Detecting non-line-of-sight wireless signal paths

Abstract

Techniques for indicating a type of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in a wireless communication network are described. In some embodiments, a method thereof may comprise: receiving a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a respective plurality of radio network nodes (610); determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals (620); determining whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonalities between the plurality of reference signals (630); and indicating to the network entity whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater (640).

Description

[0001] Related Applications

[0002] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Application No. 17 / 929,664, filed on September 2, 2022, entitled “DETECTION NON-LINE-OF-SIGHT WIRELESS SIGNAL PATHS,” which is assigned to the assignee of this application and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly to detecting a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path between a user equipment (UE) and a wireless network node. Background Art

[0004] Positioning and communication via wireless networks depend on unobstructed signal paths between wireless devices, such as between a wireless network node (e.g., base station, access point) and a user equipment (e.g., UE). There are scenarios where otherwise line-of-sight (LOS) signals that would otherwise have a direct path from source to receiver are blocked by the physical environment (e.g., surfaces, distance between devices). In such cases, a network-controlled repeater can maintain a link between the wireless network node and the repeater and a link between the repeater and the UE, allowing signals and data to be relayed between the network node and the UE. Summary of the invention

[0005] In one aspect of the present disclosure, a method for indicating a type of a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in a wireless communication network is disclosed. In some embodiments, the method includes: receiving a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals; determining whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and indicating to a network entity whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater.

[0006] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a device is disclosed. In some embodiments, the device includes: one or more network interfaces; a memory; and one or more processors, communicatively coupled to the one or more network interfaces and the memory, and configured to: receive a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; determine at least one non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in a wireless communication network based on the plurality of reference signals; determine whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and indicate to a network entity whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater.

[0007] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable device is disclosed. In some embodiments, the non-transitory computer-readable device includes a storage medium, the storage medium including a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions being configured to cause a computerized device to: receive a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; determine at least one non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in a wireless communication network based on the plurality of reference signals; determine whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and indicate to a network entity whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater.

[0008] In another aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus is disclosed. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes: a component for receiving a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; a component for determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path in a wireless communication network based on the plurality of reference signals; a component for determining whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and a component for indicating to a network entity whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater.

[0009] This summary is neither intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter nor is it intended to be used alone to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter. The subject matter should be understood by reference to appropriate portions of the entire specification of the present disclosure, any or all of the drawings, and each claim. The foregoing and other features and examples will be described in more detail below in the following specification, claims, and drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] Figure 1 is a diagram of a positioning system according to an embodiment.

[0011] Figure 2 is a diagram of a fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) positioning system, showing a positioning system implemented within a 5G NR communication network (e.g., Figure 1 An embodiment of a positioning system).

[0012] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of how beamforming may be performed according to some embodiments.

[0013] Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating an example scenario within a wireless network having a wireless network node, a UE within a coverage hole with nearby environmental obstacles, and a relay.

[0014] Figure 5 is a flow chart of a method of detecting a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path associated with a given user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication network according to an embodiment.

[0015] Figure 6 is a flow chart of a method of indicating a type of a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in a wireless communication network according to an embodiment.

[0016] Figure 7 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a UE that can be used in embodiments as described herein.

[0017] Figure 8 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a base station that can be used in embodiments as described herein.

[0018] Fig. 9 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a computer system that can be used in embodiments as described herein.

[0019] According to certain example embodiments, the same reference symbols in the various drawings indicate the same elements. In addition, multiple instances of an element can be indicated by following a letter or hyphen and a second digit after the first digit of the element. For example, multiple instances of element 110 can be indicated as 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, etc., or as 110a, 110b, 110c, etc. When only the first digit is used to refer to such an element, any instance of the element will be understood (for example, element 110 in the previous example will refer to elements 110-1, 110-2 and 110-3 or to elements 110a, 110b and 110c). DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0020] The following description is directed to certain implementations for the purpose of describing the innovative aspects of various embodiments. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the teachings herein can be applied in a variety of different ways. The described implementations can be implemented in any device, system, or network capable of sending and receiving radio frequency (RF) signals according to any communication standard, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 standard for ultra-wideband (UWB), IEEE802.11 standards (including those standards identified as Wi-Fi® technology), Bluetooth® standards, code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), global system for mobile communications (GSM), GSM / general packet radio service (GPRS), enhanced data GSM environment (EDGE), terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA), wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA), evolution data optimized (EV-DO), 1xEV-DO, EV-DO Rev A, EV-DO Rev B. High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA), High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), Evolved High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA+), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), or other known signals used for communicating within a wireless, cellular or Internet of Things (IoT) network, such as a system using 3G, 4G, 5G, 6G or further implementations thereof.

[0021] As used herein, an "RF signal" includes electromagnetic waves that transmit information through the space between a transmitter (or transmitting device) and a receiver (or receiving device). As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multiple channels or paths, a receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal.

[0022] Additionally, unless otherwise specified, references to "reference signals," "positioning reference signals," "reference signals for positioning," and the like may be used to refer to signals used for positioning of user equipment (UE). As described in more detail herein, such signals may include any of a variety of signal types, but may not necessarily be limited to positioning reference signals (PRS) as defined in relevant wireless standards.

[0023] Furthermore, unless otherwise specified, the term "positioning" as used herein may be absolute position determination, relative position determination, ranging, or a combination thereof. Such positioning may include and / or be based on timing, angle, phase, or power measurements, or a combination thereof (which may include RF sensing measurements) for the purpose of location or sensing services.

[0024] Network-controlled repeaters can be used to extend network coverage over various radio frequency (RF) spectrum and bandwidths, such as the sub-6 GHz spectrum (Frequency Range 1 (FR1)), or higher frequency bands allocated between 24 GHz and 300 GHz (also known as millimeter wave, mmWave, or Frequency Range 2 (FR2). Extension of transmission can allow RF signals to cover longer distances or be received on the other side of a physical obstacle through a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) signal path, which occurs outside the LOS between the transmitter and the receiver. For example, a physical obstacle may block LOS transmission between a UE and a network node, but a repeater may allow transmission around the physical obstacle. Repeaters may be particularly useful for propagating signals with high data rates but short communication ranges, and may ensure signal integrity in outdoor environments, power or path loss scenarios, or outdoor-to-indoor coverage in, for example, wireless networks that already employ FR1 or FR2. Thus, network operators may deploy repeaters for coverage extension in wireless communication networks as a cost-effective solution.

