Method and apparatus relating to wireless communication

Abstract

The present specification describes a first terminal device comprising means for receiving alignment information from a second terminal device, the alignment information being used by the first terminal device to orient a local coordinate system (LCS) of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This specification relates generally to wireless communications. Background Art

[0002] User equipment (UE) devices can communicate wirelessly with other UE devices. This communication is sometimes referred to as sidelink (SL) or device-to-device (D2D) communication and can facilitate a variety of tasks. Summary of the invention

[0003] In a first aspect, the specification describes a first terminal device comprising: means for receiving alignment information from a second terminal device, the alignment information being used by the first terminal device to orient a local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

[0004] In some examples, the first terminal device may also include: a component for orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device based on the received alignment information; a component for determining an arrival angle measurement of a side link signal using the oriented LCS of the first terminal device to determine the position information of at least one reflector in the environment of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the side link signal being sent from the second terminal device to the first terminal device via a multipath communication channel. In some such examples, the first terminal device may also include a component for sending an indication of the determined arrival angle measurement to the second terminal device for determining the position information of at least one reflector.

[0005] In some examples, the first terminal device may also include: a component for determining an orientation of a specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to an LCS of the second terminal device based on the received alignment information, wherein a side link signal transmitted via the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device may propagate along a line-of-sight LoS path of a multipath communication channel and may be received via a specific receive beam of the first terminal device, and wherein orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device may include: orienting the LCS of the first terminal device so that the orientation of the specific receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device is reversely aligned with the determined orientation of the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device. In some such examples, the orientation of the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device may include a departure angle of the side link signal transmitted via the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device, and the orientation of the specific receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device may include an arrival angle for the side link signal received via the specific receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, a particular receive beam of a first terminal device may be identified as a receive beam among multiple receive beams of the first terminal device that has a highest reference signal receive power RSRP and / or has an earliest arrival time of a side link signal sent by a second terminal device via a multipath communication channel and received via multiple receive beams of the first terminal device.

[0006] In some examples, the alignment information may indicate at least one of the following: the orientation of one or more corresponding transmit beams through which the side link signal is transmitted by the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; an identifier of one or more corresponding transmit beams through which the side link signal is transmitted by the second terminal device; a characteristic of the side link signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; and / or one or more parameter values ​​of a parameter model used at the first terminal device to determine the characteristic of the side link signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device. In some such examples, the characteristic of the side link signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device may include at least one of the following: a characteristic of a data sequence used to encode the corresponding side link signal; and / or a time and / or frequency resource used to transmit the corresponding side link signal. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, one or more parameter values ​​of the parameter model may include at least one of the following: an azimuth angle spacing between adjacent transmit beams of the second terminal device; a zenith angle spacing between adjacent transmit beams of the second terminal device; an azimuth oversampling factor; and a zenith oversampling factor.

[0007] In some examples, the sidelink signal may be a sidelink positioning reference signal.

[0008] In some examples, the alignment information may indicate an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device relative to the global coordinate system GCS. In some such examples, orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device may include orienting the LCS of the first terminal device so that the orientation of the LCS of the first terminal device with respect to the GCS corresponds to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device with respect to the GCS indicated by the alignment information. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the orientation of the LCS of the first terminal device with respect to the GCS may be determined using a magnetometer of the first terminal device.

[0009] In some examples, the first terminal device may also include: a component for sending an indication to the second terminal device that the first terminal device is capable of orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some examples, the first terminal device may also include: a component for receiving a request from the second terminal device to orient the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some examples, as a result of orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device, the LCS of the first terminal device and the LCS of the second terminal device can share a consistent local angle representation for reporting angle measurements.

[0010] In some examples, the apparatus may include: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause execution of the first terminal device.

[0011] In a second aspect, the specification describes a second terminal device comprising: a component for sending alignment information to a first terminal device, the alignment information being used by the first terminal device to orient a local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

[0012] In some examples, the second terminal device may also include: a component for receiving information indicating an angle of arrival measurement of a side link signal from the first terminal device for determining location information of at least one reflector in the environment of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the side link signal being transmitted from the second terminal device to the first terminal device via a multipath communication channel, wherein the angle of arrival measurement may be determined by the first terminal device using an LCS corresponding to an orientation corresponding to the LCS of the second terminal device. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the alignment information may indicate at least one of the following: an orientation of one or more corresponding transmit beams transmitting the side link signal by the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; an identifier of one or more corresponding transmit beams transmitting the side link signal by the second terminal device; a characteristic of the side link signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; and one or more parameter values ​​of a parameter model used at the first terminal device to determine a characteristic of the side link signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device.

[0013] In some examples, the second terminal device may further include: a component for receiving an indication from the first terminal device that the first terminal device is capable of orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some examples, the second terminal device may further include: a component for sending a request to the first terminal device to orient the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some such examples, the alignment information may be included in the request to orient the LCS of the first terminal device.

[0014] In some examples, the apparatus may include: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause execution of the second terminal device.

[0015] In a third aspect, the present specification describes a terminal device, including a component for receiving obstacle information from an adjacent terminal device, the obstacle information indicating the position of at least one reflector in the environment of the terminal device and the adjacent terminal device. In a fourth aspect, the present specification describes a terminal device, including a component for sending obstacle information to an adjacent terminal device, the obstacle information indicating the position of at least one reflector in the environment of the terminal device and the adjacent terminal device.

[0016] In a fifth aspect, the present specification describes a second terminal device, comprising a component for sending a request to a first terminal device, requesting that a local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device be oriented to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In a sixth aspect, the present specification describes a first terminal device, comprising at least one processor and at least one memory comprising computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the first terminal device to at least perform: receiving alignment information from the second terminal device, the alignment information being used by the first terminal device to orient the local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

[0017] In some examples, at least one memory and computer program code may also be configured to, together with at least one processor, cause the first terminal device to at least perform: orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device based on the received alignment information; and determining an angle of arrival measurement of a side link signal using the oriented LCS of the first terminal device for determining location information of at least one reflector in the environments of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the side link signal being sent from the second terminal device to the first terminal device via a multipath communication channel. In some such examples, at least one memory and computer program code may also be configured to, together with at least one processor, cause the first terminal device to at least perform sending indication information of the determined angle of arrival measurement to the second terminal device for determining location information of at least one reflector.

[0018] In some examples, at least one memory and the computer program code may also be configured to, together with at least one processor, cause the first terminal device to at least perform the following operations: determine an orientation of a specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to an LCS of the second terminal device based on the received alignment information, wherein a side link signal transmitted via the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device may propagate along a line-of-sight LoS path of a multipath communication channel and be received via a specific receive beam of the first terminal device, and wherein orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device may include orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to reversely align the orientation of the specific receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device with the determined orientation of the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device. In some such examples, the orientation of the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device may include a departure angle with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device for a side link signal transmitted via the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device, and the orientation of the specific receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device may include an arrival angle with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device for a side link signal received via the specific receive beam of the first terminal device. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, a particular receive beam of a first terminal device may be identified as a receive beam among multiple receive beams of the first terminal device that has a highest reference signal receive power RSRP and / or has an earliest arrival time of a side link signal sent by a second terminal device via a multipath communication channel and received via multiple receive beams of the first terminal device.

[0019] In some examples, the alignment information may indicate at least one of the following: the orientation of one or more corresponding transmit beams through which the sidelink signal is transmitted by the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; an identifier of one or more corresponding transmit beams through which the sidelink signal is transmitted by the second terminal device; a characteristic of the sidelink signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; and / or one or more parameter values ​​of a parameter model used at the first terminal device to determine the characteristic of the sidelink signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device. In some such examples, the characteristic of the sidelink signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device may include at least one of the following: a characteristic of a data sequence used to encode the corresponding sidelink signal; and / or a time and / or frequency resource used to transmit the corresponding sidelink signal. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, one or more parameter values ​​of the parameter model may include at least one of the following: an azimuth angle spacing between adjacent transmit beams of the second terminal device; a zenith angle spacing between adjacent transmit beams of the second terminal device; an azimuth oversampling factor; and a zenith oversampling factor.

[0020] In some examples, the side link signal may be a side link positioning reference signal. In some examples, the alignment information may indicate an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device with respect to a global coordinate system GCS. In some such examples, orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device may include orienting the LCS of the first terminal device so that the orientation of the LCS of the first terminal device with respect to the GCS corresponds to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device with respect to the GCS indicated by the alignment information. Additionally or alternatively, in some instances, the orientation of the LCS of the first terminal device with respect to the GCS may be determined using a magnetometer of the first terminal device.

[0021] In some examples, at least one memory and computer program code may also be configured to, together with at least one processor, cause the first terminal device to at least execute sending an indication to the second terminal device that the first terminal device is capable of orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some examples, at least one memory and computer program code may also be configured to, together with at least one processor, cause the first terminal device to at least execute: receiving a request from the second terminal device to orient the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some examples, as a result of orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device, the LCS of the first terminal device and the LCS of the second terminal device may share a consistent local angle representation for reporting angle measurements.

[0022] In the seventh aspect, the present specification describes a second terminal device, comprising at least one processor and at least one memory comprising computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, enable the second terminal device to at least execute sending alignment information to the first terminal device, and the alignment information is used by the first terminal device to orient the local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

[0023] In some examples, the at least one memory and the computer program code may also be configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the second terminal device to at least perform: receiving information indicating an angle of arrival measurement of a sidelink signal from the first terminal device for determining location information of at least one reflector in an environment of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the sidelink signal being transmitted from the second terminal device to the first terminal device via a multipath communication channel, wherein the angle of arrival measurement may be determined by the first terminal device using an LCS corresponding to an orientation of an LCS of the second terminal device. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the alignment information may indicate at least one of the following: an orientation of one or more corresponding transmit beams from which the sidelink signal is transmitted by the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; an identifier of one or more corresponding transmit beams from which the sidelink signal is transmitted by the second terminal device; a characteristic of a sidelink signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; and one or more parameter values ​​of a parameter model used at the first terminal device to determine a characteristic of a sidelink signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device.

[0024] In some examples, the at least one memory and the computer program code may also be configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the second terminal device to at least perform: receiving an indication from the first terminal device that the first terminal device is capable of orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some examples, the at least one memory and the computer program code may also be configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the second terminal device to at least perform: sending a request to the first terminal device to orient the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some such instances, the alignment information may be included in the request to orient the LCS of the first terminal device.

[0025] In an eighth aspect, the present specification describes a terminal device comprising at least one processor and at least one memory comprising computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, enable the terminal device to at least perform receiving obstacle information from an adjacent terminal device, the obstacle information indicating the position of at least one reflector in the environment of the terminal device and the adjacent terminal device.

[0026] In a ninth aspect, the present specification describes a terminal device comprising at least one processor and at least one memory comprising computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to at least execute sending obstacle information to an adjacent terminal device, wherein the obstacle information indicates the location of at least one reflector in the environment of the terminal device and the adjacent terminal device.

[0027] In a tenth aspect, the present specification describes a second terminal device comprising at least one processor and at least one memory comprising computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the second terminal device to at least execute a request to the first terminal device to orient the local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

[0028] In an eleventh aspect, the present specification describes a method comprising: receiving, at a first terminal device, alignment information from a second terminal device, the alignment information being used by the first terminal device to orient a local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

[0029] In some examples, the method may also include: orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device based on the received alignment information; and using the oriented LCS of the first terminal device to determine an angle of arrival measurement of a side link signal for determining location information of at least one reflector in the environment of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the side link signal being sent from the second terminal device to the first terminal device via a multipath communication channel. In some such examples, the method may also include sending an indication of the determined angle of arrival measurement value to the second terminal device for determining location information of at least one reflector.

