Sidelink positioning within partial coverage

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer readable media are disclosed for performing operations including: receiving a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) from a second UE via a sidelink channel; performing a measurement on the SL-PRS to determine a measurement value of the SL-PRS; and transmitting the measurement in a positioning protocol message to the second UE via a sidelink interface, the positioning protocol message to be forwarded to a location management function (LMF) of the wireless communication system.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 395,326, filed on August 4, 2022, entitled “SIDELINK POSITIONING IN PARTIAL COVERAGE,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Background Art

[0003] Wireless communication networks provide integrated communication platforms and telecommunication services to wireless user devices. Example telecommunication services include telephone, data (e.g., voice, audio and / or video data), messaging, Internet access and / or other services. Wireless communication networks have wireless access nodes that exchange wireless signals with wireless user devices using wireless network protocols (such as protocols described in various telecommunication standards promulgated by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)). Example wireless communication networks include time division multiple access (TDMA) networks, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) networks, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) networks, long term evolution (LTE) and fifth generation new air interface (5G NR). Wireless communication networks use technologies such as OFDM, multiple input multiple output (MIMO), advanced channel coding, massive MIMO, beamforming and / or other features to facilitate mobile broadband services.

[0004] Recently, wireless communication networks have been extended to cover the network by using user equipment (UE) as a relay. Specifically, a relay UE establishes a direct connection with other UEs to extend the network coverage to these UEs. The connection established by the relay UE with other UEs is called a sidelink communication. Among other examples, the sidelink connection can be a UE-to-network relay, where the relay UE connects a remote UE to the network, or a UE-to-UE relay, where the relay UE connects a first remote UE to a second remote UE. Summary of the invention

[0005] The present disclosure describes systems and methods for sidelink positioning. The systems and methods may be applied to scenarios where a relay user equipment (UE) is used as a relay for a remote UE to a base station of a wireless communication system. The relay UE may be within the coverage of the base station, and the remote UE may be within or outside the coverage of the base station. In one example, the relay UE is fixed, knows its absolute geographic coordinates, and is able to send a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS). In this example, the relay UE may be used as a sidelink relay that relays positioning messages between the base station and the remote UE. This functionality enables the wireless communication system to locate the remote UE, even if the remote UE is out of coverage. In order to implement this arrangement without changing the existing architecture of the core network, the wireless communication system models the relay UE as a transmit / receive point (TRP) of a base station (serving the relay UE). Specifically, the base station presents the relay UE to a location management function (LMF) as a TRP under the control of the base station. Under this arrangement, the base station may relay positioning messages between the LMF and the remote UE (e.g., to obtain a sidelink PRS configuration).

[0006] In one aspect, a method performed by a first UE is disclosed. The method involves receiving a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) from a second UE via a sidelink channel; performing measurements on the SL-PRS to determine a measurement value of the SL-PRS; and sending the measurement value in a positioning protocol message to the second UE via a sidelink interface, the positioning protocol message to be forwarded to a location management function (LMF) of a wireless communication system.

[0007] The foregoing implementations and other implementations may each optionally include one or more of the following features, alone or in combination.

[0008] In some specific implementations, the method further involves: receiving auxiliary information including configuration information of the SL-PRS from the second UE via the sidelink channel.

[0009] In some implementations, the positioning protocol message is a first positioning protocol message, and the assistance information is received in a second positioning protocol message from the LMF.

[0010] In some specific implementations, the auxiliary information also includes the geographic coordinates of the second UE.

[0011] In some specific implementations, the second UE is served by a base station, and the auxiliary information also includes configuration information of a positioning reference signal sent by the base station.

[0012] In some specific implementations, the method further involves: receiving a request for location information of the first UE from the second UE via the side link channel.

[0013] In some implementations, the positioning protocol message is a first positioning protocol message, and the request for location information is received in a second positioning protocol message from the LMF.

[0014] In some implementations, the SL-PRS is a downlink SL-PRS, and the method further involves sending an uplink SL-PRS to the second UE via the sidelink channel.

[0015] In some implementations, the second UE is assigned a transmit / receive point (TRP) type.

[0016] In some implementations, the positioning protocol is the Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP).

[0017] In another aspect, a method performed by a core network device in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method involves sending a request for a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration from one or more transmit / receive points (TRPs) controlled by a base station of the wireless communication system to the base station, wherein the request includes a first TRP type for a user equipment (UE) capable of sending a sidelink-PRS (SL-PRS); and receiving a response message including the PRS configuration from the base station, wherein the PRS configuration includes an SL-PRS configuration from a relay UE served by the base station and associated with the first TRP type.

[0018] The foregoing implementations and other implementations may each optionally include one or more of the following features, alone or in combination.

[0019] In some implementations, the request and the response message are positioning protocol signaling.

[0020] In some implementations, the method further involves generating a message to provide assistance data to a remote UE coupled to the relay UE via a sidelink channel, wherein the assistance data includes at least the SL-PRS configuration.

[0021] In some specific implementations, the auxiliary information also includes the geographic coordinates of the relay UE.

[0022] In some implementations, the method further involves generating a request for location information to be sent via a sidelink channel to a remote UE coupled to the relay UE.

[0023] In some specific implementations, the method further involves: receiving the location information of the remote UE from the remote UE, wherein the location information includes a measurement of the SL-PRS.

[0024] In some implementations, the SL-PRS is a downlink SL-PRS, and the method further involves: transmitting an instruction to the relay UE to receive an uplink SL-PRS from a remote UE; and receiving measurements of the uplink SL-PRS from the relay UE.

[0025] The details of one or more embodiments of these systems and methods are set forth in the following drawings and description. Other features, objects, and advantages of these systems and methods will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] Figure 1 A positioning architecture in a wireless communication network according to some implementations is illustrated.

[0027] Figure 2 An example wireless network according to some implementations is illustrated.

[0028] Figure 3 Examples of some specific implementations and Figure 1 Example of a relay user equipment (UE) integrated with a positioning architecture.

[0029] Figure 4 An example positioning protocol for use in sidelink positioning according to some implementations is illustrated.

[0030] Figure 5 An example communication flow for sidelink positioning according to some specific implementations is illustrated.

[0031] Figure 6 An example uplink sidelink positioning workflow is illustrated in accordance with some embodiments.

