Adaptive oscillator frequency error estimation based on oscillator temperature noise level

Abstract

Techniques for oscillator frequency error estimation are disclosed. In one aspect, an electronic device receives a plurality of temperature measurements for an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC), determines a temperature noise level estimate for the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements, determines a set of parameters for determining a frequency error estimate for the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate, and determines a frequency error estimate for the oscillator based on the set of parameters. And determining a frequency error estimate for the oscillator based on the set of parameters.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communications. Background Art

[0002] Wireless communication systems have evolved over several generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including interim 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third generation (3G) high speed data, wireless service with Internet capabilities, and fourth generation (4G) services (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). There are many different types of wireless communication systems in use today, including cellular and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and the like.

[0003] The fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, referred to as New Radio (NR), enables higher data transmission speeds, a greater number of connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. According to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, the 5G standard is designed to provide higher data rates, more accurate positioning (e.g., based on reference signals for positioning (RS-P), such as downlink, uplink, or sidelink positioning reference signals (PRS)), and other technical enhancements compared to previous standards. These enhancements, along with the use of higher frequency bands, advances in PRS procedures and technologies, and high-density deployments of 5G, enable highly accurate 5G-based positioning. Summary of the invention

[0004] The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects disclosed herein. Therefore, the following summary should not be considered as an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, nor should the following summary be considered as identifying key or important elements related to all contemplated aspects or delineating the scope associated with any particular aspect. Therefore, the sole purpose of the following summary is to present certain concepts related to one or more aspects of the mechanisms disclosed herein in a simplified form prior to the detailed description presented below.

[0005] In one aspect, a method of oscillator frequency error estimation performed by an electronic device includes: receiving multiple temperature measurement results of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC); determining a temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator based on the multiple temperature measurements; determining a parameter set for determining a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; and determining the frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the parameter set.

[0006] In one aspect, an electronic device includes: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor, which is communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, and the at least one processor is configured to: receive a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) via the at least one transceiver; determine a temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; determine a parameter set for determining a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; and determine the frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the parameter set.

[0007] In one aspect, an electronic device includes: a component for receiving a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC); a component for determining a temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; a component for determining a parameter set for determining a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; and a component for determining the frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the parameter set.

[0008] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to: receive a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC); determine a temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; determine a set of parameters for determining a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; and determine the frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the set of parameters.

[0009] Other objects and advantages associated with the aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the accompanying drawings and detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in describing various aspects of the present disclosure and are provided solely for purposes of illustration of these aspects and not limitation thereof.

[0011] Figure 1 An example wireless communication system in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is shown.

[0012] Figure 2A , Figure 2B and Figure 2C is a simplified block diagram of several example aspects of components that may be employed in a user equipment (UE), a base station, and a network entity, respectively, and configured to support communications as taught herein.

[0013] Figure 3is a block diagram illustrating the input and output of an oscillator frequency estimation algorithm according to aspects of the present disclosure.

[0014] Figure 4 An example method of oscillator frequency error estimation according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] Aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and in the related drawings for various examples provided for illustrative purposes. Alternative aspects may be designed without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted to avoid confusing the relevant details of the present disclosure.

[0016] As used herein, the words "exemplary" and / or "example" are used to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" and / or "example" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term "aspects of the disclosure" does not require that all aspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage, or mode of operation.

[0017] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the information and signals described below may be represented using any of a variety of different techniques and technologies. For example, depending in part on the specific application, in part on the desired design, in part on the corresponding technology, etc., data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the description below may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or optical particles, or any combination thereof.

[0018] In addition, many aspects are described in terms of a sequence of actions to be performed by, for example, an element of a computing device. It will be appreciated that the various actions described herein may be performed by a specific circuit (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit), by a program instruction being executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of the two. In addition, the sequence of actions described herein may be considered to be fully embodied in any form of non-transient computer-readable storage medium in which a corresponding set of computer instructions is stored, which, when executed, will cause or instruct the associated processor of the device to perform the functions described herein. Therefore, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in several different forms, all of which are expected to be within the scope of the subject matter claimed for protection. In addition, for each of the aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect may be described herein as, for example, "logic" that is "configured to" perform the described actions.

[0019] As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" are not intended to be specific or otherwise limited to any specific radio access technology (RAT). In general, a UE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a consumer asset location device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, glasses, an augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) headset, etc.), a vehicle (e.g., a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, etc.), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network. A UE may be mobile or may be stationary (e.g., at certain times) and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" may be interchangeably referred to as an "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber equipment", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or "UT", "mobile device", "mobile terminal", "mobile station" or variations thereof. In general, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network, the UE may connect to external networks such as the Internet and to other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms 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 (eg, based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, etc.), and so on.

[0020] Depending on the network in which the base station is deployed, the base station may operate according to one of several RATs communicating with the UE, and may be alternatively referred to as an access point (AP), a network node, a Node B, an evolved NodeB (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a new radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as a gNB or gNodeB), etc. The base station may be primarily used to support wireless access for the UE, including supporting data, voice and / or signaling connections for the supported UE. In some systems, the base station may provide a pure edge node signaling function, while in other systems it may provide additional control and / or network management functions. The communication link through which the UE may send a signal to the base station is referred to as an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). The communication link through which the base station may send a signal to the UE is referred to as a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) may refer to an uplink / reverse or downlink / forward traffic channel.

[0021] The term "base station" may refer to a single physical transmit-receive point (TRP) or to multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be co-located. For example, where the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. Where the term "base station" refers to multiple co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be an antenna array of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or where the base station employs beamforming). Where the term "base station" refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transmission medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-co-located physical TRP may be a serving base station that receives measurement reports from a UE and a neighbor base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signal the UE is measuring. Because a TRP is a point from which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, as used herein, references to transmissions from a base station or receptions at a base station should be understood to refer to a specific TRP of the base station.

[0022] In some implementations of supporting positioning of a UE, a base station may not support wireless access by the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections for the UE), but may instead send a reference signal to the UE to be measured by 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., when sending a signal to the UE) and / or as a position measurement unit (e.g., when receiving and measuring a signal from the UE).

[0023] An "RF signal" includes an electromagnetic wave of a given frequency that transmits information through the space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels, a receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between a transmitter and a receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal. 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 either a wireless signal or an RF signal.

[0024] Figure 1An example wireless communication system 100 is shown in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless communication system 100 (which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 (labeled as "BS") and various UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macrocell base stations (high-power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low-power cellular base stations). In one aspect, the macrocell base stations may include eNBs and / or ng-eNBs (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network), or gNBs (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an NR network), or a combination of both, and the small cell base stations may include femtocells, picocells, microcells, etc.

[0025] The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC)) via a backhaul link 122, and interface with one or more location servers 172 (e.g., a location management function (LMF) or a secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP)) via the core network 170. The location server 172 may be part of the core network 170 or may be external to the core network 170. The location server 172 may be integrated with the base station 102. The UE 104 may communicate with the location server 172 directly or indirectly. For example, the UE 104 may communicate with the location server 172 via the base station 102 that is currently serving the UE 104. The UE 104 may also communicate with the location server 172 via another path, such as via an application server (not shown), via another network, such as via a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) (e.g., the AP 150 described below), etc.). For signaling purposes, communications between UE 104 and location server 172 may be represented as an indirect connection (e.g., through core network 170, etc.) or a direct connection (e.g., as shown via direct connection 128), with intermediate nodes (if any) omitted from the signaling diagram for clarity.

[0026] The base stations 102 may also perform functions related to one or more of the following, among other functions: 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 device 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 EPC / 5GC) over a backhaul link 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0027] Base stations 102 may communicate wirelessly with UEs 104. Each of base stations 102 may provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographic coverage area 110. In one aspect, in each geographic coverage area 110, one or more cells may be supported by base station 102. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used to communicate with a base station (e.g., on a certain frequency resource, which is 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), an enhanced cell identifier (ECI), a virtual cell identifier (VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI), etc.) used 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, depending on the context, the term "cell" may refer to either or both of the logical communication entity and the base station supporting it. In addition, because the TRP is generally the physical transmission point of the cell, the terms "cell" and "TRP" can be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term "cell" can also refer to the geographic coverage area (e.g., sector) of a base station, as long as the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within a certain portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0028] Although the geographic coverage areas 110 of neighboring macrocell base stations 102 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover area), some geographic coverage areas 110 may substantially overlap with larger geographic coverage areas 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' (labeled "SC" for "small cell") may have a geographic coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the geographic coverage areas 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macrocell base stations may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a home eNB (HeNB), which may provide services to a restricted group referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG).

[0029] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include an uplink (also referred to as a reverse link) transmission from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and / or a downlink (DL) (also referred to as a forward link) transmission 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 for the downlink compared to the uplink).

[0030] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 that communicates with a WLAN station (STA) 152 via a communication link 154 in an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., 5 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) process to determine whether a channel is available prior to communication.

[0031] The small cell base station 102' can operate in a licensed and / or 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 / 5G in the unlicensed spectrum can improve 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, License Assisted Access (LAA) or MulteFire.