[0030] In some examples, the method may also include: determining an orientation of a specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to an LCS of the second terminal device based on the received alignment information, wherein a side link signal transmitted via the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device may propagate along a line-of-sight LoS path of a multipath communication channel and may be received via a specific receive beam of the first terminal device, and wherein orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device may include: orienting the LCS of the first terminal device so that the orientation of the specific receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device is reversely aligned with the determined orientation of the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device. In some such examples, the orientation of the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device may include a departure angle of the side link signal transmitted via the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device, and the orientation of the specific receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device may include an arrival angle of the side link signal received via the specific receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, a particular receive beam of a first terminal device may be identified as a receive beam among multiple receive beams of the first terminal device that has a highest reference signal receive power RSRP and / or has an earliest arrival time of a side link signal sent by a second terminal device via a multipath communication channel and received via multiple receive beams of the first terminal device.

[0031] In some examples, the alignment information may indicate at least one of the following: an orientation of one or more corresponding transmit beams transmitting the side link signal by the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; an identifier of one or more corresponding transmit beams transmitting the side link signal by the second terminal device; a characteristic of the side link signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; and / or one or more parameter values ​​of a parameter model used at the first terminal device to determine a characteristic of the side link signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device. In some such examples, the characteristic of the side link signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation relative to the LCS of the second terminal device may include at least one of the following: a characteristic of a data sequence used to encode the corresponding side link signal; and / or a time and / or frequency resource used to transmit the corresponding side link signal. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, one or more parameter values ​​of the parameter model may include at least one of the following: an azimuth angle spacing between adjacent transmit beams of the second terminal device; a zenith angle spacing between adjacent transmit beams of the second terminal device; an azimuth oversampling factor; and a zenith oversampling factor.

[0032] In some examples, the side link signal may be a side link positioning reference signal. In some examples, the alignment information may indicate an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device with respect to a global coordinate system GCS. In some such examples, orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device may include orienting the LCS of the first terminal device so that the orientation of the LCS of the first terminal device with respect to the GCS corresponds to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device with respect to the GCS indicated by the alignment information. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the orientation of the LCS of the first terminal device with respect to the GCS may be determined using a magnetometer of the first terminal device.

[0033] In some examples, the method may also include sending an indication to the second terminal device that the first terminal device is able to orient the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some examples, the method may also include: receiving a request from the second terminal device to orient the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some examples, as a result of orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device, the LCS of the first terminal device and the LCS of the second terminal device can share a consistent local angle representation for reporting angle measurements.

[0034] In a twelfth aspect, the present specification describes a method comprising: sending alignment information at a second terminal device to a first terminal device, the alignment information being used by the first terminal device to orient a local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

[0035] In some examples, the method may also include: receiving information indicating an angle of arrival measurement of a side link signal from a first terminal device for determining location information of at least one reflector in an environment of the first terminal device and a second terminal device, the side link signal being transmitted from the second terminal device to the first terminal device via a multipath communication channel, wherein the angle of arrival measurement may be determined by the first terminal device using an LCS corresponding to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the alignment information may indicate at least one of the following: the orientation of one or more corresponding transmit beams transmitting the side link signal by the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; an identifier of one or more corresponding transmit beams transmitting the side link signal by the second terminal device; a characteristic of the side link signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; and one or more parameter values ​​of a parameter model, the parameter model being used at the first terminal device to determine the characteristic of the side link signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more corresponding transmit beams having a corresponding orientation with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device.

[0036] In some examples, the method may also include: receiving an indication from the first terminal device that the first terminal device is capable of orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some examples, the method may also include: sending a request to the first terminal device to orient the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device. In some such examples, the alignment information may be included in the request to orient the LCS of the first terminal device.

[0037] In a thirteenth aspect, the present specification describes a non-transitory computer-readable medium including program instructions stored thereon, the program instructions being used to perform at least any one of the operations described above with reference to the first to twelfth aspects. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0038] For a better understanding of the present application, reference will now be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0039] Figure 1 is an example showing communication between a target UE and a supporting UE;

[0040] Figure 2 is an example message flow sequence;

[0041] Figures 3 to 7 is a flowchart illustrating various operations that may be performed according to examples described herein;

[0042] Figure 8 is an example showing time alignment of UE measurements;

[0043] Fig. 9 is an example showing communication between a target UE and a supporting UE;

[0044] Fig.10 is a flowchart illustrating various operations that may be performed according to examples described herein;

[0045] Fig.11 is an example showing example beam arrangements for target UEs and supporting UEs;

[0046] Fig.12 is a flowchart illustrating various operations that may be performed according to examples described herein;

[0047] Fig.13 can be configured to perform reference Figures 1 to 12 Schematic diagrams of example configurations of UE devices for describing various operations; and

[0048] Fig.14 is an illustration of a computer readable medium on which computer readable code may be stored. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0049] In the following description and drawings, like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

[0050] It may be beneficial for terminal devices (such as UE devices) to be able to be accurately located and ranged. For example, for applications related to vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, in order to ensure road and traffic safety, it may be beneficial for target UEs (such as but not limited to UE devices installed on cars or carried by pedestrians) to be able to be accurately located and ranged. Positioning capability may refer to the ability of the UE to determine its position in the environment, while ranging capability may refer to the ability of the UE to identify the distance and / or direction of various objects in its environment. Such positioning and ranging capabilities may be related to the ability of the UE to identify stationary and / or moving reflectors in the UE environment. In the V2X context, such identification may help avoid collisions between vehicles or pedestrians carrying UEs and identified reflectors.

[0051] The implementation of the technology described herein involves identifying a reflector using UE-to-UE communication in an environment of one or more UEs. Some example aspects described herein relate to information exchange between UEs in an environment to facilitate identification of a reflector in an environment. Other example aspects that may depend on information exchange between UEs relate to determining the distance and / or direction of a reflector in an environment from a target UE to a target UE, and such distance and / or direction may be accurately determined. This accurate determination may be achieved at least in part by combining information collected at the target UE with information received from other nearby UE devices (sometimes referred to as "support UEs" or "peer" UEs). In some examples, information may be exchanged between UE devices through direct communication between a target UE and a support UE, and in some examples, such direct communication between a target UE and a support UE may be referred to as "side link" (SL) communication. Combining information collected at the target UE with information received from one or more support UEs (e.g., but not limited to ranging channel information, RCI) as described herein may allow the reflector to be recorded on the UE side (i.e., at the target UE, not on the network side). In other words, various implementations of the techniques described herein may provide a process in which SL-capable UEs exchange information (e.g., but not limited to, RCI information including round-trip time, RTT, information, and / or RTT-like information) and use the information to identify reflectors in the environment. In addition, various implementations described herein may allow the UE to identify and map the most relevant reflectors, and may do so without requiring the UE to synchronize in advance. For example, various implementations of the techniques described herein may be built upon the channel reciprocity assumption, allowing a target UE to examine a "pseudo" reflector with the help of one or more supporting UEs while obtaining the range or location of a "real" reflector in the environment.

[0052] In some examples, information collected from a supporting UE can be transformed so as to reduce or eliminate any UE-specific bias associated with detecting a reflector from the perspective of the supporting UE that collects the information. For example, the information collected from the supporting UE can be time-aligned (e.g., using a common delay domain origin). Additionally or alternatively, the local coordinate system (LCS) of the supporting UE can be oriented to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the target UE (e.g., so that the UEs share a consistent local angular representation for reporting angular measurements). The converted information can be used to detect reflectors near the target UE, and the detected reflectors can be verified based on the channel reciprocity of the SL channel between the target UE and the supporting UE. In some examples, the reflector can be located using the estimated position of the verified reflector relative to the target UE and / or the supporting UE.

[0053] Although not limited to such implementation, examples of the techniques described herein can be easily integrated into any New Radio (NR) UE that performs SL positioning as standardized in 3GPP Release 18. In addition, examples of the techniques described herein can comply with future extensions of TS38.321 and TS37.355 to support simultaneous positioning and ranging and reflector detection procedures expected to be specified in 3GPP Release 19.

[0054] For various applications, such as (but not limited to) public safety, V2X, extended reality (XR), and industrial Internet of Things (IoT) applications, NR UEs may require the ability to perform positioning and ranging simultaneously or sequentially. In some cases, such positioning and ranging need to be performed at a frequency determined by the application. For example, in a V2X setting, the required frequency may be proportional to the speed of the UE. Performing simultaneous positioning and ranging may be challenging in practice, not least because a single process that meets both purposes (i.e., deploying sensing and ranging simultaneously) has not yet been identified by 3GPP. On the other hand, a sequential approach that requires the UE to deploy two independent positioning and ranging sessions may require double the signaling and computational complexity costs compared to the simultaneous alternative. Various implementations of the techniques described herein may enable a V2X UE to perform simultaneous positioning and ranging while minimizing the process overhead.

[0055] In some examples, the term "user device" may refer to any device that a user uses to communicate. Figure 1 and Figure 8 The UE is depicted as a mobile phone, but it should be understood that the UE may include a variety of other devices, including but not limited to laptop computers, smart watches, tablet computers, and vehicle-based UEs, such as those installed in cars, buses, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), airplanes, trains, or ships. Alternatively, the mobile UE device may be carried by the user, or worn on them.

[0056] In some examples, the term "reflector" may refer to any entity in the environment that causes a signal (e.g., but not limited to an RF signal) sent to or from a UE to be reflected. For example, in some examples, a positioning reference signal (e.g., SL-PRS) may be sent from a first UE to be received at a second UE via a multipath communication channel. In some examples, although a first component of a signal received at a second UE may have been propagated via the shortest propagation path (e.g., but not limited to a line-of-sight path) between the first UE and the second UE, one or more other components of the signal received at the second UE may have been propagated via a path other than the shortest propagation path. For example, although a signal sent via the shortest propagation path may propagate along a substantially straight line between the first UE and the second UE, a signal sent via a path other than the shortest propagation path may be reflected by the ground, atmosphere, buildings, vehicles, pedestrians, animals, street furniture, or other objects in the environment before reaching the second UE. Of course, it should be understood that in some examples, a signal component sent via a path other than the shortest propagation path may have a larger propagation delay and may cause stronger attenuation than a signal component sent via the shortest propagation path.

[0057] By way of example only, various methods and apparatus are described in detail below in the context of a cellular network, such as an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) network or a 5G network. However, it should be understood that these techniques may be applicable to other types of communication networks (e.g., but not limited to other types of cellular networks). A cellular network may include one or more base stations, sometimes referred to as transmit receive points (TRPs) or access points (e.g., but not limited to gNBs and / or eNBs). Although Figure 1 Base stations are not depicted, but a radio access network (RAN, NG-RAN) may typically include thousands of such base stations. The base stations may together provide cellular network coverage to one or more UEs over a wide geographic area. As described above, various UEs may also be able to communicate directly with other UE devices using SL or D2D communications. For example, such direct communication may refer to communication between UEs without passing through a base station or core network (CN). In some examples, SL or D2D communications may provide improved spectral efficiency, throughput, energy efficiency, and / or latency compared to conventional cellular communications via base stations.

[0058] In some implementations, for example, depending on the characteristics of the cellular network, base stations and UEs within the network may be configured to communicate with each other, for example, using OFDM-based communication schemes such as orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), and / or cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiple access (CP-OFDMA). For example, in some non-limiting examples, CP-OFDMA may be used for SL communication. Additionally or alternatively, OFDMA may be used for downlink (DL) communication and SC-FDMA may be used for uplink (UL) communication.

[0059] For simplicity, and by way of example only, in the examples described below, the target UE may be referred to as UE(0), the supporting UE may be referred to as UE(z), and the additional supporting UE may be referred to as UE(y). In such examples, "link z" may refer to the communication link between UE(0) and UE(z), and "link y" may refer to the communication link between UE(0) and UE(y).

[0060] In some examples, RCI(a,b) may refer to ranging channel information between UE(a) and UE(b) measured at UE(a). In some examples, h(a,b) or CIR(a,b) may refer to the channel impulse response of the channel between UE(a) and UE(b) measured at UE(a). In addition, in some examples, measurement M(a,b)(l) may refer to the lth component (i.e., "correlated reflection") of measurement M of a signal received via the channel between UE(a) and UE(b) measured at UE(a). In the following discussion, delay measurements may be represented by 'D', power / gain measurements by 'P', and angle of arrival measurements by 'A'. For example, D(0,z)(k) may refer to the propagation delay of the kth component of the measured signal received via the channel between UE(0) (target UE) and UE(z) (supporting UE) measured at UE(0). It should of course be understood that the measurements described herein may include all or a subset of delay, angle, and gain / power measurements, and / or one or more linear combinations of such measurements.

