Ground positioning for unknown cells

Abstract

Aspects presented herein relate to methods and devices for wireless communication, including apparatuses, such as devices or servers. The apparatus can detect a set of cells associated with a network node, where each cell in the set of cells includes a cell ID, where the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node. The apparatus can also identify a location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID for each cell in the set of cells. Additionally, the apparatus can estimate an average location of the set of cells based on the location of each cell in the set of cells. The apparatus can also calculate a location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 63 / 369,870, filed on July 29, 2022, entitled “TERRESTRIAL POSITIONING FOR UNKNOWN CELLS,” and U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 18 / 349,092, filed on July 7, 2023, entitled “TERRESTRIAL POSITIONING FOR UNKNOWN CELLS,” the entireties of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to positioning measurements in wireless communication systems. Background Art

[0004] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide a variety of telecommunication services, such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcast. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources. Examples of such multiple access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.

[0005] These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate at city, country, region, and even global levels. An example telecommunication standard is 5G New Radio (NR). 5G NR is part of the continuous mobile broadband evolution promulgated by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to meet new requirements associated with latency, reliability, security, scalability (e.g., with the Internet of Things (IoT)) and other requirements. 5G NR includes services associated with enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communication (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC). Certain aspects of 5G NR may be based on 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards. It is necessary to further improve 5G NR technology. In addition, these improvements may also be applicable to other multiple access technologies and telecommunication standards that employ these technologies. Summary of the invention

[0006] The following presents a summary of one or more aspects in order to provide a basic understanding of these aspects. This summary is not an extensive review of all envisioned aspects. This summary is neither intended to identify the key or important elements of all aspects, nor to describe the scope of any or all aspects. Its only purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description presented later.

[0007] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be an apparatus for wireless communication at a device or user equipment (UE). The apparatus may send a request for a location of a network node associated with a set of cells to a network entity, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node. The apparatus may also receive an indication of the location of the network node associated with the set of cells from the network entity based on the request, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the set of cells.

[0008] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be an apparatus for wireless communication at a server or a network entity. The apparatus may receive a request for the location of a network node from at least one device before detecting a set of cells associated with a network node. And after calculating the location of the network node, an indication of the location of the network node is sent to the at least one device based on the request. The apparatus may also detect a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with the node ID of the network node. The apparatus may also identify the location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells. In addition, the apparatus may crowdsource data for each cell in the set of cells associated with each coverage area in the multiple coverage areas; and determine the location of the coverage area for each cell in the set of cells based on the crowdsourced data, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is identified based on the location of the coverage area. The apparatus may also estimate the average location of the set of cells based on the location of each cell in the set of cells. The device may also calculate the location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells. In addition, the device may calculate the location of at least one cell based on the average location of the set of cells, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the set of cells. The device may also output an indication of the location of the network node based on the calculation of the location of the network node.

[0009] To achieve the aforementioned and related purposes, one or more aspects include the features fully described below and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the accompanying drawings set forth in detail some exemplary features of one or more aspects. However, these features are only indicative of only some of the various ways in which the principles of the various aspects can be employed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication system and an access network.

[0011] Figure 2A is a diagram illustrating an example of a first frame according to various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0012] Figure 2B is a diagram illustrating an example of downlink (DL) channels within a subframe according to various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0013] Figure 2C is a diagram illustrating an example of a second frame according to various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0014] Figure 2D is a diagram illustrating an example of uplink (UL) channels within a subframe according to various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0015] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a base station and a user equipment (UE) in an access network.

[0016] Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of UE positioning based on reference signal measurement.

[0017] Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication system.

[0018] Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating an example positioning process.

[0019] Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating an example cell grouping of a wireless communication system.

[0020] Figure 8 is a diagram illustrating an example cell grouping of a wireless communication system.

[0021] Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating example ranges of base stations and corresponding cells in a wireless communication system.

[0022] Fig.10 is a diagram illustrating example ranges of base stations and corresponding cells in a wireless communication system.

[0023] Fig.11is a communication flow diagram illustrating example communications between a device and a server.

[0024] Fig.12 is a flow chart of a method of wireless communication.

[0025] Fig.13 is a flow chart of a method of wireless communication.

[0026] Fig.14 is a flow chart of a method of wireless communication.

[0027] Fig.15 is a flow chart of a method of wireless communication.

[0028] Fig.16 are diagrams illustrating examples of hardware implementations for example apparatuses and / or network entities.

[0029] Fig.17 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an example network entity.

[0030] Fig.18 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an example network entity. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] In various aspects of wireless communications, a particular type of cell (e.g., a network cell) may be associated with a network node or base station (e.g., a gNB in ​​5G NR or an eNB in ​​LTE). For example, cells may be grouped at different network nodes or base stations. These cells may be multiple different types of cells (e.g., a transmit receive point (TRP), a small cell, a small cell base station, or a user equipment (UE)). In some aspects, a base station (BS) identifier (ID) (e.g., an eNB ID or a gNB ID) may be used to identify a base station within a particular network (e.g., a public land mobile network (PLMN)). The base station ID may be included in the cell identity (CI) of its cell. A global base station ID (e.g., a global eNB ID or a global gNB ID) may be used to globally identify a base station. A global base station ID may be constructed based on the PLMN identity and / or base station ID to which the base station belongs. A mobile country code (MCC) and a mobile network code (MNC) may be included in a specific cell global identifier (e.g., an E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI)). Additionally, there may be multiple different types of base station IDs (e.g., a gNB ID or an eNB ID). For example, a macro base station ID (e.g., macro eNB ID or macro gNB ID) may be equal to the number of leftmost bits (e.g., 20 leftmost bits) of a cell identity information element (IE) included in a cell global identifier (CGI) information element (IE) (e.g., E-UTRAN CGI IE) for each cell served by the base station (e.g., gNB or eNB). A home base station ID (e.g., Home eNB ID or Home gNB ID) may be equal to the cell identity IE included in a CGI IE (e.g., E-UTRAN CGI IE) for each cell served by the base station (e.g., gNB or eNB). In addition, a short macro base station ID (e.g., short macro eNB ID or short macro gNB ID) may be equal to the number of leftmost bits (e.g., 18 leftmost bits) of a cell identity IE for each cell served by the base station (e.g., gNB or eNB). In addition, a long macro base station ID (e.g., a long macro eNB ID or a long macro gNB ID) may be equal to the number of leftmost bits (e.g., 21 leftmost bits) of a cell identity IE for each cell served by a base station (e.g., a gNB or an eNB), wherein the long macro base station ID is longer than the short macro base station ID. In some aspects, new or new networks (e.g., new LTE networks or new NR networks) such as narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) may not have enough observations to create a crowdsourced database. In addition, terrestrial positioning techniques that compare device-observed cell identifiers to a crowdsourced database may fail for new networks because there has not been significant crowdsourcing to collect all network cells.However, since a new air interface (e.g., a new NB-IoT air interface) can be deployed on an existing network (e.g., an existing LTE or NR network), specific techniques can be used to perform positioning for an observed cell (e.g., an NB-IoT cell). Various aspects of the present disclosure may perform positioning measurements for cells that were not originally present in the database. In some instances, the various aspects presented herein may also perform positioning measurements for cells when a crowdsourcing database already exists. Additionally, the various aspects presented herein may perform crowdsourcing (e.g., running crowdsourcing) for cells that were not originally present in the database (or for cells when a crowdsourcing database already exists). In order to do this, the various aspects presented herein may utilize a server or network entity that detects and identifies the location of a set of cells associated with a network node or base station. For example, a server or network entity may identify the location of each cell based on the cell ID of each cell. In addition, a server or network entity may estimate the average location of a cell based on the location of each cell in the cell, and then calculate the location of a base station or network node based on the average location of the cell. In addition, the various aspects presented herein can utilize terrestrial positioning services that provide extensive and complete location data for cells in a particular type of network (e.g., NB-IoT, CAT-M1, or LTE network). In some examples, the various aspects presented herein can infer unknown cell locations from database information (e.g., LTE database information).

[0032] Certain aspects of the subject matter described in the present disclosure can be implemented to achieve one or more of the following potential advantages. That is, various aspects of the present disclosure may include multiple benefits or advantages. For example, various aspects presented herein may allow new cells that cannot be found in the database (because they have not yet been crowdsourced) based on the cell ID of the new cell to be associated with a base station, and the calculated base station location can be used for ground positioning estimation of the cell. In addition, the results of this association at the server or network entity can be saved and seeded back into the database as a rough crowdsourcing form. Therefore, this can help build a new database. As the device population increases, the database can be updated / replaced by real GNSS-assisted crowdsourcing later. The seed database can be used for both single-cell ground positioning and multi-cell ground positioning. Therefore, various aspects presented herein can provide positioning and crowdsourcing for cells that were not originally in the database.

[0033] The specific embodiments described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings are descriptions of various configurations and do not represent the only configurations with which the concepts described herein can be practiced. In order to provide a thorough understanding of the various concepts, the specific embodiments include specific details. However, these concepts can be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form to avoid blurring these concepts.

[0034] Several aspects of the telecommunication system are also presented with reference to various apparatus and methods. These apparatus and methods are described in the following detailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings by various blocks, components, circuits, processes, algorithms, etc. (collectively referred to as "elements"). These elements can be implemented using electronic hardware, computer software, or any combination thereof. Whether these elements are implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0035] As an example, an element, or any part of an element, or any combination of elements can be implemented as a "processing system", which includes one or more processors. When multiple processors are implemented, the multiple processors can perform functions individually or in combination. Examples of processors include microprocessors, microcontrollers, graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs), application processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, systems on chip (SoCs), baseband processors, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gate logic parts, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform various functionalities described throughout the present disclosure. One or more processors in a processing system can execute software. Whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or other terms, software should be broadly interpreted as meaning instructions, instruction sets, codes, code segments, program codes, programs, subroutines, software components, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, processes, functions, or any combination thereof.

[0036] Therefore, in one or more example aspects, specific implementations and / or use cases, the described functions may be implemented with hardware, software, or any combination thereof. If implemented with software, the functions may be stored or encoded on a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or codes. Computer-readable media include computer storage media. Storage media may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, such computer-readable media may include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage, other magnetic storage devices, combinations of these types of computer-readable media, or any other medium that can be used to store computer-executable code in the form of instructions or data structures that can be accessed by a computer.

[0037] Although various aspects, specific implementations and / or use cases are described in this application by the illustration of some examples, additional or different aspects, specific implementations and use cases may be generated in many different arrangements and scenarios. The various aspects, specific implementations and / or use cases described herein can be implemented across many different platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes and packaging arrangements. For example, aspects, specific implementations and / or use cases can be generated via integrated chip specific implementations and other devices based on non-module components (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication equipment, computing equipment, industrial equipment, retail / purchase equipment, medical equipment, artificial intelligence (AI) enabled devices, etc.). Although some examples may be specifically for use cases or applications, or may not be specifically for use cases or applications, the described examples may have a wide range of applicability. Aspects, specific implementations and / or use cases may be in the range from chip-level or modular components to non-modular, non-chip-level specific implementations, and further to the range of aggregated, distributed or original equipment manufacturer (OEM) devices or systems in conjunction with one or more technologies herein. In some practical environments, the equipment in conjunction with the various aspects and features described may also include additional components and features for implementing and practicing the various aspects claimed and described. For example, the transmission and reception of wireless signals necessarily include multiple components for analog and digital purposes (e.g., hardware components including antennas, RF chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffers, processors, interleavers, adders / accumulators, etc.) The various techniques described herein can be practiced in a wide variety of devices, chip-level components, systems, distributed arrangements, aggregated or disaggregated components, end-user devices, etc., of various sizes, shapes, and configurations.

[0038] The deployment of a communication system (such as a 5G NR system) can be arranged with various components or constituent parts in a variety of ways. In a 5G NR system or network, a network node, a network entity, a mobility element of a network, a radio access network (RAN) node, a core network node, a network element or a network equipment (such as a base station (BS), or one or more units (or one or more components) that perform base station functionality can be implemented in an aggregated architecture or a decomposed architecture. For example, a BS (such as a Node B (NB), an evolved NB (eNB), an NR BS, a 5G NB, an access point (AP), a transmit receive point (TRP) or a cell, etc.) can be implemented as an aggregated base station (also referred to as an independent BS or a monolithic BS) or a decomposed base station.

[0039] A converged base station may be configured to utilize a radio protocol stack physically or logically integrated within a single RAN node. A decomposed base station may be configured to utilize a protocol stack physically or logically distributed between two or more units, such as one or more central or centralized units (CUs), one or more distributed units (DUs), or one or more radio units (RUs). In some aspects, a CU may be implemented within a RAN node, and one or more DUs may be co-located with the CU, or alternatively, may be geographically or virtually distributed in one or more other RAN nodes. A DU may be implemented to communicate with one or more RUs. Each of a CU, a DU, and a RU can be implemented as a virtual unit, i.e., a virtual central unit (VCU), a virtual distributed unit (VDU), or a virtual radio unit (VRU).

[0040] Base station operation or network design may take into account the aggregated nature of base station functionality. For example, a disaggregated base station may be used in an integrated access backhaul (IAB) network, an open radio access network (O-RAN (network configuration such as that initiated by the O-RAN Alliance)), or a virtualized radio access network (vRAN, also known as a cloud radio access network (C-RAN)). Decomposition may include distributing functionality across two or more units at various physical locations, as well as virtually distributing functionality of at least one unit, which enables flexibility in network design. Individual units of a disaggregated base station or disaggregated RAN architecture can be configured for wired or wireless communication with at least one other unit.

[0041] Figure 1 1 is a diagram 100 illustrating an example of a wireless communication system and an access network. The illustrated wireless communication system includes a disaggregated base station architecture. The disaggregated base station architecture may include one or more CUs 110 that are capable of communicating directly with a core network 120 via a backhaul link, or indirectly communicating with the core network 120 through one or more disaggregated base station units (such as a near real-time (near RT) RAN intelligent controller (RIC) 125 via an E2 link, or a non-real-time (non-RT) RIC 115 associated with a service management and orchestration (SMO) framework 105, or both). The CU 110 may communicate with one or more DUs 130 via corresponding midhaul links, such as an F1 interface. The DU 130 may communicate with one or more RUs 140 via corresponding fronthaul links. The RU 140 may communicate with corresponding UEs 104 via one or more radio frequency (RF) access links. In some implementations, a UE 104 may be served simultaneously by multiple RUs 140.