[0032] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a millimeter wave (mmW) base station 180 that communicates with the UE 182, which may operate in mmW frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 mm and 10 mm. 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, also known as centimeter waves. Communications using mmW / near mmW radio frequency bands have high path loss and relatively short distances. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmitting and / or receiving) on ​​the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short distance. In addition, it should be understood that in an alternative configuration, one or more base stations 102 may also transmit using mmW or near mmW and beamforming. Therefore, it should be understood that the foregoing description is merely an example and should not be construed as limiting the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0033] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in a specific direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in all directions (omnidirectionally). With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that specific direction, thereby providing a faster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal to the receiving device. In order to change the directionality of 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 antenna array (called a "phased array" or "antenna array") that creates an RF wave beam that can be "steered" to point in different directions without actually moving the antenna. Specifically, the RF current from the transmitter is fed to each antenna in the correct phase relationship so that the radio waves from each antenna are added together to increase the radiation in the desired direction while canceling to suppress the radiation in the undesired direction.

[0034] The 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 from 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.

[0035] 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 antenna array and / or adjust the phase setting of an antenna array 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, this means that the beam gain in that direction is high relative to the beam gain along other directions, or that the beam gain in that direction is the highest compared to the beam gain in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc.) of the RF signal received from that direction.

[0036] The transmit and receive beams may be spatially correlated. The spatial relationship means that the parameters of the second beam (e.g., transmit or receive beam) used for the second reference signal may be derived from information about the first beam (e.g., receive beam or transmit beam) used for the first reference signal. For example, the UE may use a specific receive beam to receive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., a synchronization signal block (SSB)) from a base station. The UE may then form a transmit beam for sending an uplink reference signal (e.g., a sounding reference signal (SRS)) to the base station based on the parameters of the receive beam.

[0037] Note that a "downlink" beam can be either a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity that forms it. For example, if the base station is forming a downlink beam to send a reference signal to the UE, the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if the UE is forming a downlink beam, it is a receive beam that receives the downlink reference signal. Similarly, an "uplink" beam can be either a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity that forms it. For example, if the base station is forming an uplink beam, it is an uplink receive beam, while if the UE is forming an uplink beam, it is an uplink transmit beam.

[0038] The electromagnetic spectrum is typically subdivided into various categories, bands, channels, etc. based on frequency / wavelength. In 5G NR, two initial operating bands have been identified with the frequency range names FR1 (410 MHz-7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz-52.6 GHz). It should be understood that although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz, FR1 is often referred to (interchangeably) as a "sub-6 GHz" band in various literature and articles. A similar naming issue sometimes occurs with respect to FR2, which is often referred to (interchangeably) as a "millimeter wave" band in literature and articles, although it is different from the extremely high frequency (EHF) band (30 GHz-300 GHz) that is identified as a "millimeter wave" band by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

[0039] Frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are often referred to as mid-band frequencies. Recent 5G NR research has identified operating bands for these mid-band frequencies as the frequency range designation FR3 (7.125 GHz-24.25 GHz). Frequency bands falling within FR3 may inherit FR1 characteristics and / or FR2 characteristics, and may therefore effectively extend the characteristics of FR1 and / or FR2 to mid-band frequencies. In addition, higher frequency bands are currently being explored to extend 5G NR operations beyond 52.6 GHz. For example, three higher operating bands have been identified as the frequency range designations FR4a or FR4-1 (52.6 GHz-71 GHz), FR4 (52.6 GHz-114.25 GHz), and FR5 (114.25 GHz-300 GHz). Each of these higher frequency bands falls within the EHF band.

[0040] In view of the above, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that the term "sub-6 GHz" and the like, if used herein, can broadly refer to frequencies that can be less than 6 GHz, can be within FR1, or can include mid-band frequencies. In addition, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that the term "millimeter wave" and the like, if used herein, can broadly refer to frequencies that can include mid-band frequencies, can be within FR2, FR4, FR4-a or FR4-1 and / or FR5, or can be within the EHF band.

[0041] In a multi-carrier system (such as 5G), one of the carrier frequencies is referred to as the "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell", while the remaining carrier frequencies are referred to as "secondary carriers" or "secondary serving cells" or "SCells". In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is a carrier operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by the UE 104 / 182, and is the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 performs an initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection reestablishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific control channels and 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 wireless 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, those signaling information and signals specific to the UE may not be present in the secondary carrier, because the primary uplink and downlink carriers are typically UE-specific. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplink primary carrier. The network is able to change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. For example, this is done to balance the load on different carriers. Because a "serving cell" (whether PCell or SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier on which a certain base station is communicating, the terms "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. can be used interchangeably.

[0042] For example, still referring to Figure 1 , one of the frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or "PCell"), and the other frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers ("SCells"). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers enables the UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rate. For example, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically result in a two-fold increase in data rate (i.e., 40 MHz) compared to the data rate obtained with a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0043] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a UE 164, which may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 via a communication link 120 and / or communicate with the mmW base station 180 via a mmW communication link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0044] In some cases, UE 164 and UE 182 may be capable of sidelink communications. A sidelink-enabled UE (SL-UE) may communicate with base station 102 over communication link 120 using a Uu interface (i.e., an air interface between a UE and a base station). SL-UEs (e.g., UE 164, UE 182) may also communicate directly with each other over a wireless sidelink 160 using a PC5 interface (i.e., an air interface between sidelink-enabled UEs). A wireless sidelink (or just "sidelink") is an adaptation of a core cellular (e.g., LTE, NR) standard that allows direct communication between two or more UEs without the need for communication to go through a base station. Sidelink communications may be unicast or multicast and may be used for device-to-device (D2D) media sharing, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications (e.g., cellular V2X (cV2X) communications, enhanced V2X (eV2X) communications, etc.), emergency rescue applications, etc. One or more of a group of SL-UEs utilizing sidelink communications may be within the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 102. Other SL-UEs in such a group may be outside the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 102, or otherwise unable to receive transmissions from the base station 102. In some cases, a group of SL-UEs communicating via sidelink communications may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system, in which each SL-UE transmits to each other SL-UE in the group. In some cases, the base station 102 facilitates scheduling of resources for sidelink communications. In other cases, sidelink communications are performed between SL-UEs without involving the base station 102.

[0045] In one aspect, the sidelink 160 can operate on a wireless communication medium of interest, which can be shared with other wireless communications between other vehicles and / or infrastructure access points and other RATs. A "medium" can consist of one or more time, frequency, and / or spatial communication resources (e.g., one or more channels across one or more carriers) associated with wireless communications between one or more transmitter / receiver pairs. In one aspect, the medium of interest may correspond to at least a portion of an unlicensed band shared between various RATs. Although different licensed bands have been reserved for certain communication systems (e.g., by government entities such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States), these systems (particularly those employing small cell access points) have recently expanded operations to unlicensed bands, such as the unlicensed national information infrastructure (U-NII) band used by wireless local area network (WLAN) technology (most notably the IEEE 802.11x WLAN technology commonly referred to as "Wi-Fi"). Example systems of this type include different variants of CDMA systems, TDMA systems, FDMA systems, orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems, and the like.

[0046] Note that although Figure 1 Only two of the UEs are shown as SL-UEs (i.e., UEs 164 and 182), but any of the shown UEs may be SL-UEs. In addition, although only UE 182 is described as being capable of beamforming, any of the shown UEs (including UE 164) may be capable of beamforming. In the case where the SL-UEs are capable of beamforming, they may beamform toward each other (i.e., toward other SL-UEs), toward other UEs (e.g., UE 104), toward a base station (e.g., base station 102, 180, small cell 102', access point 150), etc. Thus, in some cases, UEs 164 and 182 may utilize beamforming on sidelink 160.

[0047] exist Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 1 , any UE among the UEs shown (for simplicity, in Figure 1A UE 104 (shown as a single UE 104) may receive a signal 124 from one or more earth orbiting spacecraft (SV) 112 (e.g., satellites). In one aspect, the SV 112 may be part of a satellite positioning system that the UE 104 may use as an independent source of location information. A satellite positioning system typically includes a system of transmitters (e.g., SV 112) positioned to enable a receiver (e.g., UE 104) to determine its position on or above the earth based at least in part on a positioning signal (e.g., signal 124) received from the transmitter. Such a transmitter typically transmits a signal marked with a repeating pseudo-random noise (PN) code of a set number of chips. Although typically located in the SV 112, the transmitter may sometimes be located on a ground-based control station, base station 102, and / or other UE 104. The UE 104 may include one or more dedicated receivers specifically designed to receive the signal 124 for deriving geographic location information from the SV 112.

[0048] In a satellite positioning system, the use of signal 124 may be enhanced by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) that may be associated with or otherwise enabled for use with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems. For example, SBAS may include augmentation systems that provide integrity information, differential corrections, etc., such as Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), European Geosynchronous Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), Multifunction Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), Global Positioning System (GPS) Assisted Geographic Augmentation Navigation or GPS and Geographic Augmentation Navigation System (GAGAN), and / or the like. Thus, as used herein, a satellite positioning system may include any combination of one or more global and / or regional navigation satellites associated with such one or more satellite positioning systems.

