Reference signals for joint communication and sensing

Abstract

Systems, apparatus, processes, and computer-readable media for wireless communication are disclosed. For example, an example of a process includes receiving a signal including a time slot, the time slot including at least one shared signal resource. The process also includes determining whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or is allocated for communication. The process also includes determining whether to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource using at least one sensing reference signal (RS) resource or using at least one communication RS based on whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communications. For example, aspects of the present disclosure relate to utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing. Background Art

[0002] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content, such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, and broadcasting. These systems may be able to support communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems (such as long term evolution (LTE) systems, advanced LTE (LTE-A) systems, or LTE-A Pro systems) and fifth generation (5G) systems (which may be referred to as new radio (NR) systems). These systems may employ techniques such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), or discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM). A wireless multiple access communication system may include one or more base stations or one or more network access nodes, each of which simultaneously supports communication for multiple communication devices, which may be further referred to as user equipment (UE). Some wireless communication systems may support communication between UEs, which may involve direct transmission between two or more UEs.

[0003] As larger bandwidths are allocated for wireless cellular communication systems (e.g., including 5G and beyond 5G) and more use cases are introduced into cellular communication systems, joint communication and sensing signals for joint communication and sensing may be an essential feature for existing or future wireless communication systems, such as to enhance the overall spectral efficiency of the wireless communication network. Summary of the invention

[0004] The following presents a simplified summary of the invention related to one or more aspects disclosed herein. Therefore, the following summary of the invention should neither be considered as an exhaustive overview related to all conceived aspects, nor should it be considered to identify key or decisive elements related to all conceived aspects or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect. Therefore, the sole purpose of the following summary of the invention is to present certain concepts related to one or more aspects of the mechanisms disclosed herein in a brief form before the detailed embodiments presented below.

[0005] Systems and techniques for wireless communications are described. According to at least one example, a method for wireless communications is provided. The method includes receiving a signal including a time slot, the time slot including at least one shared signal resource; determining whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication; and determining whether to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource using at least one sensing reference signal (RS) resource or using at least one communication RS based on whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

[0006] In another example, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided, the apparatus comprising: at least one memory and at least one processor (e.g., configured in a circuit) coupled to the at least one memory. The at least one processor is configured to: receive a signal including a time slot, the time slot including at least one shared signal resource; determine whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication; and determine whether to use at least one sensing reference signal (RS) resource or at least one communication RS to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource based on whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

[0007] In another example, a non-transitory computer-readable medium is provided, having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive a signal including a time slot, the time slot including at least one shared signal resource; determine whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication; and determine whether to use at least one sensing reference signal (RS) resource or at least one communication RS to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource based on whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

[0008] In another example, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided. The apparatus includes: a component for receiving a signal including a time slot, the time slot including at least one shared signal resource; a component for determining whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication; and a component for determining whether to use at least one sensing reference signal (RS) resource or at least one communication RS to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource based on whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

[0009] In some aspects, the apparatus is, is part of, and / or includes a UE, such as a wearable device, an extended reality (XR) device (e.g., a virtual reality (VR) device, an augmented reality (AR) device, or a mixed reality (MR) device), a head mounted display (HMD) device, a wireless communication device, a mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone and / or a mobile handset and / or a so-called "smart phone" or other mobile device), a camera, a personal computer, a laptop computer, a server computer, a vehicle or a computing device or a component of a vehicle, another device, or a combination thereof. In some aspects, the apparatus includes one or more cameras for capturing one or more images. In some aspects, the apparatus also includes a display for displaying one or more images, notifications, and / or other displayable data. In some aspects, the apparatus may include one or more sensors (e.g., one or more inertial measurement units (IMUs), such as one or more gyroscopes, one or more gyrometers, one or more accelerometers, any combination thereof, and / or other sensors).

[0010] This summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used in isolation to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter. The subject matter should be understood by reference to appropriate portions of the entire specification of this patent, any or all drawings, and each claim.

[0011] The foregoing and other features and aspects will become more apparent upon reference to the following description, claims and accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in describing various aspects of the present disclosure and are provided solely for illustration and not limitation of the various aspects.

[0013] 1 is a diagram illustrating an example wireless communication system that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0014] 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a decomposed base station architecture that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0015] 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a frame structure that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0016] 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computing system of an electronic device that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0017] 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless device utilizing radio frequency (RF) monostatic sensing techniques that may be used by the disclosed systems and techniques described herein to determine one or more characteristics of a target object in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0018] 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a receiver utilizing RF bistatic sensing techniques using one transmitter, which may be used by the disclosed systems and techniques described herein to determine one or more characteristics of a target object, in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0019] 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a receiver utilizing RF bistatic sensing techniques using multiple transmitters, which may be used by the disclosed systems and techniques described herein to determine one or more characteristics of a target object, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0020] 8 is a diagram illustrating an example geometry for bistatic (or monostatic) sensing in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0021] 9 is a diagram illustrating bistatic distances for bistatic sensing in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of an existing comb structure for a reference signal according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0023] 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a mapping of antenna ports to physical antenna ports that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0024] 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0025] 13A is a diagram illustrating an example of a time slot including communication signal resources according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0026] 13B is a diagram illustrating another example of a time slot including communication signal resources according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0027] 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of multiple time slots including sensing signal resources according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0028] 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a process for determining which reference signals to use for demodulating a shared channel signal in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0029] 16A is a diagram illustrating an example of an example time slot configuration including consecutive sensing time slots in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0030] 16B is a diagram illustrating an example of an example time slot configuration including non-contiguous sensing time slots in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0031] 17 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a process for wireless communications employing a method for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0032] 18 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computing system that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing, in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] For illustrative purposes, certain aspects of the present disclosure are provided below. Without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, alternative aspects may be designed. Additionally, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted to avoid making the relevant details of the present disclosure difficult to understand. Some aspects described herein may be applied independently, and some of them may be applied in combination, which is obvious to those skilled in the art. In the following description, specific details are set forth for explanation purposes to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of the application. However, it is apparent that various aspects may be implemented without these specific details. Each drawing and description is not intended to be restrictive.

[0034] The following description provides only example aspects and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the present disclosure. Instead, the following description of the example aspects will provide a description that can be used to implement the example aspects to those skilled in the art. It should be understood that various changes may be made to the function and arrangement of the elements without departing from the scope of the present application as set forth in the appended claims.

[0035] Radar sensing systems use radio frequency (RF) waveforms to perform RF sensing, such as to determine or estimate one or more characteristics of a target object. The one or more characteristics of the target object may include the distance, angle, and / or velocity of the target object. The target object may include a vehicle, obstacle, user, building, or other object.

[0036] A typical radar system includes at least one transmitter, at least one receiver, and at least one processor. A radar sensing system can perform single-station sensing when employing one receiver co-located with a transmitter. A radar system can perform dual-station sensing when employing one receiver positioned at a first device remote from a transmitter of a second device. Similarly, a radar system can perform multi-station sensing when employing multiple receivers of multiple devices all positioned remote from at least one transmitter of at least one device.

[0037] During operation of the radar sensing system, a transmitter transmits an electromagnetic (EM) signal in the RF domain toward a target object. The signal reflects from the target object to produce one or more reflected signals that provide information or properties about the target, such as the position and velocity of the target object. At least one receiver receives the one or more reflected signals, and at least one processor that may be associated with the at least one receiver utilizes information from the one or more reflected signals to determine information or properties of the target object. The target object may also be referred to herein as a target.

[0038] Generally speaking, RF sensing involves monitoring moving targets with different motions (e.g., moving cars or pedestrians, human body motions (such as breathing), and / or other micro-motions associated with the target). Doppler, which measures the phase change of the signal and indicates motion, is an important characteristic for sensing the target.

[0039] In some cases, a radar sensing signal, which may be referred to as a radar reference signal (RS) or a sensing RS, may be designed for and used only for sensing purposes. A radar RS does not contain any communication information. In contrast, communication RSs such as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and a sounding reference signal (SRS) are typically designed for and used only for communication purposes, such as estimating channel parameters for communication.

[0040] The cellular communication system is designed to send communication signals between two or more transceivers (e.g., cooperating transceivers) on a designated communication band (e.g., 23 gigahertz (GHz), 3.5 GHz, etc. for 5G / NR, 2.2 GHz for LTE, etc.). The RF sensing system is designed to send RF sensing signals on a designated radar RF band (e.g., 77 GHz for autonomous driving) toward a target (e.g., which may be a non-cooperative target).

[0041] The purpose of joint communication and sensing is to enhance the performance of both communication and sensing by providing an integrated system that performs both wireless communication and long-range radar sensing simultaneously. In joint communication and sensing, resources in the time (e.g., time slot) domain, frequency (e.g., subcarrier) domain, and space domain are allocated to support the two purposes of communication and sensing within a single integrated system. This integrated system can provide cost-effective deployment for both radar and communication systems.

[0042] In some cases, separate time slots (in the time domain) may be used for sensing and communication. In such cases, certain reference signals (e.g., demodulation reference signals (DMRS)) may be sent in downlink time slots (e.g., physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) time slots), while sensing or radar RSs may be sent in sensing time slots. This solution may not be an efficient use of resources. In addition, certain reference signals (e.g., DMRS) and sensing RSs have different structures with different functionalities. For example, sensing RSs may be used for PDSCH demodulation (e.g., due to the high density of sensing RSs), while DMRSs may not provide sufficient target sensing accuracy. Solutions are needed to provide a joint reference signal design or joint resource allocation to provide more efficient resource utilization in joint communication and sensing.

[0043] In some aspects of the present disclosure, systems, apparatus, methods (also referred to as processes), and computer-readable media (collectively referred to herein as "systems and techniques") that utilize reference signals for joint communication and sensing are described herein. In one or more aspects, the systems and techniques of the present disclosure may use sensing reference signals for both sensing and demodulation of communication signals to achieve low resource overhead. In some aspects, the communication signal demodulated using the sensing reference signal may be a shared channel signal, such as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) signal.

[0044] Additional aspects of the disclosure are described in more detail below.

[0045] As used herein, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "network entity" are not intended to be dedicated to or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT), unless otherwise specified. In general, a UE can be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, and / or a tracking device, etc.), a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, smart glasses, a wearable ring, and / or an extended reality (XR) device (such as a virtual reality (VR) headset, an augmented reality (AR) headset or glasses, or a mixed reality (MR) headset)), a vehicle (e.g., a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, etc.), and / or an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc., for a user to communicate on a wireless communication network. A UE can be mobile or can be stationary (e.g., at certain times) and can communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" can be interchangeably referred to as an "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber equipment", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or "UT", "mobile device", "mobile terminal", "mobile station" or variations thereof. In general, the UE can communicate with the core network via the RAN, and through the core network, the UE can connect to external networks such as the Internet and to other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are also possible for the UE, such as through a wired access network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on IEEE 802.11 communication standards, etc.), etc.

[0046] The network entity may be implemented in an aggregated or monolithic base station architecture, or alternatively, in a disaggregated base station architecture, and may include one or more of a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a radio unit (RU), a near real-time (near-RT) RAN intelligent controller (RIC), or a non-real-time (non-RT) RIC. A base station (e.g., having an aggregated / monolithic base station architecture or a disaggregated base station architecture) may operate in communication with a UE according to one of several RATs depending on the network in which the base station is deployed, and may alternatively be referred to as an access point (AP), a network node, a Node B (NB), an evolved Node B (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a new radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as a gNB or gNodeB), etc. A base station may be primarily used to support wireless access for UEs, including supporting data, voice, and / or signaling connections for the supported UEs. In some systems, a base station may provide edge node signaling functionality, while in other systems, a base station may provide additional control and / or network management functionality. The communication link by which a UE can transmit signals to a base station is called an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). The communication link by which a base station can transmit signals to a UE is called a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) may refer to an uplink, a reverse or downlink, and / or a forward traffic channel.

[0047] The term "network entity" or "base station" (e.g., having a converged / monolithic base station architecture or a disaggregated base station architecture) may refer to a single physical transmit-receive point (TRP) or multiple physical transmit-receive points (TRPs) that may or may not be co-located. For example, where the term "network entity" or "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be a base station antenna corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. Where the term "network entity" or "base station" refers to multiple co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs may be an antenna array of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or where the base station employs beamforming). Where the term "base station" refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transmission medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-co-located physical TRPs may be the serving base station receiving the measurement report from the UE and the neighbor base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signal (or "reference signal" for short) the UE is measuring. As used herein, since the TRP is the point through which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, references to transmitting from or receiving at a base station should be understood to refer to a specific TRP of a base station.

[0048] In some specific implementations of supporting UE positioning, a network entity or base station may not support wireless access by the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections with respect to the UE), but may instead send a reference signal to be measured by the UE to the UE, and / or may receive and measure a signal sent by the UE. Such a base station may be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., in the case of sending a signal to the UE) and / or as a position measurement unit (e.g., in the case of receiving and measuring a signal from the UE).

[0049] RF signals include electromagnetic waves of a given frequency that transmit information through the space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels, a receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between a transmitter and a receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal. As used herein, an RF signal may also be referred to as a "wireless signal" or simply a "signal" where it is clear from the context that the term "signal" refers to a wireless signal or an RF signal.

[0050] According to various aspects, FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system 100 that may be employed by a user to utilize the disclosed systems and techniques described herein for joint communication and sensing. The wireless communication system 100, which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN), may include various base stations 102 and various UEs 104. In some aspects, the base stations 102 may also be referred to as "network entities" or "network nodes." One or more of the base stations 102 may be implemented in an aggregated or monolithic base station architecture. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the base stations 102 may be implemented in a decomposed base station architecture and may include one or more of a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a radio unit (RU), a near real-time (near-RT) RAN intelligent controller (RIC), or a non-real-time (non-RT) RIC. The base stations 102 may include macro cell base stations (high-power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low-power cellular base stations). In one aspect, the macro cell base station may include an eNB and / or an ng-eNB (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to a long term evolution (LTE) network), or a gNB (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an NR network), or a combination of both, and the small cell base station may include a femto cell, a pico cell, a micro cell, etc.

[0051] The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC)) through a backhaul link 122, and interface to one or more location servers 172 (which may be part of the core network 170 or may be external to the core network 170) through the core network 170. The base stations 102 may perform, among other functions, functions related to one or more of the following: delivering user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of warning messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC or 5GC) through a backhaul link 134 (which may be wired and / or wireless).

[0052] Base station 102 may communicate wirelessly with UE 104. Each of base stations 102 may provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographic coverage area 110. In one aspect, base station 102 in each coverage area 110 may support one or more cells. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used to communicate with a base station (e.g., on a certain frequency resource, referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, frequency band, etc.), and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCI), a virtual cell identifier (VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI)) to distinguish cells operating via the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or other protocol types) that may provide access to different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a specific base station, the term "cell" may refer to either or both of the logical communication entity and the base station supporting it, depending on the context. In addition, since a TRP is typically a physical transmission point of a cell, the terms "cell" and "TRP" may be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term "cell" may also refer to a geographic coverage area (eg, a sector) of a base station, as long as a carrier frequency can be detected and used for communications within some portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0053] Although the geographic coverage areas 110 of neighboring macrocell base stations 102 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover area), some of the geographic coverage areas 110 may substantially overlap with the larger geographic coverage area 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' may have a coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the coverage areas 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macrocell base stations may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a home eNB (HeNB) that may provide services to a restricted group referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG).

[0054] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include uplink (also known as reverse link) transmissions from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and / or downlink (also known as forward link) transmissions from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna technology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 may be over one or more carrier frequencies. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to the downlink and uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to the downlink than to the uplink).

[0055] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a WLAN AP 150 in communication with a WLAN station (STA) 152 via a communication link 154 in an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., 5 gigahertz (GHz)). When communicating in the unlicensed spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) or a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure before communicating to determine whether the channel is available. In some examples, the wireless communication system 100 may include a device (e.g., UE, etc.) that communicates with one or more UEs 104, base stations 102, APs 150, etc. using an ultra-wideband (UWB) spectrum. The UWB spectrum may range from 3.1 GHz to 10.5 GHz.