[0032] Fig. 7A and Figure 7B Example methods according to some specific implementations are illustrated.

[0033] Figure 8 A user equipment (UE) according to some implementations is illustrated.

[0034] Fig. 9 An access node according to some implementations is illustrated.

[0035] Fig.10 A block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium according to some implementations is illustrated.

[0036] Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0037] For various reasons, such as navigation, direction finding, Internet services, and location-based digital services, it is helpful for a wireless communication system to determine the location of a user equipment (UE) served by the system. To this end, Release 16 (Rel-16) of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) telecommunication standard introduced a positioning architecture to improve the positioning of UEs. This architecture is described in Figure 1 Described in.

[0038] Figure 1 A positioning architecture 100 in a wireless communication system according to some implementations is illustrated. The wireless communication system includes a Radio Access Network (RAN) and a Core Network (CN), each of which may include multiple entities. Figure 1 Entities of a wireless communication system for locating a UE served by the system are illustrated. Figure 1 As shown, the RAN may be a new generation (NG) radio access network (NG-RAN) 102. The CN may include an access and mobility management function (AMF) 104 and a location management function (LMF) 106. The NG-RAN 102 may include a gNB 108 and an eNB 110. The gNB 108 may include one or more transmit / receive points (TRPs). A transmit / receive point is an antenna array that includes one or more antenna elements and is located at a specific geographic location to serve a specific area.

[0039] The positioning architecture 100 may be used to locate a UE served by the system. As an example, the positioning architecture 100 may locate a UE 112 served by the NG-RAN 102. In order to determine the location of the UE 112, the LMF 106 may request and receive location information from the UE 112. Specifically, the NG-RAN 102 receives the location information from the UE 112 and provides the information to the LMF 106 via the AMF 104 through the next generation control plane interface (NG-C) 114. The new NR positioning protocol A (NRPPa) carries the location information through the NG-C 114. After using the location information to locate the UE 112, the LMF 106 may use the long term evolution (LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) to provide configuration information to the UE 112 via the AMF 104. For example, the configuration information may be provided to the AMF 104, which may then provide the information to the UE 112 via the NG-RAN 102 using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0040] Recently, wireless communication systems have extended their coverage by using UE as a relay. Specifically, a relay UE can establish a direct connection with other UEs, referred to as remote UEs, in order to extend the coverage of a serving base station to these UEs. The UE may be located within the coverage of a base station or within a partial coverage (e.g., some UEs are within the coverage of a base station, while other UEs are not within the coverage of a base station). The connection established by a relay UE with one or more remote UEs is referred to as a sidelink connection (or simply a sidelink). However, existing 3GPP telecommunication standards do not specify positioning techniques for remote UEs. Recently, 3GPP specified sidelink positioning as one of the topics under development in Release 18 (Rel-18) of the 3GPP telecommunication standards.

[0041] The present disclosure describes systems and methods for sidelink positioning. The systems and methods may be applied in scenarios where a relay UE is used as a relay for a remote UE to a wireless communication system. The relay UE may be within the coverage of the system, and the remote UE may be within the coverage of the system or outside the coverage of the system. In one example, the relay UE is fixed, knows its absolute coordinates, and is able to send a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS). In this example, the relay UE may be used as a sidelink relay that relays positioning messages between the communication system and the remote UE. This functionality enables the communication system to locate the remote UE even if the remote UE is out of coverage. In order to achieve this goal without changing the existing architecture of the core network (e.g., Figure 1 In the case of implementing this arrangement in the case of (as shown in FIG. 1 ), the communication system models the relay UE as a TRP of the base station serving the relay UE. Specifically, the base station presents the relay UE to the LMF as a TRP under the control of the base station. Under this modeling, the base station can relay NRPPa messages to / from the LMF via RRC to / from the remote UE (e.g., to obtain the sidelink PRS configuration).

[0042] Figure 2 An example communication system 200 including sidelink communication according to some specific implementations is illustrated. It should be noted that Figure 2 The system is only one example of a possible system, and those features of the present disclosure may be implemented in other wireless communication systems.

[0043] The following description is provided for an example communication system operating in conjunction with a fifth generation (5G) network provided by the 3GPP technical specifications. However, the example implementation is not limited in this regard, and the described examples may be applied to other networks that may benefit from the principles described herein, such as 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks, Wi-Fi, etc. In addition, other types of communication standards are also possible, including future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)), etc. Although various aspects may be described herein using terms typically associated with 5G NR, various aspects of the present disclosure may be applied to other systems, such as 4G and / or systems after 5G (e.g., 6G).

[0044] As shown, the communication system 200 includes a plurality of user equipments. More specifically, the communication system 200 includes two UEs 205 (UE 205-1 and UE 205-2 are collectively referred to as "UE 205" or "UEs 205"), two base stations 210 (base stations 210-1 and 210-2 are collectively referred to as "base stations 210" or "base stations 210"), two cells 215 (cells 215-1 and 215-2 are collectively referred to as "cells 215" or "cells 215"), and one or more servers 235 in a core network (CN) 240 connected to the Internet 245.

[0045] In some implementations, UE 205 may communicate directly with base station 210 via links 220 (links 220-1 and 220-2 are collectively referred to as "a link 220" or "links 220"), which utilize a direct interface with the base station (referred to as a "Uu interface"). Each of links 220 may represent one or more channels. Links 220 are illustrated as air interfaces that implement communication coupling and may conform to cellular communication protocols, such as 3GPP LTE protocols, advanced long term evolution (LTE-A) protocols, LTE-based unlicensed spectrum access (LTE-U), 5G protocols, NR protocols, NR-based unlicensed spectrum access (NR-U) protocols, and / or any other communication protocols discussed herein.

[0046] As shown, some user equipments may be able to communicate directly with each other, for example, without intermediate infrastructure equipment (such as base station 210-1). In this example, UE 205-1 may communicate directly with UE 205-2. Similarly, UE 205-2 may communicate directly with UE 205-1. This peer-to-peer communication may utilize a "side link" interface such as a PC5 interface. In certain embodiments, the PC5 interface supports direct cellular communication between user equipments (e.g., between UE 205), while the Uu interface supports cellular communication with infrastructure equipment (such as a base station). For example, UE 205 may use the PC5 interface for radio resource control (RRC) signaling exchange between UEs. The PC5 / Uu interface is used only as an example, and PC5 as used herein may represent various other possible wireless communication technologies that allow direct side link communication between user equipments, while Uu may represent cellular communication performed between user equipments and infrastructure equipment (such as a base station).