[0042] Each of the units (i.e., CU 110, DU 130, RU 140, and near-RT RIC 125, non-RT RIC 115, and SMO framework 105) may include or be coupled to one or more interfaces configured to receive or send signals, data, or information (collectively referred to as signals) via a wired or wireless transmission medium. Each of these units or an associated processor or controller that provides instructions to the communication interface of these units can be configured to communicate with one or more of the other units via a transmission medium. For example, these units can include a wired interface that is configured to receive or send signals to one or more of the other units on a wired transmission medium. Additionally, these units can include a wireless interface that may include a receiver, transmitter, or transceiver (such as an RF transceiver) that is configured to receive or send signals, or both, to one or more of the other units on a wireless transmission medium.

[0043] In some aspects, CU 110 may host one or more higher layer control functions. Such control functions can include radio resource control (RRC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), etc. Each control function can be implemented using an interface that is configured to communicate signals with other control functions hosted by CU 110. CU110 may be configured to handle user plane functionality (i.e., central unit-user plane (CU-UP)), control plane functionality (i.e., central unit-control plane (CU-CP)), or a combination thereof. In some specific implementations, CU 110 can be logically split into one or more CU-UP units and one or more CU-CP units. When implemented in an O-RAN configuration, the CU-UP unit can communicate bidirectionally with the CU-CP unit via an interface (such as an E1 interface). As needed, CU 110 can be implemented to communicate with DU 130 for network control and signaling.

[0044] DU 130 may correspond to a logical unit that includes one or more base station functions for controlling the operation of one or more RUs 140. In some aspects, DU 130 may host one or more of a radio link control (RLC) layer, a medium access control (MAC) layer, and one or more high physical (PHY) layers (such as modules for forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding, scrambling, modulation and demodulation, etc.) depending at least in part on a functional split such as that defined by 3GPP. In some aspects, DU 130 may also host one or more low PHY layers. Each layer (or module) can be implemented using an interface that is configured to communicate signals with other layers (and modules) hosted by DU 130 or with control functions hosted by CU 110.

[0045] The lower layer functionality can be implemented by one or more RUs 140. In some deployments, the RU 140 controlled by the DU 130 may correspond to a logical node that hosts RF processing functions or low PHY layer functions (such as performing fast Fourier transform (FFT), inverse FFT (iFFT), digital beamforming, physical random access channel (PRACH) extraction and filtering, etc.), or both, based at least in part on functional splitting (such as lower layer functional splitting). In this architecture, the RU 140 can be implemented to handle over-the-air (OTA) communications with one or more UEs 104. In some specific implementations, real-time and non-real-time aspects of control plane and user plane communications with the RU 140 can be controlled by the corresponding DU 130. In some scenarios, this configuration can enable the DU 130 and CU 110 to be implemented in a cloud-based RAN architecture (such as a vRAN architecture).

[0046] The SMO framework 105 may be configured to support RAN deployment and provisioning of non-virtualized network elements and virtualized network elements. For non-virtualized network elements, the SMO framework 105 may be configured to support the deployment of dedicated physical resources for RAN coverage requirements, which may be managed via an operation and maintenance interface (such as an O1 interface). For virtualized network elements, the SMO framework 105 may be configured to interact with a cloud computing platform (such as an open cloud (O-Cloud) 190) to perform network element lifecycle management (such as to instantiate virtualized network elements) via a cloud computing platform interface (such as an O2 interface). Such virtualized network elements can include, but are not limited to, CU 110, DU 130, RU 140, and near-RT RIC 125. In some specific implementations, the SMO framework 105 can communicate with hardware aspects of the 4G RAN (such as an open eNB (O-eNB) 111) via the O1 interface. Additionally, in some specific implementations, the SMO framework 105 can communicate directly with one or more RUs 140 via the O1 interface. The SMO framework 105 may also include a non-RT RIC 115 configured to support the functionality of the SMO framework 105 .

[0047] The non-RT RIC 115 may be configured to include logic functions that enable non-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources, artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) (AI / ML) workflows including model training and updating, or policy-based guidance of applications / features in the near-RT RIC 125. The non-RT RIC 115 may be coupled to or communicate with the near-RT RIC 125 (such as via an A1 interface). The near-RT RIC 125 may be configured to include logic functions that enable near-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources via data collection and actions through an interface (such as via an E2 interface) that connects one or more CUs 110, one or more DUs 130, or both, and the O-eNB with the near-RT RIC 125.

[0048] In some implementations, in order to generate an AI / ML model to be deployed in the near-RT RIC 125, the non-RT RIC 115 may receive parameters or external enrichment information from an external server. Such information may be utilized by the near-RT RIC 125 and may be received from a non-network data source or from a network function at the SMO framework 105 or the non-RT RIC 115. In some examples, the non-RT RIC 115 or the near-RT RIC 125 may be configured to tune RAN behavior or performance. For example, the non-RT RIC 115 may monitor long-term trends and patterns of performance and employ AI / ML models to perform corrective actions through the SMO framework 105 (such as via reconfiguration of O1) or via the creation of RAN management policies (such as A1 policies).

[0049] At least one of the CU 110, the DU 130, and the RU 140 may be referred to as a base station 102. Therefore, the base station 102 may include one or more of the CU 110, the DU 130, and the RU 140 (each component is indicated by a dotted line to indicate that each component may be included in the base station 102, or may not be included in the base station). The base station 102 provides an access point to the core network 120 for the UE 104. The base station 102 may include a macro cell (a high-power cellular base station) and / or a small cell (a low-power cellular base station). Small cells include femto cells, pico cells, and micro cells. A network including both small cells and macro cells may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a home evolved Node B (eNB) (HeNB), which may provide services to a restricted group referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG). The communication link between RU 140 and UE 104 may include uplink (UL) (also known as reverse link) transmission from UE 104 to RU 140 and / or downlink (DL) (also known as forward link) transmission from RU 140 to UE 104. The communication link may use multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming and / or transmission diversity. The communication link may be through one or more carriers. For each carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation of up to Yx MHz (x component carriers) for transmission in each direction, the base station 102 / UE 104 may use a spectrum with a bandwidth of up to Y MHz (e.g., 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, 20MHz, 100MHz, 400MHz, etc.). The carriers may be adjacent to each other or may not be adjacent to each other. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to DL and UL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated for DL ​​compared to UL). The component carrier may include a primary component carrier and one or more secondary component carriers. The primary component carrier may be referred to as a primary cell (PCell) and the secondary component carrier may be referred to as a secondary cell (SCell).

[0050] Some UEs 104 may communicate with each other using a device-to-device (D2D) communication link 158. The D2D communication link 158 may use DL / UL wireless wide area network (WWAN) spectrum. The D2D communication link 158 may use one or more sidelink channels, such as a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH). D2D communication may be performed via various wireless D2D communication systems, such as, for example, Bluetooth TM (Bluetooth is a trademark of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)), Wi-Fi based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard TM(Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance), LTE or NR.

[0051] The wireless communication system may also include a Wi-Fi AP 150 that communicates with a UE 104 (also referred to as a Wi-Fi station (STA)) via a communication link 154, for example, in a 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum, etc. When communicating in an unlicensed spectrum, the UE 104 / AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) to determine whether a channel is available prior to communication.

[0052] 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 as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz-7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz-52.6 GHz). Although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz, FR1 is often (interchangeably) referred to as the "sub-6 GHz" band in various documents and articles. A similar naming issue sometimes occurs with respect to FR2, which is often (interchangeably) referred to as the "millimeter wave" band in documents and articles, although it is different from the extremely high frequency (EHF) band (30 GHz–300 GHz) that is identified as the "millimeter wave" band by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

[0053] Frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are generally referred to as mid-band frequencies. Recent 5G NR research has identified the operating bands for these mid-band frequencies as frequency range designation FR3 (7.125GHz–24.25GHz). The bands falling within FR3 can inherit FR1 characteristics and / or FR2 characteristics, so the features of FR1 and / or FR2 can be effectively extended to mid-band frequencies. In addition, higher frequency bands are currently being explored to extend 5G NR operations to more than 52.6GHz. For example, three higher operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR2-2 (52.6GHz–71GHz), FR4 (71GHz–114.25GHz), and FR5 (114.25GHz–300GHz). Each of these higher frequency bands falls within the EHF band.

[0054] In view of the above, unless otherwise specified, if the term "6 GHz or less" is used in this document, it can broadly refer to frequencies that may be less than 6 GHz, may be within FR1, or may include mid-band frequencies. In addition, unless otherwise specified, if the term "millimeter wave" is used in this document, it can broadly refer to frequencies that may include mid-band frequencies, may be within FR2, FR4, FR2-2 and / or FR5, or may be within the EHF band.

[0055] The base station 102 and the UE 104 may each include multiple antennas (such as antenna elements, antenna panels, and / or antenna arrays) to facilitate beamforming. The base station 102 may send a beamformed signal 182 to the UE 104 in one or more transmit directions. The UE 104 may receive the beamformed signal from the base station 102 in one or more receive directions. The UE 104 may also send a beamformed signal 184 to the base station 102 in one or more transmit directions. The base station 102 may receive the beamformed signal from the UE 104 in one or more receive directions. The base station 102 / UE 104 may perform beam training to determine the best receive direction and transmit direction for each of the base station 102 / UE 104. The transmit direction and receive direction of the base station 102 may be the same or different. The transmit direction and receive direction of the UE 104 may be the same or different.

[0056] The base station 102 may include and / or be referred to as a gNB, a Node B, an eNB, an access point, a base transceiver station, a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), a TRP, a network node, a network entity, a network equipment, or some other suitable term. The base station 102 can be implemented as an integrated access backhaul (IAB) node, a relay node, a side link node, an aggregated (monolithic) base station with a baseband unit (BBU) (including a CU and a DU) and a RU, or as a decomposed base station including one or more of a CU, a DU, and / or a RU. A set of base stations that may include decomposed base stations and / or aggregated base stations may be referred to as a next generation (NG) RAN (NG-RAN).

[0057] The core network 120 may include an access and mobility management function (AMF) 161, a session management function (SMF) 162, a user plane function (UPF) 163, a unified data management (UDM) 164, one or more location servers 168, and other functional entities. AMF 161 is a control node that handles signaling between UE 104 and the core network 120. AMF 161 supports registration management, connection management, mobility management, and other functions. SMF 162 supports session management and other functions. UPF 163 supports packet routing, packet forwarding, and other functions. UDM 164 supports the generation of authentication and key agreement (AKA) credentials, user identity handling, access authorization, and subscription management. One or more location servers 168 are illustrated as including a gateway mobile location center (GMLC) 165 and a location management function (LMF) 166. However, in general, the one or more location servers 168 may include one or more location / positioning servers, which may include one or more of the GMLC 165, LMF 166, positioning determination entity (PDE), serving mobile location center (SMLC), mobile positioning center (MPC), etc. GMLC 165 and LMF 166 support UE location services. GMLC 165 provides an interface for clients / applications (e.g., emergency services) to access UE positioning information. LMF 166 receives measurement results and auxiliary information from NG-RAN and UE 104 via AMF 161 to calculate the positioning of UE 104. NG-RAN may determine the positioning of UE 104 using one or more positioning methods. Positioning UE 104 may involve signal measurements, positioning estimates, and optional speed calculations based on these measurements. Signal measurements may be performed by UE 104 and / or base station 102 serving UE 104. The measured signals may be based on a satellite positioning system (SPS) 170 (e.g., one or more of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), a global positioning system (GPS), a non-terrestrial network (NTN), or other satellite positioning / location systems), LTE signals, wireless local area network (WLAN) signals, Bluetooth signals, a terrestrial beacon system (TBS), sensor-based information (e.g., an atmospheric pressure sensor, a motion sensor), an NR enhanced cell ID (NR E-CID) method, NR signals (e.g., multi-round trip time (multi-RTT), DL angle of departure (DL-AoD), DL time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), UL time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA), and UL angle of arrival (UL-AoA) positioning), and / or one or more of other systems / signals / sensors.

[0058] Examples of UE 104 include cellular phones, smart phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), satellite radios, global positioning systems, multimedia devices, video devices, digital audio players (e.g., MP3 players), cameras, game consoles, tablet computers, smart devices, wearable devices, vehicles, electric meters, gas pumps, large or small kitchen appliances, healthcare equipment, implants, sensors / actuators, displays, or any other similarly functional devices. Some of the UEs 104 may be referred to as IoT devices (e.g., parking meters, gas pumps, toasters, vehicles, heart monitors, etc.). UE 104 may also be referred to as stations, mobile stations, subscriber stations, mobile units, subscriber units, wireless units, remote units, mobile devices, wireless devices, wireless communication devices, remote devices, mobile subscriber stations, access terminals, mobile terminals, wireless terminals, remote terminals, mobile phones, user agents, mobile clients, clients, or some other suitable terminology. In some scenarios, the term UE may also be applied to one or more supporting devices, such as in a device cluster arrangement. One or more of these devices may access the network together and / or individually. The network node can be implemented as a base station (i.e., a converged base station), a decomposed base station, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, a relay node, a side link node, etc. The network entity can be implemented as a base station (i.e., a converged base station), or alternatively, as a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a radio unit (RU), a near real-time (near RT) RAN intelligent controller (RIC), or a non-real-time (non-RT) RIC in a decomposed base station architecture.

[0059] See again Figure 1 In certain aspects, the UE 104 may include a location component 198 that may be configured to send a request for a location of a network node associated with a set of cells to a network entity, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node. The location component 198 may also be configured to receive an indication of the location of the network node associated with the set of cells from the network entity based on the request, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the set of cells.

[0060] In certain aspects, the base station 102 and / or the LMF 166 may include a location component 199, which may be configured to receive a request for the location of the network node from at least one device prior to the detection of the set of cells associated with the network node. And after the calculation of the location of the network node, send an indication of the location of the network node to the at least one device based on the request. The location component 199 may also be configured to detect a set of cells associated with the network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with the node ID of the network node. The location component 199 may also be configured to identify the location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells. The location component 199 may also be configured to crowdsource data for each cell in the set of cells associated with each coverage area in the multiple coverage areas; and determine the location of the coverage area for each cell in the set of cells based on the crowdsourced data, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is identified based on the location of the coverage area. The location component 199 may also be configured to estimate the average location of the cell set based on the location of each cell in the cell set. The location component 199 may also be configured to calculate the location of the network node based on the average location of the cell set. The location component 199 may also be configured to calculate the location of at least one cell based on the average location of the cell set, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the cell set. The location component 199 may also be configured to output an indication of the location of the network node after calculating the location of the network node. Although the following description may focus on 5G NR, the concepts described herein may be applicable to other similar fields, such as LTE, LTE-A, CDMA, GSM and other wireless technologies.