[0056] The small cell base station 102' can operate in a licensed spectrum and / or an unlicensed spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed spectrum, the small cell base station 102' can adopt LTE or NR technology and use the same 5GHz unlicensed spectrum used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102' adopting LTE and / or 5G in the unlicensed spectrum can boost the coverage of the access network and / or increase the capacity of the access network. NR in the unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as NR-U. LTE in the unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as LTE-U, Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) or MulteFire.

[0057] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a millimeter wave (mmW) base station 180, which may operate at mmW frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies to communicate with the UE 182. The mmW base station 180 may be implemented in an aggregated or monolithic base station architecture, or alternatively, in a decomposed base station architecture (e.g., including one or more of a CU, DU, RU, near RT RIC, or non-RT RIC). Extremely high frequency (EHF) is part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz, with a wavelength between 1 mm and 10 mm. The radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near mmW may extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100 mm. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, which is also referred to as centimeter waves. Communications using mmW and / or near mmW radio frequency bands have high path loss and a relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmit and / or receive) on the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range. In addition, it should be understood that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 may also transmit using mmW or near-mmW and beamforming. Therefore, it should be understood that the foregoing illustrations are merely examples and should not be construed as limiting the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0058] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in a specific direction. Traditionally, when a network node or entity (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in all directions (omnidirectionally). With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that specific direction, thereby providing a faster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal to the receiving device. In order to change the directionality of the RF signal when transmitting, the network node can control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of the one or more transmitters that broadcast the RF signal. For example, the network node can use an array of antennas (referred to as a "phased array" or "antenna array") that produce RF beams that can be "steered" to point in different directions without actually moving the antenna. Specifically, the RF current from the transmitter is fed to the individual antennas in the correct phase relationship so that the radio waves from the separate antennas are added together in the desired direction to increase the radiation, and canceled in the undesired direction to suppress the radiation.

[0059] Transmit beams can be quasi-co-located, meaning that they appear to the receiver (e.g., UE) to have the same parameters, regardless of whether the transmit antennas of the network nodes themselves are physically co-located. In NR, there are four types of quasi-co-location (QCL) relationships. Specifically, a given type of QCL relationship means that certain parameters about the second reference RF signal on the second beam can be derived based on information about the source reference RF signal on the source beam. Thus, if the source reference RF signal is QCL type A, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread of the second reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type B, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of the second reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type C, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and average delay of the second reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type D, the receiver may use the source reference RF signal to estimate spatial reception parameters of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0060] In receive beamforming, a receiver uses a receive beam to amplify an RF signal detected on a given channel. For example, a receiver may increase the gain setting of an array of antennas in a particular direction and / or adjust the phase setting of an array of antennas in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., increase its gain level) the RF signal received from that direction. Thus, when a receiver is said to be beamforming in a certain direction, it means that the beam gain in that direction is high relative to the beam gain along other directions, or the beam gain in that direction is the highest compared to the beam gain of other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc.) for the RF signal received from that direction.

[0061] The receive beams may be spatially correlated. The spatial relationship means that the parameters of the transmit beam for the second reference signal may be derived from information about the receive beam for the first reference signal. For example, the UE may receive one or more reference downlink reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signal (PRS), tracking reference signal (TRS), phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), cell-specific reference signal (CRS), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), synchronization signal block (SSB), etc.) from a network node or entity (e.g., a base station) using a specific receive beam. The UE may then form a transmit beam based on the parameters of the receive beam for transmitting one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., uplink positioning reference signal (UL-PRS), sounding reference signal (SRS), demodulation reference signal (DMRS), PTRS, etc.) to the network node or entity (e.g., a base station).

[0062] Note that, depending on the entity forming the "downlink" beam, the beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam. For example, if a network node or entity (e.g., a base station) is forming a downlink beam to send a reference signal to a UE, the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if the UE is forming a downlink beam, the downlink beam is a receive beam that receives a downlink reference signal. Similarly, depending on the entity forming the "uplink" beam, the beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam. For example, if a network node or entity (e.g., a base station) is forming an uplink beam, the uplink beam is an uplink receive beam, and if the UE is forming an uplink beam, the uplink beam is an uplink transmit beam.

[0063] In 5G, the spectrum in which the wireless network nodes or entities (e.g., base stations 102 / 180, UEs 104 / 182) operate is divided into multiple frequency ranges: FR1 (from 450MHz to 6000MHz), FR2 (from 24250MHz to 52600MHz), FR3 (above 52600MHz), and FR4 (between FR1 and FR2). In a multi-carrier system (such as 5G), one of the carrier frequencies is called a "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell", and the remaining carrier frequencies are called "secondary carriers" or "secondary serving cells" or "SCells". In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is a carrier operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) used by the UE 104 / 182 and the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 performs an initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common control channels and UE-specific control channels and can be a carrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case). A secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2) that can be configured once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier, and can be used to provide additional radio resources. In some cases, the secondary carrier can be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier may contain only necessary signaling information and signals, for example, since the primary uplink carrier and the primary downlink carrier are typically UE-specific, those signaling information and signals specific to the UE may not be present in the secondary carrier. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplink primary carrier. The network is able to change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance the load on different carriers. Since a "serving cell" (whether PCell or SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency or component carrier that some base stations are using for communication, the terms "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. may be used interchangeably.

[0064] For example, still referring to FIG. 1 , one of the frequencies used by the macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or “PCell”), and the other frequencies used by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers (“SCells”). In carrier aggregation, the base station 102 and / or the UE 104 may use spectrum of up to Y MHz (e.g., 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, 20 MHz, 100 MHz) bandwidth per carrier, with up to a total of Yx MHz (x component carriers) in each direction for transmission. The component carriers may be adjacent to each other in the spectrum or may not be adjacent to each other. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to the downlink and uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to the downlink than to the uplink). The simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers enables the UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission rate and / or data reception rate. For example, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically result in double the data rate (ie, 40 MHz) compared to the data rate achieved with a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0065] In order to operate on multiple carrier frequencies, the base station 102 and / or the UE 104 are equipped with multiple receivers and / or transmitters. For example, the UE 104 may have two receivers, namely "receiver 1" and "receiver 2", where "receiver 1" is a multi-band receiver that can be tuned to band (i.e., carrier frequency) "X" or band "Y", and "receiver 2" is a single-band receiver that can be tuned to only band "Z". In this example, if the UE 104 is being served in band "X", band "X" will be referred to as the PCell or active carrier frequency, and "receiver 1" will need to tune from band "X" to band "Y" (SCell) to measure band "Y" (and vice versa). In contrast, regardless of whether the UE 104 is being served in band "X" or band "Y", due to the separate "receiver 2", the UE 104 can measure band "Z" without interrupting the service on band "X" or band "Y".

[0066] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a UE 164, which may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 over the communication link 120 and / or communicate with the mmW base station 180 over the mmW communication link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0067] The wireless communication system 100 may also include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, which are indirectly connected to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as "side links"). In the example of FIG. 1, UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of UEs 104 connected to one of base stations 102 (e.g., UE 190 can indirectly obtain cellular connectivity through the D2D P2P link), and has a D2D P2P link 194 with a WLAN STA 152 connected to a WLAN AP 150 (UE 190 can indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity through the D2D P2P link). In an example, D2D P2P links 192 and 194 can be supported using any well-known D2D RAT (such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, etc.). As mentioned above, UE 104 and UE 190 can be configured to communicate using side link communications. In some cases, the sidelink transmission may include a request for feedback from the receiving UE (eg, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)).

[0068] 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a decomposed base station architecture that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing. The deployment of a communication system (such as a 5G NR system) may be arranged in a variety of ways using various components or constituent parts. In a 5G NR system or network, a network node, a network entity, a mobility element of a network, a radio access network (RAN) node, a core network node, a network element, or a network equipment (such as a base station (BS) or one or more units (or one or more components) that perform base station functionality) may be implemented in an aggregated or decomposed architecture. For example, a BS (such as a Node B (NB), an evolved NB (eNB), an NR BS, a 5G NB, an AP, a transmit receive point (TRP), or a cell, etc.) may be implemented as an aggregated base station (also referred to as a standalone BS or a monolithic BS) or a decomposed base station.

[0069] A converged base station may be configured to utilize a radio protocol stack that is physically or logically integrated within a single RAN node. A decomposed base station may be configured to utilize a protocol stack that is physically or logically distributed between two or more units, such as one or more central or centralized units (CUs), one or more distributed units (DUs), or one or more radio units (RUs). In some aspects, a CU may be implemented within a RAN node, and one or more DUs may be co-located with the CU, or alternatively, may be geographically or virtually distributed in one or more other RAN nodes. A DU may be implemented to communicate with one or more RUs. Each of a CU, a DU, and a RU may also be implemented as a virtual unit, i.e., a virtual central unit (VCU), a virtual distributed unit (VDU), or a virtual radio unit (VRU).

[0070] Base station type operations or network designs may take into account the aggregated nature of base station functionality. For example, a disaggregated base station may be used in an integrated access backhaul (IAB) network, an open radio access network (O-RAN (network configurations such as those initiated by the O-RAN Alliance)), or a virtualized radio access network (vRAN, also known as a cloud radio access network (C-RAN)). Decomposition may include distributing functionality across two or more units at various physical locations, as well as virtually distributing functionality of at least one unit, which may enable flexibility in network design. Various units of a disaggregated base station or disaggregated RAN architecture may be configured for wired or wireless communication with at least one other unit.

[0071] As previously mentioned, FIG2 shows a diagram illustrating an example decomposed base station 201 architecture. The decomposed base station 201 architecture may include one or more central units (CUs) 211 that may communicate directly with a core network 223 via a backhaul link, or indirectly with the core network 223 through one or more decomposed base station units, such as a near real-time (near-RT) RAN intelligent controller (RIC) 227 via an E2 link, or a non-real-time (non-RT) RIC 217 associated with a service management and orchestration (SMO) framework 207, or both. The CU 211 may communicate with one or more distributed units (DUs) 231 via respective midhaul links, such as an F1 interface. The DU 231 may communicate with one or more radio units (RUs) 241 via respective fronthaul links. The RU 241 may communicate with respective UEs 221 via one or more RF access links. In some implementations, a UE 221 may be served simultaneously by multiple RUs 241.

[0072] Each of the units (i.e., CU 211, DU 231, RU 241, and near-RT RIC 227, non-RT RIC 217, and SMO framework 207) may include or be coupled to one or more interfaces configured to receive or send signals, data, or information (collectively referred to as signals) via a wired or wireless transmission medium. Each of the units or an associated processor or controller that provides instructions to the communication interfaces of these units may be configured to communicate with one or more of the other units via a transmission medium. For example, the unit may include a wired interface configured to receive or send signals to one or more of the other units on a wired transmission medium. Additionally, the unit may include a wireless interface that may include a receiver, transmitter, or transceiver (such as an RF transceiver) configured to receive or send signals, or both, to one or more of the other units on a wireless transmission medium.

[0073] In some aspects, CU 211 may host one or more higher layer control functions. Such control functions may include radio resource control (RRC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), etc. Each control function may be implemented using an interface configured to communicate signals with other control functions hosted by CU 211. CU211 may be configured to handle user plane functionality (i.e., central unit-user plane (CU-UP)), control plane functionality (i.e., central unit-control plane (CU-CP)), or a combination thereof. In some specific implementations, CU 211 may be logically split into one or more CU-UP units and one or more CU-CP units. When implemented in an O-RAN configuration, the CU-UP unit may communicate bidirectionally with the CU-CP unit via an interface (such as an E1 interface). As needed, CU 211 may be implemented to communicate with DU 231 for network control and signaling.

[0074] DU 231 may correspond to a logical unit that includes one or more base station functions for controlling the operation of one or more RUs 241. In some aspects, DU 231 may host one or more of a radio link control (RLC) layer, a medium access control (MAC) layer, and one or more high physical (PHY) layers (such as modules for forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding, scrambling, modulation and demodulation, etc.) based at least in part on a functional split such as those defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). In some aspects, DU 231 may further host one or more low PHY layers. Each layer (or module) may be implemented using an interface that is configured to communicate signals with other layers (and modules) hosted by DU 231 or with control functions hosted by CU 211.

[0075] The lower layer functionality may be implemented by one or more RUs 241. In some deployments, a RU 241 controlled by a DU 231 may correspond to a logical node that hosts RF processing functions or low PHY layer functions (such as performing Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Inverse FFT (iFFT), digital beamforming, physical random access channel (PRACH) extraction and filtering, etc.), or both, based at least in part on a functional split (such as a lower layer functional split). In such an architecture, the RU 241 may be implemented to handle over-the-air (OTA) communications with one or more UEs 221. In some implementations, real-time and non-real-time aspects of control plane and user plane communications with the RU 241 may be controlled by the corresponding DU 231. In some scenarios, this configuration may enable the implementation of the DU 231 and the CU 211 in a cloud-based RAN architecture (such as a vRAN architecture).

[0076] The SMO framework 207 may be configured to support RAN deployment and provisioning of non-virtualized network elements and virtualized network elements. For non-virtualized network elements, the SMO framework 207 may be configured to support the deployment of dedicated physical resources for RAN coverage requirements, which may be managed via an operation and maintenance interface (such as an O1 interface). For virtualized network elements, the SMO framework 207 may be configured to interact with a cloud computing platform (such as an open cloud (O-Cloud) 291) to perform network element lifecycle management (such as to instantiate virtualized network elements) via a cloud computing platform interface (such as an O2 interface). Such virtualized network elements may include, but are not limited to, CU 211, DU 231, RU 241, and near-RT RIC 227. In some specific implementations, the SMO framework 207 may communicate with hardware aspects of the 4G RAN (such as an open eNB (O-eNB) 213) via the O1 interface. Additionally, in some specific implementations, the SMO framework 207 may communicate directly with one or more RU241 via the O1 interface. The SMO framework 207 may also include a non-RT RIC 217 configured to support the functionality of the SMO framework 207 .

[0077] The non-RT RIC 217 may be configured to include logic functions that enable non-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources, artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) workflows including model training and updating, or policy-based guidance of applications / features in the near-RT RIC 227. The non-RT RIC 217 may be coupled to or in communication with the near-RT RIC 227 (such as via an A1 interface). The near-RT RIC 227 may be configured to include logic functions that enable near-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources via data collection and actions through an interface (such as via an E2 interface) that connects one or more CUs 211, one or more DUs 231, or both, and the O-eNB 213 with the near-RT RIC 227.

[0078] In some implementations, in order to generate the AI / ML model to be deployed in the near-RT RIC 227, the non-RT RIC 217 may receive parameters or external enrichment information from an external server. Such information may be utilized by the near-RT RIC 227 and may be received from a non-network data source or from a network function at the SMO framework 207 or the non-RT RIC 217. In some examples, the non-RT RIC 217 or the near-RT RIC 227 may be configured to tune RAN behavior or performance. For example, the non-RT RIC 217 may monitor long-term trends and patterns for performance and employ AI / ML models to perform corrective actions through the SMO framework 207 (such as via reconfiguration of O1) or via creation of RAN management policies (such as A1 policies).

[0079] Various radio frame structures may be used to support downlink transmissions, uplink transmissions, and sidelink transmissions between network nodes (e.g., a base station and a UE). FIG3 is a diagram 300 illustrating an example of a frame structure that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing. Other wireless communication technologies may have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0080] NR (and LTE) utilizes OFDM on the downlink and single carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. However, unlike LTE, NR also has the option of using OFDM on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDM divide the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also often referred to as tones, frequency bins, etc. Each subcarrier can be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are transmitted in the frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers can be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) can depend on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers can be 15kHz, and the minimum resource allocation (resource block) can be 12 subcarriers (or 180kHz). Thus, for a system bandwidth of 1.25 megahertz (MHz), 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, or 20 MHz, the nominal fast Fourier transform (FFT) size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048, respectively. The system bandwidth may also be divided into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for a system bandwidth of 1.25 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, or 20 MHz, respectively.

[0081] LTE supports a single parameter set (subcarrier spacing, symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR can support multiple parameter sets (µ). For example, 15kHz, 30kHz, 60kHz, 120kHz, and 240kHz or larger subcarrier spacing (SCS) may be available. Table 1 provided below lists some different parameters for different NR parameter sets.