[0047] In order to send data to / receive data from one or more base stations 210 or UE 205, UE 205 may include a transmitter / receiver (or alternatively, a transceiver), a memory, one or more processors, and / or other similar components that enable UE 205 to operate according to one or more wireless communication protocols and / or one or more cellular communication protocols. UE 205 may have multiple antenna elements that enable UE 205 to maintain multiple links 220 and / or side links 125 to send data to / receive data from multiple base stations 210 and / or multiple UEs 205. For example, as Figure 2 As shown, UE 205-1 may be connected to base station 210-1 via link 220-1 and simultaneously connected to UE 205-2 via side link 225. Figure 2 As shown, UE 205 - 2 may be connected to base station 210 - 2 via link 220 - 2 and simultaneously connected to UE 205 - 1 via side link 225 .

[0048] The PC5 interface may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), and / or any other similar communication channel. The PSFCH carries feedback related to the success or failure reception of the sidelink transmission. The PSSCH may be scheduled by the sidelink control information (SCI) carried in the sidelink PSCCH. In some examples, the sidelink interface may operate on an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., in an unlicensed 5 GHz (GHz) and 6 GHz band) or a (licensed) shared spectrum.

[0049] In one example, the sidelink interface implements vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. V2X communications may, for example, follow the 3GPP Cellular V2X (C-V2X) specification, or follow one or more other or subsequent standards, whereby vehicles and other devices and network entities may communicate. V2X communications may utilize both long-range (e.g., cellular) communications and short-range to medium-range (e.g., non-cellular) communications. V2X communications with cellular capabilities may be referred to as cellular V2X (C-V2X) communications. C-V2X systems may use various cellular radio access technologies (RATs), such as 4G LTE or 5G NR RAT (or RATs after 5G, e.g., 6G RAT). Certain LTE standards available in V2X systems may be referred to as LTE-Vehicle (LTE-V) standards. As used herein in the context of a V2X system, and as defined above, the term "user equipment" may generally refer to devices associated with mobile participants or traffic participants in a V2X system, for example, mobile (capable of moving) communication devices such as vehicles, pedestrian user equipment (PUE) devices, and roadside units (RSUs).

[0050] In some implementations, the UEs 205 may be physical hardware devices capable of running one or more applications, accessing network services via one or more radio links 120 with corresponding base stations 210 (also referred to as "serving" base stations), and communicating with each other via side links 225. The links 220 may allow the UEs 205 to send and receive data from the base stations 210 providing the links 220. The side links 225 may allow the UEs 205 to send and receive data with each other. The side links 225 between the UEs 205 may include one or more channels for transmitting information from the UE 205-1 to the UE 205-2 (or vice versa) and / or between the UE 205 and a UE-type RSU (or vice versa).

[0051] In some implementations, base stations 210 can communicate with each other via backhaul connections 230, and can communicate with one or more servers 235 within a core network (CN) 240 via another backhaul connection 233. The backhaul connection can be a wired and / or wireless connection.

[0052] In some implementations, UE 205 is configured to use a resource pool for sidelink communications. The sidelink resource pool may be divided into multiple time slots, frequency channels, and frequency subchannels. In some examples, UE 205 is synchronized and performs sidelink transmissions aligned with time slot boundaries. It may be desirable for the UE to select several time slots and subchannels for transmission of a transport block. In some examples, the UE may use different subchannels to transmit a transport block across multiple time slots within its own resource selection window.

[0053] In some implementations, the communication system 200 supports different broadcast types, including unicast, broadcast, and groupcast (or multicast) communications. Unicast refers to direct communication between two UEs. Broadcast refers to communication broadcasted by a single UE to multiple other UEs. Groupcast refers to communication transmitted from a single UE to a set of UEs that meet a certain condition (e.g., as members of a specific group).

[0054] In some implementations, the communication system 200 is configured to perform sidelink positioning for UEs served by the communication system 200. The sidelink positioning can be performed in a scenario where one of the UEs (e.g., UE 205-1) is within the coverage of a serving base station (e.g., base station 210-1) and another UE (e.g., UE 205-2) is within the coverage of the serving base station or out of the coverage.

[0055] In some embodiments, a UE in coverage is configured to act as a relay for another UE (i.e., a remote UE). In these embodiments, the relay UE is configured to support layer-2 (L2) sidelink relay functionality. This functionality enables the remote UE to transition to an RRC connected state with a base station, even if the remote UE is out of coverage. Additionally, this functionality allows the relay UE to act as a sidelink relay for relaying positioning messages between a communication system and a remote UE. Specifically, the remote UE may obtain system information from the base station via the relay UE. The system information includes a positioning system information block (posSIB), which includes positioning assistance data. In addition, this functionality enables the remote UE to exchange LPP messages with the communication system via the relay UE. The LPP message may be encapsulated in a non-access stratum (NAS) message, which in turn is encapsulated in an RRC message. In addition, the relay UE is configured to send SL-PRS to the remote UE. In some examples, the relay UE may determine its absolute geographic coordinates. For example, the relay UE may be a fixed UE with fixed geographic coordinates, such as a V2X roadside unit.

[0056] In some implementations, the described configurations of the relay UE enable the relay UE to assist in locating the remote UE. Specifically, these configurations enable the relay UE to allow the communication system to communicate with the remote UE in order to locate the remote UE. As an example, these configurations enable the relay UE to relay positioning messages between the communication system and the remote UE. As another example, these configurations enable the relay UE to send a SL-PRS to the remote UE, which the remote UE can use to perform measurements for positioning.

[0057] In some implementations, in order to allow the relay UE to operate without changing the existing architecture of the core network (e.g., Figure 1 In order to perform the described functionality in the case of a relay UE (as shown in ), the communication system models the relay UE as a TRP of the base station serving the relay UE. Specifically, the base station presents the relay UE to the core network (e.g., LMF) as a TRP under the control of the base station. By modeling the relay UE as a TRP, the base station can relay positioning protocol messages to / from the LMF to / from the relay UE via RRC, as the base station does for other TRPs under the control of the base station. The communication system can create a TRP type for the UE that can be modeled as a TRP. In one example, the TRP type is "SL TRP / UE". In the present disclosure, a TRP that is not a "SL TRP / UE" TRP is referred to as a regular TRP.