[0049] In one aspect, SV 112 may additionally or alternatively be part of one or more non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). In an NTN, SV 112 is connected to an earth station (also referred to as a ground station, NTN gateway, or gateway), which in turn is connected to an element in a 5G network, such as a modified base station 102 (without a terrestrial antenna) or a network node in a 5GC. This element in turn will provide access to other elements in the 5G network and ultimately provide access to entities outside the 5G network (such as Internet web servers and other user devices). In this way, UE 104 can receive communication signals (e.g., signal 124) from SV 112 instead of or in addition to receiving communication signals from a ground base station 102.

[0050] The wireless communication system 100 may also include one or more UEs (eg, UE 190) that 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”). Figure 1 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., through which UE 190 can indirectly obtain cellular connectivity) and a D2D P2P link 194 with a WLAN STA 152 connected to a WLAN AP 150 (through which UE 190 can indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity). In an example, D2D P2P links 192 and 194 can be supported by any well-known D2D RAT (such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, etc.).

[0051] Figure 2A , Figure 2B and Figure 2C Several example components (represented by corresponding boxes) that can be incorporated into UE 202 (which can correspond to any UE described herein), base station 204 (which can correspond to any base station described herein), and network entity 206 (which can correspond to or embody any network function described herein) to support the operations described herein are shown. It should be understood that in different implementations, these components can be implemented in different types of devices (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system on a chip (SoC), etc.). The components shown can also be incorporated into other devices in the communication system. For example, other devices in the system may include components similar to the components described to provide similar functions. In addition, a given device may include one or more of the components. For example, a device may include multiple transceiver components that enable the device to operate on multiple carriers and / or communicate via different technologies.

[0052] UE 202 and base station 204 each include one or more wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceivers 210 and 250, respectively, which provide components (e.g., components for transmitting, components for receiving, components for measuring, components for tuning, components for suppressing transmission, etc.) for communicating via one or more wireless communication networks (not shown) (such as NR networks, LTE networks, GSM networks, etc.). WWAN transceivers 210 and 250 can each be connected to one or more antennas 216 and 256, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes (e.g., other UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest (e.g., a certain set of time / frequency resources in a specific spectrum) via at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.). Depending on the designated RAT, the WWAN transceivers 210 and 250 may be configured differently for sending and encoding signals 218 and 258 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.), respectively, and conversely, for receiving and decoding signals 218 and 258 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.), respectively. Specifically, the WWAN transceivers 210 and 250 include one or more transmitters 214 and 254 for sending and encoding signals 218 and 258, respectively, and one or more receivers 212 and 252 for receiving and decoding signals 218 and 258, respectively.

[0053] At least in some cases, the UE 202 and the base station 204 each further include one or more short-range wireless transceivers 220 and 260, respectively. The short-range wireless transceivers 220 and 260 can be connected to one or more antennas 226 and 266, respectively, and provide components (e.g., components for transmitting, components for receiving, components for measuring, components for tuning, components for suppressing transmission, etc.) for communicating with other network nodes (such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest via at least one designated RAT (e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, Bluetooth®, Zigbee®, Z-Wave®, PC5, Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC), Wireless Access for Vehicular Environments (WAVE), Near Field Communication (NFC), Ultra-Wideband (UWB), etc.). Depending on the designated RAT, the short-range wireless transceivers 220 and 260 may be configured differently for transmitting and encoding signals 228 and 268 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.), respectively, and conversely, for receiving and decoding signals 228 and 268 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.), respectively. Specifically, the short-range wireless transceivers 220 and 260 include one or more transmitters 224 and 264 for transmitting and encoding signals 228 and 268, respectively, and one or more receivers 222 and 262 for receiving and decoding signals 228 and 268, respectively. As specific examples, the short-range wireless transceivers 220 and 260 may be WiFi transceivers, Bluetooth® transceivers, Zigbee® and / or Z-Wave® transceivers, NFC transceivers, UWB transceivers, or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and / or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) transceivers.

[0054] At least in some cases, the UE 202 and the base station 204 also include satellite signal receivers 230 and 270. The satellite signal receivers 230 and 270 can be connected to one or more antennas 236 and 276, respectively, and can provide components for receiving and / or measuring satellite positioning / communication signals 238 and 278, respectively. In the case where the satellite signal receivers 230 and 270 are satellite positioning system receivers, the satellite positioning / communication signals 238 and 278 can be global positioning system (GPS) signals, global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, Beidou signals, Indian regional navigation satellite system (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. In the case where the satellite signal receivers 230 and 270 are non-terrestrial network (NTN) receivers, the satellite positioning / communication signals 238 and 278 can be communication signals (e.g., carrying control and / or user data) originating from a 5G network. The satellite signal receivers 230 and 270 can include any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing satellite positioning / communication signals 238 and 278, respectively. Satellite signal receivers 230 and 270 may request information and operations from other systems as appropriate and, at least in some cases, perform calculations using measurements obtained by any suitable satellite positioning system algorithms to determine the positions of UE 202 and base station 204, respectively.

[0055] The base station 204 and the network entity 206 each include one or more network transceivers 280 and 290, respectively, which provide means (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, etc.) for communicating with other network entities (e.g., other base stations 204, other network entities 206). For example, the base station 204 may employ one or more network transceivers 280 to communicate with other base stations 204 or network entities 206 via one or more wired or wireless backhaul links. As another example, the network entity 206 may employ one or more network transceivers 290 to communicate with one or more base stations 204 via one or more wired or wireless backhaul links, or communicate with other network entities 206 via one or more wired or wireless core network interfaces.

[0056] The transceiver may be configured to communicate over a wired or wireless link. A transceiver (whether a wired transceiver or a wireless transceiver) includes a transmitter circuit (e.g., transmitters 214, 224, 254, 264) and a receiver circuit (e.g., receivers 212, 222, 252, 262). A transceiver may be an integrated device in some implementations (e.g., embodying the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry in a single device), may include separate transmitter circuitry and separate receiver circuitry in some implementations, or may be embodied in other ways in other implementations. The transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry of a wired transceiver (e.g., in some implementations, network transceivers 280 and 290) may be coupled to one or more wired network interface ports. The wireless transmitter circuit (e.g., transmitter 214, 224, 254, 264) may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 216, 226, 256, 266), such as antenna arrays, which allow the corresponding device (e.g., UE 202, base station 204) to perform transmit "beamforming", as described herein. Similarly, the wireless receiver circuit (e.g., receiver 212, 222, 252, 262) may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 216, 226, 256, 266), such as antenna arrays, that allow the corresponding device (e.g., UE 202, base station 204) to perform receive beamforming as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitter circuit and the receiver circuit may share the same multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 216, 226, 256, 266) so that the corresponding device can only receive or transmit at a given time, rather than receiving or transmitting both at the same time. The wireless transceivers (eg, WWAN transceivers 210 and 250, short-range wireless transceivers 220 and 260) may also include a network listening module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

[0057] As used herein, various wireless transceivers (e.g., transceivers 210, 220, 250, and 260, and in some implementations network transceivers 280 and 290) and wired transceivers (e.g., network transceivers 280 and 290 in some implementations) may be generally characterized as a "transceiver," "at least one transceiver," or "one or more transceivers." As such, whether a particular transceiver is a wired or wireless transceiver may be inferred from the type of communication being performed. For example, backhaul communications between network devices or servers will generally involve signaling via a wired transceiver, while wireless communications between a UE (e.g., UE 202) and a base station (e.g., base station 204) will generally involve signaling via a wireless transceiver.

[0058] UE 202, base station 204, and network entity 206 also include other components that can be used in conjunction with the operations disclosed herein. UE 202, base station 204, and network entity 206 include one or more processors 232, 284, and 294, respectively, for providing functions related to, for example, wireless communication, and for providing other processing functions. Therefore, processors 232, 284, and 294 can provide components for processing, such as components for determining, components for calculating, components for receiving, components for sending, components for indicating, etc. In one aspect, processors 232, 284, and 294 may include, for example, one or more general-purpose processors, multi-core processors, central processing units (CPUs), ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), other programmable logic devices or processing circuits, or various combinations thereof.

[0059] UE 202, base station 204, and network entity 206 include memory circuitry implementing memories 240, 286, and 296, respectively (e.g., each memory including a memory device), for maintaining information (e.g., information indicating reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). Thus, memories 240, 286, and 296 may provide means for storing, means for retrieving, means for maintaining, etc. In some cases, UE 202, base station 204, and network entity 206 may include oscillator algorithms 242, 288, and 298, respectively. Oscillator algorithms 242, 288, and 298 may be hardware circuitry that is part of or coupled to processors 232, 284, and 294, respectively, which when executed causes UE 202, base station 204, and network entity 206 to perform the functions described herein. In other aspects, the oscillator algorithms 242, 288, and 298 may be external to the processors 232, 284, and 294 (e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated with another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the oscillator algorithms 242, 288, and 298 may be memory modules stored in the memories 240, 286, and 296, respectively, which, when executed by the processors 232, 284, and 294 (or a modem processing system, another processing system, etc.), cause the UE 202, the base station 204, and the network entity 206 to perform the functionality described herein. Figure 2A Possible locations of the oscillator algorithm 242 are shown, which may be, for example, part of the one or more WWAN transceivers 210, the memory 240, the one or more processors 232, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component. Figure 2BPossible locations for the oscillator algorithm 288 are shown, which may be, for example, part of the one or more WWAN transceivers 250, the memory 286, the one or more processors 284, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component. Figure 2C Possible locations for the oscillator algorithm 298 are shown, and the oscillator algorithm 298 may be, for example, part of the one or more network transceivers 290, the memory 296, the one or more processors 294, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component.

