SRS frequency hopping and splicing support long SRS sequences

Abstract

Various example embodiments relate to methods and apparatus for uplink positioning reference signal transmission. An apparatus may be configured to receive, from a network device in a radio access network, configuration information indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; generating a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource based on the configuration information; and transmitting the positioning reference signal sequence on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Various example embodiments described herein relate generally to communication techniques, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for supporting long SRS sequences through SRS frequency hopping and stitching. Background Art

[0002] Certain abbreviations that may be found in the specification and / or drawings are defined as follows:

[0003] BWP Bandwidth Section

[0004] CRB Common Resource Block

[0005] DL Downlink

[0006] gNB Next Generation Node-B

[0007] LMC location management component

[0008] LMF location management function

[0009] NR New Radio

[0010] NRPPa NR Positioning Protocol A

[0011] PRS Positioning Reference Signal

[0012] RAN Radio Access Network

[0013] RE resource element

[0014] RedCap Low Capacity

[0015] SRS Sounding Reference Signal

[0016] TRP Transmit Receiving Point

[0017] UE User Equipment

[0018] UL Uplink

[0019] ZC Zadoff-Chu

[0020] Wireless communication systems have been developed for many generations and can support various types of service applications for terminal devices. For some applications, the location of the terminal device can be obtained through the wireless communication system, so that a large number of location-based services can be provided (for example, emergency calls, navigation assistance, asset tracking, etc. may be useful). In some cases, it may be necessary to support the positioning of low-capacity (RedCap) terminal devices with reduced bandwidth and reduced number of receiving RF chains. Summary of the invention

[0021] A brief summary of exemplary embodiments is provided below to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of various embodiments. It should be noted that this summary is not intended to identify key features of basic elements or define the scope of various embodiments, and its sole purpose is to introduce some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

[0022] In a first aspect, an example embodiment of a terminal device in a radio access network is provided. The terminal device may include at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory may store instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, may cause the terminal device to at least: receive configuration information from a network device in the radio access network indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; based on the configuration information, generate a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource; and transmit the positioning reference signal sequence on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information.

[0023] In a second aspect, an example embodiment of a network device in a radio access network is provided. The network device may include at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory may store instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, may cause the network device to at least: transmit configuration information to a terminal device in the radio access network, indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; and receive a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource from the terminal device on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

[0024] In a third aspect, an example embodiment of a location server is provided. The location server may include at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory may store instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, may cause the location server to at least: receive configuration information for a terminal device in a radio access network from a first network device in the radio access network, indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; and transmit the configuration information to at least one second network device in the radio access network configured to locate the terminal device.

[0025] Example embodiments of methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are also provided. Such example embodiments generally correspond to the example embodiments in the above aspects, and for convenience, repeated descriptions thereof are omitted here.

[0026] Other features and advantages of example embodiments of the present disclosure will also be apparent from the following description of specific embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of various example embodiments of the present disclosure. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] Some example embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0028] Figure 1 An example wireless communication network is shown in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

[0029] Figure 2A and 2B An example of frequency hopping and splicing of DL PRS and UL SRS is shown.

[0030] Figure 3A and 3B An example of a conventional sequence mapping for locating SRS resources is shown.

[0031] Figure 4 is a message flow diagram illustrating a process for frequency hopping and splicing of UL SRS according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0032] Figure 5 An example of SRS sequence generation and mapping according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0033] Figure 6 An example of generating an SRS sequence based on a virtual SRS resource and mapping it to an associated SRS resource according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0034] Fig. 7A and 7B An example of an SRS sequence mapped to overlapping REs between associated SRS resources according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0035] Figure 8 is a message flow diagram illustrating a process for positioning a UE based on a virtual SRS resource configuration according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0036] Fig. 9 is a schematic flow chart illustrating operations for frequency hopping and splicing implemented at a terminal device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0037] Fig.10 is a schematic flow chart illustrating operations for frequency hopping and splicing implemented at a network device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0038] Fig.11is a schematic flow chart illustrating the operation of frequency hopping and splicing implemented at a location server according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0039] Fig.12 is a schematic structural block diagram showing devices in a communication system in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

[0040] Fig.13 is a schematic functional block diagram illustrating a device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0041] Fig.14 is a schematic functional block diagram illustrating a device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0042] Fig.15 is a schematic functional block diagram illustrating a device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0043] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals indicate the same or similar elements, and repeated description of the same elements will be omitted. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0044] Below, some example embodiments are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description includes specific details intended to provide a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts can be practiced without these specific details. In some cases, well-known circuits, techniques, and components are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the concepts and features described.

[0045] As used herein, the term "terminal device" or "user equipment" (UE) refers to any entity or device that can communicate wirelessly with network devices or each other. Examples of terminal devices may include mobile phones, mobile terminals (MTs), mobile stations (MSs), subscriber stations (SSs), portable subscriber stations (PSSs), access terminals (ATs), computers, wearable devices, vehicle-mounted communication devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, D2D communication devices, V2X communication devices, sensors, etc. The term "terminal device" may be used interchangeably with UE, user terminal, mobile terminal, mobile station, or wireless device.

[0046] As used herein, the term "network equipment" (NF) refers to any suitable entity or device that can provide a cell or coverage, through which a terminal device can access a network or receive a service. Network equipment may generally be referred to as a base station. The term "base station" used herein may represent a Node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB), or a gNB. A base station may be embodied as a macro base station, a relay node, or a low-power node such as a micro base station or a femto base station. A base station may be composed of several distributed network units such as a central unit (CU), one or more distributed units (DU), one or more remote radio heads (RRHs), or remote radio units (RRUs). The number and functionality of these distributed units depends on the selected decomposed RAN architecture.

[0047] As used herein, the term "network function" (NF) refers to a processing function in a network and defines functional behaviors and interfaces. A network function can be implemented by using dedicated hardware, or by running software on dedicated hardware, or can be implemented as a virtual function on a common hardware platform. From the perspective of implementation, network functions can be divided into physical network functions and virtual network functions. From the perspective of use, network functions can be divided into dedicated network functions and shared network functions.

[0048] Figure 1 A simplified schematic diagram of a cellular communication network 100 in which an example embodiment of the present disclosure may be implemented is shown. The cellular communication network 100 may be implemented as a multiple access system capable of supporting communications with multiple users sharing available system resources. The cellular communication network 100 may employ one or more channel access schemes, such as time division multiple access (TDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), single user multiple input multiple output (SU-MIMO), and multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO). These multiple access schemes may be formulated in 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE), 5G New Radio (NR), or beyond 5G radio standards. For ease of description, Figure 1 The cellular communication network 100 is shown as a 5G NR network including a plurality of 5G base stations “gNB”, but it should be understood that the example embodiments disclosed herein may also be implemented in a 4G LTE network or a beyond 5G network.