[0058] Figure 3 Examples of some specific implementations and Figure 1 An example of a positioning architecture 100 integrated with a relay user equipment (UE). Figure 3 As shown, gNB 108 models relay UE 302 as a second TRP controlled by gNB 108. Therefore, relay UE 302 is labeled as TRP2 and is assigned TRP type "SL TRP / UE". By modeling relay UE 302 as a TRP, the communication system can use the existing positioning architecture 100 to locate a remote UE coupled to relay UE 302.

[0059] Figure 4 An example positioning protocol for use in sidelink positioning according to some specific implementations is illustrated. Figure 4 As shown, the relay UE (UE1) is configured to communicate with the remote UE (UE2) via the side link interface 402. In addition, UE1 and UE2 are configured to communicate with the LMF 404 using the LPP protocol. More specifically, UE1 communicates with the LMF 404 via the gNB 406. This Figure 4 404. Figure 4Finally, gNB 406 uses Figure 4 The NRPPa protocol, shown as NRPPa link 408, communicates with LMF 404.

[0060] Figure 5 An example communication flow 500 for locating a UE in a communication network according to some implementations is illustrated. In this example, the communication network includes a gNB 502 and a LMF 504. The gNB 502 serves a relay UE1 (also labeled as UE 506). The relay UE1 can communicate with a remote UE2 (also labeled as UE 508) via a side link, which can be within or outside the coverage of the gNB 502. Figure 5 In the example of , relay UE1 is able to send SL PRS. Therefore, relay UE1 can be modeled as a TRP of gNB 502 and can be used to locate the UE via the side link.

[0061] At step 1, LMF 504 requests PRS configuration information from gNB 502. LMF 504 communicates the request to gNB 502 using NRPPa signaling. In response to receiving the request, gNB 502 obtains PRS configuration information for any TRP controlled by gNB 502. In this example, because gNB 502 models relay UE1 as a TRP controlled by gNB 502, gNB 502 obtains PRS configuration information from relay UE1 in addition to PRS configuration information from a regular TRP. Then, gNB 502 provides the PRS configuration information to LMF 504. In the example, the PRS configuration information includes timing and configuration information for PRS transmission. Additionally and / or alternatively, the PRS configuration information includes location coordinates of gNB 502 and / or a TRP controlled by gNB 502 (including relay UE1). As described below, LMF 504 may later provide some or all of this information to the UE as assistance data.

[0062] In some implementations, the LMF 504 requests PRS configuration information from the gNB 502 using an NRPPa message called "TRP INFORMATION REQUEST". In the NRPPa message, the LMF 504 may request information about all TRPs controlled by the gNB 502 or may request information about a specific TRP type (e.g., "SL TRP / UE"). When the gNB 502 receives the NRPPa message, the gNB 502 determines that the LMF 504 is requesting information about the SL TRP / UE type TRP. In response to the determination, the gNB 502 triggers an RRC message to the SL TRP / UE type TRP. In this example, the gNB 502 triggers an RRC message to the relay UE1. The RRC message may include a "SL PRS Information Request" information element (IE). In the IE, the gNB 502 may relay the relevant parts of the received NRPPa message. In one example, the RRC message is a "DLInformationTransfer" message.

[0063] In some implementations, relay UE1 (and other relay UEs with PRS capability) generates a response message in response to receiving the RRC message from gNB 502. The response message may include information requested by gNB 502, possibly in the "SL PRS Information" IE. In one example, the response message is an RRC "ULInformationTransfer" message. Relay UE1 then sends the response message to gNB 502.

[0064] In some embodiments, after receiving a response from relay UE1, gNB 502 generates a response message to LMF 504. The response message includes information about the TRP controlled by gNB 502 and information received from the TRP. In some examples, the information received from relay UE1 (e.g., SL configuration information) may be carried in an IE separate from the information received from other TRPs. A separate IE may be specific to the "SL TRP / UE" TRP type. The IE may include a TRP type field, a SL PRS configuration field (e.g., similar to the field in §9.2.44 of 3GPP TS 38.455 V16.7.0), and / or a geographic coordinate field. The response message to LMF504 may be a "NRPPA TRP INFORMATION RESPONSE" message.

[0065] As shown in step 2, LMF 504 may provide some or all of the information received from gNB 502 as assistance data in an LPP message to remote UE 2. In addition to the legacy DL PRS information of the legacy TRP, the LPP message also includes SLPRS configuration information (e.g., from relay UE 1) and / or the geographic coordinates of the relay UE (e.g., relay UE 1). The LPP message carrying the assistance information may be a "ProvideAssistanceData" message.

[0066] At step 3, LMF 504 requests location information from remote UE 2 using an LPP message (possibly a "RequestLocationInformation" message). In response to receiving the LPP message, and as shown in step 4, remote UE 2 uses the PRS configuration information received in the assistance data to perform measurements of PRS (including SL PRS sent by relay UE 1). In some examples, remote UE 2 performs measurements before receiving the LPP message requesting location information.

[0067] At step 5, the remote UE2 provides location information carried in an LPP message (possibly a "ProvideLocationInformation" message) to the LMF 504. The location information includes measurements of the DL PRS of the regular TRP (eg, RSRP, RSRQ, or RSSI) and measurements of the SL PRS.

[0068] In some implementations, SL PRS may also be used for UL positioning enhancement. In these implementations, the relay UE may perform measurements on the SL PRS / SRS sent by the remote UE on the sidelink channel. The relay UE may provide measurements to the LMF. The LMF may use these measurements and the UL PRS / SRS measurements performed by the conventional TRP for UL positioning. There are two signaling options for the relay UE to provide measurements to the LMF. In the first option, the LMF controls the relay UE to perform measurements directly via the LPP and report the location of the remote UE. In the second option, the LMF requires the gNB to report the location of the remote UE. Furthermore, the gNB requires the relay UE to perform measurements and report the location of the remote UE. The gNB may provide a location report to the LMF via NRPPa based on the location of the relay UE together with the location of the remote UE.