[0082]

[0083] In one example, a parameter set of 15 kHz is used. Thus, in the time domain, a 10 millisecond (ms) frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes, each subframe is 1 ms, and each subframe includes a time slot. In FIG3 , time is represented horizontally (e.g., on the X-axis), where time increases from left to right, and frequency is represented vertically (e.g., on the Y-axis), where frequency increases (or decreases) from bottom to top.

[0084] A resource grid may be used to represent time slots, each time slot including one or more time concurrent resource blocks (RBs) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) in the frequency domain. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a resource block (RB) 302. Data or information for joint communication and sensing may be included in one or more RBs 302. RBs 302 are arranged by placing the time domain on the horizontal (or x) axis and the frequency domain on the vertical (or y) axis. As shown, RBs 302 may be 180 kilohertz (kHz) wide in frequency and one slot long in time (where a slot is 1 millisecond (ms) in time). In some cases, a slot may include fourteen symbols (e.g., in slot configuration 0). RBs 302 include twelve subcarriers (along the y-axis) and fourteen symbols (along the x-axis).

[0085] The intersection of a symbol and a subcarrier may be referred to as a resource element (RE) 304 or tone. The RB 302 of FIG. 3 includes a plurality of REs, which include resource elements (REs) 304. For example, an RE 304 is 1 subcarrier x 1 symbol (e.g., an OFDM symbol) and is the smallest discrete portion of a subframe. An RE 304 includes a single complex value representing data from a physical channel or signal. The number of bits carried by each RE 304 depends on the modulation scheme.

[0086] In some aspects, some REs 304 may be used to transmit downlink reference (pilot) signals (DL-RS). DL-RS may include positioning reference signals (PRS), tracking reference signals (TRS), phase tracking reference signals (PTRS), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS), primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), etc. The resource grid of FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary locations (labeled “R”) of REs 304 for transmitting DL-RS.

[0087] 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computing system 470 of an electronic device 407 that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing. The electronic device 407 is an example of a device that may include hardware and software for connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems using a communication network (e.g., a third generation partner network such as a fifth generation (5G) / new radio (NR) network, a fourth generation (4G) / long term evolution (LTE) network, a WiFi network, or other communication network). For example, the electronic device 407 may include or be part of a mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone), a wearable device (e.g., a web-connected or smartwatch), an extended reality device (e.g., a virtual reality (VR) device, an augmented reality (AR) device, or a mixed reality (MR) device), a personal computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a wireless access point, a router, a vehicle or a component of a vehicle, a server computer, a robotic device, and / or other devices used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network. In some cases, device 407 may be referred to as user equipment (UE), such as when referring to a device configured to communicate using 5G / NR, 4G / LTE, or other telecommunication standards. In some cases, the device may be referred to as a station (STA), such as when referring to a device configured to communicate using the Wi-Fi standard.

[0088] The computing system 470 includes software and hardware components that may be electrically or communicatively coupled via a bus 489 (or may communicate in other ways as appropriate). For example, the computing system 470 includes one or more processors 484. The one or more processors 484 may include one or more CPUs, ASICs, FPGAs, APs, GPUs, VPUs, NSPs, microcontrollers, dedicated hardware, any combination thereof, and / or other processing devices and / or systems. The bus 489 may be used by the one or more processors 484 to communicate between cores and / or with one or more memory devices 486.

[0089] The computing system 470 may also include one or more memory devices 486, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs) 482, one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs) 474, one or more modems 476, one or more wireless transceivers 478, one or more antennas 487, one or more input devices 472 (e.g., a camera, a mouse, a keyboard, a touch-sensitive screen, a touchpad, a keypad, a microphone or microphone array, etc.), and one or more output devices 480 (e.g., a display, a speaker, a printer, etc.).

[0090] One or more wireless transceivers 478 can receive wireless signals (e.g., signal 488) via antenna 487 from one or more other devices such as other user devices, network devices (e.g., base stations such as evolved Node B (eNB) and / or gNodeB (gNB)), WiFi access points (APs) such as routers, range extenders, etc.), cloud networks, etc. In some examples, computing system 470 may include multiple antennas or antenna arrays that can facilitate simultaneous transmission and reception functionality. Antenna 487 can be an omnidirectional antenna so that RF signals can be received from all directions and RF signals can be transmitted in all directions. Wireless signal 488 can be sent via a wireless network. The wireless network can be any wireless network, such as a cellular or telecommunications network (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G, etc.), a wireless local area network (e.g., a WiFi network), a Bluetooth ™ network and / or other networks. In some examples, one or more wireless transceivers 478 may include an RF front end that includes one or more components such as an amplifier, a mixer for down-converting a signal (also known as a signal multiplier), a frequency synthesizer (also known as an oscillator) that provides a signal to the mixer, a baseband filter, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), one or more power amplifiers, and other components. The RF front end generally can handle the selection of the wireless signal 488 and the conversion of the wireless signal to baseband or intermediate frequency, and can convert the RF signal to the digital domain.

[0091] In some cases, computing system 470 may include a coding-decoding device (or CODEC) configured to encode and / or decode data transmitted and / or received using one or more wireless transceivers 478. In some cases, computing system 470 may include an encryption-decryption device or component configured to encrypt and / or decrypt data transmitted and / or received by one or more wireless transceivers 478 (e.g., in accordance with the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and / or Data Encryption Standard (DES) standards).

[0092] One or more SIMs 474 can each securely store an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number and associated keys assigned to a user of the electronic device 407. The IMSI and keys can be used to identify and authenticate the subscriber when accessing a network provided by a network service provider or operator associated with the one or more SIMs 474. One or more modems 476 can modulate one or more signals to encode information for transmission using one or more wireless transceivers 478. One or more modems 476 can also demodulate signals received by one or more wireless transceivers 478 to decode the transmitted information. In some examples, one or more modems 476 can include a WiFi modem, a 4G (or LTE) modem, a 5G (or NR) modem, and / or other types of modems. One or more modems 476 and one or more wireless transceivers 478 can be used to communicate data of one or more SIMs 474.

[0093] The computing system 470 may also include (and / or be in communication with) one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media or storage devices (e.g., one or more memory devices 486), which may include, but are not limited to, local and / or network accessible storage, disk drives, drive arrays, optical storage devices, solid-state storage devices (such as RAM and / or ROM), which may be programmable, flash-updatable, etc. Such storage devices may be configured to implement any suitable data storage, including, but not limited to, various file systems, database structures, etc.

[0094] In various aspects, the functionality may be stored as one or more computer program products (e.g., instructions or code) in the memory device 486 and executed by the one or more processors 484 and / or the one or more DSPs 482. The computing system 470 may also include software elements (e.g., located within the one or more memory devices 486) including, for example, an operating system, device drivers, executable libraries, and / or other code, such as one or more applications, which may include computer programs that implement the functionality provided by various aspects and / or may be designed to implement methods and / or configure systems, as described herein.

[0095] In some aspects, the electronic device 407 may include components for performing the operations described herein. The components may include one or more components of the computing system 470. For example, the components for performing the operations described herein may include one or more of the input device 472, the SIM 474, the modem 476, the wireless transceiver 478, the output device 480, the DSP 482, the processor 484, the memory device 486, and / or the antenna 487.

[0096] In some aspects, the electronic device 407 may include components for providing joint communication and sensing and components for both sensing and demodulating the communication signal using the sensing signal. In some examples, any or all of these components may include one or more wireless transceivers 478, one or more modems 476, one or more processors 484, one or more DSPs 482, one or more memory devices 486, any combination thereof, or other components of the electronic device 407.

[0097] Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless device 500 utilizing RF single-station sensing techniques to determine one or more characteristics (e.g., position, velocity or speed, heading, etc.) of a target 502 object. Specifically, Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless device 500 (e.g., a transmitting / receiving sensing node) utilizing RF sensing techniques (e.g., single-station sensing) to perform one or more functions, such as detecting the presence and position of a target 502 (e.g., an object, a user, or a vehicle), which is illustrated in the figure in the form of a vehicle.

[0098] In some examples, wireless device 500 may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a wearable device, a vehicle, an extended reality (XR) device, a component of a computing device or a vehicle, or other device including at least one RF interface (e.g., device 407 of FIG. 4 ). In some examples, wireless device 500 may be a device that provides connectivity for user devices (e.g., electronic device 407 of FIG. 4 ), such as a base station (e.g., gNB, eNB, etc.), a wireless access point (AP), or other device including at least one RF interface.

[0099] In some aspects, the wireless device 500 may include one or more components for transmitting RF signals. The wireless device 500 may include at least one processor 522 for generating a digital signal or waveform. The wireless device 500 may also include a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 504 capable of receiving a digital signal or waveform from the processor 522 (e.g., a microprocessor) and converting the digital signal or waveform into an analog waveform. The analog signal as an output of the DAC 504 may be provided to the RF transmitter 506 for transmission. The RF transmitter 506 may be a Wi-Fi transmitter, a 5G / NR transmitter, a Bluetooth transmitter, or a wireless transmitter. ™ transmitter or any other transmitter capable of transmitting RF signals.

[0100] The RF transmitter 506 can be coupled to one or more transmit antennas, such as a Tx antenna 512. In some examples, the transmit (Tx) antenna 512 can be an omnidirectional antenna capable of transmitting RF signals in all directions. For example, the Tx antenna 512 can be an omnidirectional Wi-Fi antenna capable of radiating Wi-Fi signals (e.g., 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, etc.) in a 360-degree radiation pattern. In another example, the Tx antenna 512 can be a directional antenna that transmits RF signals in a specific direction.

[0101] In some examples, the wireless device 500 may also include one or more components for receiving RF signals. For example, the receiver array in the wireless device 500 may include one or more receive antennas, such as a receive (Rx) antenna 514. In some examples, the Rx antenna 514 may be an omnidirectional antenna capable of receiving RF signals from multiple directions. In other examples, the Rx antenna 514 may be a directional antenna configured to receive signals from a specific direction. In another example, the Tx antenna 512 and / or the Rx antenna 514 may include multiple antennas (e.g., elements) configured as an antenna array (e.g., a phased antenna array), which may be used for MIMO technology.

[0102] The wireless device 500 may also include an RF receiver 510 coupled to an Rx antenna 514. The RF receiver 510 may include a signal for receiving RF waveforms (such as Wi-Fi signals, Bluetooth signals, etc.). ™ The RF receiver 510 may be configured to receive an analog RF waveform, a 5G / NR signal, or any other RF signal. The output of the RF receiver 510 may be coupled to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 508. The ADC 508 may be configured to convert the received analog RF waveform into a digital waveform. The digital waveform as an output of the ADC 508 may be provided to a processor 522 for processing. The processor 522 (e.g., a digital signal processor (DSP)) may be configured to process the digital waveform.

[0103] In one example, the wireless device 500 can implement an RF sensing technique, such as a single-station sensing technique, by having a Tx waveform 516 transmitted from the Tx antenna 512. Although the Tx waveform 516 is illustrated as a single line, in some cases, the Tx waveform 516 can be transmitted in all directions by the omnidirectional Tx antenna 512. In one example, the Tx waveform 516 can be a Wi-Fi waveform transmitted by a Wi-Fi transmitter in the wireless device 500. In some cases, the Tx waveform 516 can correspond to a Wi-Fi waveform transmitted at the same time or nearly at the same time as a Wi-Fi data communication signal or a Wi-Fi control function signal (e.g., a beacon transmission). In some examples, the Tx waveform 516 can be transmitted using the same or similar frequency resources as the Wi-Fi data communication signal or the Wi-Fi control function signal (e.g., a beacon transmission). In some aspects, the Tx waveform 516 can correspond to a Wi-Fi waveform transmitted separately from the Wi-Fi data communication signal and / or the Wi-Fi control signal (e.g., the Tx waveform 516 can be transmitted at a different time and / or using different frequency resources).

[0104] In some examples, Tx waveform 516 may correspond to a 5G NR waveform transmitted simultaneously or nearly simultaneously with a 5G NR data communication signal or a 5G NR control function signal. In some examples, Tx waveform 516 may be transmitted using the same or similar frequency resources as the 5G NR data communication signal or the 5G NR control function signal. In some aspects, Tx waveform 516 may correspond to a 5G NR waveform transmitted separately from the 5G NR data communication signal and / or the 5G NR control signal (e.g., Tx waveform 516 may be transmitted at a different time and / or using different frequency resources).

[0105] In some aspects, one or more parameters associated with the Tx waveform 516 may be modified, which may be used to increase or decrease RF sensing resolution. These parameters may include frequency, bandwidth, number of spatial streams, number of antennas configured to transmit the Tx waveform 516, number of antennas configured to receive reflected RF signals (e.g., Rx waveform 518) corresponding to the Tx waveform 516, number of spatial links (e.g., number of spatial streams multiplied by number of antennas configured to receive RF signals), sampling rate, or any combination thereof. The transmitted waveform (e.g., Tx waveform 516) and the received waveform (e.g., Rx waveform 518) may include one or more RF sensing signals, which are also referred to as radar reference signals (RS).

[0106] In another example, the Tx waveform 516 may be implemented as a sequence with perfect or nearly perfect autocorrelation properties. For example, the Tx waveform 516 may include a single carrier Zadoff sequence or may include symbols similar to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) long training field (LTF) symbols. In some cases, the Tx waveform 516 may include a chirp signal as used, for example, in a frequency modulated continuous wave (FM-CW) radar system. In some configurations, the chirp signal may include a signal in which the signal frequency increases and / or decreases periodically in a linear and / or exponential manner.

[0107] In some aspects, the wireless device 500 can implement RF sensing techniques by performing alternating transmit and receive functions (e.g., performing half-duplex operation). For example, the wireless device 500 can alternately enable its RF transmitter 506 to transmit Tx waveform 516 when the RF receiver 510 is not enabled to receive (i.e., not receiving), and enable its RF receiver 510 to receive Rx waveform 518 when the RF transmitter 506 is not enabled to transmit (i.e., not transmitting). When the wireless device 500 performs half-duplex operation, the wireless device 500 can transmit Tx waveform 516, which can be a radar RS (e.g., a sensing signal).

[0108] In other aspects, the wireless device 500 can implement RF sensing techniques by performing concurrent transmit and receive functions (e.g., performing sub-band or full-band full-duplex operation). For example, the wireless device 500 can enable its RF receiver 510 to receive at or nearly the same time as it enables its RF transmitter 506 to transmit the Tx waveform 516. When the wireless device 500 performs full-duplex operation (e.g., sub-band full-duplex or full-band full-duplex), the wireless device 500 can transmit the Tx waveform 516, which can be a radar RS (e.g., a sensing signal).

[0109] In some examples, the transmission of a sequence or pattern included in the Tx waveform 516 may be continuously repeated such that the sequence is transmitted a specific number of times or for a specific duration. In some examples, if the RF receiver 510 is enabled after the RF transmitter 506, the repetition of the pattern in the transmission of the Tx waveform 516 may be used to avoid missing the reception of any reflected signals. In one example implementation, the Tx waveform 516 may include a sequence having a sequence length L that is transmitted two or more times, which may allow the RF receiver 510 to be enabled at a time less than or equal to L in order to receive reflections corresponding to the entire sequence without losing any information.

[0110] By implementing alternating or simultaneous transmit and receive functionality (e.g., half-duplex or full-duplex operation), the wireless device 500 can receive a signal corresponding to the Tx waveform 516. For example, the wireless device 500 can receive a signal reflected from an object or person within the range of the Tx waveform 516, such as the Rx waveform 518 reflected from the target 502. The wireless device 500 can also receive a leakage signal (e.g., Tx leakage signal 520) that is directly coupled from the Tx antenna 512 to the Rx antenna 514 without reflecting from any object. For example, the leakage signal may include a signal that is passed from a transmitter antenna (e.g., Tx antenna 512) on the wireless device to a receive antenna (e.g., Rx antenna 514) on the wireless device without reflecting from any object. In some cases, the Rx waveform 518 may include multiple sequences corresponding to multiple copies of the sequence included in the Tx waveform 516. In some examples, the wireless device 500 can combine multiple sequences received by the RF receiver 510 to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

[0111] The wireless device 500 may also implement RF sensing techniques by obtaining RF sensing data associated with each of the received signals corresponding to the Tx waveform 516. In some examples, the RF sensing data may include channel state information (CSI) data related to a direct path of the Tx waveform 516 (e.g., the leakage signal 520) and data related to a reflected path corresponding to the Tx waveform 516 (e.g., the Rx waveform 518).