[0049] refer to Figure 1, the communication network 100 may include a user equipment (UE) 110 and multiple base stations (shown as gNBs) 120a, 120b, 120c. Multiple base stations 120a, 120b, 120c, collectively referred to as base stations 120, may form a so-called radio access network (RAN) and provide network access for multiple UEs. For example, UE 110 may reside in a cell supported by base station 120a and establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection with base station 120a. UE 110 may communicate with base station 120a on uplink and downlink channels. Base station 120a may be referred to as a serving base station for UE 110, and base stations 120b, 120c may be referred to as neighbor base stations. Figure 1 The UL PRS is an uplink reference signal used to estimate the position of UE 110, such as a sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0050] In some example embodiments, the communication network 100 may employ a multiple transmit receive point (mTRP) architecture, in which the UE 110 may transmit data to and receive data from one or more transmit receive points. A TRP may be associated with one or more base stations 120 and / or one or more cells. The term "cell" used herein may refer to a specific geographic coverage area served by a base station and / or a base station subsystem serving the coverage area (depending on the context in which the term is used). It should be understood that when the description herein indicates that a "cell" performs a function, the base station serving the cell will perform the function. The example embodiments described herein are not limited to any specific deployment of TRPs or a specific relationship between a TRP and a base station / cell. It should also be understood that throughout this disclosure, the term "base station" may also include a TRP, and that each operation performed at a base station may be performed at least in part at a TRP.

[0051] Continue to refer Figure 1 , the communication network 100 may also include a location server 130 to manage the positioning of UEs connected to the network 100. The location server 130 may be a physical or logical entity, which may be implemented as a local location management component (LMC) in a base station or a location management function (LMF) within a core network. The base station 120 may be connected to the core network via a so-called backhaul connection.

[0052] Various NR positioning aspects were introduced in 3GPP Release 16 to enable positioning solutions based on radio access technology (RAT). For example, downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) positioning reference signals (PRS) were introduced to facilitate positioning measurements of UE 110. More specifically, the UL positioning method may utilize the UL PRS transmitted by the UE 110 to the serving base station 120a and one or more neighbor base stations such as base stations 120b, 120c. The base stations 120a, 120b, and 120c may obtain positioning measurements based on the UL PRS and then send measurement reports to the location server 130 for determining the location of the UE 110. The DL positioning method may utilize the DL PRS transmitted by one or more base stations 120a, 120b, 120c. The DL PRS is obtained by the UE 110 to estimate its position. Throughout this disclosure, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may refer to any UL or DL ​​reference signal that may be used to perform positioning measurements. Examples of such UL reference signals may include a sounding reference signal (SRS), a physical random access channel (PRACH), a UL demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a UL phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), and any other UL reference signal that can be used for UL positioning defined in the 3GPP specification. In the following, for ease of explanation, SRS is described, but the features of the present disclosure are also applicable to other UL reference signals.

[0053] As described above, various categories of UEs may be supported in the communication network 100. For example, starting with Release 17, a number of UEs are assigned to a new UE category denoted as low capacity (RedCap) UEs. Examples of RedCap UEs may include wearable devices, industrial sensors, surveillance cameras, etc. In general, RedCap UEs are characterized by having reduced bandwidth support and reduced complexity, including the number of receive radio frequency (RF) chains, compared to normal UEs. For example, for frequency range 1 in Release 17, a RedCap-UE may have a maximum bandwidth of 20 MHz, which may be further reduced to, for example, 5 MHz in Release 18.

[0054] An important indicator for measuring positioning performance is positioning accuracy. In Release 16, the target for positioning accuracy is less than 3m, and in Release 17 the target accuracy is increased to less than 30cm. Frequency bandwidth resources are a key factor in positioning accuracy. In order to overcome the performance degradation caused by the narrow bandwidth of PRS resources allocated to RedCap UEs to meet positioning requirements, a typical approach would be frequency hopping and splicing. An SRS frequency hop can be part or all of the SRS bandwidth that the UE can transmit at one time. If the base station combines the received SRS transmitted by multiple UL BWPs, an SRS frequency hop can be defined in one UL BWP.

[0055] Figure 2Aand 2B Examples of frequency hopping and splicing of DL PRS and UL SRS are shown respectively. Figure 2A As shown in , LMF 130 may configure multiple wideband DL PRS resources for UE 110, and UE 110 may receive different portions of them at each measurement opportunity. Then, UE 110 may concatenate measurement values ​​(measurement value #1, measurement value #2, and measurement value #3) measured across multiple PRS measurement opportunities. As a result, UE 110 may receive wideband PRS.

[0056] However, the support of UL frequency hopping and splicing is different from the DL case. Figure 2B , in the case of UL frequency hopping and splicing, UE 110 may be configured with multiple SRS (SRS resource #1, SRS resource #2, and SRS resource #3) with appropriate time intervals in between for BWP switching. UE 110 may transmit narrowband SRS across multiple frequency hops in the entire bandwidth. The narrowband SRS at each frequency hop will be the maximum bandwidth of the activated UL BWP. Since the transmitted SRS sequence at each hop is generated separately, base station 120 will see independent and multiple sequence sets by combining these SRS measurements. That is, the combined received signal is not a single ZC sequence.

[0057] Figure 3A and 3B An example of conventional sequence mapping of SRS resources for positioning is shown. According to the current 3GPP specification, SRS is transmitted on every Nth subcarrier, where N represents the comb size, which can be 2, 4, 8 or other values, and the same sequence elements are allocated to resource elements (REs) across multiple symbols with different comb offsets. For example, in Figure 3A In the case of an SRS resource with comb 2 and 2 symbols as shown, the same sequence element is assigned to REs across two symbols with different comb offsets. As a result, in the combined received signal 200a, the same sequence element is repeated twice in the frequency domain. Similarly, referring to Figure 3B , for an SRS resource with comb 4 and 4 symbols, the same sequence element is assigned to four symbols with different comb offsets and repeated four times in the frequency domain in the combined received signal 200b.

[0058] Figure 3A and 3BThe sequence mapping rule shown in is not suitable for SRS frequency hopping and splicing. As mentioned above, the sequence length varies according to the comb size, and for a given preset bandwidth, the sequence length is short for a high comb size. If two different SRS resources have different comb sizes and numbers of symbols, it is difficult to assign the same sequence elements to overlapping resource blocks (RBs) for frequency hopping and splicing operations. In addition, the combined signal is not a single ZC sequence.

[0059] Therefore, it is desirable to provide an efficient mechanism to support long SRS sequences through frequency hopping and splicing that is used for positioning of, for example, RedCap UEs.

[0060] Hereinafter, an exemplary embodiment of a method and apparatus for supporting a long SRS sequence by frequency hopping and splicing will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In an exemplary embodiment, a single long ZC sequence may be used for SRS frequency hopping and splicing. The exemplary embodiment allows a bandwidth-limited UE (e.g., a RedCap UE) to achieve full bandwidth or wide bandwidth by frequency hopping. Therefore, positioning performance may be improved.

[0061] Figure 4 is a message flow diagram illustrating a process for frequency hopping and splicing of uplink SRS according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 4 The process shown in can be performed by the base station and the user equipment. Figure 1 The UE 110 and the serving base station 120a in the described communication network 100 may be configured to perform frequency hopping and splicing procedures. The UE 110 and the serving base station 120a may each include multiple components, modules, devices or elements to perform the operations discussed below, and these components, modules and elements may be implemented in various ways including, but not limited to, software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof for performing these operations.

