include first assistance information. The first assistance information may include at least one of the following: ephemeris information of at least one satellite; a common timing advance (TA) parameter of at least one satellite; at least one of an angle of arrival (AoA) or an angle of departure (AoD) at at least one satellite; an estimate of the position of the wireless communication device by the base station; at least one parameter of the TA reported by the wireless communication device; assistance information reported by the wireless communication device to the base station, the assistance information including at least one of the following: the position of the wireless communication device, the mobility state of the wireless communication device, the trajectory of the wireless communication device, a measurement of the reference signal received power (RSRP) or the reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of the serving cell or at least one neighboring cell, ephemeris information applied at the wireless communication device, or a common TA parameter; time information corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned information; at least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned information; or a beam ID corresponding to at least one defined measurement result.

[0054] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be indicated / signaled / sent via a next generation (NG) interface or an N2 interface. The core network may send signaling to trigger or request a report of the first auxiliary information (e.g., periodically or once (to trigger a series of periodic reports)). The signaling may be sent using the New Radio Positioning Protocol A (NRPPa) protocol. The signaling may be sent via a next generation (NG) interface or an N2 interface.

[0055] In some embodiments, the core network may receive assistance information reported by the wireless communication device to the base station in a definition container message from the base station. At least one node may include a wireless communication device. The assistance information may include second assistance information. The second assistance information may include at least one of the following: timing advance (TA) applied at the wireless communication device; ephemeris information applied at the wireless communication device (e.g., applied to UL pre-compensation); common timing advance (TA) parameters applied at the wireless communication device; location of the wireless communication device; at least one of the mobility state or trajectory of the wireless communication device; measurement of reference signal received power (RSRP) or reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of the serving cell or at least one neighboring cell; time information corresponding to one or more of the foregoing information; at least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the foregoing information; or a beam ID corresponding to at least one defined measurement result. The assistance information may be indicated via the N1 interface. The core network may send signaling to trigger or request reporting of the second assistance information to the wireless communication device. The signaling may be sent using the New Radio Positioning Protocol (NRPP) protocol. The signaling may be sent via the N1 interface.

[0056] In some embodiments, the core network may send a first signaling to trigger or request reporting of auxiliary information to the base station. The base station may send a second signaling to the wireless communication device to trigger or request reporting of auxiliary information. The first signaling may be sent via a next generation (NG) interface or an N2 interface. The second signaling may be sent via a Uu interface.

[0057] In some embodiments, at least one node of the RAN may include a base station. The wireless communication device may send at least one location verification measurement result to the base station. The core network may receive at least one location verification measurement result from the base station. The at least one location verification measurement result may form at least a part of the assistance information.

[0058] In some embodiments, at least one location verification measurement result may include at least one of the following: a difference in measurement of round trip time (RTT) or a difference between reception and transmission (Rx-Tx) time; at least one measurement of reference signal time difference (RSTD); at least one measurement of relative time of arrival (RTOA); a timestamp or time information of at least one of the aforementioned measurements; or at least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned measurements. The core network may send a first signaling to trigger or request reporting of at least one defined measurement result to the base station. The core network may cause the base station to send a second signaling to the wireless communication device to trigger or request reporting of at least one defined measurement result. The first signaling may include at least one of the following: radio resource control (RRC) signaling, media access control control element (MAC CE) signaling, or downlink control information (DCI) signaling. RSTD or RTOA may correspond to a time difference between arrival times (TOAs) corresponding to the same transmit receive point (TRP) at different time instances. RSTD or RTOA may correspond to the time difference between the times of arrival (TOA) corresponding to the same transmit reception point (TRP) at different time instances minus the time difference between reference signal transmissions.

[0059] In some embodiments, at least one node (eg, UE and / or BS) of a radio access network (RAN) may send assistance information to a core network to perform location verification of a wireless communication device (eg, UE) of the RAN.

[0060] Although various embodiments of the present solution have been described above, it should be understood that they are presented only by way of example rather than by way of limitation. Similarly, various figures may depict example architectures or configurations, which are provided to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to understand the example features and functions of the present solution. However, these people will understand that the present solution is not limited to the example architectures or configurations shown, but can be implemented using various alternative architectures and configurations. In addition, as will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, one or more features of an embodiment may be combined with one or more features of another embodiment described herein. Therefore, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-mentioned illustrative embodiments.

[0061] It should also be understood that any reference to an element using names such as "first," "second," etc., herein generally does not limit the number or order of these elements. Instead, these names can be used herein as a convenient means of distinguishing between two or more elements or instances of an element. Therefore, reference to a first element and a second element does not mean that only two elements can be used, or that the first element must precede the second element in some way.

[0062] In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different methods and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, and symbols that may be referenced in the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0063] Those of ordinary skill in the art will further understand that any of the various illustrative logic blocks, modules, processors, components, circuits, methods, and functions described in conjunction with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented by electronic hardware (e.g., digital implementation, analog implementation, or a combination of the two), firmware, various forms of programs or design codes in conjunction with instructions (which, for convenience, may be referred to herein as "software" or "software modules"), or any combination of these technologies. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware, firmware, and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functions. Whether such functions are implemented as hardware, firmware, or software, or a combination of these technologies depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the entire system. A skilled technician may implement the described functions in various ways for each specific application, but such implementation decisions will not result in a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0064] In addition, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the various illustrative logic blocks, modules, devices, components, and circuits described herein may be implemented or performed within an integrated circuit (IC), which may include a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, or any combination thereof. The logic blocks, modules, and circuits may also include antennas and / or transceivers to communicate with various components within a network or within a device. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in an alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, 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 combined with a DSP core, or any other suitable configuration for performing the functions described herein.