[0112] In some aspects, the RF sensing data (e.g., CSI data) may include information that can be used to determine the manner in which an RF signal (e.g., Tx waveform 516) propagates from the RF transmitter 506 to the RF receiver 510. The RF sensing data may include data corresponding to the effects on the transmitted RF signal due to scattering, fading, and / or power attenuation with distance, or any combination thereof. In some examples, the RF sensing data may include imaginary data and real data (e.g., I / Q components) corresponding to each tone in the frequency domain over a particular bandwidth.

[0113] In some examples, the RF sensing data can be used by the processor 522 to calculate the distance and arrival angle corresponding to the reflected waveform, such as the Rx waveform 518. In other examples, the RF sensing data can also be used to detect motion, determine position, detect changes in position or motion patterns, or any combination thereof. In some cases, the distance and arrival angle of the reflected signal can be used to identify the size, location, movement, and / or orientation of an object (e.g., the object 502) in the surrounding environment in order to detect the presence / proximity of the object.

[0114] The processor 522 of the wireless device 500 can calculate the distance and arrival angle corresponding to the reflected waveform (e.g., the distance and arrival angle corresponding to the Rx waveform 518) by utilizing signal processing, machine learning algorithms, any other suitable technology, or any combination thereof. In other examples, the wireless device 500 can send or transmit the RF sensing data to at least one processor of another computing device such as a server or a base station, and the other computing device can perform calculations to obtain the distance and arrival angle corresponding to the Rx waveform 518 or other reflected waveforms.

[0115] In one example, the distance of the Rx waveform 518 may be calculated by measuring the time difference from when the leakage signal is received to when the reflected signal is received. For example, the wireless device 500 may determine a baseline distance zero based on the difference (e.g., propagation delay) from when the wireless device 500 transmits the Tx waveform 516 to when it receives the leakage signal 520. The processor 522 of the wireless device 500 may then determine the distance associated with the Rx waveform 518 based on the difference (e.g., time of flight, also referred to as round trip time (RTT)) from when the wireless device 500 transmits the Tx waveform 516 to when it receives the Rx waveform 518, which may then be adjusted based on the propagation delay associated with the leakage signal 520. In doing so, the processor 522 of the wireless device 500 may determine the distance traveled by the Rx waveform 518, which may be used to determine the presence and movement of an object (e.g., object 502) that caused the reflection.

[0116] In further examples, the angle of arrival of the Rx waveform 518 may be calculated by the processor 522 by measuring the time difference of arrival of the Rx waveform 518 between individual elements of the receive antenna array, such as the antenna 514. In some examples, the time difference of arrival may be calculated by measuring the receive phase difference at each element in the receive antenna array.

[0117] In some cases, the distance and angle of arrival of the Rx waveform 518 may be used by the processor 522 to determine the distance between the wireless device 500 and the target 502 and the orientation of the target 502 relative to the wireless device 500. The distance and angle of arrival of the Rx waveform 518 may also be used to determine the presence, movement, proximity, identity, or any combination thereof of the target 502. For example, the processor 522 of the wireless device 500 may utilize the calculated distance and angle of arrival corresponding to the Rx waveform 518 to determine that the target 502 is moving toward the wireless device 500.

[0118] As mentioned above, the wireless device 500 may include a mobile device (e.g., an IoT device, a smart phone, a laptop, a tablet, etc.) or other type of device. In some examples, the wireless device 500 may be configured to obtain device location data and device orientation data as well as RF sensing data. In some instances, the device location data and device orientation data may be used to determine or adjust the distance and angle of arrival of a reflected signal such as the Rx waveform 518. For example, when a target 502 (e.g., a vehicle) moves toward the wireless device 500 during the RF sensing process, the wireless device may be set on the ground facing the sky. In this instance, the wireless device 500 may use its location data and orientation data as well as the RF sensing data to determine the direction in which the target 502 is moving.

[0119] In some examples, the wireless device 500 can collect device orientation data using techniques including RTT measurements, time of arrival (TOA) measurements, time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements, passive positioning measurements, angle of arrival (AOA) measurements, angle of departure (AoD) measurements, received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurements, CSI data, using any other suitable techniques, or any combination thereof. In further examples, the device orientation data can be obtained from electronic sensors on the wireless device 500 such as a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, magnetometer, barometer, any other suitable sensor, or any combination thereof.

[0120] 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a receiver 604 that utilizes RF bistatic sensing techniques using a transmitter 600 to determine one or more characteristics (e.g., position, velocity or speed, heading, etc.) of a target 602 object. For example, the receiver 604, illustrated in the form of a vehicle in FIG6 , may detect the presence and position of the target 602 (e.g., an object, user, or vehicle) using RF bistatic sensing. In one example, the receiver 604 may be in the form of a base station such as a gNB.

[0121] The bistatic radar system of FIG6 includes a transmitter 600 (e.g., a transmitting sensing node) and a receiver 604 (e.g., a receiving sensing node), the transmitter being depicted in the figure as being in the form of a base station (e.g., a gNB), the transmitter and the receiver being separated by a distance comparable to the expected target distance. In contrast to the monostatic system of FIG5, the transmitter 600 and the receiver 604 of the bistatic radar system of FIG6 are located far from each other. In contrast, a monostatic radar is a radar system (e.g., the system of FIG5) that includes a transmitter (e.g., the RF transmitter 506 of the wireless device 500 of FIG5) and a receiver (e.g., the RF receiver 510 of the wireless device 500 of FIG5) co-located with each other.

[0122] An advantage of a bistatic radar (or more generally, a multistatic radar with more than one receiver) over a monostatic radar is the ability to collect radar echoes reflected from a scene at angles different than the angle at which the pulse was transmitted. This may be of interest in some applications (e.g., vehicle applications, scenes with multiple objects, military applications, etc.) where targets may reflect transmitted energy in many directions (e.g., where targets are specifically designed to reflect in many directions), which may minimize the energy reflected back to the transmitter. In one or more examples, a monostatic system may coexist with a multistatic radar system, such as when the transmitter also has a co-located receiver.

[0123] In some examples, the transmitter 600 and / or the receiver 604 of FIG6 may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a wearable device, a vehicle, or other device including at least one RF interface (e.g., the device 407 of FIG4 ). In some examples, the transmitter 600 and / or the receiver 604 may be a device that provides connectivity for a user device (e.g., the IoT device 407 of FIG4 ), such as a base station (e.g., gNB, eNB, etc.), a wireless access point (AP), or other device including at least one RF interface.

[0124] In some aspects, the transmitter 600 may include one or more components for transmitting RF signals. The transmitter 600 may include at least one processor (e.g., the at least one processor 522 of FIG. 5 ) capable of determining signals to be transmitted (e.g., determining waveforms of these signals). The transmitter 600 may also include an RF transmitter (e.g., the RF transmitter 506 of FIG. 5 ) for transmitting Tx signals including the Tx waveform 616. The RF transmitter may be a transmitter configured to transmit a cellular signal or a telecommunication signal (e.g., a transmitter configured to transmit a 5G / NR signal, a 4G / LTE signal, or other cellular / telecom signal, etc.), a Wi-Fi transmitter, a Bluetooth transmitter, or a wireless transmitter. ™ transmitter, any combination thereof, or any other transmitter capable of transmitting RF signals.

[0125] The RF transmitter may be coupled to one or more transmit antennas, such as a Tx antenna (e.g., TX antenna 512 of FIG. 5 ). In some examples, the Tx antenna may be an omnidirectional antenna capable of transmitting RF signals in all directions, or a directional antenna capable of transmitting RF signals in a specific direction. In some examples, the Tx antenna may include multiple antennas (e.g., elements) configured as an antenna array, which may be used for MIMO technology.

[0126] The receiver 604 may also include one or more components for receiving RF signals. For example, the receiver 604 may include one or more receiving antennas, such as an Rx antenna (e.g., the Rx antenna 514 of FIG. 5 ). In some examples, the Rx antenna may be an omnidirectional antenna capable of receiving RF signals from multiple directions, or a directional antenna configured to receive signals from a specific direction. In another example, the Rx antenna may include multiple antennas (e.g., elements) configured as an antenna array, which may be used for MIMO technology.

[0127] The receiver 604 may also include an RF receiver (eg, RF receiver 510 of FIG. 5 ) coupled to the Rx antenna. The RF receiver may include a signal for receiving RF waveforms (such as Wi-Fi signals, Bluetooth signals, etc.). ™ The output of the RF receiver may be coupled to at least one processor (e.g., at least one processor 522 of FIG. 5 ). The processor may be configured to process the received waveform (e.g., Rx waveform 618).

[0128] In one or more examples, the transmitter 600 can implement an RF sensing technique (eg, a bistatic sensing technique) by transmitting a Tx waveform 616 from a Tx antenna. Although the Tx waveform 616 is illustrated as a single line, in some cases, the Tx waveform 616 can be transmitted in all directions by an omnidirectional Tx antenna.

[0129] In one or more aspects, one or more parameters associated with the Tx waveform 616 can be used to increase or decrease the RF sensing resolution. These parameters can include frequency, bandwidth, number of spatial streams, number of antennas configured to transmit the Tx waveform 616, number of antennas configured to receive reflected RF signals (e.g., Rx waveform 618) corresponding to the Tx waveform 616, number of spatial links (e.g., number of spatial streams multiplied by number of antennas configured to receive RF signals), sampling rate, or any combination thereof. The transmitted waveform (e.g., Tx waveform 616) and the received waveform (e.g., Rx waveform 618) can include one or more radar RF sensing signals (also referred to as RF sensing RS).

[0130] During operation, the receiver 604 (e.g., operating as a receive sensing node) can receive a signal corresponding to the Tx waveform 616, which is transmitted by the transmitter 600 (e.g., operating as a transmit sensing node). For example, the receiver 604 can receive a signal reflected from an object or person within the range of the Tx waveform 616, such as the Rx waveform 618 reflected from the target 602. In some cases, the Rx waveform 618 can include multiple sequences corresponding to multiple copies of the sequence included in the Tx waveform 616. In some examples, the receiver 604 can combine the received multiple sequences to improve the SNR.

[0131] In some examples, at least one processor within receiver 604 can use the RF sensing data to calculate a distance, angle of arrival, or other characteristics corresponding to a reflected waveform, such as Rx waveform 618. In other examples, the RF sensing data can also be used to detect motion, determine position, detect a change in position or motion pattern, or any combination thereof. In some cases, the distance and angle of arrival of the reflected signal can be used to identify the size, position, movement, and / or orientation of an object (e.g., object 602) in the surrounding environment in order to detect object presence / proximity.

[0132] The processor of the receiver 604 may calculate the distance and arrival angle corresponding to the reflected waveform (e.g., the distance and arrival angle corresponding to the Rx waveform 618) by using signal processing, machine learning algorithms, any other suitable techniques, or any combination thereof. In other examples, the receiver 604 may send or transmit the RF sensing data to at least one processor of another computing device (such as a server), which may perform calculations to obtain the distance and arrival angle corresponding to the Rx waveform 618 or other reflected waveforms.

[0133] In one or more examples, the angle of arrival of the Rx waveform 618 can be calculated by the processor of the receiver 604 by measuring the time difference of arrival of the Rx waveform 618 between individual elements of the receive antenna array of the receiver 604. In some examples, the time difference of arrival can be calculated by measuring the receive phase difference at each element in the receive antenna array.

[0134] In some cases, the distance and angle of arrival of the Rx waveform 618 may be used by the processor of the receiver 604 to determine the distance between the receiver 604 and the target 602 and the orientation of the target 602 relative to the receiver 604. The distance and angle of arrival of the Rx waveform 618 may also be used to determine the presence, movement, proximity, identity, or any combination thereof of the target 602. For example, the processor of the receiver 604 may use the calculated distance and angle of arrival corresponding to the Rx waveform 618 to determine that the target 602 is moving toward the receiver 604.

[0135] FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a receiver 704 in the form of a smartphone that utilizes RF bistatic sensing technology using multiple transmitters (including transmitter 700a, transmitter 700b, and transmitter 700c) that can be used to determine one or more characteristics (e.g., position, speed or velocity, heading, etc.) of a target 702 object. For example, receiver 704 can use RF bistatic sensing to detect the presence and location of target 702 (e.g., an object, user, or vehicle). Target 702 is depicted in FIG. 7 as an object without communication capabilities (which can be referred to as a non-device object), such as a person, a vehicle (e.g., a vehicle without the ability to send and receive messages, such as using a C-V2X or DSRC protocol), or other non-device objects. The bistatic radar system of FIG. 7 is similar to the bistatic radar system of FIG. 6, except that the bistatic radar system of FIG. 7 has multiple transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c, while the bistatic radar system of FIG. 6 has only one transmitter 600.

[0136] The bistatic radar system of FIG7 includes a plurality of transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c (e.g., transmitting sensing nodes), which are illustrated as being in the form of base stations. The bistatic radar system of FIG7 further includes a receiver 704 (e.g., receiving sensing node) depicted in the form of a smart phone. Each of the transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c is separated from the receiver 704 by a distance comparable to the expected distance from the target 702. Similar to the bistatic system of FIG6, the transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c and the receiver 704 of the bistatic radar system of FIG7 are located far from each other.

[0137] In one or more examples, the transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c and / or the receiver 704 can each be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a wearable device, a vehicle (e.g., a vehicle configured to send and receive communications according to C-V2X, DSRC or other communication protocols) or other devices including at least one RF interface (e.g., device 407 of FIG. 4). In some examples, the transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c and / or the receiver 704 can each be a device that provides connectivity for a user device (e.g., IoT device 407 of FIG. 4), such as a base station (e.g., gNB, eNB, etc.), a wireless access point (AP), or other devices including at least one RF interface.

[0138] The transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c may include one or more components for transmitting RF signals. Each of the transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c may include at least one processor (e.g., the processor 522 of FIG. 5 ) capable of determining a signal to be transmitted (e.g., determining a waveform of a signal). Each of the transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c may also include an RF transmitter (e.g., the RF transmitter 506 of FIG. 5 ) for transmitting a Tx signal including a Tx waveform 716a, 716b, 716c, 720a, 720b, 720c. In one or more examples, the Tx waveforms 716a, 716b, 716c are RF sensing signals, and the Tx waveforms 720a, 720b, 720c are communication signals. In one or more examples, Tx waveforms 720a, 720b, 720c are communication signals that can be used to schedule a transmitter (e.g., transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c) and a receiver (e.g., receiver 704) to perform RF sensing of a target (e.g., target 702) to obtain location information about the target. The RF transmitter can be a transmitter configured to transmit a cellular signal or a telecommunication signal (e.g., a transmitter configured to transmit a 5G / NR signal, a 4G / LTE signal, or other cellular / telecom signal, etc.), a Wi-Fi transmitter, a Bluetooth transmitter, or a wireless transmitter. ™ transmitter, any combination thereof, or any other transmitter capable of transmitting RF signals.

[0139] The RF transmitter may be coupled to one or more transmit antennas, such as a Tx antenna (e.g., TX antenna 512 of FIG. 5 ). In one or more examples, the Tx antenna may be an omnidirectional antenna capable of transmitting RF signals in all directions, or a directional antenna capable of transmitting RF signals in a specific direction. The Tx antenna may include multiple antennas (e.g., elements) configured as an antenna array, which may be used for MIMO technology.

[0140] The receiver 704 of FIG. 7 may include one or more components for receiving RF signals. For example, the receiver 704 may include one or more receiving antennas, such as an Rx antenna (e.g., the Rx antenna 514 of FIG. 5 ). In one or more examples, the Rx antenna may be an omnidirectional antenna capable of receiving RF signals from multiple directions, or a directional antenna configured to receive signals from a specific direction. In some examples, the Rx antenna may include multiple antennas (e.g., elements) configured as an antenna array (e.g., a phased antenna array), which may be used for MIMO technology.