[0060] UE 202 may include one or more sensors 244 coupled to one or more processors 232 to provide a means for sensing or detecting movement and / or orientation information that is independent of motion data derived from signals received by one or more WWAN transceivers 210, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 220, and / or satellite signal receivers 230. For example, sensor 244 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric altimeter), and / or any other type of motion detection sensor. In addition, sensor 244 may include multiple different types of devices and combine their outputs to provide motion information. For example, sensor 244 may use a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and an orientation sensor to provide the ability to calculate positioning in a two-dimensional (2D) and / or three-dimensional (3D) coordinate system.

[0061] Additionally, the UE 202 includes a user interface 246 that provides means for providing indications to a user (e.g., audible and / or visual indications) and / or for receiving user input (e.g., when a user actuates a sensing device such as a keypad, touch screen, microphone, etc.). Although not shown, the base station 204 and the network entity 206 may also include a user interface.

[0062] Referring to the one or more processors 284 in more detail, in a downlink, IP packets from the network entity 206 may be provided to the processor 284. The one or more processors 284 may implement the functions of the RRC layer, the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. One or more processors 284 may provide RRC layer functions associated with broadcasting of system information (e.g., master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functions associated with header compression / decompression, security (ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functions associated with delivery of upper layer PDUs, error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ), concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; MAC layer functions associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, scheduling information reporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0063] The transmitter 254 and the receiver 252 may implement layer 1 (L1) functions associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1, including the physical (PHY) layer, may include error detection on the transmission channel, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of the transmission channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to the physical channel, modulation / demodulation of the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 254 processes the mapping to the signal constellation diagram based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), M-phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time domain and / or frequency domain, and then combined together using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a time domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol stream is spatially precoded to produce multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator may be used to determine coding and modulation schemes, as well as for spatial processing. Channel estimates may be derived from reference signals and / or channel condition feedback sent by the UE 202. Each spatial stream may then be provided to one or more different antennas 256. The transmitter 254 may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0064] At the UE 202, the receiver 212 receives the signal through its corresponding antenna 216. The receiver 212 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to one or more processors 232. The transmitter 214 and the receiver 212 implement layer 1 functions associated with various signal processing functions. The receiver 212 can perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for the UE 202. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE 202, the receiver 212 can combine them into a single OFDM symbol stream. The receiver 212 then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time domain to the frequency domain using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal includes a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols and reference signals on each subcarrier are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation point sent by the base station 204. These soft decisions can be based on channel estimates calculated by a channel estimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals originally sent by the base station 204 on the physical channel. The data and control signals are then provided to one or more processors 232, which implement layer 3 (L3) and layer 2 (L2) functions.

[0065] In the downlink, one or more processors 232 provide demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. One or more processors 232 are also responsible for error detection.

[0066] Similar to the functions described in conjunction with downlink transmissions performed by the base station 204, the one or more processors 232 provide: RRC layer functions associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functions associated with header compression / decompression and security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functions associated with delivery of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs to transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0067] The transmitter 214 may select appropriate coding and modulation schemes, and facilitate spatial processing, using channel estimates derived by a channel estimator from a reference signal or feedback sent by the base station 204. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter 214 may be provided to different antennas 216. The transmitter 214 may modulate an RF carrier with the corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0068] The uplink transmission is processed at the base station 204 in a manner similar to that described in conjunction with the receiver functionality at the UE 202. The receiver 252 receives the signal through its respective antenna 256. The receiver 252 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to one or more processors 284.

[0069] In the uplink, one or more processors 284 provide demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from UE 202. The IP packets from one or more processors 284 may be provided to the core network. One or more processors 284 are also responsible for error detection.

[0070] For convenience, UE 202, base station 204 and / or network entity 206 may Figure 2A , Figure 2B and Figure 2C , are shown as including various components that can be configured according to the various examples described herein. However, it should be understood that the components shown may have different functions in different designs. In particular, FIG. 2A to FIG. 2C Various components in are optional in alternative configurations, and various aspects include configurations that may vary due to design choice, cost, use of the device, or other considerations. For example, in Figure 2A In the case of a wearable device or tablet or PC or laptop computer, a specific implementation of UE 202 may omit WWAN transceiver 210 (e.g., a wearable device or tablet or PC or laptop computer may have Wi-Fi and / or Bluetooth capabilities but no cellular capabilities), or may omit short-range wireless transceiver 220 (e.g., only cellular, etc.), or may omit satellite signal receiver 230, or may omit sensor 244, etc. In another example, in Figure 2B In the case of a wireless cellular network, a specific implementation of the base station 204 may omit the WWAN transceiver 250 (e.g., a Wi-Fi "hotspot" access point without cellular capabilities), or may omit the short-range wireless transceiver 260 (e.g., cellular only, etc.), or may omit the satellite signal receiver 270, etc. For the sake of brevity, a description of various alternative configurations is not provided herein, but will be readily understood by those skilled in the art.

[0071] The various components of the UE 202, base station 204, and network entity 206 may be communicatively coupled to one another via data buses 234, 282, and 292, respectively. In an aspect, the data buses 234, 282, and 292 may form or be part of a communication interface for the UE 202, base station 204, and network entity 206, respectively. For example, where different logical entities are embodied in the same device (e.g., gNB and location server functionality incorporated in the same base station 204), the data buses 234, 282, and 292 may provide communications between them.

[0072] Figure 2A , Figure 2B and Figure 2C The components of can be implemented in various ways. In some implementations, Figure 2A , Figure 2B and Figure 2C The components may be implemented in one or more circuits, such as one or more processors and / or one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors). Here, each circuit may use and / or incorporate at least one memory component for storing information or executable code used by the circuit to provide the functionality. For example, some or all of the functions represented by blocks 210 to 246 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of UE 202 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). Similarly, some or all of the functions represented by blocks 250 to 288 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of base station 204 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). In addition, some or all of the functions represented by blocks 290 to 298 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of network entity 206 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). For simplicity, various operations, actions and / or functions are described herein as being performed by "UE", "base station", "network entity", etc. However, as will be appreciated, such operations, actions and / or functions may actually be performed by specific components or combinations of components of the UE 202, base station 204, network entity 206, etc., such as processors 232, 284, 294, transceivers 210, 220, 250 and 260, memories 240, 286 and 296, oscillator algorithms 242, 288 and 298, etc.

[0073] In some designs, the network entity 206 may be implemented as a core network component. In other designs, the network entity 206 may be distinct from a network operator or operation of a cellular network infrastructure (e.g., the core network 170). For example, the network entity 206 may be a component of a dedicated network that may be configured to communicate with the UE 202 via the base station 204 or independently of the base station 204 (e.g., via a non-cellular communication link such as WiFi).

[0074] Many electronic devices utilize oscillators, such as MEMS oscillators or crystal oscillators, to generate stable clock reference signals for optimal performance. An oscillator is an electronic circuit that produces a periodic oscillating electronic signal, typically a sine, square, or triangle wave. MEMS oscillators include one or more MEMS resonators to produce a highly stable reference frequency to measure time. MEMS resonators are small electromechanical structures that vibrate at high frequencies. For frequency and timing references, MEMS resonators are attached to electronic circuits, called sustaining amplifiers, to drive them in continuous motion. A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses a piezoelectric crystal (e.g., quartz crystal) as a frequency selective element. Oscillator frequencies are commonly used to keep track of time, to provide stable clock signals for digital integrated circuits, and to stabilize the frequencies of radio transmitters and receivers.

[0075] Oscillators are subject to frequency fluctuations based on temperature, known as the frequency-temperature characteristics of the oscillator. Therefore, it is necessary to compensate the oscillator to minimize the effect of temperature changes on the oscillator frequency. To this end, there are four general types of crystal oscillators. Simple packaged crystal oscillators (SPXOs) or simple crystal oscillators or clocks do not have temperature control or temperature compensation. Instead, the frequency-temperature characteristics depend on the crystal unit. Temperature compensated crystal oscillators (TCXOs) have a temperature compensation circuit to suppress output frequency deviations caused by ambient temperature. That is, the output signal from a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor) is used to generate a correction voltage that is applied to a variable reactance (e.g., a varactor diode) in the crystal network. Oven controlled crystal oscillators (OCXOs) typically contain a thermostatic block in which there are temperature sensors, heating elements, thermostatic circuits, and insulation functions to maintain a stable temperature. Voltage controlled crystal oscillators have a tunable output frequency or an output frequency modulated by an external control voltage.

[0076] A thermistor is a resistor whose resistance is strongly dependent on temperature, more so than a standard resistor. Thermistors are divided based on their conduction model. Negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistors have less resistance at higher temperatures, while positive temperature coefficient (PTC) thermistors have greater resistance at higher temperatures. NTC thermistors are widely used as inrush current limiters and temperature sensors, while PTC thermistors are used as self-resetting overcurrent protectors and self-regulating heating elements. With regard to compensating the frequency-temperature characteristics of an oscillator, a thermistor network is fitted to the oscillator to cause a voltage change with temperature such that it will compensate for the temperature-based frequency fluctuations of the oscillator.