[0069] Figure 6 An example uplink side link positioning workflow 600 is illustrated according to some embodiments. Figure 6As shown, the remote UE 608 transmits an SRS or PRS type signal on a sidelink channel with the relay UE 606. The relay UE 606 receives the signal and performs measurements on the signal (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, or RSSI). The relay UE 606 has two options for reporting the measurements to the core network. In the first option (option 1), the relay UE 606 reports the measurements directly to the LMF 604 using LPP signaling. In the second option (option 2), the relay UE 606 reports the measurements to the serving gNB 602 using RRC signaling. The gNB 602 then reports the measurements to the LMF 604 using NRPPa signaling.

[0070] Fig. 7A A flowchart of an example method 700 according to some specific implementations is illustrated. For clarity of presentation, the following description generally describes the method 700 in the context of other figures in this specification. For example, the method 700 may be performed by a first UE (e.g., Figure 2 It should be understood that the method 700 may be performed by any suitable system, environment, software, hardware, or a combination of systems, environments, software, and hardware, as appropriate. In some specific implementations, the steps of the method 700 may be executed in parallel, in combination, in a loop, or in any order.

[0071] At 702, method 700 involves receiving a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) from a second UE via a sidelink channel.

[0072] At 704, method 700 involves performing measurements on the SL-PRS to determine a measured value of the SL-PRS.

[0073] At 708, method 700 involves sending the measurement value in a positioning protocol message to the second UE via the sidelink interface, the positioning protocol message to be forwarded to a location management function (LMF) of the wireless communication system.

[0074] In some implementations, the method 700 further involves: receiving auxiliary information including configuration information of the SL-PRS from the second UE via a sidelink channel.

[0075] In some implementations, the positioning protocol message is a first positioning protocol message, and the assistance information is received in a second positioning protocol message from the LMF.

[0076] In some specific implementations, the auxiliary information also includes the geographic coordinates of the second UE.

[0077] In some specific implementations, the second UE is served by a base station, and the auxiliary information also includes configuration information of a positioning reference signal sent by the base station.

[0078] In some implementations, method 700 further involves receiving a request for location information of the first UE from the second UE via a sidelink channel.

[0079] In some implementations, the positioning protocol message is a first positioning protocol message, and the request for location information is received in a second positioning protocol message from the LMF.

[0080] In some implementations, the SL-PRS is a downlink SL-PRS, and the method 700 further involves sending an uplink SL-PRS to the second UE via a sidelink channel.

[0081] In some implementations, the second UE is assigned a transmit / receive point (TRP) type.

[0082] In some implementations, the positioning protocol is the Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP).

[0083] Figure 7B A flowchart of an example method 710 according to some specific implementations is illustrated. For clarity of presentation, the following description generally describes the method 710 in the context of other figures in this specification. For example, the method 710 can be performed by LMF (e.g., Figure 1 It should be understood that method 710 can be performed by any suitable system, environment, software, hardware, or a combination of systems, environments, software, and hardware, as appropriate. In some specific implementations, the various steps of method 710 can be run in parallel, in combination, in a loop, or in any order.

[0084] At 712, method 710 involves sending a request for a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration from one or more transmit / receive points (TRPs) controlled by a base station of a wireless communication system to a base station, wherein the request includes a first TRP type for a user equipment (UE) capable of sending a sidelink-PRS (SL-PRS).

[0085] At 714, method 710 involves receiving a response message from the base station including a PRS configuration. The PRS configuration includes a SL-PRS configuration from a relay UE served by the base station and associated with a first TRP type.

[0086] In some implementations, the request and the response message are positioning protocol signaling.

[0087] In some implementations, the method 710 further involves generating a message to provide assistance data to a remote UE coupled to the relay UE via a sidelink channel, wherein the assistance data includes at least a SL-PRS configuration.

[0088] In some specific implementations, the auxiliary information also includes the geographic coordinates of the relay UE.

[0089] In some implementations, the method 710 further involves generating a request for location information to be sent via a sidelink channel to a remote UE coupled to the relay UE.

[0090] In some specific implementations, the method 710 further involves: receiving location information of the remote UE from the remote UE, wherein the location information includes a measurement of the SL-PRS.

[0091] In some implementations, the SL-PRS is a downlink SL-PRS, and the method 710 further involves: transmitting instructions to a relay UE to receive an uplink SL-PRS from a remote UE; and receiving measurements of the uplink SL-PRS from the relay UE.

[0092] Figure 8 UE 800 according to some specific implementations is illustrated. UE 800 may be similar to Figure 2 UE 205 and is essentially interchangeable therewith.

[0093] UE 800 can be any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a mobile phone, a computer, a tablet, an industrial wireless sensor (e.g., a microphone, a pressure sensor, a thermometer, a motion sensor, an accelerometer, an inventory sensor, a voltage / current meter, etc.), a video device (e.g., a camera, a camcorder, etc.), a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch), or a loose IoT device.

[0094] UE 800 may include a processor 802, RF interface circuitry 804, memory / storage 806, a user interface 808, a sensor 810, a driver circuit 812, a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 814, one or more antennas 816, and a battery 818. The components of UE 800 may be implemented as an integrated circuit (IC), a portion of an integrated circuit, a discrete electronic device or other module, logic component, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. Figure 8 The block diagram of UE 800 is intended to show a high-level view of certain of the components of UE 800. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

[0095] Components of UE 800 may be coupled to various other components via one or more interconnects 820, which may represent any type of interface, input / output, bus (local, system, or extension), transmission line, trace, optical connection, etc. that allows various circuit components (on a common or different chip or chipset) to interact with each other.

[0096] The processor 802 may include processor circuits such as a baseband processor circuit (BB) 822A, a central processor unit circuit (CPU) 822B, and a graphics processor unit circuit (GPU) 822C. The processor 802 may include any type of circuit or processor circuit that executes or otherwise operates computer-executable instructions (such as program codes, software modules, or functional processes from the memory / storage device 806) to cause the UE 800 to perform operations as described herein.