[0141] The receiver 704 may also include an RF receiver (eg, RF receiver 510 of FIG. 5 ) coupled to the Rx antenna. The RF receiver may include a signal for receiving RF waveforms (such as Wi-Fi signals, Bluetooth signals, etc.). ™The output of the RF receiver may be coupled to at least one processor (e.g., processor 522 of FIG. 5 ). The processor may be configured to process the received waveform (e.g., Rx waveform 718, which is a reflected (echo) RF sensing signal).

[0142] In some examples, the transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c can implement RF sensing techniques (e.g., bistatic sensing techniques) by having Tx waveforms 716a, 716b, 716c (e.g., radar sensing signals) transmitted from a Tx antenna associated with each of the transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c. Although the Tx waveforms 716a, 716b, 716c are illustrated as a single line, in some cases, the Tx waveforms 716a, 716b, 716c can be transmitted in all directions (e.g., through an omnidirectional Tx antenna associated with each of the transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c).

[0143] In one or more aspects, one or more parameters associated with the Tx waveforms 716a, 716b, 716c can be used to increase or decrease the RF sensing resolution. These parameters can include, but are not limited to, frequency, bandwidth, number of spatial streams, number of antennas configured to transmit the Tx waveforms 716a, 716b, 716c, number of antennas configured to receive reflected (echo) RF signals (e.g., Rx waveforms 718) corresponding to each of the Tx waveforms 716a, 716b, 716c, number of spatial links (e.g., number of spatial streams multiplied by number of antennas configured to receive RF signals), sampling rate, or any combination thereof. The transmitted waveforms (e.g., Tx waveforms 716a, 716b, 716c) and the received waveforms (e.g., Rx waveforms 718) can include one or more radar RF sensing signals (also referred to as RF sensing RS). Although only one reflected sensing signal (eg, Rx waveform 718 ) is shown in FIG. 7 , it should be understood that a separate reflected (echo) sensing signal will be generated by each sensing signal reflected from the target 702 (eg, Tx waveforms 716 a , 716 b , 716 c ).

[0144] During operation of the system of FIG. 7 , a receiver 704 (e.g., operating as a receive sensing node) may receive signals corresponding to Tx waveforms 716a, 716b, 716c transmitted by transmitters 700a, 700b, 700c (e.g., each operating as a transmit sensing node). The receiver 704 may receive signals reflected from objects or people within the range of the Tx waveforms 716a, 716b, 716c, such as the Rx waveform 718 reflected from the target 702. In one or more examples, the Rx waveform 718 may include multiple sequences corresponding to multiple copies of the sequence included in its corresponding Tx waveform 716a, 716b, 716c. In some examples, the receiver 704 may combine the received multiple sequences to improve the SNR.

[0145] In some examples, the RF sensing data can be used by at least one processor within the receiver 704 to calculate the distance, angle of arrival (AOA), TDOA, angle of departure (AoD), or other characteristics corresponding to the reflected waveform (e.g., Rx waveform 718). In other examples, the RF sensing data can also be used to detect motion, determine position, detect changes in position or motion patterns, or any combination thereof. In one or more examples, the distance and angle of arrival of the reflected signal can be used to identify the size, position, movement, and / or orientation of the target (e.g., target 702) in order to detect target presence / proximity.

[0146] The processor of the receiver 704 can calculate the distance and arrival angle corresponding to the reflected waveform (e.g., the distance and arrival angle corresponding to the Rx waveform 718) by using signal processing, machine learning algorithms, any other suitable technology, or any combination thereof. In one or more examples, the receiver 704 can send or transmit the RF sensing data to at least one processor of another computing device (such as a server), which can perform calculations to obtain the distance and arrival angle corresponding to the Rx waveform 718 or other reflected waveforms (not shown).

[0147] In one or more examples, the processor of the receiver 704 can calculate the angle of arrival (AOA) of the Rx waveform 718 by measuring the TDOA of the Rx waveform 718 between the various elements of the receive antenna array of the receiver 704. In some examples, the TDOA can be calculated by measuring the receive phase difference at each element in the receive antenna array. In an illustrative example, to determine the TDOA, the processor can determine the arrival time difference of the Rx waveform 718 to the receive antenna array element using one of the receive antenna array elements as a reference. The time difference is proportional to the distance difference.

[0148] In some cases, the processor of the receiver 704 may use the distance, AOA, TDOA, other measurement information (e.g., AoD, etc.), any combination thereof, of the Rx waveform 718 to determine the distance between the receiver 704 and the target 702, and determine the position of the target 702 relative to the receiver 704. In one example, the processor may use the distance, AOA, and / or TDOA information as input to apply multilateration or other location-based algorithms to determine the position (e.g., 3D position) of the target 702. In other examples, the processor may use the distance, AOA, and / or TDOA of the Rx waveform 718 to determine the presence, movement (e.g., speed or velocity, heading or direction or movement, etc.), proximity, identity, any combination thereof, or other characteristics of the target 702. For example, the processor of the receiver 704 may use the distance, AOA, and / or TDOA corresponding to the Rx waveform 718 to determine that the target is moving toward the receiver 704.

[0149] FIG8 is a diagram illustrating a geometry for bistatic (or monostatic) sensing. FIG8 shows a bistatic radar north reference coordinate system in two dimensions. Specifically, FIG8 shows a coordinate system and parameters for bistatic radar operation defined in a plane (referred to as a bistatic plane) containing a transmitter 800, a receiver 804, and a target 802. The bistatic triangle is located in the bistatic plane. The transmitter 800, the target 802, and the receiver 804 are shown relative to each other. The transmitter 800 and the receiver 804 are separated by a baseline distance L. An extended baseline is defined such that the baseline distance L extends beyond the transmitter 800 or the receiver 804. The target 802 and the transmitter 800 are separated by a distance R T , and the target 802 and the receiver 804 are separated by a distance R R .

[0150] Angle θ T and θ R are the transmitter 800 observation angle and the receiver 804 observation angle, respectively, which are considered positive when measured clockwise from North (N). Angle θ T and θ R Also known as angle of arrival (AOA) or line of sight (LOS). The bistatic angle (β) is the angle between the transmitter 800, the target 802, and the receiver 804 in the radar. Specifically, the bistatic angle is the angle between the transmitter 800 and the receiver 804, with the vertex at the target 802. The bistatic angle is equal to the observation angle of the transmitter 800 minus the observation angle of the receiver 804 θ R (For example, β = θ T -θ R ).

[0151] When the bistatic angle is exactly zero (0), the radar is considered to be monostatic; when the bistatic angle is close to zero, the radar is considered to be pseudo-monostatic; and when the bistatic angle is close to 180 degrees, the radar is considered to be a forward scatter radar. Otherwise, the radar is simply considered and is called a bistatic radar. The bistatic angle (β) can be used to determine the radar cross section of a target.

[0152] 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a bistatic range 910 for bistatic sensing. In the figure, a transmitter (Tx) 900, a target 902, and a receiver (Rx) 904 of a radar are shown relative to each other. The transmitter 900 is separated from the receiver 904 by a baseline distance L, the target 902 is separated from the transmitter 900 by a distance Rtx, and the target 902 is separated from the receiver 904 by a distance Rrx.

[0153] Bistatic range 910 (shown as an ellipse) refers to a measured range made by a radar having a separate transmitter 900 and receiver 904 (e.g., the transmitter 900 and receiver 904 are positioned far from each other). Receiver 904 measures the arrival time from when transmitter 900 transmits a signal to when receiver 904 receives the signal from transmitter 900 via target 902. Bistatic range 910 defines an ellipse of constant bistatic distance, called an equidistant profile, on which target 902 is located, with the focus centered on transmitter 900 and receiver 904. If target 902 is at range Rrx from receiver 904 and at range Rtx from transmitter 900, and receiver 904 and transmitter 900 are at distance L from each other, then the bistatic range is equal to Rrx + Rtx - L. In some cases, the motion of target 902 causes a rate of change of the bistatic range, which can result in a bistatic Doppler shift.

[0154] Typically, the constant bistatic distance points draw ellipses with the transmitter 900 and receiver 904 positioned as foci. The bistatic isostatic contours are where the ground slices through the ellipse. When the ground is flat, the intercepts form ellipses (e.g., bistatic distance 910). Note that these ellipses are not centered on the mirror point except when the two platforms have equal heights.

[0155] An example of a comb structure for a reference signal (e.g., PRS, SRS, etc.) is shown in FIG10. For example, the comb structure 1010 is a comb-2 structure with two symbols (denoted as a comb-2 / 2-symbol structure). According to the comb-2 / 2-symbol structure of the comb structure 1010, each alternating symbol is assigned to a reference signal resource. The comb pattern in FIG10 is for one transmit-receive point (TRP). An overview of the comb structures 1010, 1012, 1014, 1016, 1018, 1020, 1022, and 1024 is provided in Table 1 below:

[0156]

[0157] 11 is a diagram 1100 illustrating an example of a mapping of antenna ports (e.g., logical antenna ports 1114) to physical antenna ports 1104 that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing according to some aspects of the present disclosure. In one or more examples, the disclosed systems and techniques may employ MIMO (e.g., multi-user MIMO or massive MIMO) antenna configurations. In 5G NR and 4G LTE, MIMO is a key technology that is frequently employed (e.g., MIMO transmissions are often used in the downlink).

[0158] MIMO is a multi-antenna spectrum efficient technology and has become the main driving force for the next generation of antenna technology for cellular networks. A MIMO system can send more than one signal on the same channel, thereby providing increased spectral efficiency and overall throughput. By utilizing spatial separation, the antennas of a MIMO system are spaced apart at specific distances and angles to compensate for self-interference. A MIMO system can provide a robust wireless communication mechanism to address fading and shadowing caused by multiple transmission paths and long distances. In a MIMO system, various data streams can be sent simultaneously, which can provide multiplexing gain and improvement to overall throughput. For at least these reasons, MIMO has recently been used in cellular wireless communication technology and is included in various next generation wireless projects and standards, including 5G NR.

[0159] A simple form of MIMO is point-to-point MIMO. In point-to-point MIMO, two systems (e.g., a base station and a UE) each employ multiple antennas to communicate with each other. The use of multiple antennas provides increased capacity of the air interface. However, point-to-point MIMO employs a multi-antenna configuration that requires additional hardware at both the base station and the end-user device (e.g., in the UE). The need for additional hardware at both the base station and the user device is not conducive to point-to-point MIMO because it increases the overall system complexity. In a mobile communication system, the end-user equipment (e.g., UE) may not be able to support multiple antennas due to its small physical size and / or the low cost requirements of the UE device.

[0160] An enhancement of point-to-point MIMO is single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO), which provides increased data rates by sending multiple data streams to a specific user device (e.g., a specific UE). Similar to point-to-point MIMO, SU-MIMO has the disadvantage of requiring the user device (e.g., UE) to support multiple antennas.

[0161] In contrast to point-to-point MIMO and SU-MIMO, multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) does not have the disadvantage of requiring user equipment to support multiple antennas. In MU-MIMO, multiple users share the same time and frequency resources, and each base station (e.g., next-generation Node B (gNB), evolved Node B (eNB) or a part thereof (such as a central unit (CU), distributed unit (DU), radio unit (RU), near real-time (near-RT) RAN intelligent controller (RIC) or non-real-time (non-RT) RIC) is equipped with multiple antennas (e.g., antenna arrays) and serves many users (e.g., UEs) simultaneously. Each end-user device (e.g., UE) only needs to employ a single antenna, and therefore, complex hardware is required only on the base station side. For MU-MIMO systems, the cost and complexity of the antenna system are significantly reduced, because a low-cost single antenna (e.g., a dipole antenna) can be used for the end-user device (e.g., UE), and more expensive, complex hardware can be used only on the base station side.

[0162] Due to the diversity of distances, angles, and quality of signals from multiple users in a MU-MIMO system, the performance of a MU-MIMO system is generally less affected by the transmission environment than point-to-point MIMO. This advantage is achieved by a MU-MIMO system that employs selective beamforming and power control to eliminate interference. MU-MIMO systems provide high reliability and throughput, and therefore, have become an integral part of wireless communication systems including Wi-Fi, LTE, and 5G networks.

[0163] Massive MIMO (mMIMO) is a form of MU-MIMO that employs a larger number of antennas at the base station than MU-MIMO, and therefore, the number of users (e.g., UEs) served can be significantly increased compared to a MU-MIMO system (e.g., in mMIMO, a single base station with many antennas can serve a large number of users). With a large number of antennas in each base station, the channel vector between the user (e.g., UE) and the base station is almost rectangular for each pair, and therefore, exceptionally linear transmission can be provided. In mMIMO, large throughput can be achieved due to multiplexing gain, diversity gain, and array gain. In mMIMO, a large number of antennas at a base station can serve hundreds of users with the same frequency resources by utilizing antenna beamforming techniques.

[0164] In mMIMO, the more antennas each base station uses, the more robust the communication operation. In theory, mMIMO can use an unlimited number of antennas at each base station in the base station. However, typically (for example, in 5G networks), 64 to 128 antennas (for example, 64 receive antennas and 64 transmit antennas) have been actually used in mMIMO base stations. A significant advantage of mMIMO is that complex hardware is only required at the base station rather than at the user equipment (for example, UE), each of which requires only a single antenna and a simple antenna design. Another advantage of mMIMO is that it has a scalable architecture that can be easily scaled up to serve more users by simply upgrading the antenna system on the base station.

[0165] The term "antenna port" in relation to MIMO is a logical concept associated with the physical layer (e.g., Layer 1), rather than a physical concept associated with the physical RF antennas located on the base station. According to the 3GPP specification, an "antenna port" (e.g., logical antenna port 1114) is defined such that the channel on which a symbol on the antenna port is transmitted can be inferred from the channel on which another symbol on the same antenna port is transmitted. Therefore, each individual downlink transmission is sent from a specific antenna port whose identity is known to the UE, and the UE can assume that the two signals transmitted experience the same radio channel if and only if two signals are sent from the same port. Therefore, it can be assumed that at least each antenna port used for downlink transmission corresponds to a specific reference signal, and the UE receiver can assume that the reference signal can be used to estimate the channel corresponding to the antenna port (and to derive channel state information (CSI)).

[0166] The 3GPP specification 38.211 for 5G NR defines the antenna port sets for the downlink (e.g., logical antenna ports 1114) as follows: the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) utilizes antenna ports starting from 1000 (1000 series), the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) utilizes antenna ports starting from 2000 (2000 series), the channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) utilizes antenna ports starting from 3000 (3000 series), and the synchronization signal block / physical broadcast channel (SS block / PBCH) utilizes antenna ports starting from 4000 (4000 series). The 3GPP specification 38.211 for 5G NR defines the antenna port set for uplink (e.g., logical antenna ports 1114) as follows: Physical Uplink Shared Channel / Demodulation Reference Signal (PUSCH / DMRS) utilizes antenna ports starting from 0 (0 series), Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), precoded PUSCH utilizes antenna ports starting from 1000 (1000 series), Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) utilizes antenna ports starting from 2000 (2000 series), and Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) utilizes antenna ports starting from 4000 (4000 series). In some cases, different transmission layers for a channel (e.g., PDSCH) may use different antenna ports in the defined series.

[0167] An "antenna port" is an abstract concept that does not necessarily correspond to a specific physical antenna port (e.g., physical antenna port 1104). There is no strict mapping of antenna ports (e.g., logical antenna port 1114) to physical antenna ports (e.g., physical antenna port 1104) in 5G NR or 4G LTE. The mapping of antenna ports to physical antenna ports is controlled by beamforming, where a specific antenna beam needs to send a signal on a specific antenna port to form the desired antenna beam. Therefore, it is possible that two antenna ports can be mapped to one physical antenna port and / or a single antenna port can be mapped to multiple physical antenna ports.