[0065] If implemented in software, these functions can be stored as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Therefore, the steps of the method or algorithm disclosed herein can be implemented as software stored on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, including any medium that can transfer a computer program or code from one place to another. The storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can access. As an example and not limitation, such a computer-readable medium may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, disk storage or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to store the desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer.

[0066] In this document, the term "module" as used herein refers to software, firmware, hardware, and any combination of these elements for performing the relevant functions described herein. In addition, for the purpose of discussion, various modules are described as discrete modules; however, as is clear to one of ordinary skill in the art, two or more modules can be combined to form a single module that performs the associated functions according to an embodiment of the present solution.

[0067] In addition, in the embodiment of the present solution, memory or other storage devices and communication components can be adopted.It should be understood that, for the sake of clarity, the above description has described the embodiment of the present solution with reference to different functional units and processors.However, it is obvious that any suitable functional distribution between different functional units, processing logic elements or domains can be used without departing from the present solution.For example, the function performed by a separate processing logic element or controller can be performed by the same processing logic element or controller as illustrated.Therefore, the reference to a specific functional unit is only a reference to the appropriate mode for providing the described function, rather than representing a strict logical or physical structure or organization.

[0068] Various modifications to the embodiments described in this disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Therefore, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein, but should be consistent with the widest scope consistent with the novel features and principles disclosed herein, as described in the following claims.

Claims

1. A method comprising: Assistance information is received by a core network from at least one node of a radio access network (RAN) to perform location verification of a wireless communication device of the RAN.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one node comprises a base station, and the assistance information comprises first assistance information, wherein the first assistance information comprises at least one of the following: ephemeris information for at least one satellite; a common timing advance (TA) parameter of the at least one satellite; at least one of an angle of arrival (AoA) or an angle of departure (AoD) at the at least one satellite; an estimate of a location of the wireless communication device by the base station; at least one parameter of the TA reported by the wireless communication device; Assistance information reported by the wireless communication device to the base station, the assistance information comprising at least one of the following: the location of the wireless communication device, the mobility state of the wireless communication device, the trajectory of the wireless communication device, a measurement of reference signal received power (RSRP) or reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of a serving cell or at least one neighboring cell, ephemeris information applied at the wireless communication device, or a common TA parameter; Time information corresponding to one or more of the foregoing information; at least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned information; or The beam ID corresponding to at least one defined measurement result. 3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the assistance information is indicated via a Next Generation (NG) interface or an N2 interface.

4. The method according to claim 2, comprising: The core network sends signaling to the base station to trigger or request a report of the first auxiliary information. The method of claim 4 , wherein the signaling is sent using a New Radio Positioning Protocol A (NRPPa) protocol. The method of claim 4 , wherein the signaling is sent via a Next Generation (NG) interface or an N2 interface.

7. The method according to claim 2, wherein at least one of the following: The core network receives the auxiliary information reported by the wireless communication device to the base station in a defined container message from the base station.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one node comprises the wireless communication device, and the assistance information comprises second assistance information, the second assistance information comprising at least one of: a timing advance (TA) applied at the wireless communication device; ephemeris information applied at the wireless communication device; a common timing advance (TA) parameter applied at the wireless communication device; the location of the wireless communication device; at least one of a mobility state or a trajectory of the wireless communication device; Measurement of reference signal received power (RSRP) or reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of the serving cell or at least one neighboring cell; Time information corresponding to one or more of the foregoing information; at least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned information; or The beam ID corresponding to at least one defined measurement result. The method according to claim 8, wherein the assistance information is indicated via an N1 interface.

10. The method according to claim 8, comprising: The core network sends signaling to the wireless communication device to trigger or request a report of the second auxiliary information.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the signaling is sent using a New Radio Positioning Protocol (NRPP) protocol.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the signaling is sent via an N1 interface.

13. The method according to claim 8, comprising: The core network sends a first signaling to the base station to trigger or request a report of the auxiliary information, The base station sends a second signaling to the wireless communication device to trigger or request the reporting of the auxiliary information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first signaling is sent via a Next Generation (NG) interface or an N2 interface, and the second signaling is sent via a Uu interface.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein: The at least one node of the RAN comprises a base station; The wireless communication device sends at least one location verification measurement result to the base station; and The core network receives the at least one location verification measurement result from the base station, the at least one location verification measurement result forming at least a part of the assistance information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one location verification measurement comprises at least one of: The difference in the measurement of round trip time (RTT) or the difference between receive and send (Rx-Tx) times; at least one measurement of a reference signal time difference (RSTD); at least one measurement of relative time of arrival (RTOA); a timestamp or time information of at least one of the aforementioned measurements; or At least one of a cell identifier (ID) or a beam ID corresponding to one or more of the aforementioned measurements.

17. The method according to claim 16, comprising at least one of the following: The core network sends a first signaling to the base station to trigger or request a report of the at least one defined measurement result; or The base station is enabled to send a second signaling to the wireless communication device to trigger or request the report of the at least one defined measurement result.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first signaling comprises at least one of: radio resource control (RRC) signaling, medium access control control element (MAC CE) signaling, or downlink control information (DCI) signaling.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the RSTD or the RTOA corresponds to a time difference between times of arrival (TOA) corresponding to the same transmit-receive point (TRP) at different time instances.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the RSTD or the RTOA corresponds to: a time difference between times of arrival (TOAs) corresponding to the same transmit receive point (TRP) at different time instances, minus a time difference between reference signal transmissions.

21. A method comprising: Assistance information is sent by at least one node of a radio access network (RAN) to a core network to perform location verification of a wireless communication device of the RAN.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions, which when executed by at least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 21.

23. An apparatus comprising: At least one processor configured to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 21.

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