[0062] refer to Figure 4 At operation 310, the serving base station 120a may transmit an SRS resource configuration to the UE 110, for example, via an RRC message. The base station 120a may configure a plurality of SRS resources for the UE 110. For example, the plurality of SRS resources may be configured for UL channel estimation, positioning, or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) related operations, etc.

[0063] In an example embodiment, the configuration of the SRS resource may include at least one of the duration, transmission bandwidth, comb size, cyclic shift, transmit beam information, etc. of the SRS. The base station 120a may determine one or more parameters of the SRS resource configuration based on the capability information of the UE 110 and other information such as the positioning requirements of the UE 110 (e.g., positioning accuracy). The capability information may indicate the ability of the UE 110 to perform SRS frequency hopping and splicing operations. For example, the capability information may include, but is not limited to, device category (normal UE or RedCap UE), maximum transmission bandwidth, number of antennas, etc. In one example, the UE 110 may report the capability information to the base station 120a in advance or in response to a request received from the base station 120a. Based on the received capability information, the base station 120a may configure and allocate multiple SRS resources that fall within the maximum transmission bandwidth of the UE 110. For example, each SRS resource may be configured with a specific UL bandwidth part (BWP). In one example, in order to facilitate SRS frequency hopping, two consecutive SRS resources in the configured SRS resources may partially overlap each other in the frequency domain.

[0064] At operation 312, the base station 120a may transmit, and the UE 110 may receive, configuration information for determining SRS transmission. In one example, the configuration information may indicate a virtual SRS resource associated with a plurality of SRS resources allocated to the UE 110. The term "virtual SRS resource" refers to a logical resource that does not occupy an actual physical resource but is mapped to a plurality of actual physical SRS resources. The virtual SRS resource may be considered as a collection of a plurality of physical SRS resources allocated to the UE 110. With the virtual SRS resource, a single long ZC sequence may be transmitted through a plurality of SRS resources by SRS frequency hopping and splicing, thereby enabling more accurate positioning of the UE 110.

[0065] For example, the configuration information may include association information between the virtual SRS resource and the multiple SRS resources. As described above, the multiple SRS resources may be SRS resources used for various purposes such as uplink channel state estimation, positioning, or MIMO-related operations (such as transmit or receive beamforming). In one example, the association information may indicate that the multiple SRS resources are configured for SRS frequency hopping and splicing. In other words, if the association information is configured, the UE 110 may understand that the base station 120a allocates the associated multiple SRS resources for SRS frequency hopping and splicing operations.

[0066] Figure 5 An example of association between a virtual SRS resource and multiple SRS resources is shown. Figure 5As shown in , the base station 120a can configure multiple SRS resources for the UE 110, such as a first SRS resource 410, a second SRS resource 420, and a third SRS resource 430. The first SRS resource 410, the second SRS resource 420, and the third SRS resource 430 are associated with respective BWPs. In one example, the configured SRS resources 410, 420, 430 may be located in different uplink BWPs, so that UL positioning measurements for wide bandwidth or full bandwidth can be achieved by performing frequency hopping. In addition, the base station 120a can configure a virtual SRS resource 400 and associate it with the configured SRS resources 410, 420, and 430. After receiving the association information, the UE 110 can understand that the SRS resources 410, 420, 430 are allocated for frequency hopping and splicing operations in positioning, and the UE 110 can continue to generate and transmit SRS sequences, which will be described in more detail later. Note that although Figure 5 Three SRS resources are shown in FIG. 1 , but base station 120 a may configure more or fewer SRS resources for UE 110 .

[0067] In an example embodiment, the configuration information may include other information associated with the virtual SRS resource. For example, the information may indicate a validation time of an association between a virtual SRS resource (e.g., virtual SRS resource 400) and multiple SRS resources (e.g., SRS resources 410, 420, 430), spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams for multiple SRSs associated with the virtual SRS resource, or at least one of sequence generation and mapping information for generating an SRS sequence and mapping the SRS sequence to multiple SRS resources.

[0068] In one example, the virtual SRS resource will only be applicable for the time period indicated in the effective time information. In other words, the virtual SRS resource configuration may be turned off after the effective time expires, and the configured SRS resources (e.g., SRS resources 410, 420, and 430) may be used by UE 110 for other purposes. In another example, the effective time is set to the default duration of the associated SRS resource. For example, if the associated SRS resource is semi-persistent and is deactivated at a certain time, the virtual SRS resource will also be deactivated at that time.

[0069] The spatial relationship information may indicate transmit beam information for multiple SRS resources. If the spatial relationship information is configured, the UE 110 may follow the newly configured spatial relationship information and ignore or overwrite the spatial association information previously configured for each SRS resource. In one example, the UE 110 may be configured with the same spatial relationship information for associated SRS resources. For example, the UE 110 may transmit the SRS carried on each SRS resource by using the same beam width.

[0070] The base station 120a may configure sequence generation and mapping information in the configuration information to instruct the UE 110 to generate an SRS sequence and map the SRS sequence to multiple SRS resources. For example, the sequence generation information may include sequence length, sequence ID, etc. for the UE 110 to determine the ZC sequence. The mapping information may include parameters such as comb size, cyclic shift, sequence element to RE mapping, etc. Similar to the effective time and spatial relationship information, the newly configured sequence generation and mapping information may cover the corresponding configuration for multiple SRS resources. For example, if SRS parameters such as comb size, cyclic shift, etc. are configured in the sequence generation and mapping information, the UE 110 may follow the newly configured comb size and / or cyclic shift within the effective time and ignore the comb size and cyclic shift previously configured for the SRS resource.

[0071] Return to reference Figure 4 At operation 314, based on the received configuration information, UE 110 may generate an SRS sequence corresponding to the virtual SRS resource so that the SRS sequence is a complete single sequence, such as a ZC sequence. Then at operation 316, UE 110 may map the SRS sequence to multiple SRS resources. In an example embodiment, UE 110 may generate and map the SRS sequence based on a preset generation and mapping rule. Alternatively, if base station 120a configures sequence generation and mapping information in the configuration information, UE 110 will perform operations 314, 316 in accordance with the newly configured information.

[0072] For example, refer to Figure 5 , for the virtual SRS resource 400, the UE 110 may generate a ZC sequence 440 of length M consisting of M sequence elements denoted as c(0), c(1), ..., c(M). The total sequence length M may be determined based on the number of subcarriers of the SRS resources 410, 420, 430 associated with the virtual SRS resource 400. In one example, the sequence length M may be determined by the sum of the number of subcarriers in the plurality of SRS resources minus the number of overlapping subcarriers between the plurality of SRS resources.

[0073] After generating the SRS sequence 440 for the virtual SRS resource 400, the UE 110 may map the SRS sequence 440 to the SRS resources 410, 420, and 430, for example, based on the mapping information in the configuration information. For example, the sequence elements in the SRS sequence 440 may be mapped to one subcarrier in the plurality of SRS resources in the frequency domain. Figure 5 , the sequence elements c(0), c(1), ..., c(k'+L) of the SRS sequence 440 may be mapped to each physical resource element (RE) of the SRS resource 410 of the first configuration. Similarly, the sequence elements c(k'), c(k'+1), ..., c(k'+L') of the SRS sequence 440 may be mapped to each RE of the SRS resource 420, and the sequence elements c(k'+m), ..., c(M) of the SRS sequence 440 may be mapped to each RE of the SRS resource 430. In other words, the SRS resources 410, 420, 430 may transmit different parts of the SRS sequence 440, and these different parts may partially overlap.