[0097] In some implementations, the baseband processor circuit 822A may access a communication protocol stack 824 in the memory / storage device 806 to communicate over a 3GPP compatible network. Generally speaking, the baseband processor circuit system 822A may access the communication protocol stack to: perform user plane functions at the physical (PHY) layer, the medium access control (MAC) layer, the radio link control (RLC) layer, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, and the PDU layer; and perform control plane functions at the PHY layer, the MAC layer, the RLC layer, the PDCP layer, the RRC layer, and the non-access layer. In some implementations, the PHY layer operations may be additionally / alternatively performed by components of the RF interface circuit 804. The baseband processor circuit 822A may generate or process baseband signals or waveforms that carry information in a 3GPP compatible network. In some implementations, the waveform used for NR can be based on cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) "CP-OFDM" in uplink or downlink, and discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM "DFT-S-OFDM" in uplink.

[0098] In some specific implementations, the processor 802 is configured to cause the UE to receive a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) from another UE via a sidelink channel. The processor 802 is further configured to cause the UE to perform measurements on the SL-PRS to determine a measurement value of the SL-PRS. In addition, the processor 802 is configured to cause the UE to send the measurement value in a positioning protocol message to another UE via a sidelink interface, and the positioning protocol message is to be forwarded to a location management function (LMF) of the wireless communication system.

[0099] The memory / storage 806 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions (e.g., the communication protocol stack 824) that may be executed by one or more processors in the processor 802 to enable the UE 800 to perform various operations described herein. The memory / storage 806 includes any type of volatile or non-volatile memory that may be distributed throughout the UE 800. In some specific implementations, some of the memory / storage 806 may be located on the processor 802 itself (e.g., L1 cache and L2 cache), while other memory / storage 806 is located outside the processor 802 but can be accessed via a memory interface. The memory / storage 806 may include any suitable volatile or non-volatile memory, such as, but not limited to, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state memory, or any other type of memory device technology.

[0100] The RF interface circuit 804 may include a transceiver circuit and a radio frequency front end module (RFEM), which allows the UE 800 to communicate with other devices through a radio access network. The RF interface circuit 804 may include various elements arranged in a transmit path or a receive path. These elements may include, for example, switches, mixers, amplifiers, filters, synthesizer circuits, control circuits, etc.

[0101] In the receive path, the RFEM may receive the radiated signal from the air interface via one or more antennas 816 and proceed to filter and amplify the signal (using a low noise amplifier). The signal may be provided to a transceiver's receiver, which down-converts the RF signal to a baseband signal that is provided to a baseband processor of the processor 802.

[0102] In the transmit path, the transmitter of the transceiver up-converts the baseband signal received from the baseband processor and provides the RF signal to the RFEM. The RFEM can amplify the RF signal through a power amplifier before the signal is radiated across the air interface via the antenna 816. In various specific implementations, the RF interface circuit 804 can be configured to send / receive signals in a manner compatible with the NR access technology.

[0103] Antenna 816 may include antenna elements to convert electrical signals into radio waves to travel through the air and convert received radio waves into electrical signals. These antenna elements may be arranged into one or more antenna panels. Antenna 816 may have an antenna panel that is omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof to achieve beamforming and multiple input / multiple output communications. Antenna 816 may include a microstrip antenna, a printed antenna manufactured on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards, a patch antenna, a phased array antenna, etc. Antenna 816 may have one or more panels that are designed for a specific frequency band including a band in FR1 or FR2.

[0104] The user interface 808 includes various input / output (I / O) devices designed to enable a user to interact with the UE 800. The user interface 808 includes input device circuits and output device circuits. The input device circuit includes any physical or virtual components for accepting input, including in particular one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., reset button), physical keyboards, keypads, mice, touch pads, touch screens, microphones, scanners, headphones, etc. The output device circuit includes any physical or virtual components for displaying information or otherwise conveying information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information). The output device circuit may include any number or combination of audio or visual displays, including in particular one or more simple visual outputs / indicators (e.g., binary state indicators, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs), or more complex outputs, such as display devices or touch screens (e.g., liquid crystal displays "LCDs", LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), where the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. is generated or produced by the operation of the UE 800.

[0105] Sensor 810 may include a device, module, or subsystem whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and to communicate information about the detected events (sensor data) to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, among others: an inertial measurement unit including an accelerometer, gyroscope, or magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system or nanoelectromechanical system including a three-axis accelerometer, three-axis gyroscope, or magnetometer; a liquid level sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.); a depth sensor; an ambient light sensor; an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other similar audio capture device; and the like.

[0106] The driver circuit 812 may include software elements and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in the UE 800, attached to the UE 800, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the UE 800. The driver circuit 812 may include various drivers to allow other components to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present in the UE 800 or connected to the UE. For example, the driver circuit 812 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touch screen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touch screen interface, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor 810 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor 810, a driver for obtaining an actuator position of an electromechanical component or controlling and allowing access to an electromechanical component, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0107] The PMIC 814 may manage the power provided to various components of the UE 800. Specifically, with respect to the processor 802, the PMIC 814 may control power source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion.

[0108] In some implementations, the PMIC 814 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the UE 800. The battery 818 may power the UE 800, but in some examples, the UE 800 may be installed and deployed in a fixed location and may have a power source coupled to the power grid. The battery 818 may be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery (such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc.). In some implementations, such as in vehicle-based applications, the battery 818 may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

[0109] Fig. 9 An access node 900 (e.g., a base station or gNB) according to some implementations is illustrated. The access node 900 may be similar to Figure 2 The access node 900 may include a processor 902, an RF interface circuit 904, a core network (CN) interface circuit 906, a memory / storage circuit 908, and one or more antennas 910.

[0110] The components of the access node 900 may be coupled to various other components via one or more interconnects 912. The processor 902, RF interface circuitry 904, memory / storage circuitry 908 (including a communication protocol stack 914), one or more antennas 910, and interconnects 912 may be similar to those of reference 1. Figure 8Like-named elements are shown and described.For example, processor 902 may include processor circuits such as, for example, baseband processor circuit (BB) 916A, central processor unit circuit (CPU) 916B, and graphics processor unit circuit (GPU) 916C.