[0061] Figure 2A FIG200 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first subframe within a 5G NR frame structure. Figure 2B FIG230 is a diagram illustrating an example of DL channels within a 5G NR subframe. Figure 2C FIG250 is a diagram illustrating an example of a second subframe within a 5G NR frame structure. Figure 2D FIG280 is a diagram illustrating an example of UL channels within a 5G NR subframe. The 5G NR frame structure may be frequency division duplex (FDD), where for a particular set of subcarriers (carrier system bandwidth), subframes within that subcarrier set are dedicated to either DL or UL, or may be time division duplex (TDD), where for a particular set of subcarriers (carrier system bandwidth), subframes within that subcarrier set are dedicated to both DL and UL. Figure 2A , Figure 2CIn the example provided, the 5G NR frame structure is assumed to be TDD, where subframe 4 is configured with slot format 28 (most of which are DL), where D is DL, U is UL, and F is flexible between DL / UL, and subframe 3 is configured with slot format 1 (all of which are UL). Although subframes 3 and 4 are shown as having slot formats 1 and 28, respectively, any particular subframe may be configured with any of the various available slot formats 0 to 61. Slot formats 0 and 1 are both DL and both UL, respectively. Other slot formats 2-61 include a mix of DL, UL, and flexible symbols. The slot format is configured for the UE via a received slot format indicator (SFI) (dynamically configured via DL control information (DCI) or semi-statically / statically configured via radio resource control (RRC) signaling). Note that the following description also applies to the 5G NR frame structure as TDD.

[0062] FIG. 2A to FIG. 2D The frame structure is illustrated, and various aspects of the present disclosure may be applicable to other wireless communication technologies that may have different frame structures and / or different channels. A frame (10ms) may be divided into 10 subframes of the same size (1ms). Each subframe may include one or more time slots. A subframe may also include a microslot, which may include 7, 4 or 2 symbols. Each time slot may include 14 or 12 symbols, depending on whether the cyclic prefix (CP) is conventional or extended. For a conventional CP, each time slot may include 14 symbols, and for an extended CP, each time slot may include 12 symbols. The symbol on the DL may be a CP orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) (CP-OFDM) symbol. The symbol on the UL may be a CP-OFDM symbol (for high throughput scenarios) or a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) extended OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) symbol (for power-constrained scenarios; limited to single-stream transmission). The number of time slots within a subframe is based on the CP and the parameter set. The parameter set defines the subcarrier spacing (SCS) (see Table 1). Symbol length / duration can be scaled with 1 / SCS.

[0063]

[0064] Table 1: Parameter set, SCS and CP

[0065] For normal CP (14 symbols / slot), different parameter sets μ0 to 4 allow 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 slots per subframe, respectively. For extended CP, parameter set 2 allows 4 slots per subframe. Accordingly, for normal CP and parameter set μ, there are 14 symbols / slot and 2 μ timeslots / subframe. The subcarrier spacing can be equal to 2 μ*15kHz, where μ is parameter set 0 to 4. Therefore, the subcarrier spacing for parameter set μ=0 is 15kHz, and the subcarrier spacing for parameter set μ=4 is 240kHz. The symbol length / duration is inversely related to the subcarrier spacing. FIG. 2A to FIG. 2D An example of a parameter set μ=2 with a normal CP of 14 symbols per slot and 4 slots per subframe is provided. The slot duration is 0.25 ms, the subcarrier spacing is 60 kHz, and the symbol duration is about 16.67 μs. Within a frame set, there may be one or more different bandwidth parts (BWPs) that are frequency-division multiplexed (see Figure 2B ). Each BWP may have a specific parameter set and CP (normal or extended).

[0066] A resource grid may be used to represent a frame structure. Each slot includes a resource block (RB) (also referred to as a physical RB (PRB)) extending over 12 consecutive subcarriers. The resource grid is divided into a plurality of resource elements (REs). The number of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0067] like Figure 2A As illustrated, some of the REs carry reference (pilot) signals (RS) for the UE. The RS may include a demodulation RS (DM-RS) (indicated as R for a particular configuration, but other DM-RS configurations are possible) and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) for channel estimation at the UE. The RS may also include a beam measurement RS (BRS), a beam refinement RS (BRRS), and a phase tracking RS (PT-RS).

[0068] Figure 2BExamples of various DL channels within a subframe of a frame are illustrated. A physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries DCI within one or more control channel elements (CCEs) (e.g., 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs), each CCE including six RE groups (REGs), each REG including 12 consecutive REs in an OFDM symbol of an RB. A PDCCH within a BWP may be referred to as a control resource set (CORESET). The UE is configured to monitor PDCCH candidates in a PDCCH search space (e.g., a common search space, a UE-specific search space) during a PDCCH monitoring opportunity on a CORESET, wherein the PDCCH candidates have different DCI formats and different aggregation levels. Additional BWPs may be located at higher and / or lower frequencies on the channel bandwidth. A primary synchronization signal (PSS) may be within symbol 2 of a particular subframe of a frame. The PSS is used by UE 104 to determine subframe / symbol timing and physical layer identity. A secondary synchronization signal (SSS) may be within symbol 4 of a particular subframe of a frame. The SSS is used by the UE to determine the physical layer cell identity group number and the radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identity group number, the UE is able to determine the physical cell identifier (PCI). Based on the PCI, the UE is able to determine the location of the DM-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH) carrying the master information block (MIB) can be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form a synchronization signal (SS) / PBCH block (also referred to as an SS block (SSB)). The MIB provides the system frame number (SFN) and the number of RBs in the system bandwidth. The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcast system information such as system information blocks (SIBs) that are not sent via the PBCH, and paging messages.

[0069] like Figure 2C As illustrated, some of the REs carry DM-RS (indicated as R for a particular configuration, but other DM-RS configurations are possible) for channel estimation at the base station. The UE may send a DM-RS for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a DM-RS for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The PUSCH DM-RS may be sent in the first or first two symbols of the PUSCH. Depending on whether a short PUCCH or a long PUCCH is sent and depending on the specific PUCCH format used, the PUCCH DM-RS may be sent in different configurations. The UE may send a sounding reference signal (SRS). The SRS may be sent in the last symbol of a subframe. The SRS may have a comb structure, and the UE may send the SRS on one of the teeth of the comb. The SRS may be used by the base station for channel quality estimation to achieve frequency-dependent scheduling of the UL.

[0070] Figure 2DExamples of various UL channels within a subframe of a frame are illustrated. The PUCCH may be located at a position as indicated in one configuration. The PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as scheduling requests, channel quality indicators (CQI), precoding matrix indicators (PMI), rank indicators (RI), and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) (HARQ-ACK) feedback (i.e., one or more HARQ ACK bits indicating one or more ACKs and / or negative ACKs (NACKs)). The PUSCH carries data and may additionally be used to carry a buffer status report (BSR), a power headroom report (PHR), and / or UCI.

[0071] Figure 3 370 is a block diagram of a base station 310 communicating with a UE 350 in an access network. In the DL, Internet Protocol (IP) packets may be provided to a controller / processor 375. The controller / processor 375 implements layer 3 and layer 2 functionality. Layer 3 includes a radio resource control (RRC) layer, and layer 2 includes a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a medium access control (MAC) layer. The controller / processor 375 provides RRC layer functionality associated with broadcasting of system information (e.g., MIB, SIB), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-radio access technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression, security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality associated with delivery of upper layer packet data units (PDUs), error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0072] The transmit (TX) processor 316 and receive (RX) processor 370 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1 (which includes the physical (PHY) layer) may include error detection on the transport channel, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of the transport channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to the physical channel, modulation / demodulation of the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. The TX processor 316 handles the mapping to the signal constellation based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), M-order phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-order quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The decoded and modulated symbols can then be divided into parallel streams. Each stream can then be mapped to an OFDM subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., a pilot) in the time and / or frequency domain, and then combined using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a time domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM stream is spatially pre-coded to generate multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator 374 may be used to determine the coding and modulation schemes, as well as for spatial processing. Channel estimates may be derived from reference signals and / or channel state feedback sent by the UE 350. Each spatial stream may then be provided to a different antenna 320 via a separate transmitter 318Tx. Each transmitter 318Tx may modulate a radio frequency (RF) carrier for transmission using a corresponding spatial stream.

[0073] At the UE 350, each receiver 354Rx receives a signal through its corresponding antenna 352. Each receiver 354Rx recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to a receive (RX) processor 356. The TX processor 368 and the RX processor 356 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. The RX processor 356 can perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial stream destined for the UE 350. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE 350, they can be merged into a single OFDM symbol stream by the RX processor 356. The RX processor 356 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 on each subcarrier and the reference signal are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation point sent by the base station 310. These soft decisions can be based on channel estimates calculated by the channel estimator 358. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals originally sent on the physical channel by the base station 310. The data and control signals are then provided to the controller / processor 359, which implements layer 3 and layer 2 functionality.

[0074] The controller / processor 359 can be associated with at least one memory 360 that stores program codes and data. The at least one memory 360 may be referred to as a computer-readable medium. In the UL, the controller / processor 359 provides demultiplexing between transport channels and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets. The controller / processor 359 is also responsible for error detection using ACK and / or NACK protocols to support HARQ operations.

[0075] Similar to the functionality described in conjunction with DL transmissions performed by the base station 310, the controller / processor 359 provides RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression and security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality associated with delivery of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs, resegmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto TBs, demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0076] The TX processor 368 may use channel estimates derived by the channel estimator 358 from a reference signal or feedback sent by the base station 310 to select appropriate coding and modulation schemes and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the TX processor 368 may be provided to different antennas 352 via corresponding transmitters 354Tx. Each transmitter 354Tx may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0077] UL transmissions are processed at the base station 310 in a manner similar to that described in conjunction with the receiver functionality at the UE 350. Each receiver 318Rx receives a signal through its corresponding antenna 320. Each receiver 318Rx recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to the RX processor 370.

[0078] The controller / processor 375 can be associated with at least one memory 376 that stores program codes and data. The at least one memory 376 may be referred to as a computer-readable medium. In the UL, the controller / processor 375 provides demultiplexing between transport channels and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets. The controller / processor 375 is also responsible for error detection using ACK and / or NACK protocols to support HARQ operations.

[0079] At least one of the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and the controller / processor 359 may be configured to perform operations related to Figure 1 At least one of the TX processor 316, the RX processor 370, and the controller / processor 375 may be configured to perform operations related to Figure 1 The location component 199 combines various aspects.

[0080] Figure 4 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of UE positioning based on reference signal measurement. UE 404 may be at time T SRS_TX UL-SRS 412 is sent and at time T PRS_RX A DL positioning reference signal (PRS) (DL-PRS) 410 is received. TRP 406 may be at time T SRS_RX Receive UL-SRS 412 and at time T PRS_TX 410. UE 404 may receive DL-PRS 410 before transmitting UL-SRS 412, or may transmit UL-SRS 412 before receiving DL-PRS 410. In both cases, a positioning server (e.g., location server 168) or UE 404 may determine the UL-SRS 412 based on ||T SRS_RX –T PRS_TX |–|T SRS_TX –T PRS_RX || to determine RTT 414. Thus, multi-RTT positioning may utilize UE ERx-Tx time difference measurements (ie, |T SRS_TX –T PRS_RX |) and DL-PRS reference signal received power (RSRP) (DL-PRS-RSRP), and the measured TRP Rx-Tx time difference measurement (ie, |T SRS_RX –T PRS_TX |) and UL-SRS-RSRP. The UE 404 measures the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement (and optionally the DL-PRS-RSRP of the received signal) using the assistance data received from the positioning server, and the TRP 402, 406 measures the gNB Rx-Tx time difference measurement (and optionally the UL-SRS-RSRP of the received signal) using the assistance data received from the positioning server. These measurements may be used at the positioning server or the UE 404 to determine the RTT, which is used to estimate the position of the UE 404. Other methods for determining the RTT are possible, such as, for example, using DL-TDOA and / or UL-TDOA measurements.

[0081] DL-AoD positioning may utilize measured DL-PRS-RSRP of downlink signals received at a UE 404 from multiple TRPs 402, 406. The UE 404 measures the DL-PRS-RSRP of the received signals using assistance data received from a positioning server, and the resulting measurements are used along with the departure azimuth angle (A-AoD), departure zenith angle (Z-AoD), and other configuration information to position the UE 404 relative to neighboring TRPs 402, 406. DL-TDOA positioning may utilize DL reference signal time difference (RSTD) (and optionally DL-PRS-RSRP) of downlink signals received at a UE 404 from multiple TRPs 402, 406. The UE 404 measures the DL RSTD (and optionally DL-PRS-RSRP) of the received signals using assistance data received from a positioning server, and the resulting measurements are used along with other configuration information to position the UE 404 relative to neighboring TRPs 402, 406.

[0082] UL-TDOA positioning may utilize the UL relative time of arrival (RTOA) (and optionally UL-SRS-RSRP) of uplink signals sent from the UE 404 at multiple TRPs 402, 406. The TRPs 402, 406 measure the UL-RTOA (and optionally UL-SRS-RSRP) of the received signals using assistance data received from the positioning server, and the resulting measurements are used along with other configuration information to estimate the position of the UE 404. UL-AoA positioning may utilize the measured azimuth angle of arrival (A-AoA) and zenith angle of arrival (Z-AoA) of uplink signals sent from the UE 404 at multiple TRPs 402, 406. The TRPs 402, 406 measure the A-AoA and Z-AoA of the received signals using assistance data received from the positioning server, and the resulting measurements are used along with other configuration information to estimate the position of the UE 404.

[0083] Additional positioning methods may be used to estimate the position of the UE 404, such as, for example, UE-side UL-AoD and / or DL-AoA. Note that data / measurements from various techniques may be combined in various ways to increase accuracy, determine and / or enhance certainty, supplement / complete measurements, and / or replace / provide missing information.

[0084] Figure 5500 is a diagram illustrating an example of estimating the positioning of a UE based on multi-RTT measurements from multiple TRPs according to various aspects of the present disclosure. The UE 502 may be configured by a serving base station to decode DL-PRS resources 512 corresponding to and transmitted from a first TRP 504 (TRP-1), a second TRP 506 (TRP-2), a third TRP 508 (TRP-3), and a fourth TRP 510 (TRP-4). The UE 502 may also be configured to transmit a UL-SRS on a UL-SRS resource set, which may include a first SRS resource 514, a second SRS resource 516, a third SRS resource 518, and a fourth SRS resource 520, so that a serving cell (e.g., a first TRP 504, a second TRP 506, a third TRP 508, and a fourth TRP 510) and other neighboring cells may be able to measure the UL-SRS resource set transmitted from the UE 502. For multi-RTT measurements based on DL-PRS and UL-SRS, since there may be a correlation between the UE's measurement of the DL-PRS and the TRP's measurement of the UL-SRS, the smaller the gap between the UE's DL-PRS measurement and the UE's UL-SRS transmission, the better the accuracy of estimating the UE's positioning and / or the UE's distance for each TRP may be.