[0074] In an example embodiment, when two SRS resources among the plurality of SRS resources 410, 420, and 430 have overlapping BWPs, resource blocks (RBs), or subcarriers, the corresponding two portions of the SRS sequence 440 mapped to the two SRS resources may include the same sequence segments mapped to the overlapping subcarriers. Figure 5 As shown, sequence elements c(k'), c(k'+1), ..., c(k'+L) are mapped to both SRS resource 410 and SRS resource 420 in overlapping subcarriers. In addition, sequence elements c(k'+m), ..., c(k'+L') are mapped to SRS resource 420 and SRS resource 430 in overlapping subcarriers. In this way, base station 120a can see a single complete ZC sequence across three SRS resource BWPs.

[0075] As described above, the SRS sequence generation and mapping rules disclosed in the present invention are consistent with those in the above reference Figure 3A-3B The current rules described are different. Other aspects of the generation and mapping rules are referred to in Figure 6 -7 for a more detailed description.

[0076] Figure 6 An example of generating an SRS sequence based on a virtual SRS resource and mapping it to an associated SRS resource according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 6, a first SRS resource 510 and a second SRS resource 520 may be configured for UE 110 for frequency hopping. The first SRS resource 510 is configured with a comb-2 structure, which includes 24 subcarriers in the frequency domain and spans two consecutive symbols in the time domain. The second SRS resource 520 is configured with a comb-4 structure, which also includes 24 subcarriers in the frequency domain, but spans four consecutive symbols in the time domain. As shown in the figure, the first SRS resource 510 and the second SRS resource 520 partially overlap in the frequency domain.

[0077] When the base station 120a configures the virtual SRS resource 500 associated with the two SRS resources 510 and 520 for the UE 110, the UE 110 may first determine the length of the SRS sequence corresponding to the virtual SRS resource 500. Figure 6 In the case shown in , the sequence length can be determined to be 36, which is calculated based on the sum of the subcarriers of the two SRS resources minus the number of overlapping subcarriers between the two SRS resources. Based on the determined sequence length, UE 110 can generate an SRS sequence (e.g., a ZC sequence) of length 36 accordingly.

[0078] Then, UE 110 may map the generated SRS sequence consisting of 36 sequence elements (ie, c(0), c(1), ..., c(35)) to the first SRS resource 510 and the second SRS resource 520. Figure 6 As shown in , except for the overlapping subcarriers between two SRS resources, the sequence elements of the SRS sequence are not allocated to different REs. In addition, for each SRS resource 510 or 520, the sequence elements in the SRS sequence are mapped to a single subcarrier, for example, in the order of the subcarrier index, so that the mapped sequence elements are arranged in a comb configuration. Therefore, the sequence elements are mapped to subcarriers across the full bandwidth of the two SRS resources.

[0079] In an example embodiment, to facilitate the mapping operation, the entire SRS sequence generated based on the virtual SRS resource may be divided into a plurality of different parts corresponding to the configured SRS resources for UE 110. Each part may then be mapped to an RE of the associated SRS resource. Figure 6 As shown in FIG. 5 , a first portion 502 of the SRS sequence consisting of sequence elements c(0) to c(23) is mapped to a first SRS resource 510, and a second portion 504 consisting of sequence elements c(12) to c(35) is mapped to a second SRS resource 520. In one example, the two portions 502, 504 of the SRS sequence may be mapped to the corresponding SRS resources 510, 520 in the order of a common resource block (CRB) index of a starting RB of the SRS resource.

[0080] As described above, if parameters such as comb size, cyclic shift are configured in the configuration information, UE 110 may follow the configured comb size and cyclic shift and ignore the previously configured comb size and cyclic shift for each of the multiple SRS resources. For example, multiple SRS resources may be configured to have the same comb size but different numbers of symbols.

[0081] Fig. 7A and 7B 2 shows an example of SRS sequences being mapped to overlapping REs between associated SRS resources when the comb size is configured according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 6 , the first SRS resource 510 and the second SRS resource 520 are configured with the same comb size, for example, based on the comb size of the first SRS resource 510, but the first SRS resource 500 is configured with fewer symbols than the second SRS resource 520. In this case, the SRS sequence may be mapped such that sequence elements in both the first SRS resource 510 and the second SRS resource 520 are arranged in a comb-2 pattern.

[0082] In one example, if Fig. 7A As shown in , in the overlapping region in the frequency domain of the two SRS resources, the same sequence elements c(12), c(13), ..., c(23) can be repeatedly mapped to the frequency domain overlapping REs of the second SRS resource 520 in the same pattern as mapping the same sequence elements to the frequency domain overlapping REs of the first SRS resource 510. In another example, Figure 7B As shown in , the same sequence elements c(12), c(13), ..., c(23) can be mapped to the frequency-domain overlapping REs of two SRS resources in the same pattern, and the remaining symbols in the second SRS resource 520 are punctured or remain unused.

[0083] Back to Figure 4 When the SRS sequence is generated and mapped to a plurality of SRS resources, at operation 318, the UE 110 may transmit the SRS sequence on the plurality of SRS resources based on the configuration information, and the base station 120a may receive the SRS sequence.

[0084] For example, refer to Figure 5 , UE 110 may perform frequency hopping, for example, using the transmit beam information configured for UE 110 to transmit multiple SRS sequence portions 450, 460, 470 transmitted on respective SRS resources 410, 420, 430 to base station 120a across multiple UL BWPs. On the side of base station 120a, when base station 120a combines the received signals of the respective SRS resources, it may see a single complete ZC sequence across multiple UL BWPs.

[0085] At operation 320, the base station 120 may concatenate the multiple SRS sequence portions to recover the SRS sequence. For example, the base station 120a may estimate the phase discontinuity / difference between SRS hops and concatenate the multiple SRS sequences for coherent processing to obtain positioning measurements.

[0086] Figure 8 is a message flow diagram illustrating a process for positioning a UE based on a virtual SRS resource configuration according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 8 The illustrated process may be performed by UE 110, base station 120, and location server 130, for example.

[0087] In the event that UL positioning based on UL PRS (eg, SRS) is required, location server 130 may transmit a request to UE 110 to initiate a positioning process at operation 610. Additionally or alternatively, location server 130 may transmit a request to serving base station 120a to initiate a positioning process for UE 110.

[0088] At operation 612, the base station 120a may transmit virtual SRS resource configuration information to the UE 110. For example, if the base station 120a knows that the UE 110a is a RedCap UE, the base station 120a may configure the UE 110 with virtual SRS resources associated with a plurality of physical SRS resources previously allocated to the UE 110. The configuration information may also include at least one of sequence generation and mapping information, effective time, and spatial relationship information. Details of the configuration information may be referred to in detail in reference to FIG. Figure 4 The descriptions are basically the same, and redundant descriptions are omitted here.

[0089] At operation 614, base station 120a may transmit virtual SRS resource configuration information to location server 130. After receiving the configuration information, at operation 616, location server 130 may transmit the configuration information to other measurement base stations, such as base stations 120b and 120c. In one example, the configuration information may be transmitted on top of other SRS resource configurations. For example, the configuration information may be transmitted alone or together with a regular SRS resource configuration configured for other purposes.