[0025] However, the repeater may be transparent to the UE. That is, the UE may not know whether the repeater is deployed, and may not know whether the connection to the wireless network node is through the repeater or directly to the wireless network node. A typical repeater simply performs amplification and forwarding operations of the RF signal, so the signal can propagate in different directions or be received at the same location of the repeater. The UE's lack of awareness of the presence of the repeater can introduce significant positioning errors.

[0026] More specifically, from the perspective of the UE, the positioning measurement is based on the first arrival path detection using the positioning reference signal (PRS). The first arrival path can refer to the LOS path at the receiver side. Some examples of such positioning measurements include reference signal time difference (RSTD), arrival time (TOA), and arrival angle (AOA). Other examples of positioning measurements are listed below. In some scenarios, the UE may be located in a coverage hole (an area within a wireless network that is not covered by any wireless node), resulting in a lack of monitoring of the area. While in the coverage hole, the UE may still be able to detect the first arrival path propagated from the wireless network node (e.g., gNB) to the repeater to the UE. However, while the UE is in the coverage hole, no direct signal path from the node to the UE is detected. Similarly, a UE in a coverage hole cannot send a signal directly to a wireless network node, but can send a signal to a repeater that can relay the signal to the wireless network node.

[0027] Large positioning errors in the presence of repeaters may occur for UEs in coverage holes. If the UE measures based on the first arrival path detection report, the resulting position or location will substantially correspond to the location of the repeater rather than the location of the UE. If the measurement is based on round trip signal propagation time (RTT), where RTT-based positioning is based on signals sent and received by the UE, each distance measurement additionally contains the distance between the UE and the repeater, resulting in even more errors.

[0028] For these reasons, there is a need to enhance UE positioning in wireless networks deployed with relays, or more generally, to enhance UE positioning in NLOS scenarios. When NLOS is detected between a UE and a network node, the network can, for example, use alternative positioning techniques to resolve potential positioning errors. Additional details will follow after an initial description of related systems and techniques.

[0029] Figure 1 is a simplified illustration of a positioning system 100 according to an embodiment, in which a UE 105, a location server 160, and / or other components of the positioning system 100 can use the techniques provided herein for detecting non-line-of-sight wireless signal paths associated with the UE 105. The techniques described herein can be implemented by one or more components of the positioning system 100. The positioning system 100 can include: a UE 105; one or more satellites 110 (also referred to as space vehicles (SVs)) for a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) such as a global positioning system (GPS), GLONASS, Galileo, or BeiDou; a base station 120; an access point (AP) 130; a location server 160; a network 170; and an external client 180. In general, the positioning system 100 can estimate the location of the UE 105 based on RF signals received by and / or sent from the UE 105 and the known locations of other components (e.g., GNSS satellites 110, base stations 120, APs 130) that send and / or receive RF signals. For additional details on specific location estimation techniques, refer to Figure 2 Discuss in more detail.

[0030] It should be noted that Figure 1 Only a generalized description of the various components is provided, any or all of which may be used as appropriate, and each of which may be replicated as needed. Specifically, although only one UE 105 is shown, it will be understood that many UEs (e.g., hundreds, thousands, millions, etc.) may use the positioning system 100. Similarly, the positioning system 100 may include more than one UE 105. Figure 1A greater or lesser number of base stations 120 and / or APs 130 are shown. The illustrated connections connecting the various components in the positioning system 100 include data and signaling connections, which may include additional (intermediate) components, direct or indirect physical and / or wireless connections, and / or additional networks. In addition, components may be rearranged, combined, separated, replaced, and / or omitted, depending on the desired functionality. In some embodiments, for example, the external client 180 may be directly connected to the location server 160. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize many modifications to the illustrated components.

[0031] Depending on the desired functionality, network 170 may include any of a variety of wireless and / or wired networks. Network 170 can, for example, include any combination of public and / or private networks, local area networks, and / or wide area networks, etc. In addition, network 170 may use one or more wired and / or wireless communication technologies. In some embodiments, network 170 may include, for example, cellular or other mobile networks, wireless local area networks (WLAN), wireless wide area networks (WWAN), and / or the Internet. Examples of network 170 include long-term evolution (LTE) wireless networks, fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks (also referred to as new radio (NR) wireless networks or 5G NR wireless networks), Wi-Fi WLAN, and the Internet. LTE, 5G, and NR are wireless technologies defined or being defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Network 170 may also include more than one network and / or more than one type of network.

[0032] The base station 120 and the access point (AP) 130 may be communicatively coupled to the network 170. In some embodiments, the base station 1205 may be owned, maintained and / or operated by a cellular network provider and may employ any of a variety of wireless technologies as described below. Depending on the technology of the network 170, the base station 120 may include a node B, an evolved node B (eNodeB or eNB), a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station (RBS), an NR node B (gNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), etc. The base station 120 as a gNB or ng-eNB may be part of a next generation radio access network (NG-RAN), which may be connected to a 5G core network (5GC) in the case where the network 170 is a 5G network. In view of the open radio access network (O-RAN) and / or virtualized radio access network (V-RAN or vRAN) in 5G or later networks, the functions performed by the base station 120 in the earlier generation network (e.g., 3G and 4G) can be divided into different functional components (e.g., radio unit (RU), distributed unit (DU), and central unit (CU)) and layers (e.g., L1 / L2 / L3), which can be performed on different devices at different locations connected, for example, via fronthaul, midhaul, and backhaul connections. As mentioned herein, a "base station" (or ng-eNB, gNB, etc.) may include any one or all of these functional components. For example, the AP 130 may include a Wi-Fi AP or a Bluetooth® AP or an AP with cellular capabilities (e.g., 4G LTE and / or 5G NR). Therefore, the UE 105 is able to send and receive information with a networked device such as a location server 160 by accessing the network 170 via the base station 120 using the first communication link 133. Additionally or alternatively, because AP 130 may also be communicatively coupled to network 170 , UE 105 may communicate with network-connected and Internet-connected devices (including location server 160 ) using second communication link 135 or via one or more other mobile devices 145 .