[0111] The CN interface circuit 906 may provide connectivity to a core network (e.g., a 5GC using a 5th Generation Core Network (5GC) compatible network interface protocol such as a Carrier Ethernet protocol or some other suitable protocol). Network connectivity may be provided to / from the access node 900 via optical fiber or wireless backhaul. The CN interface circuit 906 may include one or more dedicated processors or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the CN interface circuit 906 may include multiple controllers for providing connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0112] As used herein, the terms "access node", "access point", etc. may be described as equipment that provides radio baseband functionality for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP or TRP, etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the terms "NG RAN node", etc. may refer to an access node 900 (e.g., a gNB) operating in an NR or 5G system, and the terms "E-UTRAN node", etc. may refer to an access node 900 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system. According to various embodiments, the access node 900 may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station and / or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0113] In some implementations, all or part of the access node 900 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a CRAN and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In a V2X scenario, the access node 900 may be or act as a "road side unit". The term "road side unit" or "RSU" may refer to any traffic infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationed (or relatively stationed) UE, where an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on.

[0114] Fig.10 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments. Fig.10 The components in implement LMF. Specifically, Fig.10 A schematic diagram of hardware resources 1000 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1010, one or more memory / storage devices 1020, and one or more communication resources 1030, each of which can be communicatively coupled via a bus 1040. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., network function virtualization) is utilized, a hypervisor 1002 can be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1000.

[0115] Processor 1010 may include, for example, processor 1012 and processor 1014. Processor 1010 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0116] In some specific implementations, the processor 1010 is configured to cause the LMF to send a request for a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration from one or more transmit / receive points (TRPs) controlled by a base station of a wireless communication system to a base station, wherein the request includes a first TRP type for a user equipment (UE) capable of sending a sidelink-PRS (SL-PRS). Additionally, the processor 1010 is configured to cause the LMF to receive a response message including a PRS configuration from the base station, wherein the PRS configuration includes an SL-PRS configuration from a relay UE served by the base station and associated with the first TRP type.

[0117] The memory / storage device 1020 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1020 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0118] The communication resources 1030 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1004 or one or more databases 1006 via the network 1008. For example, the communication resources 1030 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or Low power consumption) components, components and other communication components.

[0119] The instructions 1050 may include software, programs, applications, applet, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 1010 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1050 may reside completely or partially in at least one of the processors 1010 (e.g., in a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 1020, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 1050 may be transmitted to the hardware resources 1000 from any combination of the peripheral device 1004 or the database 1006. Therefore, the memory of the processor 1010, the memory / storage device 1020, the peripheral device 1004, and the database 1006 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0120] For ease of description, various components may be described as performing one or more tasks. Such descriptions should be interpreted as including the phrase "configured to". The statement that a component is configured to perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke 35 USC § 112 (f) interpretation of that component.

[0121] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components shown in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, or methods described in the following example section. For example, the baseband circuit described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the following embodiments. For another example, the circuits associated with the UE, base station, network element, etc. described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples shown in the example section below.

[0122] Example

[0123] Embodiment 1 includes one or more processors of a first user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, wherein the one or more processors are configured to perform operations including: receiving a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) from a second UE via a sidelink channel; performing measurements on the SL-PRS to determine a measurement value of the SL-PRS; and sending the measurement value in a positioning protocol message to the second UE via a sidelink interface, wherein the positioning protocol message is to be forwarded to a location management function (LMF) of the wireless communication system.

[0124] Embodiment 2 is one or more processors according to embodiment 1, wherein the operation further comprises: receiving auxiliary information including configuration information of the SL-PRS from the second UE via the sidelink channel.

[0125] Embodiment 3 is one or more processors according to embodiment 2, wherein the positioning protocol message is a first positioning protocol message, and wherein the auxiliary information is received in a second positioning protocol message from the LMF.

[0126] Embodiment 4 is one or more processors according to embodiment 2, wherein the auxiliary information further includes geographic coordinates of the second UE.

[0127] Embodiment 5 is one or more processors according to embodiment 2, wherein the second UE is served by a base station, and wherein the assistance information also includes configuration information of a positioning reference signal sent by the base station.

[0128] Embodiment 6 is one or more processors according to any one of embodiments 1 to 5, and the operation also includes: receiving a request for location information of the first UE from the second UE via the side link channel.

[0129] Embodiment 7 is one or more processors according to embodiment 6, wherein the positioning protocol message is a first positioning protocol message, and wherein the request for location information is received in a second positioning protocol message from the LMF.

[0130] Embodiment 8 is one or more processors according to any one of embodiments 1 to 7, wherein the SL-PRS is a downlink SL-PRS, and the operation also includes: sending an uplink SL-PRS to the second UE via the sidelink channel.

[0131] Embodiment 9 is one or more processors according to any one of embodiments 1 to 8, wherein the second UE is assigned a transmit / receive point (TRP) type.

[0132] Embodiment 10 is one or more processors according to any one of embodiments 1 to 9, wherein the positioning protocol is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP).

[0133] Embodiment 11 is one or more processors of a core network device in a wireless communication system, wherein the one or more processors are configured to perform operations including the following: sending a request for a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration from one or more transmit / receive points (TRPs) controlled by a base station of the wireless communication system to the base station, wherein the request includes a first TRP type for a user equipment (UE) capable of sending a sidelink-PRS (SL-PRS); and receiving a response message including the PRS configuration from the base station, wherein the PRS configuration includes an SL-PRS configuration from a relay UE served by the base station and associated with the first TRP type.

[0134] Embodiment 12 is one or more processors according to embodiment 11, wherein the request and the response message are positioning protocol signaling.

[0135] Embodiment 13 is one or more processors according to any one of embodiments 11 to 12, wherein the operation also includes generating a message to provide auxiliary data to a remote UE coupled to the relay UE via a side link channel, wherein the auxiliary data includes at least the SL-PRS configuration.

[0136] Embodiment 14 is one or more processors according to embodiment 13, wherein the assistance data further includes geographic coordinates of the relay UE.

[0137] Embodiment 15 is one or more processors according to any one of embodiments 11 to 14, the operation also including: generating a request for location information to be sent to a remote UE coupled to the relay UE via a sidelink channel.

[0138] Embodiment 16 is one or more processors according to embodiment 15, the operation further comprising: receiving the location information of the remote UE from the remote UE, wherein the location information includes a measurement of the SL-PRS.

[0139] Embodiment 17 is one or more processors according to any one of embodiments 11 to 16, wherein the SL-PRS is a downlink SL-PRS, and the operation also includes: transmitting an instruction to the relay UE to receive an uplink SL-PRS from a remote UE; and receiving a measurement of the uplink SL-PRS from the relay UE.