[0090] Then, at operation 618a, UE 110 may perform frequency hopping to transmit SRS sequences across multiple UL BWPs. In addition, at operation 618b, UE 110 may transmit SRS sequences to base stations 120b, 120c. After receiving these SRS sequences, at operations 620a, 620b, all measurement base stations may perform splicing operations to process corresponding frequency hops, thereby obtaining UL positioning measurement values ​​based on these SRS sequences. Figure 4 This frequency hopping and splicing operation is described, and a redundant description is omitted here.

[0091] After completing the measurements, at operations 622a, 622b, the measuring base stations 120a, 120b, 120c may report their positioning measurements to the location server 130, for example, via NR Positioning Protocol A (NRPPa) signaling. At operation 624, using the measurement report, the location server 130 may determine the location of the UE 110.

[0092] Fig. 9 A flow chart of an example method 700 for frequency hopping and splicing of uplink PRS sequences (e.g., SRS sequences) according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. The method 700 may be implemented at a terminal device, such as the UE 110 described above. It should be understood that the steps shown in the dashed boxes represent optional steps and may be omitted in some example embodiments. In some example embodiments, the method 700 may also include one or more steps performed at the UE 110, as described above with respect to Figure 4-8 It is also understood that the above reference Figure 4-8 Details of some steps in process 700 are discussed, and process 700 will be described here in a simplified manner.

[0093] At block 710, the terminal device may receive configuration information from a network device in the radio access network indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device. For example, the plurality of uplink reference signal resources may include a sounding reference signal resource configured for at least one of uplink channel estimation, positioning, or multiple-input multiple-output related operations. For another example, the plurality of uplink reference signal resources may be located in different uplink bandwidth parts.

[0094] In some example embodiments, the configuration information may further indicate at least one of: sequence generation and mapping information for generating a positioning reference signal sequence and mapping the positioning reference signal sequence to the plurality of uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of an association between the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and the plurality of uplink reference signal resources; or spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams of the plurality of uplink reference signal resources associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource. For example, the positioning reference signal sequence may be an uplink positioning reference signal series.

[0095] In some example embodiments, at least one of the sequence generation and mapping information, the validity time, or the spatial relationship information associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource may cover the corresponding configuration for the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

[0096] At block 720, the terminal device may generate an uplink positioning reference signal sequence, such as an SRS sequence corresponding to a virtual uplink positioning reference resource, based on the configuration information. For example, the uplink positioning reference signal sequence may be a complete single Zadoff-Chu sequence.

[0097] In some example embodiments, the uplink positioning reference signal sequence has a length that may be determined by the sum of the number of subcarriers in the plurality of uplink reference signal resources minus the number of overlapping subcarriers between the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

[0098] In some example embodiments, where two uplink reference signal resources have overlapping subcarriers, the two portions of the uplink positioning reference signal sequence mapped to the two uplink reference signal resources may include overlapping sequence portions mapped to the overlapping subcarriers.

[0099] In some example embodiments, where two uplink reference signal resources with overlapping subcarriers are configured with the same comb size and different numbers of codewords, the same sequence elements can be mapped to the frequency domain overlapping resource elements of the two uplink reference signal resources in the same pattern, and the remaining codewords of one of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a larger number of codewords are truncated or remain unused, or the same sequence elements can be repeatedly mapped to one of the frequency domain overlapping resource elements of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a larger number of codewords, and the pattern of mapping the same sequence elements to the frequency domain overlapping resource elements of the other of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a smaller number of codewords.

[0100] At block 730, the terminal device may map the uplink positioning reference signal sequence to a plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information. For example, the plurality of uplink reference signal resources may transmit respective portions of the uplink positioning reference signal sequence. For another example, a sequence element in the uplink positioning reference signal sequence may be mapped in the frequency domain to a subcarrier in the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

[0101] At block 740, the terminal device may transmit an uplink positioning reference signal sequence on a plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information.

[0102] Fig.10A flow chart of an example method 800 for frequency hopping and splicing of uplink PRS sequences (e.g., SRS sequences) according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. The method 800 may be implemented on a network device, such as the serving base station 120a described above. It should be understood that the steps shown in the dashed boxes represent optional steps and may be omitted in some example embodiments. In some example embodiments, the method 800 may also include one or more steps performed at the base station 120a, as described above with respect to Figure 4-8 It is also understood that the above has been referred to Figure 4-8 Details of some steps in process 800 are discussed, and process 800 will be described here in a simplified manner.

[0103] At block 810, the network device may transmit configuration information to a terminal device in the radio access network indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device. For example, the plurality of uplink reference signal resources may include a sounding reference signal resource configured for at least one of uplink channel estimation, positioning, or multiple-input multiple-output related operations. For example, the plurality of uplink reference signal resources may be located in different uplink bandwidth portions.

[0104] In some example embodiments, the configuration information may also indicate at least one of: sequence generation and mapping information for generating an uplink positioning reference signal sequence and mapping the uplink positioning reference information sequence to multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of an association between a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and multiple uplink reference signal resources; or spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams for multiple uplink reference signal resources associated with a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

[0105] At block 820, the network device may receive an uplink positioning reference information sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource from the terminal device on multiple uplink reference signal resources. For example, the uplink positioning reference signal sequence is a complete single Zadoff-Chu sequence.

[0106] In some example embodiments, an uplink positioning reference signal sequence may be received on a plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on at least one of sequence generation and mapping information, validity time, or spatial relationship information.

[0107] At block 830, the network device may concatenate the portions of the uplink positioning reference signal sequence to recover the uplink positioning reference signal sequence.

[0108] At block 840, the network device may transmit the configuration information to a location server.

[0109] Fig.11 A flow chart of an example method 900 for frequency hopping and splicing of uplink PRS sequences (e.g., SRS sequences) according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. The method 900 may be implemented at a location server, such as the location server 130 described above. In some example embodiments, the method 900 may also include one or more steps performed at the location server 130, as described above with respect to Figure 4-8 It is also understood that the above reference Figure 4-8 Details of some steps in process 900 are discussed, and process 900 will be described here in a simplified manner.

[0110] At block 910, a location server may receive configuration information for a terminal device in the radio access network from a first network device in the radio access network indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device.

[0111] In some example embodiments, the configuration information may also indicate at least one of: sequence generation and mapping information for generating an uplink positioning reference signal sequence and mapping the uplink positioning reference signal sequence to multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of an association between a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and multiple uplink reference signal resources; or spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams for multiple uplink reference signal resources associated with a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

[0112] At block 920, the location server may transmit the configuration information to at least one second network device configured to locate the terminal device in the radio access network.

[0113] Fig.12 1 shows a block diagram of an example communication system 1000 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. Fig.12 As shown in FIG. 1 , the communication system 1000 may include a terminal device 1010 that may be implemented as the above-mentioned UE 110, a network device 1020 that may be implemented as any of the above-mentioned base stations 120, and a network function node 1030 that may be implemented as the location server 130 discussed above. In some example embodiments, alternatively, the location server 130 may be implemented as a component or part in the network device 1020. Although Fig.12 One network device 1020 is shown, but it should be understood that the communication system 1000 may include multiple network devices 1020 to locate or assist in locating the terminal device 1010.