[0033] As used herein, the term "base station" may generally refer to a single physical transmission point, or multiple co-located physical transmission points that may be located at a base station 120. A transmit receive point (TRP) (also referred to as a transmit / receive point) corresponds to this type of transmission point, and the term "TRP" may be used interchangeably herein with the terms "gNB," "ng-eNB," and "base station." In some cases, a base station 120 may include multiple TRPs—for example, each TRP is associated with a different antenna or a different antenna array of the base station 120. As used herein, the transmit function of a TRP may be performed with a transmit point (TP), and / or the receive function of a TRP may be performed by a receive point (RP), which may be physically separate or distinct from the TP. That is, a TRP may include both a TP and an RP. A physical transmission point may include an antenna array of a base station 120 (for example, as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system and / or where the base station employs beamforming). The term "base station" may additionally refer to multiple non-co-located physical transmission points, which may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transmission medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station).

[0034] As used herein, the term "cell" may generally refer to a logical communication entity for communicating with a base station 120, and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCID), a virtual cell identifier (VCID)) for distinguishing adjacent cells operating via the same or different carriers. In some examples, a carrier may support multiple cells, and different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or other protocol types) that may provide access to different types of devices. In some cases, the term "cell" may refer to a portion of a geographic coverage area (e.g., a sector) on which a logical entity operates.

[0035] Satellites 110 may be used to locate UE 105 in one or more ways. For example, satellites 110 (also referred to as space vehicles (SVs)) may be part of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), such as a global positioning system (GPS), GLONASS, Galileo, or BeiDou. Positioning using RF signals from GNSS satellites may include measuring multiple GNSS signals at a GNSS receiver of UE 105 to perform code-based and / or carrier-based positioning, which may be highly accurate. Additionally or alternatively, satellites 110 may be used for non-terrestrial network (NTN) based positioning, where satellites 110 may be functionally operable as TRPs (or TPs) of a network (e.g., LTE and / or NR networks) and may be communicatively coupled with network 170. Specifically, reference signals (e.g., PRSs) transmitted by satellites 110 for NTN based positioning may be similar to reference signals transmitted by base stations 120 and may be coordinated by location server 160. In some embodiments, satellites 110 used for NTN based positioning may be different from satellites 110 used for GNSS based positioning.

[0036] The location server 160 may include a server and / or other computing device configured to determine an estimated location of the UE 105 and / or provide data (e.g., “assistance data”) to the UE 105 to facilitate location measurement and / or location determination of the UE 105. According to some embodiments, the location server 160 may include a Home Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Location Platform (H-SLP), which may support a SUPL User Plane (UP) positioning solution defined by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), and may support location services for the UE 105 based on subscription information of the UE 105 stored in the location server 160. In some embodiments, the location server 160 may include a Discovery SLP (D-SLP) or an Emergency SLP (E-SLP). The location server 160 may also include an Enhanced Serving Mobile Location Center (E-SMLC) that supports positioning of the UE 105 using a Control Plane (CP) positioning solution for the UE 105 for LTE radio access. The location server 160 may also include a location management function (LMF) that supports positioning of the UE 105 using a control plane (CP) positioning solution of NR or LTE radio access by the UE 105.

[0037] In the CP positioning solution, signaling for controlling and managing the positioning of the UE 105 may be exchanged between elements of the network 170 and with the UE 105 using existing network interfaces and protocols, and as signaling from the perspective of the network 170. In the UP positioning solution, signaling for controlling and managing the positioning of the UE 105 may be exchanged between the location server 160 and the UE 105 as data from the perspective of the network 170 (e.g., data transmitted using the Internet Protocol (IP) and / or the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)).

[0038] As previously described (and discussed in more detail below), the estimated position of UE 105 can be based on measurements of RF signals transmitted from and / or received by UE 105. In particular, these measurements can provide information about the relative distances and / or angles of UE 105 from one or more components in positioning system 100 (e.g., GNSS satellites 110, APs 130, base stations 120). The estimated position of UE 105 can be estimated geometrically (e.g., using multi-angle measurements and / or multilateration) based on the distance and / or angle measurements and the known positions of the one or more components.

[0039] Although ground components such as AP 130 and base station 120 may be fixed, embodiments are not limited thereto. Mobile components may be used. For example, in some embodiments, the location of UE 105 may be estimated based at least in part on measurements of RF signals 140 transmitted between UE 105 and one or more other mobile devices 145 (which may be mobile or fixed). As shown, other mobile devices may include, for example, mobile phones 145-1, vehicles 145-2, static communication / positioning devices 145-3, or other static and / or mobile devices capable of providing wireless signals for locating UE 105, or a combination thereof. Wireless signals from mobile devices 145 for positioning of UE 105 may include RF signals using, for example, Bluetooth® (including Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)), IEEE 802.11x (e.g., Wi-Fi®), ultra-wideband (UWB), IEEE 802.15x, or a combination thereof. Mobile device 145 may additionally or alternatively use non-RF wireless signals to locate UE 105, such as infrared signals or other optical technologies.

[0040] The mobile devices 145 may include other UEs communicatively coupled to a cellular or other mobile network (e.g., network 170). When one or more other mobile devices 145 including a UE are used for position determination of a particular UE 105, the UE 105 whose position is to be determined may be referred to as a "target UE", and each of the other mobile devices 145 used may be referred to as an "anchor UE". For the position determination of the target UE, the corresponding positions of the one or more anchor UEs may be known and / or determined jointly with the target UE. Direct communication between the one or more other mobile devices 145 and the UE 105 may include sidelinks and / or similar device-to-device (D2D) communication technologies. The sidelink defined by 3GPP is a form of D2D communication under cellular-based LTE and NR standards. UWB may be one such technology by which measurements from one or more anchor devices (e.g., mobile devices 145) may be used to facilitate positioning of a target device (e.g., UE 105).

[0041] According to some embodiments, for example, when the UE 105 includes a vehicle and / or merges into a vehicle, the form of D2D communication used by the mobile device 105 may include vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. V2X is a communication standard for vehicles and related entities to exchange information about the traffic environment. V2X can include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication between vehicles with V2X capabilities, vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication between vehicles and infrastructure-based equipment (commonly referred to as roadside units (RSUs)), vehicle-to-person (V2P) communication between vehicles and nearby personnel (pedestrians, cyclists, and other road users), etc. In addition, V2X can be capable of any of a variety of wireless RF communication technologies. For example, cellular V2X (CV2X) is a form of V2X that uses cellular-based communications such as LTE (4G), NR (5G), and / or other cellular technologies in a direct communication mode as defined by 3GPP. Figure 1 UE 105 shown in the figure may correspond to a component or device on a vehicle, RSU, or other V2X entity for transmitting V2X messages. In an embodiment using V2X, the static communication / positioning device 145-3 (which may correspond to an RSU) and / or the vehicle 145-2 may therefore communicate with the UE 105 and may be used to determine the location of the UE 105 using techniques similar to those used by the base station 120 and / or the AP 130 (e.g., using multi-angle measurements and / or multi-point positioning). It can be further noted that according to some embodiments, the mobile device 145 (which may include a V2X device), the base station 120, and / or the AP 130 may be used together (e.g., in a WWAN positioning solution) to determine the location of the UE 105.