[0085] In some aspects of wireless communication, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may generally refer to specific reference signals used for positioning in NR and LTE systems. However, as used herein, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may also refer to any type of reference signal that can be used for positioning, such as, but not limited to: PRS, TRS, PTRS, CRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB, SRS, UL-PRS, etc. as defined in LTE and NR. In addition, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may refer to downlink or uplink positioning reference signals, unless otherwise indicated by the context. In some aspects, downlink positioning reference signals may be referred to as "DL-PRS", while uplink positioning reference signals (e.g., positioning SRS, PTRS) may be referred to as "UL-PRS". In addition, for signals (e.g., DMRS, PTRS) that can be sent in both uplink and downlink, these signals may be prepended with "UL" or "DL" to distinguish the direction. For example, "UL-DMRS" may be distinguished from "DL-DMRS".

[0086] Figure 6600 is a communication flow illustrating an example multi-RTT positioning process according to various aspects of the present disclosure. The numbers associated with the communication flow 600 do not specify a particular time sequence and are merely used as a reference for the communication flow 600. In addition, DL-only and / or UL-only positioning may use one or more subsets of the multi-RTT positioning process.

[0087] At 610, the LMF 606 may request one or more positioning capabilities from the UE 602 (e.g., from the target device). In some examples, the request for one or more positioning capabilities from the UE 602 may be associated with the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP). For example, the LMF 606 may request the positioning capabilities of the UE 602 using the LPP capability transfer procedure. At 612, the LMF 606 may request UL SRS configuration information for the UE 602. The LMF 606 may also provide auxiliary data (e.g., path loss reference, spatial relationship and / or SSB configuration, etc.) specified by the serving base station 604. For example, the LMF 606 may transmit an NR Positioning Protocol A (NRPPa) positioning information request message to the serving base station 604 to request UL information of the UE 602.

[0088] At 614, the serving base station 604 may determine the resources available for UL SRS, and at 616, the serving base station 604 may configure one or more UL SRS resource sets for the UE 602 based on the available resources. At 618, the serving base station 604 may provide UL SRS configuration information to the LMF 606, such as via an NRPPa positioning information response message. At 619, for semi-persistent or non-periodic UL SRS, the LMF 606 may request the serving base station 604 to activate / trigger the UL SRS in the UE 602. For example, the LMF 606 may request activation of UE SRS transmission by transmitting an NRPPa positioning activation request message to the serving base station 604. At 620, the serving base station 604 may activate UE SRS transmission and transmit an NRPPa positioning activation response message. In response, the UE 602 may start UL-SRS transmission according to the time domain behavior of the UL SRS resource configuration. At 621, the LMF 606 may select one or more candidate neighbor BS / TRPs 608, and the LMF 606 may provide the UL SRS configuration to the one or more candidate neighbor BS / TRPs 608 and / or the serving base station 604, such as via an NRPPa measurement request message. The message may include information for enabling the one or more candidate neighbor BS / TRPs 608 and / or the serving base station to perform UL measurements.

[0089] At 622, LMF 606 may transmit an LPP Provide Assistance Data message to UE 602. The message may include specified assistance data for UE 602 to perform DL measurements. At 624, LMF 606 may transmit an LPP Request Location Information message to UE 602 to request multi-RTT measurements.

[0090] At 630, the UE 602 may perform DL measurements from the one or more candidate neighbor BS / TRPs 608 and / or serving base stations 604 provided in the assistance data. At 632, each of the configured one or more candidate neighbor BS / TRPs 608 and / or serving base stations 604 may perform UL measurements. At 634, the UE 602 may report the DL measurements to the LMF 606, such as via an LPP Provide Location Information message. At 636, each of the one or more candidate neighbor BS / TRPs 608 and / or serving base stations 604 may report the UL measurements to the LMF 606, such as via an NRPPa Measurement Response message. At 638, the LMF 606 may determine the RTT from the UE 602 and the BS / TRP Rx-Tx time difference measurements for each of the one or more candidate neighboring BS / TRPs 608 and / or serving base stations 604 for which corresponding UL and DL measurements were provided at 634 and 636, and the LMF 606 may calculate the positioning of the UE 602.

[0091] In various aspects of wireless communications, a cellular network (i.e., a mobile network) may be a telecommunications network that includes wireless links to / from different nodes, and the network may be distributed over land areas (which may be referred to as cells), where each cell / area is served by at least one fixed-position transceiver. A cell may also be a node or transceiver that communicates with other cells in a network. Thus, a cell may refer to an area in a network or a node / transceiver in a network. A cell of a particular type (e.g., a network cell) may be associated with a network node or base station (e.g., a gNB in ​​5G NR or an eNB in ​​LTE). For example, cells may be grouped at different network nodes or base stations. These cells may be cells of multiple different types (e.g., a transmit receive point (TRP), a small cell, a small cell base station, a macro cell, or a macro cell base station). In some aspects, a base station (BS) identifier (ID) (e.g., an eNB ID or a gNB ID) may be used to identify a base station within a particular network (e.g., a public land mobile network (PLMN)). The base station ID may be contained in the cell identity (CI) of its corresponding cell. A global base station ID (e.g., a global eNB ID or a global gNB ID) may be used to globally identify a base station. A global base station ID may be constructed based on the PLMN identity to which the base station belongs and / or the base station ID. A mobile country code (MCC) and a mobile network code (MNC) may be included in a specific cell global identifier (e.g., an E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI)). A mobile country code may be a code for identifying a country for mobile communications. A mobile network code may be a code for identifying a network for mobile communications. A physical cell ID may be an identifier (ID) for identifying a cell from physical layer signaling.

[0092] Additionally, there may be multiple different types of base station IDs (e.g., gNB IDs or eNB IDs). A macro base station ID may be equal to the number of bits of a cell identity information element (IE). For example, a macro base station ID (e.g., macro eNB ID or macro gNB ID) may be equal to the number of leftmost bits (e.g., 20 leftmost bits) of a cell identity IE contained in a cell global identifier (CGI) information element (IE) (e.g., E-UTRAN CGI IE) for each cell served by a base station (e.g., gNB or eNB). A home base station ID (e.g., home eNB ID or home gNB ID) may be equal to the cell identity IE contained in a CGI IE (e.g., E-UTRAN CGI IE) for each cell served by a base station (e.g., gNB or eNB). In addition, a short macro base station ID (e.g., short macro eNB ID or short macro gNB ID) may be equal to the number of leftmost bits (e.g., 18 leftmost bits) of a cell identity IE for each cell served by a base station (e.g., gNB or eNB). In addition, a long macro base station ID (e.g., a long macro eNB ID or a long macro gNB ID) may be equal to the number of leftmost bits (e.g., 21 leftmost bits) of the cell identity IE of each cell served by the base station (e.g., a gNB or an eNB), where the long macro base station ID may be longer than the short macro base station ID.

[0093] In some aspects, the latest or new network (e.g., a new LTE network or a new NR network) (such as narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT)) may not have enough observations to create a crowdsourcing database. Crowdsourcing can be the practice of obtaining information or input to a task or project by recruiting a large number of users or participants' services (e.g., via the Internet). Crowdsourcing may involve a large group of dispersed participants who contribute goods / services (e.g., ideas, voting, microtasks, and finances). Crowdsourcing may also involve a digital platform that attracts participants and distributes work among participants to achieve cumulative results. Crowdsourcing can be used to obtain different types of data (i.e., crowdsourced data), such as data for obtaining information about wireless communication networks. In some instances, ground positioning techniques that compare cell identifiers observed by devices with crowdsourcing databases may fail for new networks because there may not be significant crowdsourcing to collect all network cells. However, since new air interfaces (e.g., new NB-IoT air interfaces) can be deployed for existing networks (e.g., existing LTE or NR networks), specific techniques can be used to perform positioning for observed cells (e.g., NB-IoT cells). Based on the above, it may be beneficial to perform positioning measurements for cells that do not originally exist in the database (e.g., LTE cells, Category M1 (CAT-M1) cells, NB-IoT cells, etc.) It may also be beneficial to perform positioning measurements for cells when a crowdsourced database already exists.

[0094] Various aspects of the present disclosure may perform positioning measurements for cells that do not originally exist in the database. In some instances, the various aspects presented herein may also perform positioning measurements for cells when a crowdsourcing database already exists. Additionally, the various aspects presented herein may perform crowdsourcing (e.g., running crowdsourcing) for cells that do not originally exist in the database (or for cells when a crowdsourcing database already exists). To do this, the various aspects presented herein may utilize a server or network entity that detects and identifies the location of a set of cells associated with a network node or base station. For example, a server or network entity may identify the location of each cell based on the cell ID of each cell. A cell identifier or cell ID may help identify each cell in a cell in a network. For example, a cell ID may be a number for identifying a cell. Additionally, a node identifier or node ID may help identify each node in a node (e.g., a network node) in a network. For example, a node ID may be a number for identifying a node. In addition, a server or network entity may estimate the average location of a cell based on the location of each cell in the cell, and then calculate the location of a base station or network node based on the average location of the cell. The average location may be the average location in a set of locations of a cell / node (e.g., the most recent location of a cell / node). In addition, the various aspects presented herein can utilize terrestrial positioning services that provide extensive and complete location data for cells in a particular type of network (e.g., NB-IoT, CAT-M1, and / or LTE networks). In some examples, the various aspects presented herein can infer unknown cell locations from database information (e.g., LTE database information). For example, the various aspects presented herein can determine the location of a cell that is unknown in the database from the information contained in the database.

[0095] In some aspects, new cells (e.g., NB-IoT, CAT-M1 and / or LTE cells) may be deployed on existing base stations (e.g., LTE eNBs). In addition, an existing crowdsourcing database (e.g., an LTE database) may be used to form a positioning estimate for each base station by finding all cells belonging to each base station grouped at the base station site. New cells (e.g., NB-IoT cells) that are not found in the database based on the cell identifier of the new cell (because they have not yet been crowdsourced) may be associated with the base station, and the calculated base station positioning may be used for ground positioning estimates of users of the cell (e.g., NB-IoT cell). In addition, the results of this association at the server or network entity may be saved and seeded (i.e., fed) back into the database as a rough crowdsourcing form. Thus, this may help build a new database (e.g., NB-IoT database). The database may then be updated / replaced by real global navigation satellite system (GNSS) assisted crowdsourcing later as the population of devices (e.g., NB-IoT devices) increases. The seed database may be used for both single-cell ground positioning and multi-cell ground positioning. Therefore, the various aspects presented herein can provide on-the-fly positioning and crowdsourcing for cells (e.g., LTE-related cells) that are not originally present in a database (e.g., LTE, CAT-M1, or NB-IoT database). In other words, the various aspects presented herein can provide on-the-fly positioning and crowdsourcing for unknown cells or cells that do not have a cell ID in the database.

[0096] Additionally, in some aspects, database coverage (e.g., CAT-M1 or NB-IoT database coverage) may be relatively low or relatively sparse, but cells may be inferred from existing databases (e.g., LTE databases). As indicated herein, certain cells (e.g., CAT-M1 cells) may be narrowband features of LTE cells, and certain cells (e.g., NB-IoT cells) may be deployed on the same base station (e.g., eNB) as LTE cells. In addition, for CAT-M1, multiple cell (multi-cell) positioning may be available (e.g., utilizing CAT-M1 host LTE cells and non-CAT-M1 LTE cells). For NB-IoT, single cell positioning may be available without crowdsourcing. In addition, for NB-IoT, multi-cell positioning may be available because unknown cells are observed by different devices.

[0097] Figure 7 700 and 750 illustrate example cell groupings (e.g., cell grouping 702) of a wireless communication system. More specifically, Figure 7 Describes how the cell ID (CID) can be extracted from the cell identity (CI) in the database. Figure 7As shown, diagram 700 includes a cell identity 710, a binary CI 720, a base station ID 730, and a CID 740. For example, cell identity 710 is a 9-bit number (e.g., "123456789"), and binary CI 720 is a 28-bit number, including 20 bits for a base station ID (e.g., base station ID 730) and 8 bits for a CID (e.g., CID 740). In addition, diagram 700 depicts that a particular 20-bit base station ID (e.g., an ID equal to "0111010110111001101") can be converted to a base station ID 730 (e.g., "482253"). Diagram 700 also depicts that a particular 8-bit CID (e.g., an ID equal to "00010101") can be converted to a CID 740 (e.g.,

[0098] "21"). Additionally, diagram 750 shows a database 760 including a plurality of corresponding values. Database 760 includes a mobile country code (MCC) (e.g., MCC 761), a mobile network code (MNC) (e.g., MNC 762), a cell identity (e.g., CI 763), a base station ID (e.g., base station ID 764), a CID (e.g., CID 765), a physical cell ID (PCI) (e.g., PCI 766), and a frequency (e.g., frequency 767).

[0099] like Figure 7As shown, diagrams 700 and 750 depict how CID 740 can be extracted from CI 763 in database 760. For example, for a cell in the database, a 20-bit base station ID and an 8-bit cell ID can be extracted from a cell identity value (e.g., cell identity 710). For example, for a particular cell global identifier (e.g., E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI)) (e.g., MCC=123, MNC=456, CI=123456789), the various aspects presented herein can determine a global base station ID (e.g., MCC 761=123, MNC 762=456, BS ID 764=482253). The various aspects presented herein can repeat this process to determine the base station IDs (e.g., eNB IDs) of all cells (e.g., LTE cells) in the database (e.g., database 760). After this, the various aspects presented herein may search for all cells with a specific global base station ID (e.g., MCC=123, MNC=456, BSID=482253). By doing so, the various aspects presented herein may identify the location of each cell based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells. In addition, the various aspects presented herein may estimate the average location of the cell based on the location of each cell, and then calculate the location of the base station or network node based on the average location of the cell. The various aspects presented herein may then send an indication of the calculated location of the base station or network node.