[0077] Thermistor-based oscillator temperature measurements are naturally noisy. Thermistor noise levels vary based on the oscillator vendor, hardware layout, and power management integrated circuit (PMIC) packaging. Higher oscillator temperature noise levels result in larger errors in the oscillator frequency estimate based on the oscillator's frequency-temperature curve. This is a particular problem for applications that require a high-precision oscillator frequency source, such as satellite navigation systems (e.g., GPS, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) etc.).

[0078] A frequency estimation algorithm is used to estimate the frequency of the oscillator to determine the frequency error of the oscillator caused by the temperature noise of the thermistor. Using a single solution to account for all levels of thermistor temperature noise results in a conservative oscillator frequency estimation algorithm that works for all noise levels, even the worst case (i.e., a one size fits all approach). The conservative algorithm will result in a slow filter response, especially under fast thermal transient conditions, which will result in a large time delay in the oscillator frequency estimation and, therefore, a degradation in system performance (e.g., GNSS position accuracy).

[0079] Thus, the present disclosure provides techniques for adaptively updating oscillator frequency estimation algorithm parameters based on the oscillator temperature noise level measured on the device. "On-device" means that the oscillator temperature noise level is continuously measured, rather than offline measurements based on collected data. Thus, the oscillator temperature noise measurement results are updated with each new temperature reading. The techniques of the present disclosure are particularly applicable to non-temperature compensated oscillators, such as crystal oscillators, but are applicable to any type of oscillator that is subject to temperature-based frequency fluctuations.

[0080] Figure 3 3 is a block diagram 300 illustrating the input and output of an oscillator frequency estimation algorithm according to aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 3As shown, PMIC 310 may output a temperature measurement of an oscillator, such as a crystal oscillator. A PMIC, such as PMIC 310, may be used to manage power in modules in or on an electronic device, which may have a range of voltages. The PMIC may manage battery power charging and sleep modes, DC-DC conversion, scaling of voltage reduction or increase, etc. PMIC 310 may include or be coupled to the oscillator being measured.

[0081] Based on the measurement results from the PMIC 310, the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation block 320 can estimate the temperature noise level of the oscillator and output a different set of algorithm parameters 330 for the oscillator frequency estimation algorithm. Figure 3 In the example of , N parameter sets may be determined, where N is greater than or equal to 1. Based on the determined parameter sets, the oscillator frequency estimation algorithm block 340 may estimate the oscillator frequency error over time.

[0082] It should be noted that blocks 320 to 340 may be implemented in software (e.g., may be a software block or software module) of a specific system of the electronic device (e.g., a GNSS system of the electronic device). Based on the estimated oscillator frequency error, the software may provide frequency correction feedback to the corresponding hardware (e.g., GNSS hardware).

[0083] Referring to the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation block 320 in more detail, it is challenging to calculate the absolute value of the noise variance of the oscillator given the real thermal dynamics of the electronic device housing the oscillator. Therefore, the present technique uses the difference value remaining after removing the estimated value of any real thermal variations.

[0084] Specifically, the differential variance (denoted as "DVar") is a function of the temperature difference (denoted as "DT"). The temperature difference (DT) value is calculated after removing the estimate of any real temperature shift, because the noise estimation calculation should be insensitive to any real oscillator temperature changes. That is, the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation block 320 should only focus on temperature noise and not on actual changes in temperature. The on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation block 320 can determine the temperature difference (DT) value and the differential variance (DVar) using the following equations:

[0085] DT(n) = f(differential T(n))

[0086] DVar(n) = f(DVar(n-1), DT(n))

[0087] Here are some specific examples of the functions f(differential T(n)) and f(DVar(n-1), DT(n)) where the variable m is an odd number:

[0088] DT(n) = (1 / m)*(T(n) – T(n – m)) – (T(n – floor(m / 2)) – T(n – ceil(m / 2)))

[0089] DVar(n) = (1 – w)*DVar(n – 1) + w*(DT(n)*DT(n))

[0090] If m is even, here are specific examples of the functions f(differential T(n)) and f(DVar(n-1), DT(n)):

[0091] DT(n) = (1 / m)*(T(n) – T(n – m)) – (T(n – floor(m / 2)) – T(n – ceil(m / 3)))

[0092] DVar(n) = (1 – w)*DVar(n – 1) + w*(DT(n)*DT(n))

[0093] In the above equation, m is some number of temperature readings (e.g., 10 readings), and n is the index of a specific temperature reading. T(n) is the temperature reading at index n, and w is the filter weight. The purpose of the temperature difference equation DT(n) is to determine the average value (1 / m) of T(n) - T(nm), resulting in a large window that includes both actual temperature variations and temperature noise, and then remove the center of the window using floor and ceiling functions to remove actual temperature variations. This results in an estimate of the temperature noise level. Note that the temperature difference equation DT(n) does not require floor and ceiling functions; instead, these functions can be replaced by any function that removes the center of the larger window (i.e., (1 / m)*(T(n) – T(n – m))).

[0094] Referring to the filter weights, the filter can have two configurations. One is a convergence mode, in which the weight value w is set to a large value (e.g., in the range of 0.01). This mode is conducive to fast algorithm convergence in the initial time period after the electronic device is first started (e.g., in the range of tens of seconds). Another configuration is a tracking mode using a small weight value w (e.g., in the range of 0.00005). This mode can be used to slowly track the noise level while being insensitive to real thermal transients. Typically, the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation block 320 will use a convergence mode for the filter weights (e.g., after the device is started), and then switch to a tracking mode.

[0095] Reference frequency estimation algorithm parameters ( Figure 3 The algorithm parameters set 330 in the oscillator frequency estimation algorithm block 340 may be, for example, parameters determined based on an infinite impulse response (IIR) low pass filter applied to the output of the frequency-temperature curve of the oscillator (e.g., as indicated by the temperature measurement results of the oscillator). An IIR filter is a digital filter that uses a feedback mechanism. Specifically, an IIR filter uses current and past output data. The following equation is an example of an IIR filter used by the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation block 320 to determine the algorithm parameters 330 of the oscillator frequency estimation algorithm block 340:

[0096] Value_new=Value_old+filter_coeff*(RAW_value-value_old)

[0097] In the above equation, "Raw_value" is the current instantaneous estimated value. Various filter modes may depend on the filter_coeff configuration. For example, a fast filter may have filter_coeff=1, a medium filter may have filter_coeff=2, and a slow filter may have filter_coeff=4.

[0098] The output of the IIR filter may be combined with dynamic filter weights configured by the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation block 320. In one aspect, when the noise level is low (e.g., below a certain threshold), more weight may be assigned to the fast filter output, while in the case of high noise levels (e.g., above a certain threshold), more weight may be assigned to the slow filter output.

[0099] As will be appreciated, adaptively updating the configuration of the oscillator frequency estimation algorithm block 340 results in a customized algorithm configuration based on the specific noise level of the electronic device (as opposed to a conservative algorithm applied to all devices), which in turn improves the oscillator frequency error estimate.

[0100] Figure 4 An example method 400 of oscillator frequency error estimation according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. In one aspect, the method 400 may be performed by an electronic device (eg, any of the UEs, base stations, or other electronic devices described herein).

[0101] At 410, the electronic device receives a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a PMIC (e.g., PMIC 310). In one aspect, where the electronic device is a UE, operation 410 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 210, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 220, satellite signal receiver 230, one or more processors 232, memory 240, and / or oscillator algorithm 242, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a base station, operation 410 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 250, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 260, satellite signal receiver 270, one or more processors 284, memory 286, and / or oscillator algorithm 288, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a network entity, operation 410 may be performed by one or more network transceivers 290, one or more processors 294, memory 296, and / or oscillator algorithm 298, any or all of which may be considered means for performing the operation.

[0102] At 420, the electronic device (e.g., the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation block 320) determines a temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a UE, operation 420 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 210, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 220, a satellite signal receiver 230, one or more processors 232, a memory 240, and / or an oscillator algorithm 242, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a base station, operation 420 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 250, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 260, a satellite signal receiver 270, one or more processors 284, a memory 286, and / or an oscillator algorithm 288, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a network entity, operation 420 may be performed by one or more network transceivers 290, one or more processors 294, memory 296, and / or oscillator algorithm 298, any or all of which may be considered a means for performing the operation.

[0103] At 430, the electronic device (e.g., the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation block 320) determines a set of parameters (e.g., algorithm parameters 330) for determining a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a UE, operation 430 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 210, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 220, a satellite signal receiver 230, one or more processors 232, a memory 240, and / or an oscillator algorithm 242, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a base station, operation 430 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 250, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 260, a satellite signal receiver 270, one or more processors 284, a memory 286, and / or an oscillator algorithm 288, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a network entity, operation 430 may be performed by one or more network transceivers 290, one or more processors 294, memory 296, and / or oscillator algorithm 298, any or all of which may be considered as means for performing the operation.