[0042] The estimated position of the UE 105 can be used in various applications, for example, to assist the user of the UE 105 in direction finding or navigation or to assist another user (e.g., associated with an external client 180) in locating the UE 105. "Position" is also referred to herein as "position estimate", "estimated position", "position", "position estimate", "position fix", "estimated position", "position fix", or "fix". The process of determining a position may be referred to as "positioning", "position determination", "position determination", etc. The position of the UE 105 may include an absolute position of the UE 105 (e.g., latitude and longitude and possibly altitude) or a relative position of the UE 105 (e.g., expressed as a distance north or south, east or west and possibly above or below some other known fixed position (including, for example, the position of a base station 120 or AP 130) or some other position (e.g., the position of the UE 105 at some known previous time, or the position of a mobile device 145 (e.g., another UE) at some known previous time)). The location may be specified as a geodetic location including coordinates, which may be absolute (e.g., latitude, longitude, and optionally altitude), relative (e.g., relative to some known absolute location), or local (e.g., X, Y, and optionally Z coordinates according to a coordinate system defined relative to a local area, such as a factory, warehouse, university campus, shopping mall, stadium, or convention center). The location may alternatively be a city location, and may then include a street address (e.g., including a country, state, county, city, name or label of a road and / or street, and / or a road or street number) and / or one or more of a label or name of a place, a building, a portion of a building, a floor of a building, and / or a room within a building, etc. The location may also include an uncertainty or error indication, such as a horizontal distance and a likely vertical distance of an expected position error, or an indication of an area or volume (e.g., a circle or ellipse) within which the UE 105 is expected to be located with a certain confidence level (e.g., 95% confidence).

[0043] The external client 180 may be a web server or remote application that may have some association with the UE 105 (e.g., may be accessed by a user of the UE 105), or may be a server, application, or computer system that provides location services to some other user or users, which may include obtaining and providing the location of the UE 105 (e.g., to enable services such as a friend or relative finder or a child or pet location). Additionally or alternatively, the external client 180 may obtain the location of the UE 105 and provide it to emergency service providers, government agencies, etc.

[0044] As previously described, the example positioning system 100 can be implemented using a wireless communication network, such as an LTE-based or 5G NR-based network. Figure 2 A diagram of a 5G NR positioning system 200 is shown, which illustrates an embodiment of a positioning system (e.g., positioning system 100) implementing 5G NR. The 5G NR positioning system 200 may be configured to determine the location of a UE 105 by using access nodes to implement one or more positioning methods, wherein the access nodes may include NR NodeBs (gNBs) 210-1 and 210-2 (collectively referred to herein as gNBs 210), ng-eNBs 214, and / or WLANs 216. The gNBs 210 and / or ng-eNBs 214 may correspond to Figure 1 The base station 120 and the WLAN 216 may correspond to Figure 1 One or more access points 130. Optionally, the 5G NR positioning system 200 can be further configured to determine the location of the UE 105 by using the LMF 220 (which can correspond to the location server 160) to implement one or more positioning methods. Here, the 5G NR positioning system 200 includes the UE 105 and components of a 5G NR network, which includes a next generation (NG) radio access network (RAN) (NG-RAN) 235 and a 5G core network (5G CN) 240. A 5G network may also be referred to as an NR network; the NG-RAN 235 may be referred to as a 5G RAN or an NR RAN; and the 5G CN 240 may be referred to as an NG core network.

[0045] The 5G NR positioning system 200 may also use information from satellites 110. As previously noted, satellites 110 may include GNSS satellites from a GNSS system such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) or similar systems (e.g., GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)). Additionally or alternatively, satellites 110 may include NTN satellites that may be communicatively coupled to LMF 220 and may be operable to serve as TRPs (or TPs) in NG-RAN 235. In this way, satellites 110 may communicate with one or more gNBs 210.

[0046] It should be noted that Figure 2Only a generalized description of the various components is provided, any or all of which may be used as appropriate, and each of which may be duplicated or omitted as desired. In particular, although only one UE 105 is shown, it will be understood that many UEs (e.g., hundreds, thousands, millions, etc.) may use the 5G NR positioning system 200. Similarly, the 5G NR positioning system 200 may include a larger (or smaller) number of satellites 110, gNBs 210, ng-eNBs 214, wireless local area networks (WLANs) 216, access and mobility management functions (AMFs) 215, external clients 230, and / or other components. The connections shown connecting the various components in the 5G NR positioning system 200 include data and signaling connections, which may include additional (intermediate) components, direct or indirect physical and / or wireless connections, and / or additional networks. In addition, components may be rearranged, combined, separated, replaced, and / or omitted, depending on the desired functionality.

[0047] UE 105 may include and / or be referred to as a device, a mobile device, a wireless device, a mobile terminal, a terminal, a mobile station (MS), a terminal (SET) supporting secure user plane location (SUPL), or some other name. In addition, UE 105 may correspond to a cellular phone, a smart phone, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a personal data assistant (PDA), a navigation device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, or some other portable or portable device. Generally, although not necessarily, UE 105 may support wireless communications using one or more radio access technologies (RATs), such as using GSM, CDMA, W-CDMA, LTE, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX™), 5G NR (e.g., using NG-RAN 235 and 5G CN 240), etc. UE 105 may also support wireless communications using WLAN 216, which (like one or more RATs, and as previously described with respect to Figure 1 230 (e.g., via a RAT). Figure 2 Elements of the 5G CN 240 not shown in the figure, or possibly via a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) 225) and / or allowing an external client 230 to receive location information about the UE 105 (e.g., via the GMLC 225). Figure 2 The external client 230 may correspond to Figure 1 An external client 180, such as implemented in a 5G NR network or communicatively coupled to a 5G NR network.