[0061] Figure 1 A target UE 100 is depicted, as well as a supporting UE 110 and a reflector 150. By way of example only, the reflector 150 is depicted as a car. However, it will be appreciated that the reflector 150 may alternatively include any object in the environment that causes a signal to be reflected, including but not limited to those described above. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that different numbers of UEs and / or reflectors are possible, as well as UEs and / or reflectors at different locations, intervals, or orientations.

[0062] Generally speaking, Figure 1The situation involving the target UE 100 and the supporting UE 110 receiving information to determine the distance and / or direction to a specific reflector 150. Figure 1 During the discussion, reference was made at certain points to Figure 2 1, which depicts examples of various communications that may be exchanged between at least a target UE 100 and a peer / support UE 110 in accordance with some implementations.

[0063] Specifically, the target UE 100 receives a signal including information indicating a support UE measurement of a signal sent from the target UE 100 to the support UE 110 via a multipath communication channel. The support UE measurement may include at least a delay and angle measurement of a signal sent from the target UE 100 to the support UE 110 via the multipath communication channel. The reception of such a signal may be as follows with reference to Figure 2 Operation 210 is shown and described in more detail.

[0064] After receiving the supporting UE measurements, the target UE 100 time-aligns the supporting UE measurements with the target UE measurements of the signal sent from the supporting UE 110 to the target UE 100 via the multipath communication channel (e.g., as referenced Figure 2 Such target UE measurements may also include at least delay and angle measurements of signals sent from the supporting UE 110 to the target UE 100 via the multipath communication channel.

[0065] The target UE 100 then determines an association between the component measured by the target UE and at least one corresponding component measured by the supporting UE (e.g., as referenced in Figure 2 215), wherein the associated components are determined to correspond to a specific reflector 150 in the environment of the target UE 100. Based on the associated components, the target UE 100 then determines the distance and / or direction from the target UE 100 to the specific reflector 150 (e.g., as described in reference to Figure 2 216 as described above).

[0066] The target UE 100 is sent to the supporting UE 110 via a multipath communication channel (e.g., as shown in FIG. Figure 2 The signal described in operation 206 of the embodiment may be, but is not limited to, a positioning reference signal such as a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS). The supporting UE may perform measurements on these signals (e.g., as described in reference to Figure 2 ), then may be directly or indirectly (e.g., as described in reference to operation 207) Figure 2The target UE 100 may include information indicating measurements performed by the support UE 110 (hereinafter referred to as "support UE measurements") as described in operation 210 of the present invention. As described above, the support UE measurements may include at least delay and angle measurements. The support UE measurements may also include a timestamp corresponding to the reception of the transmitted signal at the support UE and / or a timestamp corresponding to the transmission of a reply to the signal by the support UE. In some examples, the support UE measurements may include a time difference (TD) between the reception of the transmitted signal and the transmission of the reply by the support UE. In some such examples, the TD may be referred to as an Rx-Tx time difference.

[0067] In some examples, supporting UE measurements may include ranging channel information (RCI). For example, RCI may include a channel periodogram (i.e., an estimate of the power spectral density of the measurement signal) and / or a channel impulse response (CIR) and / or a channel frequency response (CFR). Additionally or alternatively, supporting UE measurements may include a list of components (i.e., "taps") of the measurement signal caused by propagation via a multipath communication channel. For example, components of the measurement signal may correspond to signals received via different paths at the supporting UE (e.g., due to reflections caused by other nearby objects). In some examples, the component list may include the angle of arrival, propagation delay, and / or power (i.e., gain) of each component. Additionally or alternatively, the component list may also include phase measurements and / or amplitude measurements of each component. In some examples, certain components may be referred to as "correlated reflections." In some examples, supporting UE measurements may also include information characterizing correlated reflections in the frequency domain.

[0068] As described above, the supporting UE 110 may also send a positioning reference signal, such as a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) (e.g., as referenced to FIG. Figure 2 The target UE 100 may perform measurements of these signals (hereinafter referred to as "target UE measurements"). (For example, as described in reference to operation 208 of Figure 2The support UE measurements may then be time aligned, for example, by the target UE performing time alignment (e.g., as described with reference to operation 214). In some examples, the target UE measurements may substantially correspond in type to the support UE measurements. For example, the target UE measurements may include at least delay and angle measurements of a signal sent from the support UE 110 to the target UE 100 via a multipath communication channel. In some examples, the target UE measurements may also include a timestamp corresponding to the reception of the transmitted signal at the target UE and / or a timestamp corresponding to the transmission of a reply to the signal by the target UE. In some examples, the target UE measurements may include a time difference (TD) between the reception and reply of the transmitted signal. In some such examples, the TD may be referred to as an Rx-Tx time difference.

[0069] Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the target UE measurement may, for example, include ranging channel information (RCI) described with reference to supporting UE measurements. For example, the RCI may include a channel period diagram and / or a CIR and / or a CFR. Additionally or alternatively, the target UE measurement may include a list of components (i.e., "taps") of the measurement signal caused by propagation via a multipath communication channel. In some examples, the components of the measurement signal may correspond to signals received at the target UE via different paths (e.g., due to reflections caused by other nearby objects). In some examples, the component list may include the angle of arrival, propagation delay, and / or power (i.e., gain) of each component. In some examples, these components may be referred to as "correlated reflections."

[0070] The target UE 100 may align its local coordinate system (LCS) with the LCS of the supporting UE 110 (e.g., as referenced Figure 2 Operations 201 to 203 and / or reference Fig.11 and 12As described). In some examples, such alignment may be referred to as coordinate system alignment (CSA) and may enable the two UEs to share the same concept of what an angle of arrival or angle of departure is relative to a spatial direction. In other words, alignment may enable angular information (e.g., the angle of arrival of a measurement signal) to have a consistent meaning at both the target UE and the supporting UE. In some examples, alignment may be performed before the support UE 110 (e.g., but not limited to, in response to a request from the target UE 100) performs measurements. Alternatively, in some examples, angular measurements made at the support UE may be "converted" to equivalent measurements at the target UE. This alignment process may be referred to as angle domain synchronization (ADS). Of course, it should be understood that in some examples, multiple supporting UEs may be enabled to align their local coordinate systems with the LCS of a single target UE. Although aspects of the present disclosure relate to aligning the LCS of a support UE with the LCS of a target UE, it should be further understood that the techniques described herein may be applicable to aligning the LCS of any particular UE pair (e.g., a first UE and a second UE).

[0071] As described above, and by way of example only, the target UE 100 may be referred to as UE(0), and the supporting UE 110 may be referred to as UE(z). For a link z between the target UE 100 and the supporting UE 110, the propagation time TOT(z) may be calculated (e.g., as Figure 2 In some examples, TOT(z) may be calculated as half of the difference between TD(0) and TD(z).

[0072] In some examples, the support UE measurements may be time aligned with the target UE measurements (e.g., as shown in operation 214). For example, this may be accomplished by using the propagation time of the link between the target UE and the support UE to determine a common delay domain origin. In other words, the target UE may determine a reference point for the channel response in the delay domain. Figure 3 Operations S3.1 to S3.3 depicted in FIG. 4 describe various aspects of this time alignment process. Figure 3As shown in S3.1, the propagation time can be calculated as TOT(z) mentioned above. Next, in S3.2, a common delay origin can be established by determining an RCPI-specific offset called 'dTOT'. For example, two RCI-specific offsets for link z can be determined as dTOT(0,z)=|D(0,z)(1)-TOT(z)| and dTOT(z,0)=|D(z,0)(1)-TOA(z)|, where D(0,z)(1) and D(z,0)(1) are delay measurements corresponding to the first component (i.e., the minimum delay component) of the signal measured at the target UE and the supporting UE, respectively. The first component may correspond to a signal propagated via the shortest propagation path (e.g., but not limited to a line-of-sight path) between the target UE 100 and the supporting UE 110.

[0073] In operation S3.3, once the offset is determined, the target UE 100 can then time-align the support UE measurements with the target UE measurements by shifting the delay measurements by the corresponding determined offsets. For example, the target UE can calculate the "aligned" delay vectors as aD(0,z)=D(0,z)-dTOT(0,z) and aD(z,0)=D(z,0)-dTOT(z,0). In other words, the delay measurements from the target UE 100 and the support UE 110 can be transformed so that their axes are aligned.

[0074] In some examples, the delay measurements from the support UE and the target UE have different delay resolutions. In some examples, improving these delay resolutions can help facilitate detection and verification of the reflector as described herein. Therefore, in some examples, the target UE measurements and / or the support UE measurements can be resampled in the delay domain so that the target UE measurements and the support UE measurements have a common delay resolution (also referred to as a "common sampling rate"). References herein Figure 4 Describe the various aspects of this coordination process.

[0075] In operation S4.1, the power measurements of the target UE and the power measurements of the supporting UE are normalized before resampling. This may be referred to as "power normalization". For example, the power may be weighted so that the total power of each RCI is equal to 1. In some such examples, the normalized power may be and is calculated, where the sum over s refers to the sum of all components of the supporting UE measurements and the sum over w refers to the sum of all components of the target UE measurements. It should also be appreciated that the measurements may be pruned prior to resampling.

[0076] The target channel response h(0,z)(t) at time t may be generated based on the target UE measurements, and the support channel response h((z,0)((t)) may be generated based on the support UE measurements. For example, in some examples, the target channel response may be given by is given by, and the supporting channel response can be given by Given.

[0077] In operation S4.2, resampling of the delay measurement may be performed so that the delay resolution of the support UE measurement matches the delay resolution of the target UE measurement. In some examples, the resampling may be performed based on the target channel response and / or the support channel response as described above. For example, the resampling may be achieved by convolving the target channel response and / or the support channel response with a filter having a common delay resolution. Alternatively, in some examples, the resampling may be performed by applying a discrete Fourier transform DFT to the target channel response and / or the support channel response, followed by an inverse discrete Fourier transform IDFT, wherein the IDFT has a common delay resolution.

[0078] In operation S4.3, once the measurements have been "coordinated" (e.g., in the angle, delay, and delay resolution domains), an association between a component measured by the target UE and at least one corresponding component measured by the supporting UE may be determined based on the time-aligned measurements. In other words, each component measured by the target UE is associated with a group or cluster of one or more components measured by the supporting UE. In some examples, the component measured by the target UE associated with each cluster is referred to as a "primary component." See Attachment 1 for details. Figure 6 and Figure 7 A specific example is described of how the association process of S4.3 may be performed.

[0079] By the channel reciprocity principle, the reflector in the environment of the UE can be verified based on the "visibility" to both the target UE and the supporting UE. That is, if the reflection in the measurement performed at the two UEs occurs at approximately the same position, the probability that the "real" reflector occupies that position in the environment is high. Therefore, the associated component can be determined to correspond to a specific reflector 150 in the environment of the target UE 100. By way of example only, in the following discussion, the component associated with the specific reflector 150 is referred to as the kth component of the UE measurement.

[0080] By correlating the components measured by the target UE with the components of the supporting UE, the distance from the target UE 100 to the specific reflector 150 can be determined based on the correlated components. For example, if the specific reflector 150 corresponds to the kth component measured by the UE (as described above), and given (x, y) as the position of the target UE 100 (e.g., in the global coordinate system GCS), given (x z ,y z ) as the location of the supporting UE 110 (e.g. in the GCS), the distance between the target UE 100 and the specific reflector 150 may be given by:

[0081]

[0082] where d = c × aD(0,z)(k)(c is the speed of light≈3×10 8 ms -1 ) is the path distance covered by the signal corresponding to the kth component (ie, the distance from the supporting UE 110 to the specific reflector 150 and then to the target UE 100), and y z It is the Y-axis position of the supporting UE.