[0104] At 440, the electronic device (e.g., oscillator frequency estimation algorithm block 340) determines a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the parameter set. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a UE, operation 440 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 210, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 220, satellite signal receiver 230, one or more processors 232, memory 240, and / or oscillator algorithm 242, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a base station, operation 440 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 250, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 260, satellite signal receiver 270, one or more processors 284, memory 286, and / or oscillator algorithm 288, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing the operation. In one aspect, where the electronic device is a network entity, operation 440 may be performed by one or more network transceivers 290, one or more processors 294, memory 296, and / or oscillator algorithm 298, any or all of which may be considered as means for performing the operation.

[0105] As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of method 400 is an improved oscillator frequency error estimate based on oscillator temperature measurements. For example, in a GNSS device, performance improvements may include higher GNSS sensitivity and therefore improved position accuracy performance, improved data decoding performance, resulting in faster first fix time, and improved carrier phase tracking, resulting in improved position accuracy and improved precise positioning availability. The improved algorithm may also better estimate oscillator frequency error under high thermal transient conditions, allowing for more hardware compact devices.

[0106] In the above detailed description, it can be seen that different features are grouped together in the examples. This disclosure should not be understood as an intention that the exemplary clauses have more features than the features explicitly mentioned in each clause. On the contrary, various aspects of the present disclosure may include less than all the features of the various example clauses disclosed. Therefore, the following clauses should be considered to be incorporated into the specification, where each clause itself can be used as a separate example. Although each dependent clause may refer to a specific combination with one of the other clauses in the clause, the aspects of the dependent clause are not limited to a specific combination. It should be understood that other example clauses may also include a combination of the dependent clause aspects with the subject matter of any other dependent clause or independent clause, or any feature with other dependent and independent clauses. Various aspects disclosed herein explicitly include these combinations, unless it is explicitly expressed or it can be easily inferred that a specific combination is not intended (for example, contradictory aspects, such as defining an element as an electrical insulator and an electrical conductor). In addition, it is also intended that various aspects of the clause can be included in any other independent clause, even if the clause is not directly dependent on the independent clause.

[0107] Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0108] Clause 1. A method of oscillator frequency error estimation performed by an electronic device, comprising: receiving a plurality of temperature measurement results of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC); determining a temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; determining a parameter set for determining a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; and determining the frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the parameter set.

[0109] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein determining the temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator comprises: determining a set of temperature difference values ​​based at least on the plurality of temperature measurements; and determining a set of differential variances based at least on filter weights applied to the set of temperature difference values.

[0110] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, wherein the set of temperature difference values ​​is determined based on an estimate of actual temperature variation of the oscillator removed.

[0111] Clause 4. The method of any one of clauses 2 to 3, wherein the set of temperature difference values ​​is based on an average of the plurality of temperature measurements.

[0112] Clause 5. A method according to any one of clauses 2 to 4, wherein each temperature difference value in the temperature difference value set is determined as: DT(n) = (1 / m)*(T(n) – T(n – m)) – (T(n – floor(m / 2)) – T(n – ceil(m / 2))), wherein m is the number of the multiple temperature measurement results, n is the index value of the temperature measurement result in the multiple temperature measurement results, T(n) is the temperature measurement result at the index value n, and DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n.

[0113] Clause 6. A method according to any one of clauses 2 to 5, wherein each differential variance in the differential variance set is determined as: DVar(n) = (1 – w)*DVar(n – 1) + w*(DT(n)*DT(n)), wherein n is the index value of the temperature measurement result in the multiple temperature measurement results, w is the filter weight, DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n, DVar(n) is the differential variance at the index value n, and DVar(n – 1) is the differential variance at the index value n-1.

[0114] Clause 7. The method of any one of clauses 2 to 6, wherein the filter weights are configured according to a convergence mode, a tracking mode, or both.

[0115] Clause 8. The method according to Clause 7, wherein: the filter weights are configured according to the convergence mode during an initial time period after the electronic device is started, and the filter weights are configured according to the tracking mode after the initial time period after the electronic device is started.

[0116] Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 7 to 8, wherein the values ​​of the filter weights used for the convergence mode are greater than the values ​​of the filter weights used for the tracking mode.

[0117] Clause 10. The method of any of clauses 1 to 9, wherein the set of parameters used to determine the frequency error estimate of the oscillator comprises a subset of parameters determined based on a feedback filter applied to a frequency-temperature curve output of the oscillator.

[0118] Clause 11. A method according to clause 10, wherein each parameter in the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter is determined as: Value_new = Value_old + filter_coeff*(Raw_value – Value_old), wherein Value_old is the previous value of the parameter, Raw_value is the current instantaneous estimate of the parameter, Value_new is the current value of the parameter, and filter_coeff is the filter coefficient of the feedback filter.

[0119] Clause 12. The method of any one of clauses 10 to 11, wherein the filter mode of the feedback filter is based on values ​​of filter coefficients of the feedback filter.

[0120] Clause 13. The method of Clause 12, wherein a lower value of the filter coefficient configures the feedback filter to operate faster than a higher value of the filter coefficient.

[0121] Clause 14. The method of any of clauses 10 to 13, further comprising combining the set of parameters determined based on the feedback filter with filter weights used to determine a set of differential variances based on the plurality of temperature measurements.

[0122] Clause 15. The method of clause 14, wherein more filter weights are assigned to the set of parameters determined based on the feedback filter based on the temperature noise level estimate being below a threshold than based on the temperature noise level estimate being above a threshold.

[0123] Clause 16. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 15, wherein: the temperature noise level estimate is determined by an on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation module, and the parameter set is determined by the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation module.

[0124] Clause 17. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 16, wherein the frequency error estimate is determined by an oscillator frequency estimation algorithm module.

[0125] Clause 18. The method of any of clauses 1 to 17, wherein the oscillator is a crystal oscillator or a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) oscillator.

[0126] Clause 19. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 18, further comprising: sending the frequency error estimate to a hardware subsystem of the electronic device.

[0127] Clause 20. The method of Clause 19, wherein the hardware subsystem is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) of the electronic device.

[0128] Clause 21. An electronic device comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor being configured to: receive a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) via the at least one transceiver; determine a temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; determine a parameter set for determining a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; and determine the frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the parameter set.

[0129] Clause 22. An electronic device according to Clause 21, wherein the at least one processor configured to determine the temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator includes the at least one processor configured to perform the following operations: determine a set of temperature difference values ​​based at least on the multiple temperature measurement results; and determine a set of differential variances based at least on filter weights applied to the set of temperature difference values.

[0130] Clause 23. The electronic device of Clause 22, wherein the set of temperature difference values ​​is determined based on an estimate of actual temperature variation of the oscillator removed.

[0131] Clause 24. The electronic device of any of Clauses 22-23, wherein the set of temperature difference values ​​is based on an average of the plurality of temperature measurements.

[0132] Clause 25. An electronic device according to any one of clauses 22 to 24, wherein each temperature difference value in the temperature difference value set is determined as: DT(n) = (1 / m)*(T(n) – T(n – m)) – (T(n – floor(m / 2)) – T(n –ceil(m / 2))), wherein m is the number of the multiple temperature measurement results, n is the index value of the temperature measurement result in the multiple temperature measurement results, T(n) is the temperature measurement result at the index value n, and DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n.

[0133] Clause 26. An electronic device according to any one of clauses 22 to 25, wherein each differential variance in the differential variance set is determined as: DVar(n) = (1 – w)*DVar(n – 1) + w*(DT(n)*DT(n)), wherein n is the index value of the temperature measurement result in the multiple temperature measurement results, w is the filter weight, DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n, DVar(n) is the differential variance at the index value n, and DVar(n – 1) is the differential variance at the index value n-1.

[0134] Clause 27. The electronic device of any of clauses 22 to 26, wherein the filter weights are configured according to a convergence mode, a tracking mode, or both.

[0135] Clause 28. An electronic device according to Clause 27, wherein: in an initial time period after the electronic device is started, the filter weights are configured according to the convergence mode, and after the initial time period after the electronic device is started, the filter weights are configured according to the tracking mode.

[0136] Clause 29. An electronic device as recited in any one of Clauses 27 to 28, wherein the values ​​of the filter weights used for the convergence mode are greater than the values ​​of the filter weights used for the tracking mode.

[0137] Clause 30. An electronic device according to any of clauses 21 to 29, wherein the set of parameter sets used to determine the frequency error estimate of the oscillator includes a subset of parameters determined based on a feedback filter applied to a frequency-temperature curve output of the oscillator.

[0138] Clause 31. An electronic device according to Clause 30, wherein each parameter in the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter is determined as: Value_new = Value_old + filter_coeff*(Raw_value –Value_old), wherein Value_old is the previous value of the parameter, Raw_value is the current instantaneous estimated value of the parameter, Value_new is the current value of the parameter, and filter_coeff is the filter coefficient of the feedback filter.

[0139] Clause 32. An electronic device as described in any of clauses 30 to 31, wherein the filter mode of the feedback filter is based on the values ​​of filter coefficients of the feedback filter.

[0140] Clause 33. The electronic device of clause 32, wherein a lower value of the filter coefficient configures the feedback filter to operate faster than a higher value of the filter coefficient.

[0141] Clause 34. An electronic device according to any one of clauses 30 to 33, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: combine the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter with filter weights used to determine a differential variance set based on the plurality of temperature measurements.