[0048] UE 105 may include a single entity or may include multiple entities, such as in a personal area network where a user may employ audio, video and / or data I / O devices and / or body sensors and a separate wired or wireless modem. The estimate of the location of UE 105 may be referred to as location, location estimate, location fix, fix, position, position estimate or position fix, and may be geodetic, thereby providing location coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude) of UE 105, which may or may not include an altitude component (e.g., height above sea level, height above ground level or depth below ground level, floor level or basement level). Alternatively, the location of UE 105 may be expressed as an urban location (e.g., expressed as a postal address or a designation of a certain point or small area in a building (such as a specific room or floor)). The location of UE 105 may also be expressed as an area or volume (defined geographically or in urban form) within which UE 105 is expected to be located with a certain probability or confidence level (e.g., 67%, 95%, etc.). The location of the UE 105 may also be a relative location, including, for example, a distance and direction or relative X, Y (and Z) coordinates defined relative to some origin at a known location, which may be defined geographically, in terms of a city, or by reference to a point, area, or volume indicated on a map, floor plan, or building plan. In the description contained herein, unless otherwise stated, the use of the term location may include any of these variations. When calculating the location of the UE, the local X, Y, and possibly Z coordinates are typically solved, and then, if necessary, the local coordinates are converted to absolute coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and altitude above or below mean sea level).

[0049] Figure 2 The base stations in the NG-RAN 235 shown may correspond to Figure 1 The base stations 120 in the NG-RAN 235 may include gNBs 210. The gNBs 210 pairs in the NG-RAN 235 may be connected to each other (e.g., Figure 2 The communication interface between the base stations (gNB 210 and / or ng-eNB 214) may be referred to as an Xn interface 237. Access to the 5G network is provided to the UE 105 via wireless communications between the UE 105 and one or more gNBs 210, wherein the gNB 210 may provide wireless communications access to the 5G CN 240 on behalf of the UE 105 using 5G NR. The wireless interface between the base station (gNB 210 and / or ng-eNB 214) and the UE 105 may be referred to as an Uu interface 239. 5G NR radio access may also be referred to as NR radio access or 5G radio access. Figure 2, it is assumed that the serving gNB for UE 105 is gNB 210-1, but if UE 105 moves to another location, other gNBs (e.g., gNB 210-2) may act as the serving gNB, or may act as a secondary gNB to provide additional throughput and bandwidth to UE 105.

[0050] Figure 2 The base stations in the illustrated NG-RAN 235 may also or alternatively include a next generation evolved Node B (also referred to as ng-eNB) 214. The ng-eNB 214 may be connected to one or more gNBs 210 in the NG-RAN 235—e.g., directly or indirectly via other gNBs 210 and / or other ng-eNBs. The ng-eNB 214 may provide LTE radio access and / or evolved LTE (eLTE) radio access to the UE 105. Figure 2 Some of the gNBs 210 (e.g., gNB 210-2) and / or ng-eNBs 214 may be configured to function as positioning-only beacons that may transmit signals (e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS)) and / or may broadcast assistance data to assist in positioning of the UE 105, but may not receive signals from the UE 105 or from other UEs. Some of the gNBs 210 (e.g., gNB 210-2 and / or another gNB not shown) and / or ng-eNBs 214 may be configured to function as detection-only nodes that may scan for signals containing, for example, PRS data, assistance data, or other location data. Such detection-only nodes may not transmit signals or data to the UE, but may instead transmit signals or data (related to, for example, PRS, assistance data, or other location data) to other network entities (e.g., one or more components of the 5G CN 240, an external client 230, or a controller), which may receive and store or use the data to locate at least the UE 105. It should be noted that although Figure 2 Only one ng-eNB 214 is shown in FIG, but some embodiments may include multiple ng-eNBs 214. Base stations (e.g., gNB 210 and / or ng-eNB 214) may communicate directly with each other via an Xn communication interface. Additionally or alternatively, the base station may communicate directly or indirectly with other components of the 5GNR positioning system 200 (such as LMF 220 and AMF 215).

[0051] The 5G NR positioning system 200 may also include one or more WLANs 216, which may be connected to a non-3GPP interworking function (N3IWF) 250 in the 5G CN 240 (e.g., in the case of an untrusted WLAN 216). For example, the WLAN 216 may support IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi access for the UE 105 and may include one or more Wi-Fi APs (e.g., Figure 1 AP130). Here, the N3IWF 250 can be connected to other elements in the 5G CN 240, such as the AMF 215. In some embodiments, the WLAN 216 can support another RAT, such as Bluetooth. The N3IWF 250 can provide support for secure access by the UE 105 to other elements in the 5G CN 240 and / or can support interworking of one or more protocols used by the WLAN 216 and the UE 105 with one or more protocols used by other elements of the 5G CN 240 (e.g., the AMF 215). For example, the N3IWF 250 can support IPSec tunnel establishment with the UE 105, termination of the IKEv2 / IPSec protocol with the UE 105, termination of the N2 and N3 interfaces to the 5G CN 240 for the control plane and the user plane, respectively, and relaying uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) control plane non-access stratum (NAS) signaling between the UE 105 and the AMF 215 across the N1 interface. In some other embodiments, WLAN 216 may be directly connected to elements in 5G CN 240 (e.g., Figure 2 215) instead of via N3IWF 250. For example, if WLAN 216 is a trusted WLAN of 5G CN 240, a direct connection of WLAN 216 to 5G CN 240 may occur and a trusted WLAN interworking function (TWIF) ( Figure 2 216). Figure 2 Only one WLAN 216 is shown in FIG. 2 , but some embodiments may include multiple WLANs 216 .

[0052] The access node may include any of a variety of network entities that enable communication between the UE 105 and the AMF 215. As described above, this can include a gNB 210, an ng-eNB 214, a WLAN 216, and / or other types of cellular base stations. However, an access node that provides the functionality described herein may additionally or alternatively include an entity that enables communication with the AMF 215. Figure 2214, or WLAN 216.