[0168] In FIG. 11 , specifically, an overview of an example of a 5G physical layer process 1112 is shown. The 5G physical layer process 1112 is shown to include a beamforming network 1108, a resource mapper 1110, and a plurality of antenna ports (e.g., logical antenna ports 1114). The logical antenna ports 1114 are numbered from antenna port P0 to antenna port P4999 and are divided into a plurality of different series, which are separated by rows in the figure. The plurality of different series of logical antenna ports 1114 include series 0 spanning from antenna port P0 to antenna port P0999, series 1000 spanning from antenna port P1000 to antenna port P1999, series 2000 spanning from antenna port P2000 to antenna port P2999, series 3000 spanning from antenna port P3000 to antenna port 3999, and series 4000 spanning from antenna port P4000 to antenna port P4999.

[0169] Also in FIG. 11 , the physical antenna array 1102 is shown to include a plurality of physical antenna ports 1104. In FIG. 11 , the physical antenna array 1102 is shown to include a total of 35 physical antenna ports 1104. In one or more examples, the physical antenna array 1102 may include more or fewer physical antenna ports than the physical antenna ports 1104 shown in FIG. 11 . The physical antenna array 1102 may be in the form of various different types of physical antennas, including but not limited to direct radiating antenna arrays or phased antenna arrays. The physical antenna array 1102 may include various different types of physical antenna elements, which may include but are not limited to horn antennas, patch antenna elements, cup-shaped dipole antenna elements, and / or dipole antenna elements. Each physical antenna element of the physical antenna array 1102 corresponds to a different physical antenna port 1104 of the physical antenna array 1102.

[0170] During the operation of the 5G physical layer processing 1112, the beamforming network 1108, together with the resource mapper 1110, maps the logical antenna ports 1114 to the physical antenna ports 1104 of the physical antenna array 1102 as needed to form the desired antenna beams 1106a (beam 1), 1106b (beam 2), 1106c (beam 3). Specifically, the logical antenna ports 1114 are mapped to the physical antenna ports 1104 so that the signals are transmitted on certain physical antenna ports 1104 as needed to form the desired antenna beams 1106a, 1106b, 1106c.

[0171] Thus, the logical antenna ports 1114 may be mapped to specific physical antenna ports 1104 of the physical antenna array 1102. For example, antenna port P0 may be mapped to the first physical antenna port 1104 of the physical antenna array 1102. In some cases, multiple logical antenna ports 1114 may be mapped to only one physical antenna port 1104, and / or a single logical antenna port from multiple logical antenna ports 1114 may be mapped to multiple physical antenna ports 1104.

[0172] As previously mentioned, systems and techniques for applying solutions associated with utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing (e.g., single-station sensing, dual-station sensing, and / or multi-station sensing) are described herein. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system 1200 for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing. In FIG. 12 , the system 1200 is shown to include a network device 1210 in the form of a UE. The network device 1210 (e.g., a UE) can operate as a radar Rx for sensing purposes. A network device 1220 in the form of a base station (e.g., a gNB or a portion of a gNB, such as a CU, DU, RU, near-RT RIC, non-RT RIC, etc.) is also shown. The network device 1220 (e.g., a gNB) can operate as a radar Tx for sensing purposes. The system 1200 also includes a plurality of network entities 1240, 1250, wherein the network entity 1240 is in the form of a radar server and the network entity 1250 is in the form of a location server.

[0173] The system 1200 may include more or fewer network devices and / or more or fewer network entities than shown in FIG. 12 . In addition, the system 1200 may include different types of network devices (e.g., vehicles) and / or different types of network entities (e.g., network servers) than those shown in FIG. 12 . In addition, the UE may be used as a radar Tx (e.g., network device 1220) instead of a base station (e.g., gNB) as shown in FIG. 12 . The base station may be used as a radar Rx (e.g., network device 1210) instead of a UE as shown in FIG. 12 . In addition, in one or more examples, the network device 1210 (e.g., UE) may be equipped with heterogeneous capabilities, which may include, but are not limited to, 4G / 5G cellular connectivity, GPS capabilities, camera capabilities, radar capabilities, and / or LIDAR capabilities. The network devices 1210, 1220 and the network entities 1240, 1250 may be able to perform wireless communications with each other via communication signals (e.g., signals 1270a, 1270b, 1270c, 1270d).

[0174] In one or more examples, the network devices 1210, 1220 may be capable of sending and receiving some type of sensing signal (e.g., camera, RF sensing signal, optical sensing signal, etc.). In some cases, the network devices 1210, 1220 may send and receive sensing signals (e.g., RF sensing signals 1260a, 1260b) for detecting nearby targets (e.g., target 1230 in the form of a vehicle) using one or more sensors. In some cases, the network devices 1210, 1220 may detect nearby targets based on one or more images or frames captured using one or more cameras.

[0175] The network device 1220, which can operate as a radar Tx, can perform RF sensing (e.g., bistatic sensing or monostatic sensing) of at least one target (e.g., target 1230) to obtain RF sensing measurement results (e.g., Doppler measurement results, RTT measurement results, TOA measurement results, and / or TDOA measurement results) of the target (e.g., target 1230). The RF sensing measurement results of the target (e.g., target 1230) can be used (e.g., by at least one processor of at least one of the network devices 1210, 1220 and / or at least one of the network entities 1240, 1250) to determine one or more characteristics (e.g., speed, location, distance, movement, heading, size, and / or other characteristics) of the target (e.g., target 1230).

[0176] As mentioned previously, in general, sensing involves monitoring a moving target (e.g., target 1230) with various motions (e.g., a moving car or pedestrian, a person's body motion (such as breathing), and / or other micro-motions associated with the target). Doppler, which measures phase changes of a signal and indicates motion, is an important characteristic for sensing a target (e.g., target 1230). Thus, in order to obtain an accurate estimate of the motion of the target, the phase of the signal should be continuous (e.g., the signal should maintain phase continuity).

[0177] During operation of the system 1200, for example, when performing bistatic sensing of a target (e.g., target 1230), the network device 1220 (e.g., a base station) operating as a radar Tx may transmit an RF sensing signal 1260a toward the target (e.g., target 1230). The RF sensing signal 1260a may include both a communication signal (e.g., a communication resource) and a sensing signal (e.g., a sensing resource) multiplexed together. The sensing signal 1260a may be reflected from the target (e.g., target 1230) to generate an RF reflection sensing signal 1260b, which may be reflected toward the network device 1210 (e.g., a UE). The network device 1210 (e.g., a UE) operating as a radar Rx may receive the reflection sensing signal 1260b. After the network device (e.g., a UE) receives the reflection sensing signal 1260b, the network device (e.g., a UE) may obtain a measurement result (e.g., a Doppler measurement result, an RTT measurement result, a TOA measurement result, and / or a TDOA measurement result) of the reflection sensing signal 1260b. At least one processor (e.g., processor 1810 of FIG. 18 ) of at least one of the network devices 1210, 1220 and / or at least one of the network entities 1240, 1250 may then determine or calculate characteristics (e.g., velocity, position, distance, movement, heading, size, etc.) of a target (e.g., target 1230) by using sensing measurements (e.g., Doppler measurements, RTT measurements, TOA measurements, and / or TDOA measurements) from the received reflected sensing signal 1260b.

[0178] In some examples, the network device 1210 (e.g., UE) may send the measurement results (e.g., Doppler measurement results, RTT measurement results, TOA measurement results, and / or TDOA measurement results) and / or the determined characteristics (e.g., speed, position, distance, movement, heading, size, etc.) of the target (e.g., target 1230) to the network device 1220 (e.g., base station) and / or the network entity 1240 (e.g., radar server) via communication signals 1270a, 1270b. The network device 1220 (e.g., base station) and / or the network entity 1240 (e.g., radar server) may then send the measurement results (e.g., Doppler measurement results, RTT measurement results, TOA measurement results, and / or TDOA measurement results) and / or the determined characteristics (e.g., speed, position, distance, movement, heading, size, etc.) of the target (e.g., target 1230) to the network entity 1240 (e.g., radar server) and / or the network entity 1250 (e.g., location server) via communication signals 1270c, 1270d.

[0179] FIG. 13A is a diagram illustrating an example of a time slot 1300 including communication signal resources according to some aspects of the present disclosure. In particular, in FIG. 13A , a time slot 1300 signaling a physical resource block (PRB) may include communication signal resources within a resource element (RE) of the PRB. The communication signal resources may include physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) resources 1310, demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resources, and physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resources 1340. DMRS resources may be assigned to different antenna ports (e.g., logical antenna port 1114 of FIG. 11 ). For example, DMRS resources may be assigned to antenna port 0 (e.g., DMRS port 0 1320) or antenna port 1 (e.g., DMRS port 1 1330).

[0180] In general, DMRS signals (e.g., DMRS resources 1320, 1330) are used by a receiver (e.g., a UE) to estimate a channel over which a PDSCH signal (e.g., PDSCH resource 1340) is transmitted within time slot 1300. DMRS resources 1320, 1330 are allocated together with a PDSCH signal (e.g., PDSCH resource 1340) in the same time slot (e.g., time slot 1300). The PDSCH signal (e.g., PDSCH resource 1340) is demodulated by a receiver (e.g., a UE) based on the DMRS channel estimate.

[0181] 5G NR may support different DMRS types occupying one or more symbols (e.g., one or more columns) in a time slot (e.g., time slot 1300). As shown in FIG. 13, multiple antenna ports (e.g., port 0 and port 1) with comb-tooth resource mapping may be supported for DMRS. In FIG. 13A, time slot 1300 is shown as including a single symbol (e.g., single column) DMRS with comb-tooth-2 resource mapping, where two different DMRS resources 1320, 1330 are allocated in every other RE.

[0182] In one or more examples, during operation, a receiver (e.g., a UE) may receive at least one signal (e.g., which may be represented in the form of a time slot (such as time slot 1300)). The signal may include decoded bits mapped to modulation symbols. The receiver may demodulate the modulated symbols using DMRS resources 1320, 1330 to extract the decoded bits. The receiver may then utilize a decoder to decode the decoded bits to obtain bits. The receiver may obtain a modulation scheme, a decoding scheme, and a decoding rate for decoding the decoded bits from a modulation and decoding scheme (MCS). The MCS may be included in downlink control information (DCI) contained within the PDCCH resources 1310.

[0183] FIG13B is a diagram illustrating another example of a time slot 1305 including communication signal resources according to some aspects of the present disclosure. The time slot 1305 of FIG13B is similar to the time slot 1300 of FIG13A except that the DMRS resources 1360, 1370 of the time slot 1305 are allocated in different ports (e.g., port 2 and port 3) than the DMRS resources 1320, 1330 of the time slot 1300 (which are allocated in port 0 and port 1).

[0184] In FIG. 13B , a timeslot 1305 may include communication signal resources within its REs. The communication signal resources may include physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) resources 1310, demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resources, and physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resources 1340. DMRS resources may be assigned to different antenna ports (e.g., logical antenna ports 1114 of FIG. 11 ). For example, DMRS resources may be allocated, for example, to antenna port 2 (e.g., DMRS port 2 1360) or antenna port 3 (e.g., DMRS port 3 1370).

[0185] As mentioned previously, the disclosed systems and techniques can utilize sensing RSs for sensing (e.g., sensing of targets) and demodulation of communication signals (e.g., PDSCH signals) to achieve low resource overhead. In order to provide sufficient range and speed resolution for sensing, the detection sensing signal needs to have a wider bandwidth and a longer burst duration. For example, the relationship between bandwidth (W) and range resolution (Δd) is:

[0186] Δd > c / (2W), where c is equal to the speed of light.

[0187] Thus, according to the bandwidth relationship, the higher the bandwidth of the sensing signal, the higher (eg, better) the range resolution in the target range estimation.

[0188] Burst duration (T B ) and velocity resolution (Δd) is:

[0189] Δv > c / (2f C T B ), where f C is the carrier frequency.

[0190] According to the burst duration relationship, at the same carrier frequency (f C ), if the burst duration of the sensing signal increases, the velocity resolution also increases.

[0191] In some aspects, in order to avoid the "aliasing" problem in using the range of the sensing signal and Doppler estimation, a comb-tooth plus (+) staggered resource mapping design can be adopted for the sensing signal (e.g., NR PRS) for the entire time / frequency of the sensing observation. Figure 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of multiple time slots (e.g., RB 11410, RB N 1420) including sensing signal resources in a comb-tooth + staggered mapping design. In particular, in Figure 14, N number of identical, consecutive time slots (e.g., RB 1 1410, RB N 1420) are shown. Each of these time slots (e.g., RB 1 1410, RB N 1420) can include different sensing RS resources (e.g., two different sensing resources, such as sensing RS resource 1 1430 and sensing RS resource 2 1440) within its REs. The blank REs (e.g., RE 1450) within these time slots (e.g., RB 1 1410, RB N 1420) can be unused.

[0192] In general, sensing RS resources (e.g., sensing RS resource 1 1430 and sensing RS resource 2 1440) require higher resource overhead than DMRS resources to provide complete observation in both the time domain and the frequency domain. For example, as shown in FIG. 14, in the time domain (e.g., x-axis) of a time slot (e.g., RB 1 1410, RB N 1420), most REs of most symbols (e.g., columns) (particularly all symbols except two symbols in the symbol) include sensing RS resources (e.g., sensing RS resource 1 1430 and sensing RS resource 2 1440). In the frequency domain (e.g., y-axis) of a time slot (e.g., RB 1 1410, RB N 1420), REs of all subcarriers in a subcarrier (e.g., rows) include each type of sensing RS resource of the two types of sensing RS resources (e.g., sensing RS resource 1 1430 and sensing RS resource 2 1440).

[0193] In contrast, for example, as shown in FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B , in the time domain (e.g., x-axis) of each of the time slots 1300, 1305, only REs of one symbol (e.g., one column) include DMRS resources (e.g., DMRS resources 1320, 1330, 1360, 1370). In the frequency domain (e.g., y-axis) of the time slots 1300, 1305, REs of alternating subcarriers (e.g., rows) include each type of sensing RS resource of two types (e.g., sensing RS resource 1 1430 and sensing RS resource 2 1440). Thus, compared to DMRS resources, sensing RS resources that utilize more REs of a time slot than DMRS resources have a higher overhead.

[0194] In one or more aspects, to support MIMO radar sensing, multiple ports (e.g., logical antenna ports 1114 of FIG. 11 ) may be supported. For example, for MIMO radar sensing, a multi-port (as opposed to a single-port) sensing RS. In this case, the sensing RS may be mapped to multiple ports. Multi-port (as opposed to signal port) DMRS may also be supported, where the DMRS may be mapped to multiple ports.

[0195] When separate time slots are used for sensing and communication, DMRS (e.g., DMRS resources) are typically transmitted in a PDSCH time slot, which is a time slot that includes a PDSCH (e.g., PDSCH resources); and sensing RS (e.g., sensing RS resources) are typically transmitted in a sensing time slot, which is a time slot that includes at least one sensing RS (e.g., sensing RS resources). This type of resource allocation is a simple design, where DMRS only supports communication and sensing RS only supports sensing. However, this type of resource allocation does not provide efficient resource utilization.

[0196] The disclosed systems and techniques employ joint reference signal design or joint resource allocation (e.g., multiplexing communication and sensing resources) to provide more efficient resource utilization in joint communication and sensing. In one or more aspects, for the disclosed systems and techniques, DMRS (e.g., DMRS resources) and sensing RS (e.g., sensing RS resources) may have different structures with different functionalities. For example, in one aspect, a sensing RS (e.g., sensing RS resources) having a higher RE density than a DMRS (e.g., DMRS resources) in a time slot may be used for PDSCH (e.g., PDSCH resources) demodulation. However, a DMRS (e.g., DMRS resources) has a lower RE density than a sensing RE (e.g., sensing RS resources) in a time slot and may not be used solely to provide sufficient target sensing reasons in some cases. Unlike a sensing RS, a DMRS is not allocated within the full frequency bandwidth (BW) of a time slot.