[0100] Figure 8 800 and 850 illustrate example cell groupings (e.g., cell grouping 802) of a wireless communication system. More specifically, Figure 8 It is described how a cell ID (CID) can be extracted from a cell identity (CI) in a database, including location identification of a set of cells having multiple database lists for multiple cells. Figure 8As shown, diagram 800 includes a cell identity 810, a binary CI 820, a base station ID 830, and a CID 840. For example, the cell identity 810 is a 9-bit number (e.g., "123456789"), and the binary CI 820 is a 28-bit number, including 20 bits for a base station ID (e.g., base station ID 830) and 8 bits for a CID (e.g., CID 840). In addition, diagram 800 depicts that a specific 20-bit base station ID (e.g., an ID equal to "0111010110111001101") can be converted to a base station ID 830 (e.g., "482253"). Diagram 800 also depicts that a specific 8-bit CID (e.g., an ID equal to "00010101") can be converted to a CID 840 (e.g., "21"). Additionally, diagram 850 shows a database 860 including a plurality of corresponding entries (e.g., 14 entries). Database 860 includes a mobile country code (MCC) (e.g., MCC 861), a mobile network code (MNC) (e.g., MNC 862), a cell identity (e.g., CI 863), a base station ID (e.g., base station ID 864), a CID (e.g., CID 865), a physical cell ID (PCI) (e.g., PCI 866), and a frequency (e.g., frequency 867) for each entry (e.g., 14 entries) of the entries in database 860 corresponding to different cells (e.g., 14 cells).

[0101] like Figure 8As shown, diagrams 800 and 850 depict how CID 840 can be extracted from CI 863 in database 860. For example, for a cell in the database, a 20-bit base station ID and an 8-bit cell ID can be extracted from a cell identity value (e.g., cell identity 810). For example, for a particular cell global identifier (e.g., E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI)) (e.g., MCC=123, MNC=456, CI=123456789), the various aspects presented herein can determine a global base station ID (e.g., MCC 861=123, MNC 862=456, BS ID 864=482253). The various aspects presented herein can repeat the process to determine the base station IDs (e.g., eNBIDs) of all cells (e.g., LTE cells) in the database (e.g., database 860). After this, the various aspects presented herein may search for all cells with a specific global base station ID (e.g., MCC=123, MNC=456, BS ID=482253). By doing so, the various aspects presented herein may identify the location of each cell based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells. In addition, the various aspects presented herein may estimate the average location of the cell based on the location of each cell, and then calculate the location of the base station or network node based on the average location of the cell. The various aspects presented herein may then send an indication of the calculated location of the base station or network node. Figure 8 It is shown that the CID (e.g., CID 865) can be different for each entry corresponding to a different cell (e.g., one of the 14 cells) in the database 860. For example, CID 865 can be a plurality of different values ​​(e.g., 21, 16, 60, 91, 210, 4, 11, 44, 166, 187, 166, 115, 140, and 76). In addition, the PCI (e.g., PCI 866) can be different for each entry corresponding to a different cell (e.g., one of the 14 cells) in the database 860. For example, PCI 866 can be a plurality of different values ​​(e.g., 12, 417, 451, 381, 256, 29, 120, 229, 23, 303, 297, 223, 380, and 438). In addition, the frequency (e.g., frequency 867) may be different for each entry corresponding to a different cell (e.g., one of the 14 cells) in database 860. For example, frequency 867 may be a plurality of different values ​​(e.g., 1950.0, 739.0, 2355.0, and 763.0).

[0102] like Figure 8As depicted, the various aspects presented herein may perform the aforementioned location identification of a set of cells having multiple database lists for multiple cells. For example, based on the cell ID, the various aspects presented herein may perform the aforementioned location identification of a set of cells having multiple database lists for multiple cells. For example, for a particular base station ID (e.g., base station ID "482253"), there may be a certain number of cells (e.g., 14 cells) grouped together with (or belonging to) that particular base station (e.g., eNB or gNB). Additionally, there may be a certain number of channels (e.g., 4 channels) associated with the database. For example, there may be multiple mid-band channels (e.g., two mid-band channels) having a specific number of cells per channel (e.g., three cells per channel) and multiple low-band channels (e.g., two low-band channels) having a specific number of cells per channel (e.g., four cells per channel). As Figure 8 As depicted, these cells (eg, 14 cells) may be used to identify the location identity of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell IDs in the database.

[0103] Fig. 9 9 is a diagram illustrating example ranges of corresponding sector centers of base stations and cells in a wireless communication system. More specifically, Fig. 9 Depicts the base station and the corresponding sector center of the cell including several ranges. Fig. 9 As shown, diagram 900 includes base station 910 and corresponding sector centers of cells (e.g., sector center 921, sector center 922, sector center 923, sector center 924, sector center 925, sector center 926, sector center 927, sector center 928, and sector center 929), range 930, range 932, and weighted average sector center 940. Range 930 may be a specific distance around base station 910 (e.g., 500 feet), and range 932 may be a larger distance around base station 910 (e.g., 1000 feet). Fig. 9 As shown, sector center 921, sector center 922, and sector center 923 may be within range 930. Sector center 924, sector center 925, sector center 926, and sector center 927 may be within range 932. In addition, sector center 928 and sector center 929 may be outside range 932. In addition, weighted mean sector center 940 may be a weighted mean (i.e., weighted average) of the sector center positions from sector center 921 to sector center 929. The sector center may be the center of a sector, region, or coverage area within a network of cells. Note that a sector center located on the boundary of a particular range may be considered to be within or outside the range.

[0104] like Fig. 9As shown, a server or a network entity (not shown) may utilize the location of each of the sector centers 921 to 929 in order to locate the base station 910. For example, the server or the network entity may detect the sector centers 921 to 929, wherein each of the sector centers 921 to 929 may be associated with a cell ID of a corresponding cell. Based on the cell ID of each of the sector centers 921 to 929, the server or the network entity may identify the location of each of the sector centers 921 to 929. In addition, the server or the network entity may estimate the average location of the sector centers 921 to 929 based on the location of the cells. The average location of the sector centers 921 to 929 may be a weighted mean (i.e., a weighted average) of the locations of the sector centers 921 to 929, which may correspond to the weighted mean sector center 940. In some aspects, the average position of sector center 921 to sector center 929 may be an unweighted mean (i.e., an unweighted average) of the positions of sector center 921 to sector center 929. Based on the average position of sector center 921 to sector center 929, a server or network entity may calculate the position of base station 910. The server or network entity may then send an indication of the calculated position of base station 910. Additionally, a server of the network entity may crowdsource data for each of sector center 921 to sector center 929, such as crowdsourcing data associated with a coverage area for each of sector center 921 to sector center 929. A coverage area may be an area that includes network coverage for a cell or node in a network. Based on the crowdsourced data, the server or network entity may determine the position of a coverage area for each of sector center 921 to sector center 929. Fig. 9 As shown, the coverage area may be a sector center, wherein the location of each of sector centers 921 to 929 may be identified based on at least one of the sector centers (e.g., weighted average sector center 940). In addition, the server or network entity may calculate the location of at least one cell based on the average location of sector centers 921 to 929, wherein the at least one cell may be at least one unknown cell associated with sector centers 921 to 929. In addition, each sector center among sector centers 921 to 929 may be associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a CI, a base station ID, a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency (e.g., MCC 761 or MCC 861, MNC 762 or MNC 862, CI 763 or CI 863, base station ID 764 or base station ID 864, PCI 766 or PCI 866 and / or frequency 767 or frequency 867).

[0105] In some instances, a cell (e.g., an LTE cell) that is unknown to the database (i.e., not in the database) may be associated with a base station (e.g., an eNB). That is, the cell lookup function may fail for a particular database. For example, a database lookup for a particular cell (e.g., an NB-IoT cell) may fail because there is no cell matching the cell global identifier (e.g., ECGI) in the database. These types of cells (i.e., cells without a matching cell global identifier) ​​may be referred to as unknown cells. However, a cell (e.g., an NB-IoT cell) may belong to a base station (e.g., an eNB) that has a specific number of cells (e.g., 14 LTE cells) in the database. The various aspects presented herein may assume that the cell (e.g., an NB-IoT cell) has been deployed at the particular base station.

[0106] The various aspects presented herein may also determine the base station location and the corresponding uncertainty derived from the cell (e.g., LTE cell). For example, the various aspects presented herein may utilize a test scan site for a specific base station. In some instances, a service cell (e.g., NB-IoT service cell) may not be in the database. A base station may be associated with a positioning and uncertainty range. In addition, the base station positioning and uncertainty range may be consistent with the test site. Based on the base station positioning and uncertainty range, the database may return the base station positioning and uncertainty of many unknown cells (e.g., LTE cells, CAT-M1 cells, and NB-IoT cells). As indicated herein, an unknown cell may be a cell that does not include an identifier (ID) known to the database. For example, an unknown cell may be a cell that is not found in the database based on its cell ID (e.g., because it has not been crowdsourced). That is, in some instances, an unknown cell may be a cell that does not originally exist in the database.

[0107] Fig.10 1000 is a diagram illustrating example ranges of corresponding sector centers of base stations and cells in a wireless communication system. More specifically, Fig.10 Base stations and corresponding sector centers of cells are depicted including several ranges and uncertainty ranges. Fig.10As shown, diagram 1000 includes base station 1010 and corresponding sector centers of the cell (e.g., sector center 1021, sector center 1022, sector center 1023, sector center 1024, sector center 1025, sector center 1026, sector center 1027, sector center 1028, and sector center 1029), range 1030, range 1032, weighted mean sector center 1040, and uncertainty range 1050. Range 1030 may be a specific distance around base station 1010 (e.g., 500 feet), and range 1032 may be a larger distance around base station 1010 (e.g., 1000 feet). Uncertainty range 1050 may be an even larger distance around base station 1010 (e.g., 1500 feet). As shown in FIG. Fig.10 As shown, sector center 1021, sector center 1022, and sector center 1023 may be within range 1030. Sector center 1024, sector center 1025, sector center 1026, and sector center 1027 may be within range 1032. In addition, sector center 1028 may be within uncertainty range 1050, while sector center 1029 may be outside uncertainty range 1050. In addition, weighted mean sector center 1040 may be a weighted mean (i.e., average) of the positions of sector centers 1021 to 1029. It should be noted that a sector center located on the boundary of a particular range may be considered to be within the range or outside the range.

[0108] like Fig.10 As shown, a server or network entity (not shown) may utilize the location of each of sector centers 1021 to 1029 in order to locate base station 1010. For example, the server or network entity may detect sector centers 1021 to 1029, wherein each of sector centers 1021 to 1029 may be associated with a cell ID. Based on the cell ID of each of sector centers 1021 to 1029, the server or network entity may identify the location of each of sector centers 1021 to 1029. In addition, the server or network entity may estimate the average location of sector centers 1021 to 1029 based on the locations of the cells. Fig.10As depicted, the location of base station 1010 may be associated with an uncertainty value (e.g., uncertainty range 1050) corresponding to the average location of sector centers 1021 to 1029. In the uncertainty range 1050, the server or database may return the location of base station 1010 and the uncertainty of the unknown cells corresponding to sector centers 1021 to 1029. In some examples, the average location of sector centers 1021 to 1029 may be a weighted mean (i.e., average) of the locations of sector centers 1021 to 1029, which may correspond to weighted mean sector center 1040. The average location of the cell or sector center may be based on a weighted average of the location of each of the cell or sector center or an unweighted average of the location of each of the cell or sector center. The weighted average may assign a weight that predetermines the relative importance of each data point. In some examples, the weight may be calculated based on the uncertainty (or size) of the location of the sector center in the individual coverage area. A weighted average may be calculated to equalize the frequency of values ​​in the data set. An unweighted average may be a method of taking an average where all numbers are treated equally and assigned equal weights. Based on the average position of the cells corresponding to sector centers 1021 to 1029, a server or network entity may calculate the position of base station 1010. The server or network may also send an indication of the calculated position of base station 1010. Additionally, a server of the network entity may crowdsource data for each of the cells corresponding to sector centers 1021 to 1029, such as crowdsourcing data associated with a coverage area for each of the cells corresponding to sector centers 1021 to 1029. Based on the crowdsourced data, the server or network entity may determine the location of the coverage area for each of the cells corresponding to sector centers 1021 to 1029. As Fig.10As shown, the coverage area may be a sector center, wherein the location of each of the cells corresponding to sector centers 1021 to 1029 may be identified based on at least one of the sector centers (e.g., weighted average sector center 1040). In addition, the server or network entity may calculate the location of at least one cell based on the average location of sector centers 1021 to 1029, wherein the at least one cell may be at least one unknown cell associated with sector centers 1021 to 1029. In addition, each of the cells corresponding to sector center 1021 to sector center 1029 may be associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a CI, a base station ID, a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency (e.g., MCC 761 or MCC 861, MNC 762 or MNC 862, CI 763 or CI 863, base station ID 764 or base station ID 864, PCI 766 or PCI 866 and / or frequency 767 or frequency 867).

[0109] In some aspects, a server or network entity may utilize the antenna positioning of a cell to determine the location of a base station. For example, some base stations (e.g., eNBs) may include a large standard deviation associated with a cell antenna. If the cells are not well grouped together (i.e., the cells are not grouped together in an orderly manner), then the bit length in the database may need to be adjusted. For example, if the cells are not well grouped together (i.e., the cells are not grouped together in an orderly manner), then the bit length of the base station ID may need to be adjusted. In some aspects, the quality of base station positioning may be evaluated. For example, the standard deviation (i.e., spread) of a base station cell may be too large to represent a single base station site. This may occur because the cell antennas are not physically in the same location or because the bit length selected for the base station ID is inaccurate. In this case, different bit lengths of the base station ID may be tested to determine whether the cell will be better grouped with base station IDs of different bit lengths. Additionally, in order to evaluate the quality of base station positioning, the derived base station location may be compared with a separate database including the cell antenna location.

[0110] Some types of networks (e.g., LTE networks such as NB-IoT) may not have enough observations to maintain a crowdsourced database. However, a particular type of air interface (e.g., a NB-IoT air interface) may be deployed on an existing network (e.g., an LTE network). In one embodiment, positioning for observed NB-IoT cells may be performed when a crowdsourced LTE database already exists. The existing crowdsourced LTE database may be used to form a positioning estimate for each base station (e.g., gNB or eNB) by locating all cells belonging to each gNB or eNB grouped at the base station site. Additionally, cells of a particular type that are not found in the database with cell identifiers of cells of a particular type (e.g., new NB-IoT cells) (e.g., because they have not yet been crowdsourced) may be associated with the gNB / eNB, and the calculated gNB / eNB positioning may be used for terrestrial positioning estimates for users of the cell (e.g., NB-IoT cell).