[0140] Embodiment 18 may include a non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations according to any one of Embodiments 1-17.

[0141] Embodiment 19 may include a system comprising one or more computers and one or more storage devices, on which are stored operable instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 17.

[0142] Embodiment 20 may include a method for performing the operations of any one of Embodiments 1-17.

[0143] Embodiment 21 may include an apparatus comprising logic components, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of operations described or associated with any of Embodiments 1 to 17, or any other operations or processes described herein.

[0144] Example 22 may include operations according to any one of Examples 1 to 17 or methods, techniques or processes related thereto, or portions or parts thereof.

[0145] Embodiment 23 may include a device, such as user equipment, comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, wherein the one or more computer-readable media include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 10 or methods, techniques or processes or portions thereof related thereto.

[0146] Embodiment 24 may include an apparatus, for example, a core network device implementing LMF, the apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations according to any one of Embodiments 11 to 17 or methods, techniques or processes or portions thereof related thereto.

[0147] Embodiment 25 may include a signal as described or related to any one of embodiments 1 to 17, or a portion or part thereof.

[0148] Embodiment 26 may include a datagram, information element (IE), packet, frame, segment, PDU or message, or a portion or part thereof, as described or related to any one of Embodiments 1 to 17 or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0149] Embodiment 27 may include a signal encoded with data as described or associated with any of Embodiments 1 to 17 or otherwise described in this disclosure, or a portion or part thereof.

[0150] Embodiment 28 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, IE, packet, frame, segment, PDU or message, or a portion or part thereof, as described in accordance with or in connection with any of Embodiments 1 to 17 or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0151] Embodiment 29 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors will cause the one or more processors to perform operations according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 17 or methods, techniques, or processes related thereto, or portions thereof.

[0152] Embodiment 30 may include a computer program including instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element causes the processing element to perform operations according to any one of embodiments 1 to 17 or methods, techniques or processes related thereto, or portions thereof. The operations or actions performed by the instructions executed by the processing element may include operations according to any one of embodiments 1 to 17.

[0153] Embodiment 31 may include signals in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0154] Embodiment 32 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0155] Embodiment 33 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. The operations or actions performed by the system may include operations according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 17.

[0156] Embodiment 34 may include an apparatus for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. The operations or actions performed by the apparatus may include operations according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 17.

[0157] The previously described operations of Examples 1 to 17 can be implemented using a computer-implemented method; a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions to perform the computer-implemented method; and a computer system comprising a computer memory interoperably coupled to a hardware processor configured to execute the computer-implemented method or instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable medium.

[0158] Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any of the above embodiments may be combined with any other embodiment (or combination of embodiments). The foregoing description of one or more specific implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings or may be obtained from the practice of various embodiments.

[0159] Although the above embodiments have been described in considerable detail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to include all such variations and modifications.

[0160] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

Claims

1. One or more processors of a first user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the one or more processors being configured to cause the first UE to perform operations comprising: receiving a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL-PRS) from a second UE via a sidelink channel; performing measurement on the SL-PRS to determine a measurement value of the SL-PRS; as well as The measurement values ​​are sent to the second UE in a positioning protocol message via a sidelink interface, the positioning protocol message being forwarded to a Location Management Function (LMF) of the wireless communication system.

2. The one or more processors of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: Auxiliary information including configuration information of the SL-PRS is received from the second UE via the sidelink channel.

3. The one or more processors of claim 2, wherein the positioning protocol message is a first positioning protocol message, and wherein the assistance information is received in a second positioning protocol message from the LMF.

4. The one or more processors of claim 2, wherein the assistance information further comprises geographic coordinates of the second UE.

5. The one or more processors of claim 2, wherein the second UE is served by a base station, and wherein the assistance information further comprises configuration information of a positioning reference signal sent by the base station.

6. One or more processors according to any one of claims 1 to 5, the operations further comprising: A request for location information of the first UE is received from the second UE via the sidelink channel.

7. The one or more processors of claim 6, wherein the positioning protocol message is a first positioning protocol message, and wherein the request for location information is received in a second positioning protocol message from the LMF.

8. The one or more processors of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the SL-PRS is a downlink SL-PRS, and the operations further comprise: An uplink SL-PRS is sent to the second UE via the sidelink channel.

9. The one or more processors of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the second UE is assigned a transmit / receive point (TRP) type.

10. The one or more processors of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the positioning protocol is the Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP).

11. One or more processors of a core network device in a wireless communication system, wherein the one or more processors are configured to perform operations, wherein the operations include: transmitting, from one or more transmit / receive points (TRPs) controlled by a base station of the wireless communication system, a request for a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration to the base station, wherein the request includes a first TRP type for a user equipment (UE) capable of transmitting a sidelink-PRS (SL-PRS); and A response message including the PRS configuration is received from the base station, wherein the PRS configuration includes a SL-PRS configuration from a relay UE served by the base station and associated with the first TRP type.

12. The one or more processors of claim 11, wherein the request and the response messages are positioning protocol signaling.

13. The one or more processors of any one of claims 11 to 12, the operations further comprising: A message is generated to provide assistance data to a remote UE coupled to the relay UE via a sidelink channel, wherein the assistance data includes at least the SL-PRS configuration.

14. The one or more processors of claim 13, wherein the assistance data further comprises geographic coordinates of the relay UE.

15. The one or more processors of any one of claims 11 to 14, the operations further comprising: A request for location information is generated to send to a remote UE coupled to the relay UE via a sidelink channel.

16. The one or more processors of claim 15, the operations further comprising: The location information of the remote UE is received from the remote UE, wherein the location information includes a measurement of the SL-PRS.

17. The one or more processors of any one of claims 11 to 16, wherein the SL-PRS is a downlink SL-PRS, and the operations further comprise: transmitting an instruction to the relay UE to receive an uplink SL-PRS from a remote UE; as well as A measurement of the uplink SL-PRS is received from the relay UE.

18. A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform the operations of any one of claims 1 to 17.

19. A user equipment (UE), the UE comprising one or more processors configured to perform the operations of any one of claims 1 to 10.

20. A core network device, comprising one or more processors, wherein the one or more processors are configured to perform the operations according to any one of claims 11 to 17.

21. A method for performing the operations according to any one of claims 1 to 17.

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