[0114] refer to Fig.12, the terminal device 1010 may include one or more processors 1011, one or more memories 1012, and one or more transceivers 1013 interconnected by one or more buses 1014. The one or more buses 1014 may be address, data, or control buses, and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of lines on a motherboard or integrated circuit, optical fiber, optical or other optical communication devices, etc. Each of the one or more transceivers 1013 may include a receiver and a transmitter connected to one or more antennas 1016. The terminal device 1010 may communicate wirelessly with the network device 1020 via the one or more antennas 1016. The one or more memories 1012 may include program instructions 1015. The one or more memories 1012 and the program instructions 1015 may be configured to, when executed by the one or more processors 1011, cause the terminal device 1010 to perform operations and processes related to the UE 110 as described above.

[0115] The network device 1020 may include one or more processors 1021, one or more memories 1022, one or more transceivers 1023, and one or more network interfaces 1027 interconnected by one or more buses 1024. The one or more buses 1024 may be address, data, or control buses, and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of lines on a motherboard or integrated circuit, optical fiber, optical or other optical communication devices, etc. Each of the one or more transceivers 1023 may include a receiver and a transmitter connected to one or more antennas 1026. The network device 1020 may operate as a base station for the terminal device 1010 and wirelessly communicate with the terminal device 1010 through one or more antennas 1026. One or more network interfaces 1027 may provide a wired or wireless communication link through which the network device 1020 can communicate with other network devices, entities, elements, or functions. The one or more memories 1022 may include program instructions 1025. The network device 1020 may communicate with the network function node 1030 via a backhaul connection 1028. The one or more memories 1022 and program instructions 1025 may be configured to, when executed by the one or more processors 1021 , cause the network device 1020 to perform operations and processes associated with any of the base stations 120 .

[0116] The network function node 1030 may include one or more processors 1031, one or more memories 1032, and one or more network interfaces 1037 interconnected by one or more buses 834. The one or more buses 1034 may be address, data, or control buses, and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of lines on a motherboard or integrated circuit, optical fiber, optical or other optical communication devices, etc. The network function node 1030 may operate as a core network function node and communicate with the network device 1020 through one or more links in wired or wireless communication. The one or more network interfaces 1037 may provide a wired or wireless communication link through which the network function node 1030 can communicate with other network devices, entities, elements, or functions. The one or more memories 1032 may include program instructions 1035. The one or more memories 1032 and the program instructions 1035 may be configured to, when executed by the one or more processors 1031, cause the network function node 830 to perform operations and processes related to the location server 130 as described above.

[0117] The one or more processors 1011, 1021, and 1031 may be of any appropriate type suitable for a local technical network, and may include one or more of the following: a general-purpose processor, a dedicated processor, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), one or more processors in a processor-based multi-core processor architecture, and a dedicated processor, such as a processor developed based on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The one or more processors 1011, 1021, and 1031 may be configured to control other elements of the UE / network device / network element, and operate in conjunction with them to implement the above process.

[0118] One or more memories 1012, 1022, and 1032 may include at least one storage medium in various forms, such as temporary memory and / or non-temporary memory. Temporary memory may include, but is not limited to, for example, random access memory (RAM) or cache. Non-temporary memory may include, but is not limited to, for example, read-only memory (ROM), hard disk, flash memory, etc. The term "non-temporary" as used herein is a limitation on the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal), rather than a limitation on the persistence of data storage (e.g., RAM and ROM). In addition, one or more memories 1012, 1022, and 1032 may include, but are not limited to, electrical, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared or semiconductor systems, devices or devices, or any combination of the above.

[0119] It should be understood that the blocks in the accompanying drawings can be implemented in various ways including software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, one or more blocks may be implemented using software and / or firmware, such as machine executable instructions stored in a storage medium. In addition to or in place of machine executable instructions, some or all of the blocks in the accompanying drawings may be implemented at least in part by one or more hardware logic components. For example, but not limited to, exemplary types of hardware logic components that can be used include field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application specific standard products (ASSPs), systems on chip (SOCs), complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), etc.

[0120] Fig.13 1 is a schematic functional block diagram of a device 1100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The device 1100 may be implemented on a terminal device such as a UE 110 to perform operations related to the UE 110, as described above. Figure 4-8 The operations related to the UE 110 are discussed in detail, so the blocks of the device 1100 will be briefly described here, and the details thereof can be referred to the above description.

[0121] refer to Fig.13 , the device 1100 may include: a first device 1110, used to receive configuration information indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to a terminal device from a network device in a radio access network; a second device 11200, used to generate a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource based on the configuration information; and a third device 1130, used to transmit a positioning reference signal sequence on a plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information.

[0122] In some example embodiments, transmitting a positioning reference signal sequence may include: mapping the positioning reference signal sequence to a plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information, the plurality of uplink reference signal resources being capable of transmitting respective portions of the positioning reference signal sequence; and transmitting the respective portions of the positioning reference signal sequence on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

[0123] In some example embodiments, the plurality of uplink reference signal resources may include a sounding reference signal resource configured for at least one of uplink channel estimation, positioning, or multiple-input multiple-output related operations.

[0124] In some example embodiments, the configuration information may also indicate at least one of: sequence generation and mapping information for generating a positioning reference signal sequence and mapping the positioning reference signal sequence to multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of an association between a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and multiple uplink reference signal resources; or spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams of multiple uplink reference signal resources associated with a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

[0125] In some example embodiments, at least one of the sequence generation and mapping information, the validity time, or the spatial relationship information associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource may cover the corresponding configuration for the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

[0126] In some example embodiments, the positioning reference signal sequence may have a length determined by the sum of the number of subcarriers in the plurality of uplink reference signal resources minus the number of overlapping subcarriers between the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

[0127] In some example embodiments, in the case where two uplink reference signal resources have overlapping subcarriers, the two portions of the positioning reference signal sequence mapped to the two uplink reference signal resources may include overlapping sequence portions mapped to the overlapping subcarriers.

[0128] In some example embodiments, where two uplink reference signal resources with overlapping subcarriers are configured with the same comb size and different numbers of codewords, the same sequence elements can be mapped to the frequency domain overlapping resource elements of the two uplink reference signal resources in the same pattern, and the remaining codewords of one of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a larger number of codewords are truncated or remain unused, or the same sequence elements can be repeatedly mapped to the frequency domain overlapping resource elements of one of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a larger number of codewords, and the pattern of mapping the same sequence elements to the frequency domain overlapping resource elements of the other of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a smaller number of codewords.

[0129] In some example embodiments, sequence elements in a positioning reference signal sequence are mapped in the frequency domain to one subcarrier among a plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

[0130] In some example embodiments, multiple uplink reference signal resources may be located in different uplink bandwidth portions.

[0131] In some example embodiments, the positioning reference signal sequence is a complete single Zadoff-Chu sequence.