[0111] Various aspects of the present disclosure may include multiple benefits or advantages. For example, various aspects presented herein may allow new cells that cannot be found in the database (because they have not yet been crowdsourced) to be associated with a base station based on the cell ID of the new cell, and the calculated base station location can be used for a ground location estimate of the cell. In addition, the results of this association at the server or network entity can be saved and seeded back into the database as a rough crowdsourcing form. Therefore, this can help build a new database. Then, as the device population increases, the database can be updated / replaced by real GNSS-assisted crowdsourcing later. The seed database can be used for both single-cell ground positioning and multi-cell ground positioning. Therefore, various aspects presented herein can provide positioning and crowdsourcing for cells that originally did not exist in the database.

[0112] Fig.11 FIG. 1 is a communication flow diagram 1100 for wireless communication according to one or more techniques of this disclosure. Fig.11 As shown, diagram 1100 includes example communications between a device 1102 (e.g., a wireless device or UE) and a server 1104 (e.g., a network or network entity) according to one or more techniques of this disclosure. In some aspects, device 1102 may be a first wireless device (e.g., a UE, a base station, a TRP, or a network entity), and server 1104 may be a second wireless device (e.g., a UE, a base station, a TRP, a network entity, or a server).

[0113] At 1110, device 1102 may send a request (e.g., request 1114) to a network entity for the location of a network node associated with a set of cells, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID for each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node.

[0114] At 1112, server 1104 may receive a request for a location of a network node from at least one device prior to detection of a set of cells associated with the network node (e.g., request 1114). Server 1104 may also send an indication of the location of the network node to the at least one device based on the request after calculation of the location of the network node (e.g., indication 1184).

[0115] At 1120, the server 1104 may detect a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with the node ID of the network node. In addition, each cell in the set of cells is also associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency. The cell ID of each cell in the set of cells may be stored in a database or a memory, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on the cell ID stored in the database or the memory.

[0116] At 1130, the server 1104 may identify the location of each cell in the cell set based on the cell ID of each cell in the cell set. The network entity may be a server, a location server, a positioning server, a cloud server, an edge server, a network, or a location management function (LMF), the network node may be a base station or a transmission reception point (TRP), and each cell in the cell set may be within the coverage area of ​​the base station or the TRP.

[0117] In some aspects, each cell in the set of cells may be associated with a coverage area in a plurality of coverage areas, and wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on the coverage area associated with each cell in the set of cells. The plurality of coverage areas may be a plurality of sector centers, and wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on at least one sector center in the plurality of sector centers.

[0118] At 1140, the server 1104 may crowdsource data for each cell in the cell set associated with each coverage area in the multiple coverage areas; and determine the location of the coverage area for each cell in the cell set based on the crowdsourced data, wherein the location of each cell in the cell set is identified based on the location of the coverage area.

[0119] At 1150, the server 1104 may estimate an average position of the cell set based on the position of each cell in the cell set. In some aspects, estimating the average position of the cell set may include averaging the position of each cell in the cell set to obtain the average position of the cell set. That is, the server may average the position of each cell in the cell set to obtain the average position of the cell set. In addition, the average position of the cell set may be based on a weighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set or an unweighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set. The weighted average or the unweighted average may be based on a coverage area of ​​each cell in the cell set.

[0120] At 1160, the server 1104 may calculate the location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells. The location of the network node may be associated with an uncertainty value corresponding to the average location of the set of cells.

[0121] At 1170, the server 1104 may calculate the location of at least one cell based on the average location of the cell set, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the cell set. The at least one unknown cell may be associated with the cell set based on the node ID of the network node. The location of the at least one unknown cell and the location of the network node may be stored in a database or memory.

[0122] At 1180, the server 1104 may output an indication of the location of the network node after the calculation of the location of the network node (e.g., indication 1184). In some aspects, outputting the indication may include (i.e., comprising) sending the indication of the location of the network node for at least one device. That is, the server may send the indication of the location of the network node for at least one device. Furthermore, outputting the indication may include storing the indication of the location of the network node in a first memory or cache. That is, the server may store the indication of the location of the network node.

[0123] At 1182, the device 1102 may receive, based on the request, from the network entity an indication of the location of the network node associated with the set of cells (eg, indication 1184), wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the set of cells.

[0124] In some aspects, the network entity may be a server, a location server, a positioning server, a cloud server, an edge server, a network or a location management function (LMF), the network node may be a base station or a transmit receive point (TRP), and each cell in the set of cells may be within the coverage area of ​​the base station or the TRP. In addition, each cell in the set of cells is also associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency. The cell ID of each cell in the set of cells may be stored in a database or a memory, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on the cell ID stored in the database or the memory.

[0125] In some instances, each cell in the cell set may be associated with a coverage area in a plurality of coverage areas, and wherein the position of each cell in the cell set may be identified based on the coverage area associated with each cell in the cell set. The plurality of coverage areas may be a plurality of sector centers, wherein the position of each cell in the cell set may be identified based on at least one sector center in the plurality of sector centers. In addition, the average position of the cell set may be based on a weighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set or an unweighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set. The weighted average or the unweighted average may be based on the coverage area of ​​each cell in the cell set. The position of at least one cell may be based on the average position of the cell set, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the cell set. The at least one unknown cell may be associated with the cell set based on the node ID of the network node. The position of the at least one unknown cell and the position of the network node may be stored in a database or a memory. In addition, the position of the network node may be associated with an uncertainty value corresponding to the average position of the cell set.

[0126] Fig.12 1200 is a flow chart of a method of wireless communication. The method may be performed by a device or UE (eg, UE 104, device 1102; apparatus 1604). The methods described herein may provide several benefits, such as improved resource utilization and / or power conservation.

[0127] At 1202, the device may send a request to a network entity for a location of a network node associated with a set of cells, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node, such as with respect to Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11As described in 1110 of , device 1102 may send a request for a location of a network node associated with a set of cells to a network entity, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node. In addition, step 1202 may be performed by location component 198.

[0128] At 1204, the device may receive, based on the request, from the network entity an indication of the location of the network node associated with the set of cells, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the set of cells, such as with respect to Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1182 of , the device 1102 may receive an indication of the location of the network node associated with the cell set from the network entity based on the request, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the cell set. In addition, step 1204 may be performed by the location component 198.

[0129] In some aspects, the network entity may be a server, a location server, a positioning server, a cloud server, an edge server, a network or a location management function (LMF), the network node may be a base station or a transmit receive point (TRP), and each cell in the set of cells may be within the coverage area of ​​the base station or the TRP. In addition, each cell in the set of cells is also associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency. The cell ID of each cell in the set of cells may be stored in a database or a memory, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on the cell ID stored in the database or the memory.

[0130] In some instances, each cell in the cell set may be associated with a coverage area in a plurality of coverage areas, and wherein the position of each cell in the cell set may be identified based on the coverage area associated with each cell in the cell set. The plurality of coverage areas may be a plurality of sector centers, wherein the position of each cell in the cell set may be identified based on at least one sector center in the plurality of sector centers. In addition, the average position of the cell set may be based on a weighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set or an unweighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set. The weighted average or the unweighted average may be based on the coverage area of ​​each cell in the cell set. The position of at least one cell may be based on the average position of the cell set, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the cell set. The at least one unknown cell may be associated with the cell set based on the node ID of the network node. The position of the at least one unknown cell and the position of the network node may be stored in a database or a memory. In addition, the position of the network node may be associated with an uncertainty value corresponding to the average position of the cell set.

[0131] Fig.13 1300 is a flow chart of a method of wireless communication. The method may be performed by a device or UE (eg, UE 104, device 1102; means 1604). The methods described herein may provide several benefits, such as improved resource utilization and / or power conservation.

[0132] At 1302, the device may send a request to a network entity for a location of a network node associated with a set of cells, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node, such as with respect to Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1110 of , device 1102 may send a request for a location of a network node associated with a set of cells to a network entity, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node. In addition, step 1302 may be performed by location component 198.

[0133] At 1304, the device may receive, based on the request, from the network entity an indication of the location of the network node associated with the set of cells, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the set of cells, such as with respect to Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11As described in 1182 of , the device 1102 may receive an indication of the location of the network node associated with the cell set from the network entity based on the request, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the cell set. In addition, step 1304 may be performed by the location component 198.

[0134] In some aspects, the network entity may be a server, a location server, a positioning server, a cloud server, an edge server, a network or a location management function (LMF), the network node may be a base station or a transmit receive point (TRP), and each cell in the set of cells may be within the coverage area of ​​the base station or the TRP. In addition, each cell in the set of cells is also associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency. The cell ID of each cell in the set of cells may be stored in a database or a memory, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on the cell ID stored in the database or the memory.

[0135] As shown at 1302b, each cell in the cell set may be associated with a coverage area in a plurality of coverage areas, and the position of each cell in the cell set may be identified based on the coverage area associated with each cell in the cell set. As shown at 1302c, the plurality of coverage areas may be a plurality of sector centers, and the position of each cell in the cell set may be identified based on at least one sector center in the plurality of sector centers. As shown at 1304b, the average position of the cell set may be based on a weighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set or an unweighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set. As shown at 1304c, the weighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set or the unweighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set may be based on the coverage area of ​​each cell in the cell set. The position of at least one cell may be based on the average position of the cell set, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the cell set. The at least one unknown cell may be associated with the cell set based on the node ID of the network node. The location of the at least one unknown cell and the location of the network node may be stored in a database or a memory.Furthermore, the location of the network node may be associated with an uncertainty value corresponding to the average location of the set of cells.

[0136] Fig.141400 is a flow chart of a method of wireless communication. The method may be performed by a server or network entity (e.g., LMF 166; server 1104; network entity 1860) or a base station (e.g., base station 102; network entity 1702). The methods described herein may provide several benefits, such as improved resource utilization and / or power savings.

[0137] At 1404, the server may detect a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node, such as with respect to Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1120 of , the server 1104 may detect a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with the node ID of the network node. In addition, step 1404 may be performed by the location component 199. In addition, each cell in the set of cells is also associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency. The cell ID of each cell in the set of cells may be stored in a database or a memory, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on the cell ID stored in the database or the memory.

[0138] At 1406, the server may identify the location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells, such as Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1130 of , the server 1104 may identify the location of each cell in the cell set based on the cell ID of each cell in the cell set. In addition, step 1406 may be performed by the location component 199. The network entity may be a server, a location server, a positioning server, a cloud server, an edge server, a network or a location management function (LMF), the network node may be a base station or a transmission reception point (TRP), and each cell in the cell set may be within the coverage area of ​​the base station or the TRP.

[0139] In some aspects, each cell in the set of cells may be associated with a coverage area in a plurality of coverage areas, and wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on the coverage area associated with each cell in the set of cells. The plurality of coverage areas may be a plurality of sector centers, and wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on at least one sector center in the plurality of sector centers.

[0140] At 1410, the server may estimate an average position of the set of cells based on the position of each cell in the set of cells, such as Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1150 of , the server 1104 may estimate the average position of the cell set based on the position of each cell in the cell set. In addition, step 1410 may be performed by the position component 199. In some aspects, estimating the average position of the cell set may include: averaging the position of each cell in the cell set to obtain the average position of the cell set. That is, the server may average the position of each cell in the cell set to obtain the average position of the cell set. In addition, the average position of the cell set may be based on a weighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set or an unweighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set. The weighted average or the unweighted average may be based on the coverage area of ​​each cell in the cell set.

[0141] At 1412, the server may calculate the location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells, such as Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1160 of , the server 1104 may calculate the location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells. In addition, step 1412 may be performed by the location component 199. The location of the network node may be associated with an uncertainty value corresponding to the average location of the set of cells.

[0142] Fig.15 1500 is a flow chart of a method of wireless communication. The method may be performed by a server or network entity (e.g., LMF 166; server 1104; network entity 1860) or a base station (e.g., base station 102; network entity 1702). The methods described herein may provide several benefits, such as improved resource utilization and / or power savings.

[0143] At 1502, the server may receive a request for a location of a network node from at least one device prior to detecting a set of cells associated with the network node, such as with respect to Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1112 of , the server 1104 may receive a request for the location of the network node from at least one device before detecting the set of cells associated with the network node. In addition, step 1502 may be performed by the location component 199. The server may also send an indication of the location of the network node to the at least one device based on the request after calculating the location of the network node (e.g., indication 1184).

[0144] At 1504, the server may detect a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node, such as with respect to Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1120 of , the server 1104 may detect a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with the node ID of the network node. In addition, step 1504 may be performed by the location component 199. In addition, each cell in the set of cells is also associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency. The cell ID of each cell in the set of cells may be stored in a database or a memory, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on the cell ID stored in the database or the memory.

[0145] At 1506, the server may identify the location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells, such as with respect to Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1130 of , the server 1104 may identify the location of each cell in the cell set based on the cell ID of each cell in the cell set. In addition, step 1506 may be performed by the location component 199. The network entity may be a server, a location server, a positioning server, a cloud server, an edge server, a network or a location management function (LMF), the network node may be a base station or a transmission reception point (TRP), and each cell in the cell set may be within the coverage area of ​​the base station or the TRP.

[0146] In some aspects, each cell in the set of cells may be associated with a coverage area in a plurality of coverage areas, and wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on the coverage area associated with each cell in the set of cells. The plurality of coverage areas may be a plurality of sector centers, and wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells may be identified based on at least one sector center in the plurality of sector centers.

[0147] At 1508, the server may crowdsource data for each cell in the set of cells associated with each coverage area in the plurality of coverage areas; and determine, for each cell in the set of cells based on the crowdsourced data, a location of the coverage area, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is identified based on the location of the coverage area, such as with respect to Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1140 of , the server 1104 may crowdsource data for each cell in the set of cells associated with each coverage area in the plurality of coverage areas; and determine the location of the coverage area for each cell in the set of cells based on the crowdsourced data, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is identified based on the location of the coverage area. In addition, step 1508 may be performed by the location component 199.

[0148] At 1510, the server may estimate an average position of the set of cells based on the position of each cell in the set of cells, such as Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1150 of , the server 1104 may estimate the average position of the cell set based on the position of each cell in the cell set. In addition, step 1510 may be performed by the position component 199. In some aspects, estimating the average position of the cell set may include: averaging the position of each cell in the cell set to obtain the average position of the cell set. That is, the server may average the position of each cell in the cell set to obtain the average position of the cell set. In addition, the average position of the cell set may be based on a weighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set or an unweighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set. The weighted average or the unweighted average may be based on the coverage area of ​​each cell in the cell set.