[0083] In some examples, the target UE 100 may determine the position of the specific reflector 150 relative to the target UE 100 based on the determined distance and the angular measurement of the corresponding component measured by the target UE. For example, polar coordinates may be used to indicate such a relative position. Alternatively, the target UE 100 may use x0(k)=d k (0)cos(A(0,z)(k))±x and y0(k)=d k (0)sin(A(0,z)(k))±y obtains the absolute position of the specific reflecting party 150.

[0084] Reference below Fig. 9 Describes how other aspects of the location and / or range of a particular reflecting party 150 may be determined.

[0085] In some examples, multiple UEs may be available in a geographic area. Therefore, multiple UE pairs may be able to operate together to improve the effectiveness of the above-mentioned reflector recording process. For example, the target UE 100 may receive a signal including the following information, which indicates additional support UE measurements of signals (e.g., but not limited to SL-PRS) sent from the target UE to an additional support UE (i.e., a nearby UE different from the target UE 100 and the support UE 110) via an additional multipath communication channel. The additional support UE measurements may include delay and angle measurements of signals sent from the target UE to the additional support UE via the additional multipath communication channel. The additional support UE measurements can be performed in a manner similar to the above-mentioned support UE measurements.

[0086] In such examples, the target UE 100 may utilize additional target UE measurements of signals (e.g., but not limited to SL-PRS) sent from the additional support UEs via the additional multipath communication channels to the target UE 100, to time align with the additional support UE measurements. The additional target UE measurements may include delay and angle measurements of signals sent from the additional support UEs via the additional multipath communication channels to the target UE 100. The additional target UE measurements may be performed in a manner similar to the target UE measurements described above.

[0087] In such an example, based on the additional time alignment measurement, the target UE 100 may determine an additional association between the additional target UE measured components and at least one corresponding component of the additional support UE measurement, wherein the additional associated component may be determined to correspond to the specific reflector. In addition, in such an example, the distance from the target UE to the specific reflector may be further determined based on the additional associated component.

[0088] In some examples, the processes described herein may be performed sequentially for multiple pairs of UEs, with the results combined to improve overall efficiency. For example, the reflector recording process described herein may be "cold started" by processing all available UEs simultaneously. In some such examples, particularly when UE(0); UE(z); UE(y) are available, the target UE UE(0) may perform the following steps:

[0089] a. As described above, collect UE measurements corresponding to each possible pair of UEs (for example, but not limited to,

[0090] RCI measurement), such as {RCI(0,z), RCI(z,0)}; {RCI(0,y), RCI(y,0)};

[0091] {RCI(z,y),RCI(y,z)},

[0092] b. Time align the delay measurements for each link as described above,

[0093] c. Normalize the power measurements as described above.

[0094] d. The delay resolution of each link is coordinated by resampling to a common sampling rate as described above.

[0095] e. As described above, the distance between the reflector(s) and UE(0) is calculated using the measurements corresponding to the combination of UE(0) and UE(z) and the measurements corresponding to the combination of UE(0) and UE(y).

[0096] f. For each supporting UE, calculate an estimate of the reflector's position relative to the target UE,

[0097] g. Calculate a final estimate of the reflector's position based on the average of the individual estimates.

[0098] The average may be weighted by the confidence estimate provided by the supporting UE to the target UE.

[0099] In some examples, the above steps e to g may be performed alternatively via a joint optimization process. For example, in some examples, by targeting d k (0) Solve the following set of equations to determine the distance from the target UE 100 to the specific reflector 150:

[0100]

[0101] Among them, ∈ z ,∈ y are the measurement errors associated with the UE measurement process for links 0-z and 0-y, d=c×aD(0,z)(k) and d′=c×aD(0,y)(k), respectively. In such an example, d may correspond to the distance from the supporting UE (z) to the reflector plus the distance from the reflector to the target UE, and d′ may correspond to the distance from the supporting UE (y) to the reflector plus the distance from the reflector to the target UE.

[0102] In some examples, the measurement error may be estimated based on the received measurements, or the measurement error may be reported by the supporting UE. It should be understood that in some examples, measurements associated with other UE links (e.g., between UE(z) and UE(y)) may also be included in the joint optimization process.

[0103] Alternatively, the process described herein may be "hot started" by performing the logging process for UE(0) and UE(z) as described above, and then refined using the output of the process as applied to the combination {UE(0), UE(y)} and {UE(z), UE(y)}.

[0104] In some examples, reference Figure 1 The described process may be performed at the target UE 100. For example, the process may be performed as part of a simultaneous positioning and ranging (SPR) session, such as but not limited to reference Figure 2 as described.

[0105] Figure 2 is a message flow sequence generally indicated by reference numeral 200 according to some examples of the described techniques. Message flow sequence 200 illustrates a method of executing a message such as reference 200. Figure 1 Example implementations of aspects of the described processes.

[0106] The message flow sequence 200 shows the signaling process between the target UE, the supporting UE and the neighboring UE 220. However, it should be understood that some implementations may not involve (or omit) the neighboring UE 220. For example, the target UE and the supporting UE may be the same as those described above. Figure 1 Depicted target UE 100 and supporting UE 110. In some examples, the message flow sequence may be triggered by the target UE to initiate a simultaneous positioning and ranging (SPR) session with one or more nearby UEs acting as "supporting UEs."

[0107] Although various operations are described below as being performed by neighboring UE 220, in some examples, such as when no neighboring UE exists, these operations may be performed by a different UE (eg, but not limited to, a target UE or a supporting UE) or may be omitted from the message flow sequence.

[0108] In some examples, at operation 201, the target UE may send a request for simultaneous positioning and ranging (SPR) measurements performed by those UEs to one or more UEs in its environment (which may be referred to as peer UEs). In some examples, the request for SPR measurements may be referred to as a request to join an "SPR session". Such a request may be broadcast, for example, via a side link (SL), and in some such examples may be referred to as an SL-SPR request. The request may describe which types of SPR measurements are requested from the peer UE for the SPR process performed by the target UE. In some examples, the requested SPR measurements may include measurements of a side link positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) sent by the target UE via a wireless communication channel for reception by the peer UE. For example, in some examples, the requested measurements may include a timestamp corresponding to the reception of the SL-PRS at the peer UE and / or a timestamp corresponding to the transmission of a reply to the SL-PRS by the peer UE. Additionally or alternatively, the requested measurements may include a time difference (TD) between the reception and reply of the SL-PRS. In some such examples, TD may be referred to as an Rx-Tx time difference.

[0109] Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the requested measurement may include ranging channel information (RCI). For example, the RCI may include a channel and / or CIR and / or CFR. Additionally or alternatively, the RCI may include a list of components of the received SL-PRS caused by a multipath propagation environment. For example, in some examples, the components of the received signal may correspond to signals received via different paths (e.g., due to reflections caused by other nearby objects). In some examples, the component list may include the angle of arrival, propagation delay, and / or power of each component. In some examples, these components may be referred to as "correlated reflections."

[0110] In some examples, the request for SPR may also include a coordinate system alignment (CSA) request. Alternatively, the request for CSA may be sent separately from the request for SPR (e.g., via SL). The request for CSA may include alignment information for orienting the local coordinate system LCS of the supporting UE to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the target UE. In this way, in the angle domain, the local coordinate system of the peer UE may be aligned with the local coordinate system of the target UE.

[0111] At operation 202, upon receiving the SPR request, the peer UE may evaluate whether it has the capability to join the SPR session as a supporting UE (e.g., but not limited to, based on available hardware or software resources). In some examples, the peer UE may send a signal to the target UE including information indicating confirmation that the peer UE is capable of performing CSA and / or SPR measurements.

[0112] At operation 203, if the peer UE chooses to join the SPR session as a supporting UE, the peer UE (now a supporting UE) performs CSA with the target UE based on the alignment information included in the request for the above-mentioned CSA. For example, the supporting UE can orient (e.g., rotate) its LCS to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the target UE. This can enable the supporting UE and the target UE to share the same concept of what the arrival angle or departure angle is relative to the spatial direction. In other words, as a result of performing CSA, the LCS of the supporting UE and the LCS of the target UE can share a consistent local angle representation for reporting angle measurements.

[0113] Reference below Figure 8 Describes various aspects related to this coordinate system alignment.

[0114] In some examples, at operation 204, the supporting UE may send a reply to the SPR request. For example, in some examples, the reply may include one or more of the following: an identifier (ID) associated with the supporting UE, the location of the supporting UE, the ranging capabilities of the supporting UE (e.g., but not limited to the type of RCI that the supporting UE can measure), and / or the result of the CSA. For example, the result of the CSA may include an indication of the degree of success of the CSA, thereby including the degree to which the angle measurement received from the supporting UE can be trusted. In such examples, the indication may sometimes be referred to as a "trust level". The result of the CSA may include an indication of the accuracy of the CSA (i.e., the accuracy / precision with which the supporting UE expects to have achieved the angular alignment of its LCS with the LCS of the target UE). In some examples, such as those examples in which the reply includes the location of the supporting UE, the reply may also include a measurement of the location integrity (e.g., but not limited to confidence and / or error metrics) and / or a location source (such as GNSS, GPS, NR, etc.). In some examples, the supporting UE may send the result of the CSA to the target UE (e.g., via SL) separately from the reply to the SPR request. Operations 201 to 204 may be collectively referred to as a "signaling handshake".

[0115] In some examples, at operation 205, the target UE may send a signal to the supporting UE including information ("configuration information") for configuring the transceiver of the supporting UE to send and / or receive SL-PRS. Such information may include, for example, sequence, time, frequency, and / or periodicity patterns.

[0116] In operation 206 , the target UE sends a positioning reference signal 206 (eg, SL-PRS) to the supporting UE. In some examples, the SL-PRS may be received via a transceiver configured using the information described with reference to operation 205 .

[0117] At operation 207 , the supporting UE receives the transmitted SL-PRS 206 and may perform some or all of the requested SPR measurements as described with reference to operation 201 .

[0118] At operation 208, the supporting UE sends a positioning reference signal (eg, SL-PRS) to the target UE. In some examples, the SL-PRS may be sent via a transceiver configured using the information described with reference to operation 205.

[0119] At operation 209, the target UE receives the transmitted SL-PRS 208 and may perform some or all SPR measurements as described with reference to operation 201. Such measurements may be referred to as target UE measurements.

[0120] At operation 210 , the supporting UE transmits a signal including information indicating the SPR measurement performed by the supporting UE at operation 207 to the target UE.

[0121] In an example where there are one or more neighboring UEs 220, the supporting UE may receive signals 211 from the neighboring UEs 220. These signals may include information indicating the location of one or more reflectors in the environment known to the neighboring UEs 220 that sent the signal. In other words, the neighboring UEs 220 may "warn" the supporting UE of the presence of reflectors visible to the neighboring UEs 220. Of course, it should be understood that some, all, or none of the reflectors included in such "warnings" may be detected using the measurements described with reference to operations 207 and 209. In some such examples, at operation 212, some or all of the information may be forwarded to the target UE. For example, this may occur if the supporting UE considers the information to be related to the SPR process. For example, if the power of the signal received from the neighboring UE 220 is similar to the power of the SL-PRS received from the target, the information may be forwarded, thereby filtering out the information from the distant neighboring UEs 220. In addition, if the neighboring UE's obstacle information is similar to the SL-PRS channel (for example, if the neighboring UE obstacle has the same or similar direction as the reflection of the SL-PRS from the target), the information can be forwarded, thereby filtering out obstacles that are not in the field of view of the target UE.

[0122] Alternatively, the target UE may receive signals 211 directly from neighboring UEs 220. These signals may include information indicating the location of one or more reflectors in the environment known to the neighboring UE 220 that sent the signal. In other words, the neighboring UE 220 may "warn" the target UE of the presence of reflectors visible to the neighboring UE 220.

[0123] In some examples, at operation 213, the target UE may calculate a propagation time (TOT) of a link to the supporting UE based on the SPR measurements described with reference to operations 207 and 209. For example, the TOT may be determined based on a time difference (TD) for the supporting UE together with a TD for the target UE. In some such examples, the TOT may be calculated as half of the difference between the TD measured by the supporting UE and the TD measured by the target UE.