[0053] In some embodiments, access nodes such as gNB 210, ng-eNB 214, and / or WLAN 216 (alone or in combination with other components of 5G NR positioning system 200) may be configured to, in response to receiving a request for location information from LMF 220, obtain location measurements for uplink (UL) signals received from UE 105 and / or obtain downlink (DL) location measurements obtained by UE 105 for DL ​​signals received by UE 105 from one or more access nodes. As described above, although Figure 2 Access nodes (gNB 210, ng-eNB 214, and WLAN 216) configured to communicate according to 5G NR, LTE, and Wi-Fi communication protocols, respectively, are depicted, but access nodes configured to communicate according to other communication protocols may be used, such as a Node B using a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) protocol of a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), an eNB using an LTE protocol of an Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN), or a Bluetooth® beacon using a Bluetooth protocol of a WLAN. For example, in a 4G Evolved Packet System (EPS) providing LTE radio access to a UE 105, the RAN may include an E-UTRAN, which may include a base station including an eNB supporting LTE radio access. The core network for the EPS may include an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The EPS may then include the E-UTRAN plus the EPC, where the base stations are located in the 4G Evolved Packet System (EPS). Figure 2 , E-UTRAN corresponds to NG-RAN 235, and EPC corresponds to 5G CN 240. The methods and techniques described herein for obtaining the urban location of UE 105 may be applicable to such other networks.

[0054] The gNB 210 and ng-eNB 214 can communicate with the AMF 215, which communicates with the LMF 220 for positioning functions. The AMF 215 can support the mobility of the UE 105, including cell changes and handover of the UE 105 from an access node of a first RAT (e.g., a gNB 210, ng-eNB 214, or WLAN 216) to an access node of a second RAT. The AMF 215 can also participate in supporting signaling connections to the UE 105 and possible data and voice bearers for the UE 105. The LMF 220 may support positioning the UE 105 using a CP positioning solution when the UE 105 accesses the NG-RAN 235 or the WLAN 216, and may support positioning procedures and methods, including UE-assisted / UE-based and / or network-based procedures / methods, such as Assisted GNSS (A-GNSS), Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) (which may be referred to as Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) in NR), Frequency Difference of Arrival (FDOA), Real-Time Kinematics (RTK), Precise Point Positioning (PPP), Differential GNSS (DGNSS), Enhanced Cell ID (ECID), Angle of Arrival (AoA), Angle of Departure (AoD), WLAN positioning, Round Trip Signal Propagation Delay (RTT), Multi-Cell RTT, and / or other positioning procedures and methods. The LMF 220 may also process a location service request for the UE 105 received, for example, from the AMF 215 or from the GMLC 225. The LMF 220 may be connected to the AMF 215 and / or the GMLC 225. In some embodiments, a network such as 5GCN 240 may additionally or alternatively implement other types of location support modules, such as an Evolved Serving Mobile Location Center (E-SMLC) or a SUPL Location Platform (SLP). It should be noted that in some embodiments, at least a portion of the positioning functions (including determining the location of UE 105) may be performed at UE 105 (e.g., by measuring downlink PRS (DL-PRS) signals transmitted by wireless nodes such as gNB 210, ng-eNB 214 and / or WLAN 216, and / or using assistance data provided to UE 105 by, for example, LMF 220).

[0055] The Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) 225 may support location requests for the UE 105 received from the external client 230, and may forward such location requests to the AMF 215 for forwarding by the AMF 215 to the LMF 220. A location response (e.g., containing a location estimate for the UE 105) from the LMF 220 may similarly be returned to the GMLC 225 directly or via the AMF 215, and the GMLC 225 may then return the location response (e.g., containing a location estimate) to the external client 230.

[0056] A network exposure function (NEF) 245 may be included in the 5G CN 240. The NEF 245 may support secure exposure of capabilities and events about the 5GCN 240 and the UE 105 to the external client 230, which may then be referred to as an access function (AF), and may enable secure provision of information from the external client 230 to the 5GCN 240. The NEF 245 may be connected to the AMF 215 and / or the GMLC 225 for the purpose of obtaining the location (e.g., city location) of the UE 105 and providing the location to the external client 230.

[0057] like Figure 2 As further shown in , LMF 220 may communicate with gNB 210 and / or ng-eNB 214 using NR Positioning Protocol Annex (NRPPa) as defined in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.455. NRPPa messages may be transmitted between gNB 210 and LMF 220 and / or between ng-eNB 214 and LMF 220 via AMF 215. Figure 2 As further shown in 3GPP TS 37.355, the LMF 220 and the UE 105 may communicate using the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) as defined in 3GPP TS 37.355. Here, LPP messages may be transmitted between the UE 105 and the LMF 220 via the AMF 215 and the serving gNB 210-1 or the serving ng-eNB 214 of the UE 105. For example, the LPP messages may be transmitted between the LMF 220 and the AMF 215 using messages for service-based operations (e.g., based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)), and may be transmitted between the AMF 215 and the UE 105 using the 5G NAS protocol. The LPP protocol may be used to support positioning of the UE 105 using UE-assisted and / or UE-based positioning methods such as A-GNSS, RTK, TDOA, multi-cell RTT, AoD, and / or ECID. The NRPPa protocol can be used to support positioning of UE 105 using network-based positioning methods (such as ECID, AoA, uplink TDOA (UL-TDOA)), and / or can be used by LMF 220 to obtain location-related information from gNB 210 and / or ng-eNB 214, for example, defining parameters for DL-PRS transmission from gNB 210 and / or ng-eNB214.

[0058] In the case where the UE 105 accesses the WLAN 216, the LMF 220 may use NRPPa and / or LPP to obtain the location of the UE 105 in a manner similar to that just described for the UE 105 accessing the gNB 210 or ng-eNB 214. Thus, NRPPa messages may be transmitted between the WLAN 216 and the LMF 220 via the AMF 215 and the N3IWF 250 to support network-based positioning of the UE 105 and / or transmission of other location information from the WLAN 216 to the LMF 220. Alternatively, NRPPa messages may be transmitted between the N3IWF 250 and the LMF 220 via the AMF 215 to support network-based positioning of the UE 105 based on location-related information and / or location measurements known to or accessible to the N3IWF 250, and transmitted from the N3IWF 250 to the LMF 220 using NRPPa. Similarly, LPP and / or LPP messages may be transmitted between UE 105 and LMF 220 via AMF 215, N3IWF 250, and serving WLAN 216 for UE 105 to support UE-assisted or UE-based positioning of UE 105 by LMF 220.

[0059] In the 5G NR positioning system 200, positioning methods can be classified as "UE-assisted" or "UE-based". This can depend on where the request to determine the location of the UE 105 originates. For example, if the request originates at the UE (e.g., from an application or "app" executed by the UE), the positioning method can be classified as UE-based. On the other hand, if the request originates from an external client 230, LMF 220, or other device or service within the 5G network, the positioning method can be classified as UE-assisted (or "network-based").