[0149] At 1512, the server may calculate the location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells, such as Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1160 of , the server 1104 may calculate the location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells. In addition, step 1512 may be performed by the location component 199. The location of the network node may be associated with an uncertainty value corresponding to the average location of the set of cells.

[0150] At 1514, the server may calculate a position of at least one cell based on the average position of the set of cells, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the set of cells, such as Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11As described in 1170 of , the server 1104 may calculate the position of at least one cell based on the average position of the cell set, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the cell set. In addition, step 1514 may be performed by the position component 199. The at least one unknown cell may be associated with the cell set based on the node ID of the network node. The position of the at least one unknown cell and the position of the network node may be stored in a database or a memory.

[0151] At 1516, the server may output an indication of the location of the network node after the calculation of the location of the network node, such as Figures 4 to 11 For example, Fig.11 As described in 1180 of , the server 1104 may output an indication of the location of the network node (e.g., indication 1184) after the calculation of the location of the network node. In addition, step 1516 may be performed by the location component 199. In some aspects, outputting the indication may include sending the indication of the location of the network node to at least one device. That is, the server may send the indication of the location of the network node to at least one device. In addition, outputting the indication may include storing the indication of the location of the network node in a first memory or cache. That is, the server may store the indication of the location of the network node.

[0152] Fig.161600 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus 1604. The apparatus 1604 may be a UE, a component of a UE, or may implement UE functionality. In some aspects, the apparatus 1604 may include a cellular baseband processor 1624 (also referred to as a modem) coupled to one or more transceivers 1622 (e.g., a cellular RF transceiver). The cellular baseband processor 1624 may include on-chip memory 1624'. In some aspects, the apparatus 1604 may also include one or more subscriber identity module (SIM) cards 1620 and an application processor 1606 coupled to a secure digital (SD) card 1608 and a screen 1610. The application processor 1606 may include on-chip memory 1606'. In some aspects, the device 1604 may also include a Bluetooth module 1612, a WLAN module 1614, an SPS module 1616 (e.g., a GNSS module), one or more sensor modules 1618 (e.g., an atmospheric pressure sensor / altimeter; a motion sensor such as an inertial management unit (IMU), a gyroscope, and / or an accelerometer; light detection and ranging (LIDAR), radio-aided detection and ranging (RADAR), sound navigation and ranging (SONAR), a magnetometer, audio, and / or other technologies for positioning), an additional memory module 1626, a power source 1630, and / or a camera 1632. The Bluetooth module 1612, the WLAN module 1614, and the SPS module 1616 may include an on-chip transceiver (TRX) (or in some cases, only a receiver (RX)). The Bluetooth module 1612, the WLAN module 1614, and the SPS module 1616 may include their own dedicated antennas and / or communicate using an antenna 1680. The cellular baseband processor 1624 communicates with the UE 104 and / or with the RU associated with the network entity 1602 through the transceiver 1622 via one or more antennas 1680. The cellular baseband processor 1624 and the application processor 1606 may each include a computer-readable medium / memory 1624', 1606', respectively. The additional memory module 1626 may also be considered as a computer-readable medium / memory. Each computer-readable medium / memory 1624', 1606', 1626 may be non-transitory. The cellular baseband processor 1624 and the application processor 1606 are each responsible for general processing, including executing software stored on a computer-readable medium / memory. The software enables the cellular baseband processor 1624 / application processor 1606 to perform the various functions described above when executed by the cellular baseband processor 1624 / application processor 1606. The computer-readable medium / memory can also be used to store data manipulated by the cellular baseband processor 1624 / application processor 1606 when executing the software.The cellular baseband processor 1624 / application processor 1606 may be a component of the UE 350 and may include the memory 360 and / or at least one of the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and the controller / processor 359. In one configuration, the device 1604 may be a processor chip (modem and / or application) and include only the cellular baseband processor 1624 and / or the application processor 1606, while in another configuration, the device 1604 may be the entire UE (e.g., see. Figure 3 350) and includes additional modules of device 1604.

[0153] As discussed above, the location component 198 may be configured to send a request for a location of a network node associated with a set of cells to a network entity, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node. The location component 198 may also be configured to receive an indication of the location of the network node associated with the set of cells from the network entity based on the request, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the set of cells.

[0154] The location component 198 may be within the cellular baseband processor 1624, the application processor 1606, or both the cellular baseband processor 1624 and the application processor 1606. The location component 198 may be one or more hardware components specifically configured to implement the process / algorithm, implemented by one or more processors configured to execute the process / algorithm, stored in a computer-readable medium for implementation by one or more processors, or some combination thereof. As shown, the device 1604 may include a variety of components configured for various functions. In one configuration, the device 1604 (and specifically, the cellular baseband processor 1624 and / or the application processor 1606) includes a component for sending a request to a network entity for a location of a network node associated with a set of cells, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node. The apparatus 1604 may also include a component for receiving, based on the request, an indication of the location of the network node associated with the set of cells from the network entity, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the set of cells. The component may be a location component 198 of the apparatus 1604 configured to perform the functions recited by the component. As described above, the apparatus 1604 may include a TX processor 368, an RX processor 356, and a controller / processor 359. Thus, in one configuration, the component may be a TX processor 368, an RX processor 356, and / or a controller / processor 359 configured to perform the functions recited by the component.

[0155] Fig.17 1700 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a network entity 1702. The network entity 1702 may be a BS, a component of a BS, or may implement BS functionality. The network entity 1702 may include at least one of a CU 1710, a DU 1730, or a RU 1740. For example, depending on the layer functionality handled by the location component 199, the network entity 1702 may include a CU 1710; both a CU 1710 and a DU 1730; each of the CU 1710, the DU 1730, and the RU 1740; the DU 1730; both a DU 1730 and a RU 1740; or a RU 1740. The CU 1710 may include a CU processor 1712. The CU processor 1712 may include an on-chip memory 1712'. In some aspects, the CU 1710 may also include an additional memory module 1714 and a communication interface 1718. CU 1710 communicates with DU 1730 via a midhaul link, such as an F1 interface. DU 1730 may include a DU processor 1732. DU processor 1732 may include on-chip memory 1732'. In some aspects, DU 1730 may also include additional memory modules 1734 and a communication interface 1738. DU 1730 communicates with RU 1740 via a fronthaul link. RU 1740 may include a RU processor 1742. RU processor 1742 may include on-chip memory 1742'. In some aspects, RU 1740 may also include additional memory modules 1744, one or more transceivers 1746, antenna 1780, and communication interface 1748. RU 1740 communicates with UE 104. On-chip memory 1712', 1732', 1742' and additional memory modules 1714, 1734, 1744 may each be considered a computer-readable medium / memory. Each computer readable medium / memory may be non-transitory. Each of processors 1712, 1732, 1742 is responsible for general processing, including executing software stored on the computer readable medium / memory. The software, when executed by the corresponding processor, causes the processor to perform the various functions described above. The computer readable medium / memory may also be used to store data manipulated by the processor when executing the software.

[0156] As discussed above, the location component 199 may be configured to detect a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with the node ID of the network node. The location component 199 may also be configured to identify the location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells. The location component 199 may also be configured to estimate the average location of the set of cells based on the location of each cell in the set of cells. The location component 199 may also be configured to calculate the location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells. The location component 199 may also be configured to crowdsource data for each cell in the set of cells associated with each coverage area in the multiple coverage areas; and determine the location of the coverage area for each cell in the set of cells based on the crowdsourced data, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is identified based on the location of the coverage area. The location component 199 may also be configured to receive a request for the location of the network node from at least one device before detecting the set of cells associated with the network node. The location component 199 may also be configured to send an indication of the location of the network node to the at least one device based on the request after the calculation of the location of the network node. The location component 199 may also be configured to calculate the location of at least one cell based on the average location of the set of cells, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the set of cells. The location component 199 may also be configured to output an indication of the location of the network node based on the calculation of the location of the network node.

[0157] The location component 199 may be within one or more processors of one or more of the CU 1710, the DU 1730, and the RU 1740. The location component 199 may be one or more hardware components specifically configured to implement the process / algorithm, implemented by one or more processors configured to execute the process / algorithm, stored in a computer-readable medium for implementation by one or more processors, or some combination thereof. The network entity 1702 may include a variety of components configured for various functions. In one configuration, the network entity 1702 may include a component for detecting a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with the node ID of the network node. The network entity 1702 may also include a component for identifying the location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells. The network entity 1702 may also include a component for estimating the average location of the set of cells based on the location of each cell in the set of cells. The network entity 1702 may also include a component for calculating the location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells. The network entity 1702 may also include a component for crowdsourcing data for each cell in the set of cells associated with each coverage area in the multiple coverage areas. The network entity 1702 may also include a component for determining the location of the coverage area for each cell in the set of cells based on the crowdsourced data, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is identified based on the location of the coverage area. The network entity 1702 may also include a component for receiving a request for the location of the network node from at least one device before detecting the set of cells associated with the network node. The network entity 1702 may also include a component for sending an indication of the location of the network node to the at least one device based on the request after the calculation of the location of the network node. The network entity 1702 may also include a component for calculating the location of at least one cell based on the average location of the set of cells, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the set of cells. The network entity 1702 may also include means for outputting an indication of the location of the network node based on the calculation of the location of the network node. The means may be a location component 199 of the network entity 1702 configured to perform the functions recited by the means. As described above, the network entity 1702 may include a TX processor 316, an RX processor 370, and a controller / processor 375. Thus, in one configuration, the means may be a TX processor 316, an RX processor 370, and / or a controller / processor 375 configured to perform the functions recited by the means.

[0158] Fig.181800 is an example of a hardware implementation for a network entity 1860. In one example, the network entity 1860 may be within the core network 120. The network entity 1860 may include a network processor 1812. The network processor 1812 may include an on-chip memory 1812'. In some aspects, the network entity 1860 may also include an additional memory module 1814. The network entity 1860 communicates with the CU 1802 directly (e.g., backhaul link) or indirectly (e.g., through the RIC) via a network interface 1880. The on-chip memory 1812' and the additional memory module 1814 may each be considered as a computer-readable medium / memory. Each computer-readable medium / memory may be non-transitory. The processor 1812 is responsible for general processing, including executing software stored on a computer-readable medium / memory. The software causes the processor to perform the various functions described above when executed by the corresponding processor. The computer-readable medium / memory may also be used to store data manipulated by the processor when executing the software.

[0159] As discussed above, the location component 199 may be configured to detect a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with the node ID of the network node. The location component 199 may also be configured to identify the location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells. The location component 199 may also be configured to estimate the average location of the set of cells based on the location of each cell in the set of cells. The location component 199 may also be configured to calculate the location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells. The location component 199 may also be configured to crowdsource data for each cell in the set of cells associated with each coverage area in the multiple coverage areas; and determine the location of the coverage area for each cell in the set of cells based on the crowdsourced data, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is identified based on the location of the coverage area. The location component 199 may also be configured to receive a request for the location of the network node from at least one device before detecting the set of cells associated with the network node. The location component 199 may also be configured to send an indication of the location of the network node to the at least one device based on the request after the calculation of the location of the network node. The location component 199 may also be configured to calculate the location of at least one cell based on the average location of the set of cells, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the set of cells. The location component 199 may also be configured to output an indication of the location of the network node based on the calculation of the location of the network node.

[0160] The location component 199 may be within the processor 1812. The location component 199 may be one or more hardware components specifically configured to implement the process / algorithm, implemented by one or more processors configured to execute the process / algorithm, stored in a computer-readable medium for implementation by one or more processors, or some combination thereof. The network entity 1860 may include a variety of components configured for various functions. In one configuration, the network entity 1860 may include a component for detecting a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells includes a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with the node ID of the network node. The network entity 1860 may also include a component for identifying the location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells. The network entity 1860 may also include a component for estimating the average location of the set of cells based on the location of each cell in the set of cells. The network entity 1860 may also include a component for calculating the location of the network node based on the average location of the set of cells. The network entity 1860 may also include means for crowdsourcing data for each cell in the set of cells associated with each coverage area in the plurality of coverage areas. The network entity 1860 may also include means for determining a location of the coverage area for each cell in the set of cells based on the crowdsourced data, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is identified based on the location of the coverage area. The network entity 1860 may also include means for receiving a request for the location of the network node from at least one device prior to the detection of the set of cells associated with the network node. The network entity 1860 may also include means for sending an indication of the location of the network node to the at least one device based on the request after the calculation of the location of the network node. The network entity 1860 may also include means for calculating the location of at least one cell based on the average location of the set of cells, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the set of cells. The network entity 1860 may also include means for outputting an indication of the location of the network node based on the calculation of the location of the network node. A means may be a location component 199 of a network entity 1860 configured to perform the functions recited by the means.

[0161] It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of the blocks in the disclosed process / flowchart is only an illustration of the exemplary method. It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of the blocks in the process / flowchart can be rearranged based on design preferences. In addition, some blocks can be combined or omitted. The attached method claims provide the elements of each block in a sample order, but are not limited to the specific order or hierarchy provided.

[0162] The foregoing description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein can be applied to other aspects. Therefore, the claims are not limited to the various aspects described herein, but should be given the full scope consistent with the language claims. Unless otherwise specified, reference to an element in the singular form does not mean "one and only one", but "one or more". Terms such as "if", "when ..." and "at ..." do not mean a direct temporal relationship or reaction. That is, these phrases, such as "when ...", do not mean an instant action in response to the occurrence of an action or during the occurrence of an action, but only mean that if the condition is met, the action will occur without a specific or instantaneous time constraint to make the action occur. The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "used as an example, instance, or illustration". Any aspect described as "exemplary" herein is not necessarily interpreted as being preferred or having an advantage over other aspects. Unless otherwise specified, the term "some" refers to one or more. Combinations such as "at least one of A, B, or C," "one or more of A, B, or C," "at least one of A, B and C," "one or more of A, B, and C," and "A, B, C, or any combination thereof" include any combination of A, B, and / or C, and may include multiple A, multiple B, or multiple C. Specifically, combinations such as "at least one of A, B, or C," "one or more of A, B, or C," "at least one of A, B, and C," "one or more of A, B, and C," and "A, B, C, or any combination thereof" may be only A, only B, only C, A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C, where any such combination may contain one or more members of A, B, or C. A set should be interpreted as a set of elements, where the number of elements is one or more. Thus, for a set of X, X will include one or more elements. If the first device receives data from the second device or sends data to the second device, the data may be received / sent directly between the first device and the second device, or indirectly between the first device and the second device through a collection of devices. All structural and functional equivalents of the elements of the various aspects described throughout the present disclosure that are known or will later be known to a person of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are covered by the claims. In addition, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public, regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly stated in the claims. Words such as "module", "mechanism", "element", "device", etc. cannot replace the word "component". Therefore, no claim element will be understood as a component plus function unless the element is explicitly stated using the phrase "component for..."