[0142] Clause 35. An electronic device as described in Clause 34, wherein more filter weights are assigned to the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter based on the temperature noise level estimate being below a threshold than based on the temperature noise level estimate being above a threshold.

[0143] Clause 36. An electronic device as recited in any one of Clauses 21 to 35, wherein: the temperature noise level estimate is determined by an on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation module, and the parameter set is determined by the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation module.

[0144] Clause 37. An electronic device as described in any of Clauses 21 to 36, wherein the frequency error estimate is determined by an oscillator frequency estimation algorithm module.

[0145] Clause 38. The electronic device of any one of clauses 21 to 37, wherein the oscillator is a crystal oscillator or a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) oscillator.

[0146] Clause 39. The electronic device of any of clauses 21 to 38, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit the frequency error estimate to a hardware subsystem of the electronic device via the at least one transceiver.

[0147] Clause 40. The electronic device of clause 39, wherein the hardware subsystem is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) of the electronic device.

[0148] Clause 41. An electronic device comprising: a component for receiving a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC); a component for determining a temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; a component for determining a parameter set for determining a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; and a component for determining the frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the parameter set.

[0149] Clause 42. An electronic device according to clause 41, wherein the component for determining the temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator includes: a component for determining a set of temperature difference values ​​based at least on multiple temperature measurement results; and a component for determining a set of differential variances based at least on filter weights applied to the set of temperature difference values.

[0150] Clause 43. The electronic device of clause 42, wherein the set of temperature difference values ​​is determined based on an estimate of actual temperature variation of the oscillator removed.

[0151] Clause 44. The electronic device of any of clauses 42 to 43, wherein the set of temperature difference values ​​is based on an average of the plurality of temperature measurements.

[0152] Clause 45. An electronic device according to any one of clauses 42 to 44, wherein each temperature difference value in the temperature difference value set is determined as: DT(n) = (1 / m)*(T(n) – T(n – m)) – (T(n – floor(m / 2)) – T(n –ceil(m / 2))), wherein m is the number of the multiple temperature measurement results, n is the index value of the temperature measurement result in the multiple temperature measurement results, T(n) is the temperature measurement result at the index value n, and DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n.

[0153] Clause 46. An electronic device according to any one of clauses 42 to 45, wherein each differential variance in the differential variance set is determined as: DVar(n) = (1 – w)*DVar(n – 1) + w*(DT(n)*DT(n)), wherein n is the index value of the temperature measurement result in the multiple temperature measurement results, w is the filter weight, DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n, DVar(n) is the differential variance at the index value n, and DVar(n – 1) is the differential variance at the index value n-1.

[0154] Clause 47. An electronic device as recited in any one of Clauses 42 to 46, wherein the filter weights are configured according to a convergence mode, a tracking mode, or both.

[0155] Clause 48. An electronic device according to Clause 47, wherein: in an initial time period after the electronic device is started, the filter weights are configured according to the convergence mode, and after the initial time period after the electronic device is started, the filter weights are configured according to the tracking mode.

[0156] Clause 49. An electronic device as recited in any one of Clauses 47 to 48, wherein the values ​​of the filter weights used for the convergence mode are greater than the values ​​of the filter weights used for the tracking mode.

[0157] Clause 50. An electronic device as described in any of clauses 41 to 49, wherein the set of parameters used to determine the frequency error estimate of the oscillator includes a subset of parameters determined based on a feedback filter applied to a frequency-temperature curve output of the oscillator.

[0158] Clause 51. An electronic device according to Clause 50, wherein each parameter in the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter is determined as: Value_new = Value_old + filter_coeff*(Raw_value –Value_old), wherein Value_old is the previous value of the parameter, Raw_value is the current instantaneous estimate of the parameter, Value_new is the current value of the parameter, and filter_coeff is the filter coefficient of the feedback filter.

[0159] Clause 52. An electronic device as described in any of clauses 50 to 51, wherein the filter mode of the feedback filter is based on the values ​​of filter coefficients of the feedback filter.

[0160] Clause 53. The electronic device of clause 52, wherein a lower value of the filter coefficient configures the feedback filter to operate faster than a higher value of the filter coefficient.

[0161] Clause 54. The electronic device of any of clauses 50 to 53, further comprising: means for combining the set of parameters determined based on the feedback filter with filter weights used to determine a set of differential variances based on the plurality of temperature measurements.

[0162] Clause 55. An electronic device as described in Clause 54, wherein more filter weights are assigned to the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter based on the temperature noise level estimate being below a threshold than based on the temperature noise level estimate being above a threshold.

[0163] Clause 56. An electronic device as described in any of Clauses 41 to 55, wherein: the temperature noise level estimate is determined by an on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation module, and the parameter set is determined by the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation module.

[0164] Clause 57. The electronic device of any of clauses 41 to 56, wherein the frequency error estimate is determined by an oscillator frequency estimation algorithm module.

[0165] Clause 58. The electronic device of any one of clauses 41 to 57, wherein the oscillator is a crystal oscillator or a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) oscillator.

[0166] Clause 59. The electronic device of any one of clauses 41 to 58, further comprising: means for sending the frequency error estimate to a hardware subsystem of the electronic device.

[0167] Clause 60. The electronic device of clause 59, wherein the hardware subsystem is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) of the electronic device.

[0168] Clause 61. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to: receive a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC); determine a temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; determine a set of parameters for determining a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; and determine the frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the set of parameters.

[0169] Clause 62. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to clause 61, wherein when executed by the electronic device, the computer executable instructions that cause the electronic device to determine the temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator include computer executable instructions that, when executed by the electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the following operations: determine a set of temperature difference values ​​based at least on the multiple temperature measurement results; and determine a set of differential variances based at least on filter weights applied to the set of temperature difference values.

[0170] Clause 63. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of Clause 62, wherein the set of temperature difference values ​​is determined based on removing an estimate of an actual temperature variation of the oscillator.

[0171] Clause 64. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of Clauses 62 to 63, wherein the set of temperature difference values ​​is based on an average of the plurality of temperature measurements.

[0172] Clause 65. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of clauses 62 to 64, wherein each temperature difference value in the temperature difference value set is determined as: DT(n) = (1 / m)*(T(n) – T(n – m)) – (T(n – floor(m / 2)) – T(n – ceil(m / 2))), wherein m is the number of the multiple temperature measurement results, n is the index value of the temperature measurement result in the multiple temperature measurement results, T(n) is the temperature measurement result at the index value n, and DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n.

[0173] Clause 66. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 62 to 65, wherein each differential variance in the differential variance set is determined as: DVar(n) = (1 – w)*DVar(n – 1) + w*(DT(n)*DT(n)), wherein n is the index value of the temperature measurement result in the plurality of temperature measurement results, w is the filter weight, DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n, DVar(n) is the differential variance at the index value n, and DVar(n – 1) is the differential variance at the index value n-1.

[0174] Clause 67. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 62 to 66, wherein the filter weights are configured according to a convergence mode, a tracking mode, or both.

[0175] Clause 68. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Clause 67, wherein: in an initial time period after the electronic device is started, the filter weights are configured according to the convergence mode, and after the initial time period after the electronic device is started, the filter weights are configured according to the tracking mode.

[0176] Clause 69. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of Clauses 67-68, wherein the value of the filter weight for the convergence mode is greater than the value of the filter weight for the tracking mode.

[0177] Clause 70. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as described in any of clauses 61 to 69, wherein the set of parameters used to determine the frequency error estimate of the oscillator includes a subset of parameters determined based on a feedback filter applied to a frequency-temperature curve output of the oscillator.

[0178] Clause 71. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to clause 70, wherein each parameter in the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter is determined as: Value_new = Value_old + filter_coeff*(Raw_value – Value_old), wherein Value_old is the previous value of the parameter, Raw_value is the current instantaneous estimate of the parameter, Value_new is the current value of the parameter, and filter_coeff is the filter coefficient of the feedback filter.

[0179] Clause 72. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of Clauses 70 to 71, wherein a filter mode of the feedback filter is based on values ​​of filter coefficients of the feedback filter.

[0180] Clause 73. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of Clause 72, wherein a lower value of the filter coefficient configures the feedback filter to operate faster than a higher value of the filter coefficient.

[0181] Clause 74. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 70 to 73 further comprises computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the electronic device, cause the electronic device to: combine the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter with filter weights used to determine a differential variance set based on the multiple temperature measurement results.

[0182] Clause 75. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as described in clause 74, wherein more filter weights are assigned to the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter based on the temperature noise level estimate being below a threshold than based on the temperature noise level estimate being above a threshold.

[0183] Clause 76. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 61 to 75, wherein: the temperature noise level estimate is determined by an on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation module, and the parameter set is determined by the on-device oscillator temperature noise level estimation module.

[0184] Clause 77. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 61 to 76, wherein the frequency error estimate is determined by an oscillator frequency estimation algorithm module.

[0185] Clause 78. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of Clauses 61 to 77, wherein the oscillator is a crystal oscillator or a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) oscillator.

[0186] Clause 79. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 61 to 78, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the electronic device, cause the electronic device to: send the frequency error estimate to a hardware subsystem of the electronic device.