[0124] In some examples, the location of the target UE may also be obtained. For example, the target UE may estimate its location by combining TOTs to multiple supporting UEs (e.g., but not limited to, using a multi-point positioning method). In other examples, the target UE may estimate its own location using a positioning process that does not depend on the radio access technology (RAT). For example, this process may involve the use of a global navigation satellite system GNSS, such as a global positioning system GPS. In other examples, as part of a RAT-related process, the target UE may obtain its location from the network (e.g., via a base station).

[0125] At operation 214, the target UE time-aligns the support UE measurements with the target UE measurements. In some examples, the time alignment can be based on the calculated TOT. For example, the target UE can offset the delay measurements (sometimes referred to as "delay grating") performed by the support UE and the target UE using an offset proportional to the calculated TOT. In other words, in some examples, time-aligning the support UE measurements with the target UE measurements can include determining a common delay domain origin using a propagation time calculated for a link between the target UE and the support UE ... Figure 1 Determining such a common delay field origin is described.

[0126] At operation 215, the target UE may use time-aligned measurements to detect and verify a reflector. For example, the time-aligned RCI measurements from the target UE and the support UE may be compared with each other. In this case, if a channel tap (i.e., a component of the measurement signal) is found in both the support UE measurement and the target UE measurement at approximately the same alignment delay, the specific reflector may be considered "valid". In other words, at operation 215, the target UE may determine the association between the component measured by the target UE and at least one corresponding component measured by the support UE based on the time-aligned measurements. In this way, it may be determined that the correlated component corresponds to a specific reflector in the environment of the target UE.

[0127] At operation 216, the target UE calculates the distance from the target UE to the reflector detected / verified at operation 215. For example, such a distance may be calculated based on the correlation component determined to correspond to the reflector. Figure 1 In some examples, the distance from the supporting UE to the reflector may also be calculated by performing a method similar to that described for the target UE. In some examples, the formula d may be used. k (z) = dd k (0) to calculate the distance from the supporting UE to the reflector, where d k (z) is the distance from the supporting UE to the reflector k, d kx0(k)=d k (0)cos(A(0,z)(k))±x and y0(k)=d k (0)sin(A(0,z)(k))±y obtains the absolute position of a specific reflector.

[0128] In some examples, at operation 217, the target UE may send a signal to the supporting UE, the signal including information indicating the position of the reflector determined at operation 216. Additionally or alternatively, the signal may include ranging information indicating a distance between the supporting UE and the reflector.

[0129] In some examples, at operation 218, the supporting UE may send a signal including information indicating the determined location of the reflector to other neighboring UEs 220. For example, in some examples, as described above, the signal sent at operation 218 may be similar to the signal sent at operation 211. That is, after identifying the location of one or more reflectors near the target UE / supporting UE, the supporting UE may "warn" the neighboring UEs 220 of the presence and location of some or all of these reflectors (e.g., based on perceived correlation). In some examples, this transmission may be referred to as an "obstacle warning SL multicast".

[0130] Alternatively, the target UE may send a signal including information indicating the determined locations of the reflectors to other neighboring UEs 220. That is, after identifying the locations of one or more reflectors near the target UE / supporting UE, the target UE may "alert" neighboring UEs 220 of the presence and locations of some or all of these reflectors.

[0131] Figure 5 is a flow chart depicting various operations that can be performed according to various examples. For example, Figure 5 The operations described in the above may be performed by a UE device (such as a reference Figure 1 The target UE 100 described herein) or other suitable devices are executed. Of course, it should be understood that Figure 5 The various operations shown in correspond to the operations that have been described with reference to the previous figures. Specifically, in some examples, operation S5.1 may correspond to the operations described with reference to Figure 2Operation 210 described above, operation S5.2 may correspond to operation 214, operation S5.3 may correspond to operation 215, and operation S5.4 may correspond to operation 216.

[0132] In operation S5.1, the target UE receives information indicating measurements (e.g., but not limited to RCI measurements) of signals sent from the target UE to one or more supporting UEs via a multipath communication channel, the measurements being performed by one or more supporting UEs that receive the signals. In some examples, the measurements performed by each of the one or more supporting UEs may include a channel period diagram and / or CIR and / or CFR. Additionally or alternatively, the supporting UE measurements may include a list of components (i.e., "taps") of the measurement signal caused by propagation via the multipath communication channel. For example, in some examples, the components of the measurement signal may correspond to signals received via different paths at the supporting UE (e.g., due to reflections caused by other nearby objects). In some examples, the component list may include the angle of arrival, propagation delay, and / or power (i.e., gain) of each component. In some examples, the supporting UE measurements may also include information characterizing the components in the frequency domain.

[0133] In operation S5.2, the target UE "coordinates" the supporting UE measurements with corresponding target UE measurements of signals sent from one or more supporting UEs to the target UE via the multipath communication channel, as described with reference to the previous figures. For example, the target UE may align the channel raster between the UEs by: (i) determining a common coordinate system for each pair of UEs (e.g., by orienting the LCS of one or more supporting UEs to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the target UE), (ii) determining a common delay domain origin (i.e., a reference point for the channel response in the delay domain) for each pair of UEs, and (iii) coordinating different resolutions (in the delay domain) across the measurement sets.

[0134] References Figure 3 and Figure 4 This "reconciliation" process is described further.

[0135] In operation S5.3, the target UE may perform identification and checking (also referred to as detection and verification) of reflectors based on channel reciprocity for each pair of UEs (or more generally, for each group of UEs). In other words, the target UE may determine an association between each component of the target UE measurement and at least one corresponding component of the supporting UE measurement. In such an example, the associated component corresponds to a reflector that is common to the target UE measurement and the supporting UE measurement, and may be determined to represent a "verified" (i.e., 'real') reflector in the vicinity of the target UE. In some such examples, the process may combine information from multiple supporting UEs. For example, information from multiple UEs may be combined in reference to Figure 1Describes the "cold start" or "warm start" combination process used.

[0136] Please refer to the following Figure 6 and Figure 7 Various examples of detection and verification of a reflector are further described.

[0137] In operation S5.4, the target UE may determine the location information of the reflector identified in operation S5.3. For example, in some examples, the target UE may determine the distance (sometimes referred to as a "range") to each identified reflector. Specifically, the distance from the target UE to a specific reflector may be determined based on the associated components measured by the UE. In some examples, the target UE may determine the location of the reflector relative to the target UE based on the determined range and the angle measurement of the corresponding component measured for the target UE. For example, in some examples, polar coordinates may be used to indicate such a relative position. In some examples, the target UE may combine such a determined relative position with the location of the target UE (e.g., a request GNSS or RAT-based process obtained) to obtain the absolute position of a specific reflector.

[0138] Figure 6 is a flow chart depicting various operations that can be performed according to various examples. For example, Figure 6 The operations described in the figure may be performed by a UE device or other suitable apparatus. Of course, it should be understood that Figure 6 The various operations shown in correspond to those already described with reference to the previous figures. For example, Figure 6 All operations depicted in can be used as Figure 4 Part of operation S4.3, Figure 3 Part of operation S5.3 or Figure 2 215 as part of operation 215 in the embodiment of the present invention.

[0139] Generally speaking, Figure 6 The operations depicted in the embodiment involve determining that a component measured by the target UE is associated with one or more corresponding components measured by the support UE based on minimization of a divergence metric between the component measured by the target UE and one or more subsets of components measured by the support UE. For example, at least one corresponding component measured by the support UE may be selected as a subset of the one or more subsets that minimizes the divergence metric.

[0140] In operation S6.1, the operations described with reference to operations S6.2 to S6.8 are iterated on the components measured by the target UE. In other words, for each component s measured by the target UE, the operations described with reference to operations S6.2 to S6.8 may be performed. In some examples, the target UE measurement component s considered in each iteration may be referred to as a "primary component".

[0141] In operation S6.2, a discrete Fourier transform (e.g., but not limited to, a fast Fourier transform FFT) of the channel impulse response of component s may be determined. For example, if the channel impulse response corresponding to component s is given by h(0, z), its Fourier transform may be given by F(s)=FFT(h(0, z)(s)).

[0142] In operation S6.3, a delay range R(z,0)(s) may be selected from the supporting UE measurements. In other words, a subset of time-aligned supporting UE delay measurements aD(z,0) may be selected such that the delay of component s (i.e., aD(0,z)) is within its range. In some examples, the range R(z,0) may be identified as an interval of fixed width centered on aD(0,z). Alternatively, R(z,0) may be selected as an interval that maintains a fixed proportion of the total channel energy (e.g., but not limited to, 80% of the channel energy).

[0143] In operation S6.4, the components supporting UE measurement within the range R(z, 0) may be indexed as r1, r2, etc., where p is the total number of these components. p can be indexed in order of increasing delay. Alternatively, components r1, r2, ..., r p may be indexed in order of increasing distance from component s in the delay domain.

[0144] In operation S6.5, the values ​​corresponding to the components r1, r2, ..., r p For example, the FFT of the channel impulse response corresponding to component r1 may be calculated, followed by the FFTs of the channel impulse responses corresponding to components r1 and r2, and so on. In such an example, if the FFTs of the channel impulse responses corresponding to components r1 to r2 are q The channel impulse response is given by h(z,0)(r1,…,r q ), then the Fourier transform can be given by F(s, r1) = FFT(h(z,0)(r1), F(s, r2) = FFT(h(z,0)(r1,r2)…, F(s, rp) = FFT(h(z,0)(r1,r2,…,rp). In other words, FFT can be gradually applied to the channel impulse response corresponding to the first q components, where q = 1, 2,…, p.

[0145] In operation S6.6, the Fourier transform of the channel impulse response corresponding to component s (as determined at operation S6.2) and the Fourier transform of the channel impulse response corresponding to components r1, r2, ..., r pThe divergence metric is evaluated between each of the Fourier transforms of the channel impulse responses of the subset (as calculated at operation S6.5). In some examples, the divergence metric may be the mean square error (MSE). In other words, for i=1, ..., p, MSE(F(s), F(s, r) may be calculated. i )).

[0146] In operation S6.7, component s (i.e., the principal component) may be combined with the supporting UE measurement components r1, r2, ..., r j Then, remove components r1, r2, ..., r from the search list j (ie, the component supporting UE measurement of the delay range is selected / indexed at operations S6.3 and S6.4).

[0147] In operation S6.8, if each component of the target UE measurement has been iterated as described above, the method terminates and returns the association between each component of the target UE measurement and one or more corresponding components of the supporting UE measurement. Otherwise, the method returns to operation S6.1 and the next component of the target UE measurement can be processed.

[0148] Figure 7 is a flow chart depicting various operations that can be performed according to various examples. For example, Figure 7 The operations described in the figure may be performed by a UE device or other suitable apparatus. Of course, it should be understood that Figure 7 The various operations shown in correspond to those already described with reference to the previous figures. For example, Figure 7 All operations described in can be used as Figure 4 Part of operation S4.3, Figure 3 Part of operation S5.3 or Figure 2 215 as part of operation 215 in the embodiment of the present invention.

[0149] In some examples, each component measured by the target UE may be measured with reference to Figure 7 The described approach is associated with supporting a single corresponding component of UE measurements, rather than performing a reference Figure 6 Describes the operation. In general, Figure 7 The operations depicted in the description involve determining that a component measured by the target UE is associated with at least one corresponding component measured by the supporting UE based on a delay measurement of the component measured by the target UE being within a threshold delay of a delay measurement of at least one corresponding component measured by the supporting UE and / or based on a power measurement of the component measured by the target UE being within a power threshold of a power measurement of at least one corresponding component measured by the supporting UE.

[0150] In operation S7.1, the operations described in reference operations S7.2 to S7.5 can be iterated on the components measured by the target UE. In other words, for each component s measured by the target UE, the operations described in reference operations S7.2 to S7.5 can be performed. In some examples, the target UE measurement component s considered in each iteration can be referred to as the "primary component".