[0060] With UE-assisted positioning methods, the UE 105 may obtain location measurements and send the measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 220) for use in computing a location estimate for the UE 105. For RAT-dependent positioning methods, the location measurements may include one or more of received signal strength indicator (RSSI), round trip signal propagation time (RTT), reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), reference signal time difference (RSTD), time of arrival (TOA), AoA, receive time-transmit time difference (Rx-Tx), differential AoA (DAoA), AoD, or timing advance (TA) for one or more access points of the gNB 210, ng-eNB 214, and / or WLAN 216. Additionally or alternatively, similar measurements may be made by sidelink signals sent by other UEs, which, if the locations of the other UEs are known, may be used as anchor points for positioning of the UE 105. The position measurements may also or may alternatively include measurements for a RAT-independent positioning method, such as GNSS (eg, GNSS pseudoranges of satellites 110 , GNSS code phase, and / or GNSS carrier phase), WLAN, and the like.

[0061] Using the UE-based positioning method, the UE 105 can obtain position measurements (e.g., which can be the same or similar to position measurements used for the UE-assisted positioning method) and can also calculate the position of the UE 105 (e.g., with the aid of assistance data received from a location server such as the LMF 220, SLP or broadcast by the gNB 210, ng-eNB 214, or WLAN 216).

[0062] Using a network-based positioning method, one or more base stations (e.g., gNB 210 and / or ng-eNB 214), one or more APs (e.g., in WLAN 216), or N3IWF 250 can obtain location measurements (e.g., measurements of RSSI, RTT, RSRP, RSRQ, AoA, or TOA) of signals sent by UE 105, and / or in the case of N3IWF 250, can receive measurements obtained by UE 105 or by APs in WLAN 216, and can send the measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 220) for use in calculating a position estimate for UE 105.

[0063] Depending on the type of signal used for positioning, positioning of UE 105 may also be classified as UL-based, DL-based, or DL-UL-based. For example, if positioning is based only on signals received at UE 105 (e.g., from a base station or other UE), positioning may be classified as DL-based. On the other hand, if positioning is based only on signals sent by UE 105 (e.g., which may be received by a base station or other UE), positioning may be classified as UL-based. DL-UL-based positioning includes positioning based on signals sent and received by UE 105, such as RTT-based positioning. Sidelink (SL)-assisted positioning includes signals transmitted between UE 105 and one or more other UEs. According to some embodiments, UL, DL, or DL-UL positioning as described herein may be able to use SL signaling in addition to or in place of SL, DL, or DL-UL signaling.

[0064] Depending on the type of positioning (e.g., UL, DL, or DL-UL based), the type of reference signals used can vary. For DL-based positioning, for example, these signals can include PRS (e.g., DL-PRS transmitted by a base station or SL-PRS transmitted by other UEs), which can be used for TDOA, AoD, and RTT measurements. Other reference signals that can be used for positioning (UL, DL, or DL-UL) can include sounding reference signals (SRS), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), synchronization signals (e.g., synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) synchronization signals (SSs)), physical uplink control channels (PUCCH), physical uplink shared channels (PUSCH), physical sidelink shared channels (PSSCH), demodulation reference signals (DMRS), etc. In addition, reference signals can be transmitted in Tx beams and / or received in Rx beams (e.g., using beamforming techniques), which may affect angle measurements such as AoD and / or AoA.

[0065] Figure 3 is a diagram showing a simplified environment 300 including two base stations 320-1 and 320-2 (which may correspond to Figure 1 Base station 120 and / or Figure 2 In the gNB 210 and / or ng-eNB 214, the antenna array is capable of performing beamforming to generate a directional beam for transmitting and / or receiving RF signals. Figure 3 Also shown is a UE 105, which can also use beamforming to send and / or receive RF signals. Such directional beams are used in 5G NR wireless communication networks. Each directional beam can have a beam width centered in a different direction, so that different beams of the base station 320 can correspond to different areas within the coverage area of ​​the base station 320.

[0066] Different operating modes may enable base stations 320-1 and 320-2 to use a greater or lesser number of beams. For example, in a first operating mode, base station 320 may use 16 beams, in which case each beam may have a relatively wide beam width. In a second operating mode, base station 320 may use 64 beams, in which case each beam may have a relatively narrow beam width. Depending on the capabilities of base station 320, the base station may use any number of beams that base station 320 is capable of forming. The operating mode and / or number of beams may be defined in the relevant wireless standard and may correspond to different directions (e.g., horizontal and vertical directions) of either or both of the azimuth and elevation angles. Different operating modes may be used to send and / or receive different signal types. Additionally or alternatively, UE 105 may be able to use different numbers of beams, which may also correspond to different operating modes, signal types, etc.

[0067] In some cases, the base station 320 may use beam scanning. Beam scanning is a process by which the base station 320 may transmit RF signals in different directions using different corresponding beams, typically continuously, effectively "scanning" across a coverage area. For example, the base station 320 may scan over 120 or 360 degrees in the azimuth direction for each beam scan, which may be repeated periodically. Each directional beam can include an RF reference signal (e.g., a PRS resource), where the base station 320-1 generates a set of RF reference signals including Tx beams 305-a, 305-b, 305-c, 305-d, 305-e, 305-f, 305-g, and 305-h, and the base station 320-2 generates a set of RF reference signals including Tx beams 309-a, 309-b, 309-c, 309-d, 309-e, 309-f, 309-g, and 309-h. As described above, because UE 105 may also include an antenna array, it can use beamforming to receive RF reference signals sent by base stations 320-1 and 320-2 to form corresponding receive beams (Rx beams) 311-a and 311-b. Beamforming in this way (by base station 320 and optionally by UE 105) can be used to make communications more efficient. They can also be used for other purposes, including making measurements for location determination (e.g., AoD and AoA measurements).

[0068] As discussed herein, in some embodiments, TDOA assistance data may be provided to UE 105 by a location server (e.g., location server 160) for a "reference cell" (which may also be referred to as a "reference resource") and one or more "neighboring cells" or "adjacent cells" (which may also be referred to as "target cells" or "target resources") relative to the reference cell. For example, the assistance data may provide the center channel frequency of each cell, various PRS configuration parameters (e.g., NPRS 、T PRS , muting sequence, frequency hopping sequence, PRS ID, PRS bandwidth), cell global ID, PRS signal characteristics associated with directional PRS, and / or other cell-related parameters applicable to TDOA or some other positioning method. PRS-based positioning by UE 105 can be facilitated by indicating a serving cell for UE 105 in the TDOA assistance data (e.g., where a reference cell is indicated as the serving cell).