[0197] In one or more aspects, in order to enhance resource utilization, the disclosed systems and techniques allow for demodulation of shared channel signals (e.g., shared channel resources) such as PDSCH signals using DMRS (e.g., DMRS resources) or using sensing RS (e.g., sensing RS resources). Resource utilization is improved by reusing sensing RSs used to demodulate shared channel signals (e.g., PDSCH signals). Thus, the sensing RS has a dual purpose for sensing purposes and for demodulation purposes. For example, if a time slot is allocated for sensing and communication (e.g., a time slot includes both sensing resources and communication resources), the sensing RS (e.g., sensing RS resources) can be used to send and demodulate the PDSCH signal. However, if the time slot is allocated only for communication (e.g., a time slot includes communication resources and does not include any sensing resources), the DMRS (e.g., DMRS resources) can be used to send and demodulate the PDSCH signal.

[0198] FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a process 1500 for determining which reference signals (e.g., sensing RS or DMRS) are to be used for demodulating a shared channel signal (e.g., a PDSCH signal) in accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure. In FIG. 15 , at block 1510, at least one PDSCH is scheduled within a time slot. At block 1520, after a network device (e.g., a UE or a base station, such as a gNB) receives at least one signal for the time slot, the network device determines whether the time slot is a "sensing time slot." The network device determines that the time slot is a "sensing time slot" when the time slot includes at least one sensing RS resource (e.g., when at least one RE of the time slot includes a sensing RE resource).

[0199] If the network device determines that the time slot is a "sensing time slot" (e.g., the time slot includes at least one sensing RS resource), the network device will use the sensing RS signal (e.g., the sensing RS resource) to transmit and demodulate the shared channel signal (e.g., the PDSCH signal) at block 1530. In particular, the network device will perform channel estimation using the sensing RS signal used to demodulate the shared channel signal (e.g., the PDSCH signal).

[0200] However, if the network device determines that the time slot is not a "sensing time slot" (e.g., the time slot does not include any sensing RS resources), the network device will use DMRS (e.g., DMRS resources) to transmit and demodulate a shared channel signal (e.g., a PDSCH signal) at block 1540. Specifically, the network device will perform channel estimation using the DMRS used to demodulate the shared channel signal (e.g., a PDSCH signal).

[0201] In some aspects, a "sensing slot", which is a slot including at least one sensing RS resource, is semi-statically allocated by a higher layer configuration. If at least one shared channel signal (e.g., a PDSCH resource) is included in the "sensing slot", the sensing RS (e.g., the sensing RS resource) may be used to demodulate the shared channel signal.

[0202] In one or more examples, sensing time slots may be continuously scheduled for sensing. For these cases, for a sensing duration ( ) 1650a, 1650b configure multiple sensing time slots continuously. Figure 16A is a diagram illustrating an example of an example time slot configuration 1600 including continuous sensing time slots 1610a, 1610b according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Sensing time slot 1610a includes multiple continuous sensing time slots, and sensing time slot 1610b includes multiple continuous sensing time slots. Also in Figure 16A, the time slot configuration 1600 includes "normal time slots" 1620a, 1620b, which are time slots that include communication resources. Normal time slot 1620a includes multiple normal time slots, and normal time slot 1620b includes multiple normal time slots. Indicates the time slots used for sensing period ( )1640 starting point1630( ), the sensing period includes both a sensing time slot (e.g., sensing time slot 1650a) and a normal time slot (e.g., normal time slot 1620a). Equation 1660 showing the relationship between a sensing instance and a sensing period is as follows:

[0203]

[0204] in is equal to the number of frames, is the index for the frame, and Equal to the number of time slots in a frame.

[0205] As shown in FIG. 16A , there may be a sensing period ( )1640 is sent periodically, which can be indicated to the network device (e.g. UE).

[0206] In some examples, the sensing time slots may be non-contiguously scheduled for sensing. For these cases, the sensing time slots are non-contiguously configured with multiple repetitions ( ) 1695, with gaps between consecutive sensing time slots ( ) 1685. FIG. 16B is a diagram illustrating an example of an example time slot configuration 1605 including non-continuous sensing time slots 1615 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. In FIG. 16B, the non-continuous sensing time slots 1615 are separated by normal time slots. Also in FIG. 16B, the time slot configuration 1605 includes normal time slots 1625a, 1625b. The normal time slot 1625a includes a plurality of normal time slots, and the normal time slot 1625b includes a plurality of normal time slots. The time slots for sensing period ( )1645 starting point1635( ), the sensing cycle includes both a sensing time slot (e.g., sensing time slot 1615) and a normal time slot (e.g., normal time slot 1625a). The non-continuous sensing time slot (e.g., sensing time slot 1615) has a sensing repetition (e.g., sensing repetition 1695), and each of the non-continuous sensing time slots (e.g., sensing time slot 1615) has a duration ( ) 1675. Non-continuous sensing time slots (eg, sensing time slot 1615) are used to include sensing gaps of normal time slots ( )1685 separated from each other.

[0207] Equation 1665 showing the relationship between the sensing period and the sensing gap is as follows:

[0208]

[0209] As shown in FIG. 16B , there may be a sensing period ( )1645 is sent periodically, which can be indicated to the network equipment (such as UE).

[0210] In some aspects, downlink control information (DCI) included within a control channel signal (e.g., a control channel resource, such as a PDCCH resource) may include an indication (e.g., an indication to a network device, such as a UE) of using a sensing RS (e.g., a sensing RS resource) or using a DMRS (e.g., a DMRS resource) to demodulate a shared channel signal (e.g., a PDSCH signal). The DCI including an indication of which reference signals are to be used for demodulation allows a lower physical (PHY) layer to provide an indication to a network device (e.g., a UE). During operation, after the network device decodes the DCI, the network device will know which types of reference signals are to be used to demodulate the shared channel signal (e.g., a PDSCH signal).

[0211] In one or more examples, if a sensing RS (rather than a DMRS) is used to demodulate a shared channel signal (e.g., a PDSCH signal), the sensing RS can be configured at the beginning of a sensing slot to provide low latency, such as for use cases requiring low latency, such as ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) service use cases.

[0212] In some aspects, a sensing RS (e.g., a sensing RS resource) in a joint communication and sensing time slot may be configured within an active frequency bandwidth part (BWP) of a network device (e.g., a UE). The active frequency BWP of the network device is an active communication BWP used by the network device to communicate with other devices. When the sensing RS is configured within the active BWP of the network device, the sensing RS is suitable for communication purposes (e.g., for demodulating a PDSCH signal). In general, the sensing RS may not be configured within the active BWP of the network device because the sensing RS may be transparent to the network device. For example, if the active BWP of the network device is 20 megahertz (MHz) and the sensing RS has a bandwidth of 100 MHz, the sensing RS has a bandwidth that does not follow the active BWP of the network device. For communication purposes (e.g., demodulation of a PDSCH signal) using the sensing RS, the sensing RS may be configured within the active BWP of the network device.

[0213] In one or more aspects, a sensing RS (e.g., a sensing RS resource) may be associated with a tracking reference signal (TRS). Typically, a TRS is used for channel estimation for communication. The TRS uses channel estimation to train and / or tune a receiver (e.g., a network device). When a sensing RS is used for both sensing purposes and communication purposes, the sensing RS may be associated with a TRS.

[0214] In at least one aspect, the sensing RS may be applied to the same pre-decoder as the PDSCH signal. Currently, there is no requirement that the sensing RS use the same pre-decoder as the PDSCH signal. If the sensing RS is applied to a different pre-decoder than the PDSCH signal, the channel estimate using the sensing RS should not be used to demodulate the PDSCH signal because different channels are being used. A network device (e.g., a UE) may assume that the sensing RS is pre-coded the same as the PDSCH signal. Otherwise, the network device should not use the sensing RS to demodulate the PDSCH signal.

[0215] In one or more aspects, the maximum number of sensing RS ports can be limited by PDSCH port allocation. In general, for conventional RS sensing, the number of ports (e.g., for MIMO sensing) can be much larger than the MIMO communication channel rank. However, when the sensing RS is used for both sensing and communication (e.g., demodulation of PDSCH signals), the maximum number of sensing RS ports associated with the sensing RS may be limited by the rank of the PDSCH signal.

[0216] In some aspects, the sensing RS ports may be configured for each sensing use case. For example, when the number of sensing RS ports associated with the sensing RS is greater than the rank of the PDSCH signal, the UE may receive (e.g., via an indication signal) an indication of which subset of the ports of the sensing RS ports are to be used for communication purposes (e.g., for demodulating the PDSCH signal).

[0217] FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process 1700 for wireless communication utilizing a reference signal for joint communication and sensing. The process 1700 may be performed by a network device or by a component or system (e.g., a chipset) of the network device. The network device may include a UE (e.g., a mobile device such as a mobile phone, a network-connected watch, an extended reality (XR) device such as a virtual reality (VR) device or an augmented reality (AR) device, a vehicle or a computing device or system of a vehicle, or other devices), a base station (e.g., an eNB, a gNB, or other base station) or a portion of a base station (e.g., a CU, a DU, a RU, or other portion of a base station). The operations of the process 1700 may be implemented as a software component executed and run on one or more processors (e.g., the processor 1810 of FIG. 18 or other processors). In addition, the transmission and reception of signals by the wireless communication device in the process 1700 may be enabled, for example, by one or more antennas and / or one or more transceivers (e.g., a wireless transceiver).

[0218] At block 1710, a network device (or a component thereof) may receive a signal including a time slot, the time slot including at least one shared signal resource. In some aspects, the time slot (in the time domain) is associated with a physical resource block (PRB). In some cases, the at least one shared signal resource includes at least one physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resource.

[0219] At block 1720, the network device (or a component thereof) may determine whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication. In some cases, the network device (or a component thereof) may determine whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication based on at least one control signal resource of the time slot. In some aspects, the at least one control signal resource is a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) resource. In some cases, the at least one control signal resource includes control channel information indicating whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication. In some examples, the control channel information is downlink control information (DCI).

[0220] At block 1730, the network device (or its component) may determine whether to use at least one sensing reference signal (RS) resource or at least one communication RS to demodulate at least one shared signal resource based on whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication. In some aspects, the network device (or its component) may demodulate at least one shared signal resource using at least one sensing RS resource based on determining that the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication. In some aspects, the network device (or its component) may demodulate at least one shared signal resource using at least one communication RS based on determining that the time slot is allocated for communication and not allocated for sensing. In an illustrative example, the at least one communication RS is a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resource. In some cases, the time slot includes a DMRS resource.

[0221] In some cases, the at least one sensing RS resource is configured within an active bandwidth part (BWP) of the network device. In some examples, the at least one sensing RS resource is associated with at least one tracking reference signal (TRS). In some aspects, the at least one sensing RS resource and the at least one shared signal resource utilize the same pre-decoder.

[0222] In some aspects, the network device (or its components) may receive one or more other continuous or non-continuous transmission time slots based on the time slot including at least one sensing RS resource. Each of the one or more other continuous or non-continuous transmission time slots may include at least one other sensing RS resource. In such aspects, the at least one sensing RS resource may be configured in the initial symbol of the time slot or in other symbols of the time slot. For example, the initial symbol may be the first symbol of the time slot.

[0223] In some cases, a maximum number of sensing RS ports associated with at least one sensing RS resource is limited by a rank of at least one shared signal resource. In some examples, the network device (or a component thereof) may receive at least one indication signal indicating a port subset of the sensing RS ports for demodulating the at least one shared signal resource based on the number of sensing RS ports associated with the at least one sensing RS resource being greater than the rank of the at least one shared signal resource.

[0224] FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computing system 1800 that may be employed by the disclosed systems and techniques for utilizing reference signals for joint communication and sensing. In particular, FIG. 18 illustrates an example of a computing system 1800, which may be, for example, any computing device constituting an internal computing system, a remote computing system, a camera, or any components thereof, wherein the components of the system communicate with each other using connection 1805. Connection 1805 may be a physical connection using a bus, or a direct connection into a processor 1810, such as in a chipset architecture. Connection 1805 may also be a virtual connection, a networked connection, or a logical connection.

[0225] In some aspects, computing system 1800 is a distributed system in which the functionality described in the present disclosure can be distributed within a data center, multiple data centers, a peer-to-peer network, etc. In some aspects, one or more of the described system components represent a number of such components that each perform some or all of the functionality for which the component is described. In some aspects, each component can be a physical or virtual device.

[0226] The example system 1800 includes at least one processing unit (CPU or processor) 1810 and connections 1805 that communicatively couple various system components including system memory 1815, such as read only memory (ROM) 1820 and random access memory (RAM) 1825, to the processor 1810. The computing system 1800 may include a cache 1812 of high-speed memory directly connected to the processor 1810, in close proximity to the processor, or integrated as part of the processor.

[0227] Processor 1810 may include any general purpose processor and hardware or software services, such as services 1832, 1834, and 1836 stored in storage device 1830, that are configured to control processor 1810 as well as a dedicated processor where software instructions are incorporated into the actual processor design. Processor 1810 may essentially be a fully self-contained computing system containing multiple cores or processors, buses, memory controllers, caches, etc. Multi-core processors may be symmetric or asymmetric.

[0228] To enable user interaction, the computing system 1800 includes an input device 1845 that can represent any number of input mechanisms, such as a microphone for voice, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphical input, a keyboard, a mouse, motion input, voice, etc. The computing system 1800 may also include an output device 1835 that can be one or more of a plurality of output mechanisms. In some cases, a multimodal system may enable a user to provide multiple types of input / output to communicate with the computing system 1800.

[0229] The computing system 1800 may include a communication interface 1840, which may generally govern and manage user input and system output. The communication interface may perform or facilitate receiving and / or sending wired or wireless communications using wired and / or wireless transceivers, including using an audio jack / plug, a microphone jack / plug, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port / plug, an Apple ™ Lightning ™ Ports / plugs, Ethernet ports / plugs, Fiber optic ports / plugs, Dedicated wired ports / plugs, 3G, 4G, 5G and / or other cellular data network wireless signal delivery, Bluetooth ™ Wireless signal transmission, Bluetooth ™ Low energy (BLE) wireless signal transmission, IBEACON ™ Wireless signaling, radio frequency identification (RFID) wireless signaling, near field communication (NFC) wireless signaling, dedicated short range communication (DSRC) wireless signaling, 802.11 Wi-Fi wireless signaling, wireless local area network (WLAN) signaling, visible light communication (VLC), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), infrared (IR) communication wireless signaling, public switched telephone network (PSTN) signaling, integrated services digital network (ISDN) signaling, ad hoc network signaling, radio wave signaling, microwave signaling, infrared signaling, visible light signaling, ultraviolet light signaling, wireless signaling along the electromagnetic spectrum, or some combination thereof.

[0230] The communication interface 1840 may also include one or more range-finding sensors (e.g., LIDAR sensors, laser rangefinders, RF radars, ultrasonic sensors, and infrared (IR) sensors) configured to collect data and provide measurements to the processor 1810, whereby the processor 1810 may be configured to perform determinations and calculations required to obtain various measurements for one or more range-finding sensors. In some examples, the measurements may include flight time, wavelength, azimuth, elevation, distance, linear velocity, and / or angular velocity, or any combination thereof. The communication interface 1840 may also include one or more global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) receivers or transceivers for determining the location of the computing system 1800 based on receiving one or more signals from one or more satellites associated with one or more GNSS systems. GNSS systems include, but are not limited to, the United States' GPS, Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), and Europe's Galileo GNSS. There is no restriction on operating on any particular hardware arrangement, and therefore the underlying features herein may be easily replaced to obtain improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.

[0231] The storage device 1830 may be a non-volatile and / or non-transitory and / or computer-readable memory device, and may be a hard disk or other type of computer-readable medium that may store data accessible by a computer, such as a magnetic cassette, a flash memory card, a solid-state memory device, a digital versatile disk, a cassette, a floppy disk, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, a magnetic stripe / magnetic stripe, any other magnetic storage medium, flash memory, a memristor memory, any other solid-state memory, a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM) disc, a rewritable compact disc (CD) disc, a digital video disc (DVD) disc, a Blu-ray disc (BDD) disc, a holographic disc, another optical medium, a secure digital (SD) card, a micro secure digital (microSD) card, a Memory Stick® card, a smart card chip, an EMV chip, a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a mini / micro / nano / pico S IM card, another integrated circuit (IC) chip / card, random access memory (RAM), static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash EPROM (FLASHEPROM), cache memory (e.g., level 1 (L1) cache, level 2 (L2) cache, level 3 (L3) cache, level 4 (L4) cache, level 5 (L5) cache, other (L#) cache), resistive random access memory (RRAM / ReRAM), phase change memory (PCM), spin transfer torque RAM (STT-RAM), another memory chip or box, and / or a combination thereof.