[0187] Clause 80. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of Clause 79, wherein the hardware subsystem is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) of the electronic device.

[0188] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that any of a variety of different technologies and techniques may be used to represent information and signals. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0189] In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in conjunction with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been generally described above in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. Those skilled in the art may implement the described functionality in different ways for each specific application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

[0190] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or executed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but 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, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, a combination of one or more microprocessors and a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0191] The methods, sequences and / or algorithms described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software module may reside in a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An example storage medium is coupled to a processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. In an alternative, the storage medium may be integrated into the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). In an alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in a user terminal as discrete components.

[0192] In one or more example aspects, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted by a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or codes. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, and communication media include any media that facilitate the transfer of computer programs from one place to another. Storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, or other optical disk storage devices, magnetic disk storage devices, or other magnetic storage devices, or any other media that can be used to carry or store desired program codes in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer. In addition, any connection is appropriately referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, if software is sent from a website, server, or other remote source using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technology (such as infrared, radio, and microwave), coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technology (such as infrared, radio, and microwave) are included in the definition of the medium. As used herein, disk and disc include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray disc, where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0193] Although the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative aspects of the present disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications may be made herein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and / or actions of the method claims according to the aspects of the present disclosure described herein do not need to be performed in any particular order. In addition, although the elements of the present invention may be described or claimed in singular form, plural forms are encompassed unless explicitly stated to be limited to the singular form.

Claims

1. A method for estimating an oscillator frequency error performed by an electronic device, comprising: receiving a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC); determining an estimate of a temperature noise level of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; determining a set of parameters for determining a frequency error estimate for the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; as well as The frequency error estimate of the oscillator is determined based on the set of parameters.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Determining the temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator comprises: determining a set of temperature difference values ​​based at least on the plurality of temperature measurements; and A set of difference variances is determined based at least on filter weights applied to the set of temperature difference values.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The set of temperature difference values ​​is determined based on an estimate of actual temperature variation removed from the oscillator.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The set of temperature difference values ​​is based on an average of the plurality of temperature measurements.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein: Each temperature difference value in the temperature difference value set is determined as: DT(n) = (1 / m)*(T(n) – T(n – m)) – (T(n – floor(m / 2)) – T(n – ceil(m / 2))), Wherein, m is the number of the plurality of temperature measurement results, n is the index value of a temperature measurement result in the plurality of temperature measurement results, T(n) is the temperature measurement result at the index value n, and DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein: Each difference variance in the difference variance set is determined as: DVar(n) = (1 – w)*DVar(n – 1) + w*(DT(n)*DT(n)), Wherein, n is the index value of the temperature measurement result in the plurality of temperature measurement results, w is the filter weight, DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n, DVar(n) is the differential variance at the index value n, and DVar(n-1) is the differential variance at the index value n-1.

7. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The filter weights are configured according to convergence mode, tracking mode, or both.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein: In an initial period after the electronic device is started, the filter weights are configured according to the convergence mode, and After the initial period of time after the electronic device is started up, the filter weights are configured according to the tracking mode.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein: The value of the filter weight for the convergence mode is greater than the value of the filter weight for the tracking mode.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The set of parameters used to determine the frequency error estimate of the oscillator includes a subset of parameters determined based on a feedback filter applied to a frequency-temperature curve output of the oscillator.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein: Each parameter in the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter is determined as: Value_new = Value_old + filter_coeff*(Raw_value – Value_old), Wherein Value_old is the previous value of the parameter, Raw_value is the current instantaneous estimate of the parameter, Value_new is the current value of the parameter, and filter_coeff is the filter coefficient of the feedback filter.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The filter mode of the feedback filter is based on the values ​​of the filter coefficients of the feedback filter.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein: Lower values ​​of the filter coefficient configure the feedback filter to operate faster than higher values ​​of the filter coefficient.

14. The method according to claim 10, further comprising: The set of parameters determined based on the feedback filter is combined with filter weights used to determine a set of differential variances based on the plurality of temperature measurements.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein: More filter weights are assigned to the set of parameters determined based on the feedback filter based on the temperature noise level estimate being below the threshold than based on the temperature noise level estimate being above the threshold.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein: The temperature noise level estimate is determined by an oscillator temperature noise level estimation module on the device, and The parameter set is determined by an oscillator temperature noise level estimation module on the device.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The frequency error estimate is determined by an oscillator frequency estimation algorithm module.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The oscillator is a crystal oscillator or a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) oscillator.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising: The frequency error estimate is sent to a hardware subsystem of the electronic device.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein: The hardware subsystem is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) of the electronic device.

21. An electronic device, comprising: Memory; at least one transceiver; as well as at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: receiving, via the at least one transceiver, a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC); determining an estimate of a temperature noise level of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; determining a set of parameters for determining a frequency error estimate for the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; as well as The frequency error estimate of the oscillator is determined based on the set of parameters.

22. The electronic device according to claim 21, wherein: The at least one processor configured to determine the temperature noise level estimate of the oscillator includes the at least one processor configured to: determining a set of temperature difference values ​​based at least on the plurality of temperature measurements; and A set of difference variances is determined based at least on filter weights applied to the set of temperature difference values.

23. The electronic device according to claim 22, wherein: The set of temperature difference values ​​is determined based on an estimate of actual temperature variation removed from the oscillator.

24. The electronic device according to claim 22, wherein: The set of temperature difference values ​​is based on an average of the plurality of temperature measurements.

25. The electronic device according to claim 22, wherein: Each temperature difference value in the temperature difference value set is determined as: DT(n) = (1 / m)*(T(n) – T(n – m)) – (T(n – floor(m / 2)) – T(n – ceil(m / 2))), Wherein, m is the number of the plurality of temperature measurement results, n is the index value of a temperature measurement result in the plurality of temperature measurement results, T(n) is the temperature measurement result at the index value n, and DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n.

26. The electronic device according to claim 22, wherein: Each difference variance in the difference variance set is determined as: DVar(n) = (1 – w)*DVar(n – 1) + w*(DT(n)*DT(n)), Wherein, n is the index value of the temperature measurement result in the plurality of temperature measurement results, w is the filter weight, DT(n) is the temperature difference value at the index value n, DVar(n) is the differential variance at the index value n, and DVar(n-1) is the differential variance at the index value n-1.

27. The electronic device according to claim 22, wherein: The filter weights are configured according to convergence mode, tracking mode, or both.

28. The electronic device of claim 27, wherein: In an initial period after the electronic device is started, the filter weights are configured according to the convergence mode, and After the initial period of time after the electronic device is started up, the filter weights are configured according to the tracking mode.

29. The electronic device according to claim 27, wherein: The value of the filter weight for the convergence mode is greater than the value of the filter weight for the tracking mode.

30. The electronic device according to claim 21, wherein: The set of parameters used to determine the frequency error estimate of the oscillator includes a subset of parameters determined based on a feedback filter applied to a frequency-temperature curve output of the oscillator.

31. The electronic device according to claim 30, wherein: Each parameter in the parameter set determined based on the feedback filter is determined as: Value_new = Value_old + filter_coeff*(Raw_value – Value_old), Wherein Value_old is the previous value of the parameter, Raw_value is the current instantaneous estimate of the parameter, Value_new is the current value of the parameter, and filter_coeff is the filter coefficient of the feedback filter.

32. The electronic device according to claim 30, wherein: The filter mode of the feedback filter is based on the values ​​of the filter coefficients of the feedback filter.

33. The electronic device according to claim 32, wherein: Lower values ​​of the filter coefficient configure the feedback filter to operate faster than higher values ​​of the filter coefficient.

34. The electronic device according to claim 30, wherein: The at least one processor is further configured to: The set of parameters determined based on the feedback filter is combined with filter weights used to determine a set of differential variances based on the plurality of temperature measurements.

35. The electronic device according to claim 34, wherein: More filter weights are assigned to the set of parameters determined based on the feedback filter based on the temperature noise level estimate being below a threshold than based on the temperature noise level estimate being above a threshold.

36. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein: The temperature noise level estimate is determined by an oscillator temperature noise level estimation module on the device, and The parameter set is determined by an oscillator temperature noise level estimation module on the device.

37. The electronic device according to claim 21, wherein: The frequency error estimate is determined by an oscillator frequency estimation algorithm module.

38. The electronic device according to claim 21, wherein: The oscillator is a crystal oscillator or a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) oscillator.

39. The electronic device according to claim 21, wherein: The at least one processor is further configured to: The frequency error estimate is transmitted to a hardware subsystem of the electronic device via the at least one transceiver.

40. The electronic device according to claim 39, wherein: The hardware subsystem is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) of the electronic device.

41. An electronic device comprising: means for receiving a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC); means for determining an estimate of a temperature noise level of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; means for determining a set of parameters for determining a frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; as well as Means for determining the frequency error estimate of the oscillator based on the set of parameters.

42. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to: receiving a plurality of temperature measurements of an oscillator of the electronic device from a power management integrated circuit (PMIC); determining an estimate of a temperature noise level of the oscillator based on the plurality of temperature measurements; determining a set of parameters for determining a frequency error estimate for the oscillator based on the temperature noise level estimate; as well as The frequency error estimate of the oscillator is determined based on the set of parameters.

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