[0163] As used herein, the phrase "based on" should not be interpreted as referring to a closed set of information, one or more conditions, one or more factors, etc. In other words, the phrase "based on A" (where "A" can be information, a condition, a factor, etc.) should be interpreted as "based at least on A" unless specifically stated differently.

[0164] The following aspects are merely illustrative and may be combined with other aspects or teachings described herein without limitation.

[0165] Aspect 1 is a device for performing wireless communications at a network entity, the device comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being coupled to the at least one memory and being configured, at least in part based on information stored in the at least one memory, individually or in any combination to: detect a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the cell set comprises a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the cell set is associated with the node ID of the network node; identify the position of each cell in the cell set based on the cell ID of each cell in the cell set; estimate the average position of the cell set based on the position of each cell in the cell set; and calculate the position of the network node based on the average position of the cell set.

[0166] Aspect 2 is an apparatus according to aspect 1, wherein the at least one processor, alone or in any combination, is further configured to: output an indication of the location of the network node based on the calculation of the location of the network node.

[0167] Aspect 3 is an apparatus according to Aspect 2, wherein in order to output the indication of the location of the network node, the at least one processor is configured individually or in any combination to: send the indication of the location of the network node to at least one device; or store the indication of the location of the network node in a first memory or cache.

[0168] Aspect 4 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 1 to 3, wherein each cell in the cell set is associated with a coverage area among multiple coverage areas, and wherein in order to identify the position of each cell in the cell set, the at least one processor is configured individually or in combination to: identify the position of each cell in the cell set based on the coverage area associated with each cell in the cell set.

[0169] Aspect 5 is an apparatus according to Aspect 4, wherein the at least one processor is further configured, alone or in any combination, to: crowdsource data for each cell in the cell set associated with each coverage area in the multiple coverage areas; and determine the location of the coverage area for each cell in the cell set based on the crowdsourced data, wherein in order to identify the location of each cell in the cell set, the at least one processor is configured, alone or in combination, to: further identify the location of each cell in the cell set based on the location of the coverage area.

[0170] Aspect 6 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 4 to 5, wherein the multiple coverage areas are multiple sector centers, and wherein in order to identify the position of each cell in the cell set, the at least one processor is configured individually or in combination to: further identify the position of each cell in the cell set based on at least one sector center among the multiple sector centers.

[0171] Aspect 7 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 1 to 6, wherein in order to estimate the average position of the cell set, the at least one processor is configured, individually or in any combination, to: average the position of each cell in the cell set to obtain the average position of the cell set.

[0172] Aspect 8 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 1 to 7, wherein the average position of the cell set is based on a weighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set or an unweighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set.

[0173] Aspect 9 is an apparatus according to aspect 8, wherein the weighted average of the location of each cell in the cell set or the unweighted average of the location of each cell in the cell set is based on the coverage area of ​​each cell in the cell set.

[0174] Aspect 10 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 1 to 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured, alone or in any combination, to: receive a request for the location of the network node from at least one device before the detection of the set of cells associated with the network node; and after the calculation of the location of the network node, send an indication of the location of the network node to the at least one device based on the request.

[0175] Aspect 11 is an apparatus according to Aspect 10, wherein the apparatus further comprises at least one of an antenna or a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor, wherein in order to send the indication of the location of the network node, the at least one processor is configured, alone or in any combination, to: send the indication of the location of the network node via at least one of the antenna or the transceiver.

[0176] Aspect 12 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 1 to 11, wherein the at least one processor is further configured, alone or in any combination, to: calculate the position of at least one cell based on the average position of the cell set, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the cell set.

[0177] Aspect 13 is an apparatus according to aspect 12, wherein the at least one unknown cell is associated with the cell set based on the node ID of the network node, and wherein the location of the at least one unknown cell and the location of the network node are configured to be stored in a database or a first memory.

[0178] Aspect 14 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 1 to 13, wherein the position of the network node is associated with an uncertainty value corresponding to the average position of the set of cells, and wherein each cell in the set of cells is also associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency.

[0179] Aspect 15 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 1 to 14, wherein the cell ID of each cell in the cell set is configured to be stored in a database or a first memory, and wherein in order to identify the position of each cell in the cell set, the at least one processor is configured individually or in combination to: identify the position of each cell in the cell set based on the cell ID configured to be stored in the database or the first memory.

[0180] Aspect 16 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 1 to 15, wherein the network entity is a server, a location server, a positioning server, a cloud server, an edge server, a network or a location management function (LMF), wherein the network node is a base station or a transmit receive point (TRP), and wherein each cell in the cell set is within the coverage area of ​​the base station or the TRP.

[0181] Aspect 17 is an apparatus according to any one of aspects 1 to 16, wherein the apparatus is a wireless communication device, the apparatus further comprising at least one of an antenna or a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor.

[0182] Aspect 18 is a method for implementing wireless communication according to any one of aspects 1 to 17.

[0183] Aspect 19 is an apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising means for implementing any one of aspects 1 to 17.

[0184] Aspect 20 is a computer-readable medium (eg, non-transitory computer-readable medium) storing computer-executable code, which, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to implement any one of aspects 1 to 17.

[0185] Aspect 21 is an apparatus for performing wireless communications at a device, the apparatus comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being coupled to the at least one memory and being configured, at least in part based on information stored in the at least one memory, individually or in any combination to: send a request for the location of a network node associated with a cell set to a network entity, wherein each cell in the cell set comprises a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the cell set is associated with the node ID of the network node; and receive an indication of the location of the network node associated with the cell set from the network entity based on the request, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the cell set.

[0186] Aspect 22 is an apparatus according to aspect 21, wherein each cell in the cell set is associated with a coverage area in a plurality of coverage areas, and wherein the position of each cell in the cell set is based on the coverage area associated with each cell in the cell set.

[0187] Aspect 23 is an apparatus according to aspect 22, wherein the plurality of coverage areas are a plurality of sector centers, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is based on at least one sector center of the plurality of sector centers.

[0188] Aspect 24 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 21 to 23, wherein the average position of the cell set is based on a weighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set or an unweighted average of the position of each cell in the cell set.

[0189] Aspect 25 is an apparatus according to Aspect 24, wherein the weighted average of the location of each cell in the cell set or the unweighted average of the location of each cell in the cell set is based on the coverage area of ​​each cell in the cell set.

[0190] Aspect 26 is an apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 25, wherein the position of at least one cell is based on the average position of the set of cells, and wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the set of cells.

[0191] Aspect 27 is an apparatus according to aspect 26, wherein the at least one unknown cell is associated with the cell set based on the node ID of the network node, and wherein the location of the at least one unknown cell and the location of the network node correspond to a database or a first memory.

[0192] Aspect 28 is an apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 27, wherein the position of the network node is associated with an uncertainty value corresponding to the average position of the set of cells.

[0193] Aspect 29 is an apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 28, wherein each cell in the set of cells is also associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency.

[0194] Aspect 30 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 21 to 29, wherein the cell ID of each cell in the cell set corresponds to a database or a first memory, and wherein the position of each cell in the cell set is based on the cell ID corresponding to the database or the first memory.

[0195] Aspect 31 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 21 to 30, wherein the network entity is a server, a location server, a positioning server, a cloud server, an edge server, a network or a location management function (LMF), wherein the network node is a base station or a transmit receive point (TRP), and wherein each cell in the cell set is within the coverage area of ​​the base station or the TRP.

[0196] Aspect 32 is an apparatus according to any one of Aspects 21 to 31, wherein the apparatus further comprises at least one of an antenna or a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor, wherein in order to receive the indication of the location of the network node, the at least one processor is configured, alone or in any combination, to: receive the indication of the location of the network node via at least one of the antenna or the transceiver.

[0197] Aspect 33 is an apparatus according to any one of aspects 21 to 32, wherein the apparatus is a wireless communication device, the apparatus further comprising at least one of an antenna or a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor.

[0198] Aspect 34 is a method for implementing wireless communication according to any one of aspects 21 to 33.

[0199] Aspect 35 is an apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising means for implementing any one of aspects 21 to 33.

[0200] Aspect 36 is a computer-readable medium (eg, non-transitory computer-readable medium) storing computer-executable code, which, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to implement any one of aspects 21 to 33.

Claims

1. An apparatus for wireless communication at a network entity, the apparatus comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and based at least in part on the first information stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor configured, alone or in any combination, to: detecting a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells comprises a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node; identifying a location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells; estimating an average position of the set of cells based on the position of each cell in the set of cells; as well as The position of the network node is calculated based on the average position of the set of cells.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor, alone or in any combination, is further configured to: An indication of the location of the network node is output based on the calculation of the location of the network node.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein to output the indication of the location of the network node, the at least one processor is configured, alone or in any combination, to: sending said indication of said location of said network node for at least one device; or The indication of the location of the network node is stored in a first memory or cache.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each cell in the cell set is associated with a coverage area among a plurality of coverage areas, and wherein in order to identify the location of each cell in the cell set, the at least one processor is configured, individually or in combination, to: identify the location of each cell in the cell set based on the coverage area associated with each cell in the cell set.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor, alone or in any combination, is further configured to: crowdsourcing data for each cell in the set of cells associated with each coverage area in the plurality of coverage areas; and The location of the coverage area is determined for each cell in the cell set based on the crowdsourced data, wherein in order to identify the location of each cell in the cell set, the at least one processor is configured, alone or in combination, to: further identify the location of each cell in the cell set based on the location of the coverage area.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the plurality of coverage areas are a plurality of sector centers, wherein in order to identify the location of each cell in the cell set, the at least one processor is configured, individually or in combination, to further identify the location of each cell in the cell set based on at least one sector center among the plurality of sector centers.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in order to estimate the average position of the cell set, the at least one processor is configured, alone or in any combination, to: average the position of each cell in the cell set to obtain the average position of the cell set.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the average position of the set of cells is based on a weighted average of the position of each cell in the set of cells or an unweighted average of the position of each cell in the set of cells.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the weighted average of the location of each cell in the set of cells or the unweighted average of the location of each cell in the set of cells is based on a coverage area of ​​each cell in the set of cells.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor, alone or in any combination, is further configured to: prior to said detecting of said set of cells associated with said network node, receiving from at least one device a request for said location of said network node; and After the calculation of the location of the network node, an indication of the location of the network node is sent to the at least one device based on the request.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising at least one of an antenna or a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor, wherein in order to send the indication of the location of the network node, the at least one processor is configured, alone or in any combination, to: send the indication of the location of the network node via at least one of the antenna or the transceiver.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor, alone or in any combination, is further configured to: The position of at least one cell is calculated based on the average position of the set of cells, wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the set of cells.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the at least one unknown cell is associated with the cell set based on the node ID of the network node, and wherein the location of the at least one unknown cell and the location of the network node are configured to be stored in a database or a first memory.

14. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the position of the network node is associated with an uncertainty value corresponding to the average position of the set of cells, and wherein each cell in the set of cells is also associated with at least one of a mobile country code (MCC), a mobile network code (MNC), a physical cell ID (PCI), or a frequency.

15. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cell ID of each cell in the cell set is configured to be stored in a database or a first memory, and wherein in order to identify the position of each cell in the cell set, the at least one processor is configured, individually or in combination, to: identify the position of each cell in the cell set based on the cell ID configured to be stored in the database or the first memory.

16. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the network entity is a server, a location server, a positioning server, a cloud server, an edge server, a network or a location management function (LMF), wherein the network node is a base station or a transmit receive point (TRP), and wherein each cell in the cell set is within the coverage area of ​​the base station or the TRP.

17. An apparatus for wireless communication at a device, the apparatus comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and based at least in part on the first information stored in the at least one memory, the at least one processor configured, alone or in any combination, to: sending a request for a location of a network node associated with a set of cells to a network entity, wherein each cell in the set of cells comprises a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node; as well as An indication of the location of the network node associated with the set of cells is received from the network entity based on the request, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the set of cells.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein each cell in the set of cells is associated with a coverage area of ​​a plurality of coverage areas, and wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is based on the coverage area associated with each cell in the set of cells.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the plurality of coverage areas is a plurality of sector centers, wherein the location of each cell in the set of cells is based on at least one sector center of the plurality of sector centers.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the average position of the set of cells is based on a weighted average of the position of each cell in the set of cells or an unweighted average of the position of each cell in the set of cells.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the weighted average of the location of each cell in the set of cells or the unweighted average of the location of each cell in the set of cells is based on a coverage area of ​​each cell in the set of cells.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location of at least one cell is based on the average location of the set of cells, and wherein the at least one cell is at least one unknown cell associated with the set of cells.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one unknown cell is associated with the set of cells based on the node ID of the network node, and wherein the location of the at least one unknown cell and the location of the network node correspond to a database or a first memory.

24. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location of the network node is associated with an uncertainty value corresponding to the average location of the set of cells.

25. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein each cell in the set of cells is further associated with at least one of a Mobile Country Code (MCC), a Mobile Network Code (MNC), a Physical Cell ID (PCI), or a frequency.

26. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells corresponds to a database or a first memory, and wherein the position of each cell in the set of cells is based on the cell ID corresponding to the database or the first memory.

27. An apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the network entity is a server, a location server, a positioning server, a cloud server, an edge server, a network or a location management function (LMF), wherein the network node is a base station or a transmit receive point (TRP), and wherein each cell in the cell set is within the coverage area of ​​the base station or the TRP.

28. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising at least one of an antenna or a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor, wherein in order to receive the indication of the location of the network node, the at least one processor is configured, alone or in any combination, to receive the indication of the location of the network node via at least one of the antenna or the transceiver.

29. A method for wireless communication at a network entity, the method comprising: detecting a set of cells associated with a network node, wherein each cell in the set of cells comprises a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node; identifying a location of each cell in the set of cells based on the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells; estimating an average position of the set of cells based on the position of each cell in the set of cells; as well as The position of the network node is calculated based on the average position of the set of cells.

30. A method of wireless communication at a device, the method comprising: sending a request for a location of a network node associated with a set of cells to a network entity, wherein each cell in the set of cells comprises a cell identifier (ID), wherein the cell ID of each cell in the set of cells is associated with a node ID of the network node; as well as An indication of the location of the network node associated with the set of cells is received from the network entity based on the request, wherein the location of the network node is based on an average location of the set of cells.

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