[0132] Fig.141 is a schematic functional block diagram of a device 1200 according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The device 1200 may be implemented at a network node such as a base station 120a to perform operations related to the base station 120a, as described above. Figure 4-8 The operations associated with the base station 120a are discussed in detail, so the blocks of the device 1200 will be briefly described here, and the details thereof can be referred to the above description.

[0133] refer to Fig.14 , the device 1200 may include: a first device 1210, used to transmit configuration information to a terminal device in a radio access network, which indicates a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; and a second device 1220, used to receive a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource from the terminal device on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

[0134] In some example embodiments, receiving the positioning reference signal sequence may include: receiving portions of the positioning reference information sequence on a plurality of uplink reference signal resources; and concatenating the portions of the positioning reference signal sequence to recover the positioning reference signal sequence.

[0135] In some example embodiments, the plurality of uplink reference signal resources may include a sounding reference signal resource configured for at least one of uplink channel estimation, positioning, or multiple-input multiple-output related operations.

[0136] In some example embodiments, the configuration information may also indicate at least one of: sequence generation and mapping information for generating a positioning reference signal sequence and mapping the positioning reference signal sequence to multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of an association between a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and multiple uplink reference signal resources; or spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams of multiple uplink reference signal resources associated with a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

[0137] In some example embodiments, a positioning reference signal sequence may be received on a plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on at least one of sequence generation and mapping information, validity time, or spatial relationship information.

[0138] In some example embodiments, the apparatus 1200 may further include third means for transmitting the configuration information to a location server.

[0139] In some example embodiments, the multiple sounding reference signal resources may be located in different uplink bandwidth portions.

[0140] In some example embodiments, the positioning reference signal sequence may be a complete single Zadoff-Chu sequence.

[0141] Fig.15 1 is a schematic functional block diagram illustrating a device 1300 according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The device 1300 may be implemented at a network function similar to the location server 130 to perform operations related to the location server 130, as described above. Figure 4-8 The operations related to the location server 130 are discussed in detail, so the blocks of the device 1300 will be briefly described here, and the details thereof may be referred to the above description.

[0142] refer to Fig.15 , the device 1300 may include: a first device 1310, for receiving configuration information for a terminal device in the radio access network from a first network device in the radio access network, which indicates a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; and a second device 1320, for transmitting the configuration information to at least one second network device in the radio access network configured to locate the terminal device.

[0143] In some example embodiments, the configuration information may also indicate at least one of: sequence generation and mapping information for generating a positioning reference signal sequence and mapping the positioning reference signal sequence to multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of an association between a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and multiple uplink reference signal resources; or spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams of multiple uplink reference signal resources associated with a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

[0144] Some exemplary embodiments also provide program instructions or instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, can cause the device or apparatus to perform the above-described processes. The program instructions for performing the processes of the exemplary embodiments can be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program instructions can be provided to one or more processors or controllers of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing device, so that when the program instructions are executed by the processor or controller, the functions / operations specified in the flow chart and / or block diagram are implemented. The program instructions can be executed entirely on the machine, partially on the machine, as a separate software package, partially on the computer, partially on a remote machine, or entirely on a remote machine or server.

[0145] Some exemplary embodiments also provide a computer program product or a computer-readable medium having program instructions or instructions stored therein. A computer-readable medium may be any tangible medium that may contain or store a program used by or related to an instruction execution system, device, or apparatus. A machine-readable medium may be a machine-readable signal medium or a machine-readable storage medium. A machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, an electrical, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, device, or device, or any suitable combination thereof. More specific examples of machine-readable storage media would include an electrical connection with one or more wires, a portable computer disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the above devices.

[0146] As used herein, “at least one of: ” and “at least one of ” and similar expressions (wherein a list of two or more elements is connected by “and” or “or”) refer to at least any one element, or at least any two or more elements, or at least all elements.

[0147] In addition, although the operations are described in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring the operations to be performed in the particular order or sequential order shown, or requiring the execution of all the operations shown to achieve the desired results. In some cases, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Similarly, although several specific implementation details are included in the above discussion, these details should not be interpreted as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features specific to a particular embodiment. Certain features described in the context of a separate embodiment may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. On the contrary, the various features described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments individually or in any suitable sub-combination.

[0148] Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as examples of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. A terminal device in a radio access network, comprising: at least one processor; as well as at least one memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the terminal device to at least: receiving configuration information from a network device in the radio access network indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; Based on the configuration information, generating a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource; as well as The positioning reference signal sequence is transmitted on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information.

2. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein: Transmitting the positioning reference signal sequence includes: Mapping the positioning reference signal sequence to the plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information, the plurality of uplink reference signal resources transmitting respective parts of the positioning reference signal sequence; and The respective portions of the positioning reference signal sequence are transmitted on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

3. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein: The plurality of uplink reference signal resources include sounding reference signal resources configured for at least one of uplink channel estimation, positioning, or multiple-input multiple-output correlation operations.

4. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein: The configuration information further indicates at least one of the following: Sequence generation and mapping information, which is used to generate the positioning reference signal sequence and map the positioning reference signal sequence to the multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of the association between the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and the plurality of uplink reference signal resources; or Spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams used for the plurality of uplink reference signal resources associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

5. The terminal device according to claim 4, wherein: At least one of the sequence generation and mapping information, the validity time, or the spatial relationship information associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource covers a corresponding configuration for the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

6. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein: The positioning reference signal sequence has a length determined by a sum of the number of subcarriers in the plurality of uplink reference signal resources minus a number of overlapping subcarriers between the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

7. The terminal device according to claim 2, wherein: In the case that two uplink reference signal resources have overlapping subcarriers, the two parts of the positioning reference signal sequence mapped to the two uplink reference signal resources include overlapping sequence parts mapped to the overlapping subcarriers.

8. The terminal device according to claim 7, wherein: In case the two uplink reference signal resources with the overlapping subcarriers are configured with the same comb size and different numbers of symbols, The same sequence elements are mapped to the frequency-domain overlapping resource elements of the two uplink reference signal resources in the same pattern, and the remaining symbols of one of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a larger number of symbols are punctured or remain unused, or The same sequence elements are repeatedly mapped to the time domain overlapping resource elements of one of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a larger number of code elements, and the pattern is the same as mapping the same sequence elements to the frequency domain overlapping resource elements of the other of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a smaller number of code elements.

9. The terminal device according to claim 7, wherein: The sequence elements in the positioning reference signal sequence are mapped to a subcarrier in the plurality of uplink reference signal resources in the frequency domain.

10. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein: The multiple uplink reference signal resources are located in different uplink bandwidth parts.

11. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein: The positioning reference signal sequence is a complete single Zadoff-Chu sequence.

12. A network device in a radio access network, comprising: at least one processor; as well as at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network device to at least: transmitting configuration information to a terminal device in the radio access network, indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; as well as A positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource is received from the terminal device on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

13. The network device according to claim 12, wherein: Receiving the positioning reference signal sequence includes: receiving respective portions of the positioning reference signal sequence on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources; and The parts of the positioning reference signal sequence are concatenated to restore the positioning reference signal sequence.

14. The network device according to claim 12, wherein: The plurality of uplink reference signal resources include sounding reference signal resources configured for at least one of uplink channel estimation, positioning, or multiple-input multiple-output correlation operations.