[0232] Storage device 1830 may include software services, servers, services, etc., which, when the code defining such software is executed by processor 1810, causes the system to perform functions. In some aspects, hardware services that perform specific functions may include software components for implementing functions stored in a computer-readable medium connected to necessary hardware components (such as processor 1810, connection 1805, output device 1835, etc.). The term "computer-readable medium" includes, but is not limited to, portable or non-portable storage devices, optical storage devices, and various other media capable of storing, containing or carrying instructions and / or data. Computer-readable media may include non-transitory media in which data may be stored and does not include carrier waves and / or transient electronic signals propagated wirelessly or over a wired connection. Examples of non-transitory media may include, but are not limited to, disks or tapes, optical storage media (such as compact discs (CDs) or digital versatile discs (DVDs)), flash memory, memory, or memory devices. Computer readable media may store thereon code and / or machine executable instructions, which may represent a procedure, function, subprogram, program, routine, subroutine, module, software package, category, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and / or receiving information, data, independent variables, parameters, or memory contents. Information, independent variables, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or sent via any suitable means, including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network sending, etc.

[0233] Specific details are provided in the above description to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects and examples provided herein, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the application is not limited thereto. Thus, although the exemplary aspects of the present application have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that each inventive concept can be implemented and adopted in various other ways, and the appended claims are not intended to be interpreted as including these variations, unless limited by the prior art. The various features and aspects of the above-mentioned applications can be used individually or in combination. In addition, without departing from the broader scope of this specification, the various aspects can be used in any number of environments and applications beyond the environment and application described herein. Therefore, the description and the accompanying drawings should be considered as illustrative rather than restrictive. For the purpose of illustration, each method is described in a specific order. It should be appreciated that, in alternative aspects, each method can be performed in a different order than described.

[0234] For clarity of explanation, in some instances, the present technology may be presented as including separate functional blocks, which include devices, device components, steps or routines in the method embodied in software or a combination of hardware and software. Additional components other than those components shown in the drawings and / or described herein may be used. For example, circuits, systems, networks, processes and other components may be shown as components in block diagram form to avoid confusing these aspects in unnecessary details. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures and techniques may be shown without unnecessary details to avoid confusing various aspects.

[0235] In addition, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, circuits and algorithmic steps described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software or a combination of the two. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various exemplary components, frames, modules, circuits and steps have been generally described in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints proposed to the entire system. Those skilled in the art can implement the described functionality in different ways for each specific application, but such specific implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0236] Various aspects may be described above as a process or method, which is depicted as a flow chart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flow chart may describe an operation as a sequential process, many operations in the operation may be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be rearranged. The process is terminated when the operation of the process is completed, but the process may have additional steps not included in the accompanying drawings. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, the termination of the process may correspond to the function returning to the calling function or the main function.

[0237] The processes and methods according to the above examples can be implemented using stored computer executable instructions or otherwise obtained from computer readable media. Such instructions may include, for example, instructions and data that configure a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or a processing device to perform a certain function or function group. Parts of the computer resources used can be accessed through a network. Computer executable instructions can be, for example, binary, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, source code. Examples of computer readable media that can be used to store instructions, information used, and / or information created during the method according to the described examples include disks or optical disks, flash memories, USB devices with non-volatile memory, networked storage devices, etc.

[0238] In some aspects, computer readable storage devices, media, and memories may include wired or wireless signals containing bit streams, etc. However, when referred to, non-transitory computer readable storage media specifically excludes media such as power consumption, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals themselves.

[0239] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different techniques and methods. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof in some cases, depending in part on the specific application, in part on the desired design, in part on the corresponding technology, etc.

[0240] The various illustrative logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or executed using hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or any combination thereof, and may be implemented in any of a variety of form factors. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware, or microcode, program code or code segments (e.g., computer program products) for performing necessary tasks may be stored in a computer-readable or machine-readable medium. The processor may perform the necessary tasks. Examples of form factors include: laptops, smartphones, mobile phones, tablet devices, or other small form factor personal computers, personal digital assistants, rack-mounted devices, stand-alone devices, etc. The functionality described herein may also be embodied in peripheral devices or add-in cards. By way of further example, such functionality may also be implemented on circuit boards in different chips or different processes executed on a single device.

[0241] The instructions, the media for conveying such instructions, the computing resources for executing them, and other structures for supporting such computing resources are example means for providing the functionality described in this disclosure.

[0242] The techniques described herein may also be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, firmware, or any combination thereof. Such techniques may be implemented in any of a variety of devices, such as general-purpose computers, wireless communication devices, or integrated circuit devices with multiple uses, including applications in wireless communication devices, mobile phones, and other devices. Any features described as modules or components may be implemented together in an integrated logic device or separately as discrete but interoperable logic devices. If implemented in software, the technology may be implemented at least in part by a computer-readable data storage medium including a program code, which includes instructions for executing one or more of the above methods, algorithms, and / or operations when executed. The computer-readable data storage medium may form part of a computer program product, which may include packaging materials. The computer-readable medium may include a memory or data storage medium, such as a random access memory (RAM) (such as a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM)), a read-only memory (ROM), a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, a magnetic or optical data storage medium, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the technology may be implemented at least in part by a computer-readable communication medium that carries or communicates program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed, read, and / or executed by a computer, such as a propagated signal or wave.

[0243] The program code may be executed by a processor, which may include one or more processors, such as one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), general-purpose microprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable logic arrays (FPGAs), or other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuits. Such processors may be configured to perform any of the techniques described in this disclosure. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor; however, in an alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. Therefore, the term "processor" as used herein may refer to any of the foregoing structures, any combination of the foregoing structures, or any other structure or device suitable for implementing the techniques described herein.

[0244] It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the less than ("<") and greater than (">") symbols or terms used herein may be replaced by less than or equal to (" ”) and greater than or equal to (“ ”) symbol instead.

[0245] Where a component is described as being “configured to” perform certain operations, such configuration may be achieved, for example, by designing electronic circuits or other hardware to perform the operations, by programming programmable electronic circuits (e.g., a microprocessor or other suitable electronic circuits) to perform the operations, or any combination thereof.

[0246] The phrases “coupled to” or “communicatively coupled to” refer to any component being physically connected directly or indirectly to another component, and / or any component being in communication with another component directly or indirectly (e.g., connected to the other component via a wired or wireless connection and / or other suitable communication interface).

[0247] Claim language or other language stating "at least one of" a set and / or "one or more of" a set indicates that one member of the set or multiple members of the set (in any combination) satisfies the claim. For example, claim language stating "at least one of A and B" or "at least one of A or B" means A, B, or A and B. In another example, claim language stating "at least one of A, B, and C" or "at least one of A, B, or C" means A, B, C, or A and B, or A and C, or B and C, or A and B and C. The language "at least one of" a set and / or "one or more of" a set does not limit the set to the items listed in the set. For example, claim language stating "at least one of A and B" or "at least one of A or B" may mean A, B, or A and B, and may additionally include items not listed in the set of A and B.

[0248] Illustrative aspects of the present disclosure include:

[0249] Aspect 1. A method for performing wireless communications at a network device, the method comprising: receiving a signal including a time slot, the time slot including at least one shared signal resource; determining whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication; and determining whether to use at least one sensing reference signal (RS) resource or at least one communication RS to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource based on whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

[0250] Aspect 2. The method according to aspect 1, wherein determining whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication is based on at least one control signal resource of the time slot.

[0251] Aspect 3. The method according to aspect 2, wherein the at least one control signal resource is a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) resource.

[0252] Aspect 4. A method according to any one of Aspects 2 or 3, wherein the at least one control signal resource comprises control channel information indicating whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

[0253] Aspect 5. The method according to aspect 4, wherein the control channel information is downlink control information (DCI).

[0254] Aspect 6. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 5, wherein the time slot is associated with a physical resource block (PRB).

[0255] Aspect 7. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 6, wherein the at least one shared signal resource comprises at least one physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resource.

[0256] Aspect 8. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 7, further comprising: demodulating the at least one shared signal resource using the at least one sensing RS resource based on determining that the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication.

[0257] Aspect 9. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 8, further comprising: demodulating the at least one shared signal resource using the at least one communication RS based on determining that the time slot is allocated for communication and not allocated for sensing.

[0258] Aspect 10. The method according to aspect 9, wherein the at least one communication RS is a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resource.

[0259] Aspect 11. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 10, wherein the time slot also includes the DMRS resource.

[0260] Aspect 12. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 11, wherein the network device is one of a user equipment (UE) or a base station.

[0261] Aspect 13. According to the method described in any one of Aspect 12, the method further includes: based on the time slot including the at least one sensing RS resource, receiving one or more other continuous or non-continuous transmission time slots, each of the one or more other continuous or non-continuous transmission time slots including at least one other sensing RS resource.

[0262] Aspect 14. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 13, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource is configured in an initial symbol of the time slot.

[0263] Aspect 15. The method according to aspect 14, wherein the initial symbol is the first symbol of the time slot.

[0264] Aspect 16. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 15, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource is configured within an active bandwidth part (BWP) of the network device.

[0265] Aspect 17. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 16, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource is associated with at least one tracking reference signal (TRS).

[0266] Aspect 18. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 17, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource and the at least one shared signal resource utilize the same precoder.

[0267] Aspect 19. The method according to any one of aspects 1 to 18, wherein a maximum number of sensing RS ports associated with the at least one sensing RS resource is limited by a rank of the at least one shared signal resource.

[0268] Aspect 20. According to the method described in any one of Aspects 1 to 19, the method further includes: based on the number of sensing RS ports associated with the at least one sensing RS resource being greater than the rank of the at least one shared signal resource, receiving at least one indication signal indicating a subset of ports of the sensing RS ports for demodulating the at least one shared signal resource.

[0269] Aspect 21. An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being coupled to the at least one memory and configured to: receive a signal comprising a time slot, the time slot comprising at least one shared signal resource; determine whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication; and determine whether to use at least one sensing reference signal (RS) resource or at least one communication RS to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource based on whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

[0270] Aspect 22. The apparatus according to aspect 21, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication based on at least one control signal resource of the time slot.

[0271] Aspect 23. The apparatus according to aspect 22, wherein the at least one control signal resource is a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) resource.

[0272] Aspect 24. An apparatus according to any one of aspects 22 or 23, wherein the at least one control signal resource comprises control channel information indicating whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

[0273] Aspect 25. The apparatus according to aspect 24, wherein the control channel information is downlink control information (DCI).

[0274] Aspect 26. An apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 25, wherein the time slot is associated with a physical resource block (PRB).

[0275] Aspect 27. An apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 26, wherein the at least one shared signal resource comprises at least one physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resource.

[0276] Aspect 28. An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 21 to 27, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: demodulate the at least one shared signal resource using the at least one sensing RS resource based on determining that the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication.

[0277] Aspect 29. An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 21 to 28, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: demodulate the at least one shared signal resource using the at least one communication RS based on determining that the time slot is allocated for communication and not allocated for sensing.

[0278] Aspect 30. The apparatus according to aspect 29, wherein the at least one communication RS is a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resource.

[0279] Aspect 31. The apparatus according to aspect 30, wherein the time slot further includes the DMRS resource.

[0280] Aspect 32. An apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 31, wherein the apparatus is one of a user equipment (UE) or a base station.

[0281] Aspect 33. An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 21 to 32, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: based on the time slot including the at least one sensing RS resource, receive one or more other continuous or non-continuous transmission time slots, each of the one or more other continuous or non-continuous transmission time slots including at least one other sensing RS resource.

[0282] Aspect 34. An apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 33, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource is configured in an initial symbol of the time slot.

[0283] Aspect 35. The apparatus according to aspect 34, wherein the initial symbol is the first symbol of the time slot.

[0284] Aspect 36. The apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 35, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource is configured within an active bandwidth part (BWP) of the apparatus.

[0285] Aspect 37. An apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 36, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource is associated with at least one tracking reference signal (TRS).

[0286] Aspect 38. An apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 37, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource and the at least one shared signal resource utilize the same precoder.

[0287] Aspect 39. An apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 38, wherein a maximum number of sensing RS ports associated with the at least one sensing RS resource is limited by a rank of the at least one shared signal resource.

[0288] Aspect 40. An apparatus according to any one of Aspects 21 to 39, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: based on the number of sensing RS ports associated with the at least one sensing RS resource being greater than the rank of the at least one shared signal resource, receive at least one indication signal indicating a subset of ports of the sensing RS ports for demodulating the at least one shared signal resource.

[0289] Aspect 41. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, causing the one or more processors to perform the operations according to any one of aspects 1 to 40.

[0290] Aspect 42. An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising one or more components for performing the operations according to any one of Aspects 1 to 40.

[0291] The foregoing description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Therefore, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but are to be consistent with the full scope of the language claims, where elements mentioned in the singular are not intended to mean "one and only one", unless specifically stated otherwise, but rather "one or more".

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication at a network device, the method comprising: receiving a signal comprising a time slot, the time slot comprising at least one shared signal resource; determining whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or for communication; as well as Whether to use at least one sensing reference signal (RS) resource or at least one communication RS to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource is determined based on whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication is based on at least one control signal resource of the time slot.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one control signal resource comprises control channel information indicating whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one shared signal resource comprises at least one physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resource.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: The at least one shared signal resource is demodulated using the at least one sensing RS resource based on determining that the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: The at least one shared signal resource is demodulated using the at least one communication RS based on determining that the time slot is allocated for communication and not allocated for sensing. 7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the network device is one of a user equipment (UE) or a base station.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: Based on the time slot including the at least one sensing RS resource, one or more other consecutive or non-consecutive transmission time slots are received, each of the one or more other consecutive or non-consecutive transmission time slots including at least one other sensing RS resource.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource is configured within an active bandwidth part (BWP) of the network device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource is associated with at least one tracking reference signal (TRS).

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource and the at least one shared signal resource utilize a same precoder.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a maximum number of sensing RS ports associated with the at least one sensing RS resource is limited by a rank of the at least one shared signal resource.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: Based on the number of sensing RS ports associated with the at least one sensing RS resource being greater than the rank of the at least one shared signal resource, at least one indication signal is received indicating a subset of ports of the sensing RS ports for demodulating the at least one shared signal resource.

14. An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to at least one memory and configured to: receiving a signal comprising a time slot, the time slot comprising at least one shared signal resource; determining whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or for communication; as well as Whether to use at least one sensing reference signal (RS) resource or at least one communication RS to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource is determined based on whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or for communication based on at least one control signal resource of the time slot.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one control signal resource is a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) resource.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one control signal resource comprises control channel information indicating whether the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication or allocated for communication.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the control channel information is downlink control information (DCI).

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one shared signal resource comprises at least one physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resource.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is configured to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource using the at least one sensing RS resource based on determining that the time slot is allocated for sensing and communication.

21. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is configured to demodulate the at least one shared signal resource using the at least one communication RS based on determining that the time slot is allocated for communication and not allocated for sensing.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the at least one communication RS is a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resource.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the time slot further comprises the DMRS resource.

24. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the apparatus is one of a user equipment (UE) or a base station.

25. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: Based on the time slot including the at least one sensing RS resource, one or more other consecutive or non-consecutive transmission time slots are received, each of the one or more other consecutive or non-consecutive transmission time slots including at least one other sensing RS resource.

26. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource is configured within an active bandwidth part (BWP) of the apparatus.

27. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource is associated with at least one tracking reference signal (TRS).

28. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one sensing RS resource and the at least one shared signal resource utilize a same precoder.

29. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein a maximum number of sensing RS ports associated with the at least one sensing RS resource is limited by a rank of the at least one shared signal resource.

30. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: Based on the number of sensing RS ports associated with the at least one sensing RS resource being greater than the rank of the at least one shared signal resource, at least one indication signal is received indicating a subset of ports of the sensing RS ports for demodulating the at least one shared signal resource.

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