[0151] In operation S7.2, the component s measured by the target UE can be compared with the components measured by the supporting UE. For example, the (time-aligned) delay and / or power of the primary component can be compared with the corresponding delay / power of each component j measured by the supporting UE.

[0152] In operation S7.3, based on the comparison, it can be determined whether the compared measurements meet one or more thresholds. If it is determined that one or more thresholds are met, the method proceeds to operation S7.4. Otherwise, the method proceeds to operation S7.5. For example, if the delay measurement of one or more components measured by the supporting UE is within the delay threshold of the delay of the component s measured by the target UE (i.e., |aD(0,z)(s)-aD(z,0)(j)|<Th1), it can be determined that one or more thresholds are met. In other examples, if the power measurement of one or more components measured by the supporting UE is within the power threshold of the power of the component s measured by the target UE (i.e., |P(0,z)(s)-P(z,0)(j)|<Th2), it can be determined that one or more thresholds are met. In other examples, it can be determined that one or more thresholds are met only when both the power threshold and the delay threshold are met (i.e., |aD(0,z)(s)-aD(z,0)(j)|<Th1 and |P(0,z)(s)-P(z,0)(j)|<Th2).

[0153] In operation S7.4, the component s can be verified as the "true" reflecting party, and one or more components j of the supporting UE measurement determined to meet one or more thresholds in operation S7.3 are removed from the search list (i.e., the components of the supporting UE measurement compared with the primary component in subsequent iterations at operation S7.2).

[0154] In operation S7.5, the component s can be discarded. That is, no corresponding reflection is identified in the supporting UE measurement (i.e., the reciprocal channel), so the component s is unlikely to correspond to a "true" reflecting party in the environment of the target UE.

[0155] After performing operation S7.4 or S7.5, the method returns to operation S7.1, and the next component measured by the target UE can be processed.

[0156] Figure 8UE measurements and time-aligned UE measurements as described with reference to the previous figures are depicted. The UE measurements and time-aligned UE measurements may include delay D, angle of arrival A, and power P of signals sent between a target UE (such as UE 100) and a supporting UE (such as UE 110) via a multipath communication channel. The target UE measurements are shown in the figure indicated by reference numeral 810 (in Figure 8 0, z)(i), A(0,z)(i), P(0,z)(i), where i runs from 1 to 4. Similarly, the supporting UE measurements are depicted on an axis generally indicated by reference numeral 820 (in the upper left of FIG. 1 ). By way of example only, the target UE measurements include a first component 811, a second component 812, a third component 813, and a fourth component 814 ordered by increasing delay. It should of course be understood that each of the components 811 to 814 can be represented by a triplet D(0,z)(i), A(0,z)(i), P(0,z)(i), where i runs from 1 to 4. Similarly, the supporting UE measurements are depicted on an axis generally indicated by reference numeral 820 (in the upper left of FIG. 1 ). Figure 8 ) is depicted on an axis generally indicated by the lower left corner of the diagram and includes components 821 to 824.

[0157] Reference line 801 is used to illustrate how the delay gratings of the target UE measurement and the supporting UE measurement are not aligned. That is, the first (ie line-of-sight LoS) component 811 of the target UE measurement 810 is not aligned with the first (ie LoS) component 821 of the supporting UE measurement.

[0158] As described above, the target UE may time align the support UE measurements with the target UE measurements. For example, the propagation time (TOT) of the link between the target UE and the support UE may be used to determine the common delay domain origin. For example, the target UE may calculate the "aligned" delay raster as aD(0,z)=D(0,z)-dTOT(0,z) and aD(z,0)=D(z,0)-dTOT(z,0), and where dTOT is the value of the delay raster as described above with reference to the previous figures (particularly Figure 3 ) describes the determined RCI specific offset.

[0159] As an example only, the time-aligned target UE measures the Figure 8 830) is depicted on an axis generally indicated by reference numeral 830 and includes components 831 to 834, and time-aligned support UE measurements are depicted on an axis generally indicated by reference numeral 840 ( Figure 8 ) is depicted on an axis generally indicated by , and includes components 841 to 844. As a result of the time alignment, the delay raster measured by the target UE may be aligned with the delay raster measured by the support UE. This is evident from reference line 801, which is shown as being aligned in the time domain with both the first component 831 of the time-aligned target UE measurement and the first component 841 of the time-aligned support UE measurement.

[0160] Fig. 9Depicted are a target UE 910, a supporting UE 920, and a reflecting party 950 on an axis generally indicated by reference numeral 900. It should of course be understood that Fig. 9 The aspects of the embodiment may correspond to the aspects described with reference to the previous drawings. Specifically, the target UE 910 may correspond to the target UE 100 , the supporting UE 920 may correspond to the supporting UE 110 , and the reflecting party 950 may correspond to the specific reflecting party 150 .

[0161] As described above, location information for a particular reflector 950 may be determined based on associated components of the time-aligned UE measurements. In some examples, the location information may be or may include a distance between the target UE 910 and the reflector. Fig. 9 In , the distance between the target UE 910 and the reflector is indicated as d1(k), and the distance between the support UE 920 and the reflector 950 is indicated as d2(k), where the associated measured component k corresponds to the reflector 1050. In this case, d1(k)+d2(k)=d, where d=c×aD(0,z)(k) is the path distance covered by the signal corresponding to the kth component. Fig. 9 In the example, the position of the target UE 910 is represented as (x, y), the position of the reflector 950 is represented as (x0(k), y0(k)), and the position of the supporting UE 920 is represented as (x z ,y z ).

[0162] As described above, the distance between the target UE 910 and the reflector 950 can be given by:

[0163]

[0164] Where A(z,0)(k) is the angle-of-arrival measurement of the kth component measured by the supporting UE, and A(0,z)(k) is the angle-of-arrival measurement of the kth component measured by the target UE.

[0165] Just as an example, Fig. 9 A(0,z)(k) is depicted as being approximately equal to 45 degrees, and A(z,0)(k) is approximately equal to negative 30 degrees (the angle is negative because the LCS of support UE 920 has been oriented to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of target UE 910), but it should of course be understood that different relative positions of target UE 910, support UE 920, and reflector 950 are possible.

[0166] Although the distance between the supporting UE 920 and the reflecting party 950 may be determined using d1(k)+d2(k)=d, it may also be calculated in a manner similar to that used to calculate the distance between the target UE 910 and the reflecting party 950.

[0167] Fig.10 Depicted are flowcharts of various operations that may be performed according to various examples. For example, Fig.10 The operations described in the figure may be performed by a UE device or other suitable apparatus. Of course, it should be understood that Fig.10 The various operations shown in correspond to operations already described with reference to previous figures.

[0168] In operation S10.1, the target UE receives a signal including information indicating a support UE measurement of a signal sent from the target UE to the support UE via the multipath communication channel, the support UE measurement including a delay and angle measurement of the signal sent from the target UE to the support UE via the multipath communication channel. It should be understood that operation S10.1 may correspond to at least Figure 2 Operation 210 and / or Figure 3 Operation S5.1.

[0169] In operation S10.2, the supporting UE measurements are time aligned with target UE measurements of signals sent from the supporting UE to the target UE via the multipath communication channel, the target UE measurements comprising delay and angle measurements of signals sent from the supporting UE to the target UE via the multipath communication channel. It should be understood that operation S10.2 may correspond to at least Figure 2 Operation 214, Figure 3 Operation S5.2 and / or Figure 3 Operation S3.3.

[0170] In operation S10.3, an association between the component measured by the target UE and at least one associated component measured by the supporting UE is determined based on the time-aligned measurement, wherein the associated component is determined to correspond to a specific reflector in the environment of the target UE. Of course, it should be understood that operation S10.3 may correspond to Figure 2 Operation 215, Figure 3 Operation S5.3, Figure 4 Operation S4.3, Figure 6 A combination of operations S6.1 to S6.8 and / or Figure 7 A combination of operations S7.1 to S7.5.

[0171] In operation S10.4, position information of a specific reflecting party is determined based on the associated components. As will be appreciated, operation S10.4 may correspond to Figure 2 Operation 216 and / or Figure 3Operation S5.4. The location information may include at least one of the following: a distance and / or angle from the target UE to a specific reflector; a distance and / or angle from the supporting UE to the specific reflector; a distance and / or angle from the neighboring UE to the specific reflector; a position of the specific reflector relative to a local coordinate system LCS of the target UE, the supporting UE and / or the neighboring UE; and / or a position of the specific reflector relative to a global coordinate system GCS.

[0172] Fig.11 An example beam arrangement of a first terminal device 1110 (referred to as a "first UE" 1110) and a second terminal device 1100 (referred to as a "second UE") near a reflector 1150 is depicted. It should be understood that the second UE 1100 may correspond to at least the target UE 100, the first UE 1110 may correspond to at least the supporting UE 110, and the reflector 1150 may correspond to at least the reference UE 110. Figures 1 to 10 The specific reflection method 150 described herein will be combined with Fig.12 describe Fig.11 , Fig.12 Depicts flow diagrams of various operations that may be performed according to various examples. For example, Fig.12 The operations depicted in the figure may be performed by a UE device or other suitable apparatus. Of course, it should be understood and as further discussed below, Fig.12 The various operations shown in correspond to operations already described with reference to previous figures.

[0173] As described with reference to the previous figures, a UE may align its local coordinate system (LCS) with the LCS of another UE. While in some examples, as described above, a supporting UE may be caused to align its LCS with the LCS of a target UE, it will be appreciated that such alignment may be performed between any pair of UEs (or more generally, any plurality of UEs). For example, in some examples, a target UE may be caused to align its LCS with the LCS of a supporting UE. Such alignment as described herein may be referred to as "coordinate system alignment" (CSA) or "angle domain synchronization" and may enable the UEs to share the same concept of what an angle of arrival or angle of departure is relative to a spatial direction.

[0174] At operation 12.1, alignment information is received at a first UE 1110 (e.g., a supporting UE) from a second UE 1100 (e.g., a target UE) for use by the first UE 1110 to orient a local coordinate system LCS (hereinafter referred to as "LCS1") of the first UE 1110 to correspond to an orientation of an LCS (hereinafter referred to as "LCS2") of the second UE 1100. As described above with reference to Figure 2As described, the alignment information may be included in a request for CSA sent from the second UE 1100 to the first UE 1110 via the SL connection. In some examples, the request for CSA may be part of a request for SPR measurement sent from the second UE 1100. Alternatively, the request for CSA and SPR measurement may be sent to the first UE 1110 via separate signals sent from the second UE 1100 to the first UE 1110. Of course, it should be understood that in some implementations, operation S121 may correspond at least in part to reference Figure 2 Operation 201 is described.

[0175] At operation S12.2, the first UE 1110 may orient (e.g., rotate) its local coordinate system (LCS1) to correspond to the orientation of the LCS (LCS2) of the second UE 1100 based on the alignment information received at the first UE 1110. In other words, the alignment information shared between the two UEs enables them to align their coordinate systems to a common reference. In this way, the second UE 1100 and the first UE 1110 may share the same concept of what an angle (e.g., but not limited to, an angle of departure or an angle of arrival) is relative to a spatial direction. In other words, as a result of the orientation, the angular information at the second UE 1100 has the same meaning as at the first UE 1110. As will be appreciated, operation S12.2 may correspond to Figure 2 Operation 203.

[0176] Although the drawings are two-dimensional by way of example only, it should be understood that the angle information contemplated herein may include both azimuth and zenith components. For example, the angle of arrival measurement at the first UE 1110 may include the azimuth and / or zenith angle of arrival of a given receive beam, while the angle of departure measurement at the second UE 1100 may include the azimuth and / or zenith angle of departure of a given transmit beam.

[0177] In some examples, operation S12.2 may be performed in response to receiving, at first UE 1110, from second UE 1100, a request to orient LCS1 to correspond to the orientation of LCS2. Additionally or alternatively, first UE 1110 may send an indication to second UE 1100 that first UE 1110 is capable of orienting LCS1 to correspond to the orientation of LCS2. For example, this may occur before or after performing the orientation of operation S12.2 and may correspond to reference 1. Figure 2 Operation 202 describes the confirmation.