15. The network device according to claim 12, wherein: The configuration information further indicates at least one of the following: Sequence generation and mapping information, which is used to generate the positioning reference signal sequence and map the positioning reference signal sequence to the multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of the association between the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and the plurality of uplink reference signal resources; or Spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams used for the plurality of uplink reference signal resources associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

16. The network device according to claim 15, wherein: The positioning reference signal sequence is received on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on at least one of the sequence generation and mapping information, the validity time, or the spatial relationship information.

17. The network device according to claim 12, wherein: The at least one memory further stores instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network device to at least: The configuration information is transmitted to a location server.

18. The network device according to claim 12, wherein: The plurality of sounding reference signal resources are located in different uplink bandwidth parts.

19. The network device according to claim 12, wherein: The positioning reference signal sequence is a complete single Zadoff-Chu sequence.

20. A location server, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the location server to at least: receiving, from a first network device in a radio access network, configuration information for a terminal device of the radio access network indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; as well as The configuration information is transmitted to at least one second network device in the radio access network configured to locate the terminal device.

21. The location server of claim 20, wherein: The configuration information further indicates at least one of the following: Sequence generation and mapping information, used to generate a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource, and map the positioning reference signal sequence to the multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of the association between the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and the plurality of uplink reference signal resources; or Spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams used for the plurality of uplink reference signal resources associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

22. A method implemented at a terminal device in a radio access network, comprising: receiving configuration information from a network device in the radio access network indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; Based on the configuration information, generating a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource; as well as The positioning reference signal sequence is transmitted on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein: Transmitting the positioning reference signal sequence includes: Mapping the positioning reference signal sequence to the plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information, the plurality of uplink reference signal resources transmitting respective parts of the positioning reference signal sequence; and The respective portions of the positioning reference signal sequence are transmitted on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein: The plurality of uplink reference signal resources include sounding reference signal resources configured for at least one of uplink channel estimation, positioning, or multiple-input multiple-output correlation operations.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein: The configuration information further indicates at least one of the following: Sequence generation and mapping information, which is used to generate the positioning reference signal sequence and map the positioning reference signal sequence to the multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of the association between the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and the plurality of uplink reference signal resources; or Spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams used for the plurality of uplink reference signal resources associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein: At least one of the sequence generation and mapping information, the validity time, or the spatial relationship information associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource covers a corresponding configuration for the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein: The positioning reference signal sequence has a length determined by a sum of the number of subcarriers in the plurality of uplink reference signal resources minus a number of overlapping subcarriers between the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein: In the case that two uplink reference signal resources have overlapping subcarriers, the two parts of the positioning reference signal sequence mapped to the two uplink reference signal resources include overlapping sequence parts mapped to the overlapping subcarriers.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein: In case the two uplink reference signal resources with the overlapping subcarriers are configured with the same comb size and different numbers of symbols, The same sequence elements are mapped to the frequency-domain overlapping resource elements of the two uplink reference signal resources in the same pattern, and the remaining symbols of one of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a larger number of symbols are punctured or remain unused, or The same sequence elements are repeatedly mapped to the time domain overlapping resource elements of one of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a larger number of code elements, and the pattern is the same as mapping the same sequence elements to the frequency domain overlapping resource elements of the other of the two uplink reference signal resources configured with a smaller number of code elements.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein: The sequence elements in the positioning reference signal sequence are mapped to a subcarrier in the plurality of uplink reference signal resources in the frequency domain.

31. The method of claim 22, wherein: The multiple uplink reference signal resources are located in different uplink bandwidth parts.

32. The method of claim 22, wherein: The positioning reference signal sequence is a complete single Zadoff-Chu sequence.

33. A method implemented at a network device in a radio access network, comprising: transmitting configuration information to a terminal device in the radio access network, indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; as well as A positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource is received from the terminal device on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein: Receiving the positioning reference signal sequence includes: receiving respective portions of the positioning reference signal sequence on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources; and The parts of the positioning reference signal sequence are concatenated to restore the positioning reference signal sequence.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein: The plurality of uplink reference signal resources include sounding reference signal resources configured for at least one of uplink channel estimation, positioning, or multiple-input multiple-output correlation operations.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein: The configuration information further indicates at least one of the following: Sequence generation and mapping information, which is used to generate the positioning reference signal sequence and map the positioning reference signal sequence to the multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of the association between the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and the plurality of uplink reference signal resources; or Spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams used for a plurality of uplink reference signal resources associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein: The positioning reference signal sequence is received on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on at least one of the sequence generation and mapping information, the validity time, or the spatial relationship information.

38. The method of claim 33, further comprising: The configuration information is transmitted to a location server.

39. The method of claim 33, wherein: The plurality of sounding reference signal resources are located in different uplink bandwidth parts.

40. The method of claim 33, wherein: The positioning reference signal sequence is a complete single Zadoff-Chu sequence.

41. A method implemented at a location server, comprising: receiving, from a first network device in a radio access network, configuration information for a terminal device of the radio access network indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; as well as The configuration information is transmitted to at least one second network device in the radio access network configured to locate the terminal device.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein: The configuration information further indicates at least one of the following: Sequence generation and mapping information, which is used to generate a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and map the positioning reference signal sequence to the multiple uplink reference signal resources; an effective time of the association between the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource and the plurality of uplink reference signal resources; or Spatial relationship information indicating one or more beams used for the plurality of uplink reference signal resources associated with the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource.

43. An apparatus comprising: means for receiving configuration information from a network device in a radio access network, the configuration information indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; means for generating a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource based on the configuration information; as well as means for transmitting the positioning reference signal sequence on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information.

44. The apparatus of claim 43, further comprising means for performing the method of any one of claims 23 to 32.

45. An apparatus comprising: means for transmitting configuration information to a terminal device in a radio access network, the configuration information indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; as well as Means for receiving, from the terminal device, a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

46. ​​The apparatus of claim 45, further comprising means for performing the method of any one of claims 34 to 40.

47. An apparatus comprising: means for receiving, from a first network device in a radio access network, configuration information for a terminal device of the radio access network, the configuration information indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; as well as Means for transmitting the configuration information to at least one second network device in the radio access network configured to locate the terminal device.

48. A computer readable medium comprising program instructions which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to at least perform: receiving configuration information from a network device in the radio access network indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; Based on the configuration information, generating a positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource; as well as The positioning reference signal sequence is transmitted on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources based on the configuration information.

49. The computer-readable medium of claim 48, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 23 to 32.

50. A computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following operations: transmitting configuration information to a terminal device in a radio access network indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; and A positioning reference signal sequence corresponding to the virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource is received from the terminal device on the plurality of uplink reference signal resources.

51. The computer-readable medium of claim 50, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the device, cause the device to implement the method of any one of claims 34 to 40.

52. A computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following operations: receiving, from a first network device in a radio access network, configuration information for a terminal device of the radio access network, the configuration information indicating a virtual uplink positioning reference signal resource associated with a plurality of uplink reference signal resources allocated to the terminal device; and The configuration information is transmitted to at least one second network device in the radio access network configured to locate the terminal device.

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