[0178] After performing the orientation, at operation S12.3 the first UE 1110 may then use the oriented LCS of the first UE 1110 to determine an angle of arrival (AoA) measurement of a sidelink signal sent from the second UE 1100 to the first UE 1110 via a multipath communication channel for determining location information of at least one reflector in the environment of the first UE and the second UE. For example, the angle of arrival measurement may include measurements of sidelink signals sent via a line-of-sight (LoS) path 1120 and / or a path other than a line-of-sight path (such as a non-LoS path 1130) (e.g., via the transmit beam 1102 and the reflector 1150). In some examples, the first UE may also determine a delay and / or power measurement of a signal sent from the second UE 1100 to the first UE 1110 via a multipath communication channel. It should of course be understood that such measurements may correspond to those described with reference to previous figures, such as in Figure 2 Those measurements performed at operation 207 and / or Figure 5 Those measurements received at operation S5.1 of .

[0179] At operation S12.4, the first UE 1110 sends information indicating the determined arrival angle measurement to the second UE 1100 for determining position information of a reflector in the environment of the second UE 1100. Of course, it should be understood that such position information of the reflector can be determined with reference to the description of the previous figures. For example, in some implementations, operation S12.4 can correspond to Figure 2 Operation 210.

[0180] In some examples, alignment information included in a signal received at the first UE 1110 from the second UE 1100 may indicate an orientation of LCS2 relative to a global coordinate system (GCS). For example, the GCS may correspond to a spatial reference direction (e.g., north) and may be pre-agreed between UEs (e.g., as part of a standard). In some examples, LCS1 may be oriented (e.g., rotated) to correspond to LCS2 so that the orientation of LCS1 with respect to the GCS corresponds to the orientation of LCS2 with respect to the GCS indicated by the alignment information. It should of course be understood that the orientation of the LCS relative to the GCS may be determined via various components, for example, but not limited to, using a magnetometer, a compass circuit system, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), or other suitable means included in a supporting UE device.

[0181] exist Fig.11 , the orientation of LCS1 with respect to the GCS (before the performance of CSA alignment as described herein) is represented by α1, and the orientation of LCS2 with respect to the GCS is represented by α2. Thus, in some examples, the value of α2 may be included in the alignment information. In such an example, the first UE may be caused to orient itself so that α1 is equal to α2.

[0182] Alternatively, the first UE 1110 may take advantage of the fact that the line-of-sight receive beam of the first UE 1110 is counter-aligned with the line-of-sight transmit beam of the second UE 1100. In this case, the term counter-aligned refers to beams whose main lobes are in the same straight line but have opposite directions. More generally, the first UE 1110 may determine the orientation of a specific transmit beam 1103 of the second UE 1100 with respect to LCS2 based on the received alignment information, wherein a side link signal transmitted along a LoS path 1120 of a multipath communication channel via the specific transmit beam 1103 of the second UE 1100 is received via a specific receive beam 1112 of the first UE 1110. In such an example, the first UE 1110 may orient LCS1 such that the orientation of the specific receive beam 1112 with respect to LCS1 is counter-aligned with the determined orientation of the specific transmit beam 1103 with respect to LCS2 (i.e., the orientations differ by 180°, sometimes referred to as a "reciprocal" angle). In this way, alignment of LCS1 with LCS2 may be achieved without the need for a magnetometer and / or compass circuitry (or similar means for determining orientation with respect to a GCS). For example, the orientation of a particular transmit beam 1103 of the second UE 1100 with respect to LCS2 may include a departure angle for a signal transmitted via the particular transmit beam 1103 of the second UE 1100 (e.g., determined by UE 1110 or reported by the second UE 1100), and the orientation of a particular receive beam 1112 of the first UE 1110 may include an arrival angle with respect to LCS1 for a signal received at the particular receive beam 1112 via the LoS path 1120.

[0183] In some examples, the specific transmit beam 1103 can be referred to as a line-of-sight transmit beam for the second UE 1100, and the specific receive beam 1112 can be referred to as a line-of-sight receive beam for the first UE 1110.

[0184] In some examples, a specific receive beam 1112 (e.g., a LoS receive beam of the first UE 1110) may be identified from the multiple receive beams of the first UE 1110 based on measurements of the side link signal received at the multiple receive beams from the target UE 1100 via the multipath communication channel. For example, the specific receive beam 1112 may be identified as the receive beam among the multiple receive beams of the first UE 1110 that has the highest reference signal received power RSRP and / or has the earliest arrival time of the side link signal transmitted by the second UE 1100 via the multipath communication channel and received via the multiple receive beams of the first UE 1110.

[0185] On the other hand, a side link signal propagated via a path other than LoS path 1120, such as path 1130, may be received at a beam other than specific receive beam 1112. For example, receive beam 1111 may have a lower RSRP and / or a later arrival time than specific receive beam 1112. In some examples, such a beam may be referred to as a non-line-of-sight (NLoS) receive beam.

[0186] As described above, the second UE 1100 may provide alignment information to the first UE, thereby allowing the orientation of at least one transmit beam of the second UE with respect to LCS2 to be determined for orientation of LCS1. For example, the alignment information may indicate the orientation of one or more corresponding transmit beams of the sidelink signal sent by the second UE 1100 with respect to LCS2.

[0187] Additionally or alternatively, the alignment information may indicate identifiers of one or more corresponding transmit beams for which sidelink signals are transmitted by the second UE 1100 (e.g., via TCI states associated with the transmitted sidelink signals). In some examples, these identifiers may be referred to as “beam identifiers.”

[0188] Additionally or alternatively, the alignment information may indicate characteristics of a side link signal transmitted by the second UE 1100 via one or more corresponding transmit beams having corresponding orientations with respect to LCS2. In some such examples, the characteristics may include characteristics of a data sequence used to encode the corresponding side link signal (e.g., an initialization sequence for a Gold sequence, or a root index and cyclic shift for a ZC sequence) and / or a time / frequency resource used to transmit the corresponding side link signal (e.g., a slot index / offset, a symbol index / offset, a symbol length / duration, a time period, a frequency allocation).

[0189] Additionally or alternatively, the alignment information may indicate one or more parameter values ​​of a parameter model used at the first UE 1110 to determine characteristics of a sidelink signal transmitted by the second UE 1100 via one or more corresponding transmit beams having corresponding orientations with respect to LCS2. In some such examples, the one or more parameter values ​​of the parameter model may include at least one of an azimuth angle spacing between adjacent transmit beams of the second terminal device, a zenith angle spacing between adjacent transmit beams of the second terminal device, an azimuth oversampling factor, and a zenith oversampling factor.

[0190] In some examples, the alignment information provided to the first UE may indicate one or a combination of the types of alignment information described above. In some examples, the alignment information may be equivalent to "explicit" orientation (i.e., departure angle) information of at least one transmit beam of the second UE with respect to LCS2, used to orient LCS1. Alternatively, the alignment information may be "implicit" information, from which the orientation of the transmit beam of the second UE 1100 may be determined.

[0191] For example, in the "explicit" case, the alignment information may indicate the orientation of all or a subset of the transmit beams of the second UE 1100 (e.g., based on the speed / direction of the second UE 1100). In some such examples, the alignment information may include an explicit mapping (e.g., a table or function) between the orientation (i.e., departure angle) of the transmit beam of the second UE and information that allows a sidelink signal received at the first UE 1110 to be identified as having been sent from a particular transmit beam of the second UE 1100, such as the beam identifier or sidelink signal characteristic described above as indicated by the alignment information.

[0192] In some examples, the first UE 1110 may determine that at least one side link signal received at a specific receive beam 1112 of the first UE matches a beam identifier or a side link signal characteristic indicated by the received alignment information. In this case, the orientation of a specific transmit beam 1103 (e.g., a LoS transmit beam) with respect to LCS2 is determined to be an orientation in one or more orientations of a transmit beam of the second UE corresponding to the specific beam identifier or the side link signal characteristic. For example, an explicit mapping between a beam orientation and a beam identifier / signal characteristic included in the alignment information may be used to determine the corresponding orientation.

[0193] In the "implicit case", the alignment information provided by the second UE 1100 to the first UE 1110 may also include information for determining the transmit beam orientation of LCS2, the transmit beam identifier and / or the characteristics of the side link signal sent by the second UE 1100. In this way, the first UE is able to use the alignment information to infer the beam orientation, beam identifier and / or signal characteristics of the side link signal sent from the second UE via the multipath communication channel, rather than the alignment information providing an explicit mapping between the transmit beam orientation and the beam identifier / side link signal characteristics. As in the explicit case, the received signals can be matched with the inferred beam identifier and / or signal characteristics to establish their departure angles.

[0194] For example, as described above, the alignment information may also include one or more parameter values ​​of a parameter model used at the first UE 1110 to determine characteristics of a side link signal transmitted by the second UE 1100 via one or more corresponding transmit beams having corresponding orientations with respect to the LCS of the second UE 1100. It should be understood that such a parameter model may be used not only at the first UE to determine characteristics of the side link signal received from the second UE, but also at the second UE to generate such a side link signal (e.g., but not limited to, a SL-PRS).

[0195] As described above, in some examples, one or more parameter values ​​may include information used to generate an SL-PRS sequence (e.g., initialization data for a Gold sequence, a root sequence index and a cyclic shift value for a ZC sequence) and / or time / frequency resources based on a transmit beam angle or beam index (e.g., a slot offset, a symbol offset, a frequency offset).

[0196] In other words, in the implicit case, the first UE can use the alignment information to determine one or more additional orientations of the transmit beam of the second UE and / or one or more corresponding additional beam identifiers / side link signal characteristics. The first UE 1110 can then determine that at least one side link signal received at a specific receive beam 1112 of the first UE matches a specific beam identifier / side link signal characteristic in the one or more additional transmit beam identifiers / side link signal characteristics. In this way, the orientation of the specific transmit beam 1103 of the second UE 1100 with respect to LCS2 can then be determined as the orientation corresponding to the specific beam identifier / side link signal characteristic in the one or more additional orientations of the transmit beam of the second UE 1100.

[0197] In some examples, one or more additional orientations regarding LCS2 can be determined based on the orientation of at least one transmit beam of the second UE included in the alignment information (e.g., but not limited to, “zero angle” transmit beam 1102) using one or more of a transmit beam azimuth spacing, a transmit beam zenith spacing, an azimuth oversampling factor, and / or a zenith oversampling factor.

[0198] In some examples, one or more corresponding additional transmit beam identifiers can be determined based on one or more additional directionality and / or one or more parameter values ​​used to generate a signal at the second UE 1100 to be sent to the first UE via a multipath communication channel.

[0199] Additionally or alternatively, the alignment information may include transmit beam pattern information. For example, the transmit beam pattern information may define the angular spacing between adjacent transmit beams on the second UE side. This information may then be used by the first UE 1110 in conjunction with beam-specific measurements performed at the first UE 1110 to estimate the AoD at the second UE 1200. In some examples, such transmit beam pattern information may be used in the "implicit" case described above. For example, the first UE may use a mapping between a beam index of a reference beam (e.g., zero angle beam 1102) and an orientation with respect to LCS2, as well as a function describing how the orientation of any remaining beams may be calculated using the indices of the remaining beams, the indices of the reference beams, and transmit beam pattern information such as beam width. It should be understood that the mapping / function used in this process may be included in the alignment information or pre-stored at the first UE.

[0200] For example, refer to Fig.11 , transmit beam 1103 may be a 90° beam with respect to LCS2 of the second UE 1100, transmit beam 1102 may be a 45° beam with respect to LCS2 of the second UE 1100, and transmit beam 1101 may be a 0° beam with respect to LCS2 of the second UE 1100 (in this example, positive angles are conventionally counterclockwise). Similarly, before LCS1 of the first UE 1110 is aligned with LCS2 of the second UE 1100, receive beam 1112 may be a -45° beam with respect to LCS1 of the first UE 1110, and receive beam 1111 may be a 0° beam with respect to LCS1 of the first UE 1110. Next, the first UE 1110 identifies the LoS receive beam as receive beam 1112 or the -45° beam with respect to LCS1 of the first UE 1110. In addition, based on the alignment information received from the second UE 1100, the first UE 1110 identifies the LoS transmit beam as transmit beam 1103 or the 90° beam of LCS2 with respect to the second UE 1100. Then, the first UE 1110 rotates LCS1 45° counterclockwise (see Fig.11 ), such as the dotted arrow for LCS1 in FIG. 1 , such that the LoS receive beam 1112 now corresponds to the -90° beam in LCS1 of the first UE 1110 (i.e., 90° for transmit beam 1103 + 180° to account for the reverse alignment of the LoS receive beam with the LoS transmit beam = -90°). Fig.11 1 and 2D, for example, in the azimuth plane, but a similar LCS alignment process can be performed for both the azimuth plane and the zenith plane in 3D. In this way, the LCS1 of the first UE 1110 is aligned with the LCS2 of the second UE 1100, and the two UEs achieve angle domain synchronization without the need for additional compass circuitry.

[0201] Although in the above discussion, various information included in the alignment information received at the first UE has been described as an example, it should be understood that various information can be pre-stored at the first UE. For example, one or more orientations of the transmit beam of the second UE with respect to the LCS of the second UE may be pre-stored at the first UE. Similarly, there may be a predefined or implicit correspondence between the index of the transmit beam of the second UE and its respective angle. In some examples, the alignment information received from the second UE at the first UE may indicate a beam identifier / signal characteristic corresponding to the pre-stored orientation. In some such examples, the information may include a table or function that maps the transmit beam orientation of the second UE with respect to LCS2 to a beam identifier.

[0202] By performing alignment as described, in particular by orienting the LCS of the first UE 1110, the LCS of the first UE and the LCS of the second UE share a consistent local angular representation for reporting angular measurements.

[0203] In some examples, before (or after) orienting LCS1 to correspond to the orientation of LCS2, the supporting UE 1110 can send a signal to the second UE 1100 that includes information indicating confirmation that the first UE 1110 is able to perform the orientation.

[0204] Fig.13 is a schematic diagram of an example configuration of a computing device 13, which may be configured to perform reference Figures 1 to 8 12 describes the various operations.

[0205] The computing device may include a control device 1300 configured to control the operation of other components forming part of the computing device 13 so as to be able to perform the reference Figures 1 to 8 12. The computing device 1300 may include a processing device 1301 and a memory 1302. Computer readable code 1302-2A may be stored on the memory 1302, which, when executed by the processing device 1301, causes the control device 1300 to perform any of the operations described herein (for example, but not limited to those operations attributed to the UE).

[0206] In addition, the computing device may also include a display 1303, a user interaction interface (UII) 1304, a radio frequency interface 1305, and a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) 1306. In some examples, other satellite communication systems may be used instead of GNSS 1306 or in addition to GNSS 1306.

[0207] Some further details of the components and features of the above-described device / entity / means 13 and alternatives thereof will now be described.

[0208] The control device 1300 may include a processing device 1301 that is communicatively coupled to a memory 1302. The memory 1302 has computer readable instructions 1302-2A stored thereon. When the computer readable instructions 1302-2A are executed by the processing device 1301, the control device 1300 causes reference to Figures 1 to 12 Execution of each of the described operations. In some examples, control device 1300 may be collectively referred to as a "device".

[0209] The processing device 1301 can be any suitable composition, and can include one or more processors 1301A of any suitable type, or a suitable combination of types. In fact, the term "processing device" should be understood to include computers with different architectures, such as single / multi-processor architectures and sequencer / parallel architectures. For example, the processing device 1301 can be a programmable processor that interprets computer program instructions 1302-2A and processes data. The processing device 1301 may include multiple programmable processors. Alternatively, the processing device 1301 can be programmable hardware, for example, with embedded firmware. The processing device 1301 may alternatively or additionally include one or more dedicated circuits, such as a field programmable gate array FPGA, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a signal processing device, etc. In some instances, the processing device 1301 may be referred to as a computing device or a processing component.

[0210] The processing device 1301 is coupled to the memory 1302 and is operable to read / write data from / to the memory 1302. The memory 1302 may include a single memory unit or a plurality of memory units on which a computer-readable instruction (or code) 1302-2A is stored. For example, the memory 1302 may include a volatile memory 1302-1 and a non-volatile memory 1302-2. In such an example, the computer-readable instruction / program code 1302-2A may be stored in the non-volatile memory 1302-2 and may be executed by the processing device 1301 using the volatile memory 1302-1 for temporary storage of data, or data and instructions. Examples of volatile memory include random access memory (RAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), etc. Examples of non-volatile memory include read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, optical memory, magnetic memory, etc.

[0211] The memory 1302 may be referred to as one or more non-transient computer-readable storage media or one or more storage devices. In addition, in addition to covering one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories, the term "memory" may also cover only one or more volatile memories, one or more non-volatile memories. In the context of this document, "memory" or "computer-readable medium" may be any medium or device that can contain, store, transfer, propagate or transmit instructions for use by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, device or apparatus (such as a computer).

[0212] The computer readable instructions / program code 1302-2A may be pre-programmed into the control device 1300. Alternatively, the computer readable instructions 1302-2A may arrive at the control device via an electromagnetic carrier signal, or may be copied from a physical entity 14, such as a computer program product, a memory device, or a recording medium, such as a compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM) or a digital versatile disk (DVD), examples of which are described in Fig.14 . Computer readable instructions 1302-2A may provide logic and routines that enable entity / device / apparatus 13 to perform the functions described above. A combination of computer readable instructions stored on a memory (of any type described above) may be referred to as a computer program product. Generally, references to computer programs, instructions, code, etc. should be understood as software of programmable processor firmware, such as the programmable content of a hardware device, expressed as instructions for a processor, or instructions configured for a fixed function device, gate array, programmable logic device, etc., or for configuration settings thereof.

[0213] If desired, the different functions discussed herein may be performed in a different order and / or concurrently with each other. Furthermore, if desired, one or more of the above functions may be optional or combinable. Similarly, it should also be understood that Figures 3 to 7 , Fig.10 and Fig.12 The flowcharts are merely examples, and various operations depicted therein may be omitted, re-ordered, and / or combined.

[0214] Although the methods and apparatus have been described in conjunction with an E-UTRA network, it will be appreciated that they are not limited to such networks and are applicable to a variety of different types of radio networks.

[0215] Although various aspects of the method and apparatus described herein are listed in independent claims, other aspects may comprise other combinations of features from the described embodiments and / or from dependent claims having features of the independent claims, and not just the combinations explicitly listed in the claims.

[0216] It should be noted herein that although the above describes various examples, these descriptions should not be viewed in a limiting sense. Rather, several changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A first terminal device, comprising: Means for receiving alignment information from a second terminal device, the alignment information being used by the first terminal device to orient a local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

2. The first terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising: means for orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device based on the received alignment information; as well as A component for using the directed LCS of the first terminal device to determine an arrival angle measurement of a side link signal for determining position information of at least one reflector in the environment of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the side link signal being sent from the second terminal device to the first terminal device via a multipath communication channel.

3. The first terminal device according to claim 2, further comprising a component for sending indication information of the determined arrival angle measurement to the second terminal device for determining position information of the at least one reflector.

4. The first terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: means for determining an orientation of a specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device based on the received alignment information, wherein a side link signal transmitted via the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device propagates along a line-of-sight LoS path of the multipath communication channel and is received via the specific receive beam of the first terminal device, and Wherein orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device comprises: The LCS of the first terminal device is oriented such that the orientation of the particular receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device is counter-aligned with the determined orientation of the particular transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device.

5. The first terminal device of claim 4, wherein the orientation of the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device comprises a departure angle of a side link signal transmitted via the specific transmit beam of the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; and Wherein the orientation of the specific receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device includes an arrival angle of a side link signal received via the specific receive beam of the first terminal device with respect to the LCS of the first terminal device.

6. A first terminal device according to claim 4 or claim 5, wherein the specific receiving beam of the first terminal device is identified as the following receiving beam among the multiple receiving beams of the first terminal device, the receiving beam having the highest reference signal received power RSRP and / or having the earliest arrival time of the side link signal sent by the second terminal device via the multipath communication channel and received via the multiple receiving beams of the first terminal device.

7. The first terminal device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the alignment information indicates at least one of the following: the orientation of one or more corresponding transmit beams of sidelink signals sent by the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; an identifier of one or more corresponding transmit beams for transmitting sidelink signals by the second terminal device; characteristics of a sidelink signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more respective transmit beams having respective orientations with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; as well as One or more parameter values ​​of a parameter model, which is used at the first terminal device to determine characteristics of a side link signal sent by the second terminal device via the one or more corresponding transmit beams having corresponding orientations with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device.

8. The first terminal device of claim 7, wherein the characteristics of the sidelink signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more respective transmit beams having respective orientations with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device include at least one of the following: Characteristics of a data sequence used to encode a corresponding said sidelink signal; and Time and / or frequency resources used to send the corresponding side link signal.

9. The first terminal device according to claim 7, wherein the one or more parameter values ​​of the parameter model include at least one of the following: An azimuth spacing between adjacent transmit beams of the second terminal device; The zenith angle spacing between adjacent transmission beams of the second terminal device; Azimuth oversampling factor; and Zenith oversampling factor.

10. The first terminal device according to any one of claims 2 to 9, wherein the side link signal is a side link positioning reference signal.

11. The first terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the alignment information indicates an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device with respect to a global coordinate system GCS.

12. The first terminal device of claim 11, wherein orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device comprises: The LCS of the first terminal device is orientated so that the orientation of the LCS of the first terminal device with respect to the GCS corresponds to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device with respect to the GCS indicated by the alignment information.

13. The first terminal device according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: Means for sending an indication to the second terminal device that the first terminal device is capable of orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

14. The first terminal device according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: Means for receiving, from the second terminal device, a request to orient the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

15. A second terminal device, comprising: Means for sending alignment information to a first terminal device, the alignment information being used by the first terminal device to orient a local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

16. The second terminal device according to claim 15, further comprising: A component for receiving information indicative of a side link signal from the first terminal device for determining position information of at least one reflector in the environments of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the side link signal being sent from the second terminal device to the first terminal device via a multipath communication channel, wherein the angle of arrival measurement is determined by the first terminal device using an LCS corresponding to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

17. The second terminal device according to claim 15 or claim 16, wherein the alignment information indicates at least one of the following: the orientation of one or more corresponding transmit beams of sidelink signals sent by the second terminal device with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; an identifier of one or more corresponding transmit beams for transmitting sidelink signals by the second terminal device; characteristics of a sidelink signal transmitted by the second terminal device via one or more respective transmit beams having respective orientations with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device; as well as One or more parameter values ​​of a parameter model, which is used at the first terminal device to determine characteristics of a side link signal sent by the second terminal device via the one or more corresponding transmit beams having corresponding orientations with respect to the LCS of the second terminal device.

18. The second terminal device according to any one of claims 15 to 17, further comprising: Means for receiving an indication from the first terminal device that the first terminal device is capable of orienting the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

19. The second terminal device according to any one of claims 15 to 18, further comprising: Means for sending a request to the first terminal device to orient the LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

20. The second terminal device of claim 19, wherein the alignment information is included in the request to direct the LCS of the first terminal device.

21. A terminal device according to any preceding claim, wherein the component comprises: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause execution of the terminal device.

22. A method comprising: Alignment information is received at a first terminal device from a second terminal device, the alignment information being used by the first terminal device to orient a local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to an orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

23. A method comprising: Alignment information is sent at the second terminal device to the first terminal device, the alignment information being used by the first terminal device to orient a local coordinate system LCS of the first terminal device to correspond to the orientation of the LCS of the second terminal device.

24. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions stored thereon, the program instructions being used to execute the method according to claim 22 or claim 23.

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