[0069] In some embodiments, the TDOA assistance data may also include an "expected reference signal time difference (RSTD)" parameter that provides the UE 105 with information about the RSTD value that the UE 105 expects to measure at its current location between the reference cell and each neighboring cell, as well as the uncertainty of the expected RSTD parameter. The expected RSTD, along with the associated uncertainty, may define a search window for the UE 105 within which the UE 105 expects to measure RSTD values. The TDOA assistance information may also include a PRS configuration information parameter that allows the UE 105 to determine when PRS positioning opportunities occur on signals received from various neighboring cells relative to the PRS positioning opportunities of the reference cell, and to determine PRS sequences sent from various cells in order to measure signal ToA or RSTD.

[0070] Using RSTD measurements, known absolute or relative transmission timing for each cell, and known locations (or locations) of wireless node physical transmit antennas for reference and neighboring cells, the UE location may be calculated (e.g., by UE 105 or by location server 160). More specifically, the RSTD of neighbor cell "k" relative to reference cell "Ref" may be given as (TOA k –TOA ref ), where the ToA values ​​may be measured modulo one subframe duration (1 ms) to eliminate the effect of measuring different subframes at different times. The ToA measurements for different cells may then be converted to RSTD measurements and sent by the UE 105 to the location server 160. Using (i) RSTD measurements, (ii) known absolute or relative transmission timing for each cell, (iii) known location(s) of the physical transmit antennas for the reference cell and neighboring cells, and / or (iv) directional PRS characteristics such as the direction of transmission, the UE 105 location may be determined.

[0071] Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environment

[0072] Figure 44 is a diagram illustrating an example scenario 400 within a wireless network having multiple radio network nodes 402a-402c, a UE 404 within a coverage hole 410 with nearby environmental obstacles, and a repeater 408. In some embodiments, the radio network node may be a gNB, a base station, or other type of access point capable of Wi-Fi or cellular communication with the UE 404.

[0073] In the illustrated scenario, UE 404 may be surrounded by physical objects 406, thereby blocking RF signal propagation 407 from one side of physical objects 406 to the other side while UE 404 is within coverage hole 410. For example, while in coverage hole 410, UE 404 may not be able to communicate directly with radio network node 402b (e.g., via LOS signal propagation) due to obstruction to the right side of UE 404, or may not be able to communicate directly with radio network node 402c due to obstruction to the left side of UE 404. Examples of physical objects 406 may include buildings, ground, walls, ceilings, trees, hills, mountains, and other types of surfaces. In an "urban canyon" environment, there may be many such surfaces that block the LOS signal path by reflecting or absorbing RF signals from UE 404 or radio network nodes.

[0074] However, UE 404 may be able to communicate with radio network nodes 402a-402c via a repeater 408. In some embodiments, repeater 408 may be a type of radio network node controlled by a wireless network that may be configured to (i) receive wireless communication signals from a radio network node (e.g., a gNB) or a mobile device (e.g., a UE), (ii) amplify the received signal, and (iii) wirelessly transmit the signal to a mobile device or another radio network node. Repeater 408 is essentially a relay point between a transmitter (e.g., a UE) and an intended receiver (e.g., a gNB).

[0075] In some scenarios, if there is a temporary or permanent obstruction, such as due to an object between the repeater 408 and the wireless network node 402a, the repeater 408 may forward the received signal to another repeater, such as the repeater 410. Such an additional repeater may amplify the signal received from the previous repeater (e.g., the repeater 408) and forward it to other nodes (including, for example, another repeater).

[0076] In some scenarios, the repeater 408 may forward the received signal to a remote radio network node 420. The remote radio network node 420 may be so far away that it is outside the communication range of the UE 404. Even if there are no obstructions between the UE 404 and the remote radio network node 420, they cannot communicate with each other via LOS communication without a repeater or other means of amplifying the signal. Therefore, in some embodiments, the repeater 408 may have the capability for beyond line of sight (BLOS) communication, which may refer to longer distance (e.g., several miles to thousands of miles) communication amplified by a repeater.

[0077] exist Figure 4 In the scenario 400 depicted in FIG. 4 , a repeater 408 may be capable of receiving and transmitting signals to and from each of a UE 404 and radio network nodes 402a-402c, thereby enabling data communication between the UE 404 and any of the radio network nodes 402a-402c. For example, the repeater 408 may receive a signal from the radio network node 402c via a signal path 403, and transmit a signal via a signal path 405. These signal paths 403, 405 are both LOS signal paths, but the communication through these signal paths 403, 405 may constitute NLOS signal propagation introduced or enabled by the repeater 408.

[0078] A UE 404 in a coverage hole 410 may not be able to detect a signal path from any of the illustrated radio network nodes 402a-402c. For a single PRS resource, the UE 404 may not be able to detect whether the first arrival path is from one of the radio network nodes 402a-402c or from the repeater 408. If the UE 404 is not in the coverage hole 410 (e.g., near one of the radio network nodes 402a-402c and within the line of sight of each other), the UE 404 will be more likely to detect the first arrival path from the radio network node. However, in scenario 400, the UE 404 may still consider the signal path from the repeater 408 as the first arrival path from the radio network node because the repeater 408 is transparent to the UE 404. This transparency of the repeater 408 in a NLOS scenario (the NLOS scenario is not known to the UE 404 or the network) may result in positioning errors for the UE 404. The following method may allow for the detection of NLOS and allow the UE 404 or the network to resolve the NLOS problem for positioning purposes, etc.

[0079] 1. Crowdsourcing for detecting NLOS introduced by repeaters

[0080] In some embodiments, UE 404 may be one of a plurality of UEs (not shown) within coverage hole 410. In some implementations, UE-based positioning may be performed, in which case UE 404 attempts to report its location to a location server (e.g., LMF 220), for example, using assistance data received from the location server. Other UEs within the coverage hole (which may not yet be known) may, for example, report their locations in a time period prior to the reported location of UE 404 or have reported their locations based on assistance data.

[0081] If multiple UEs appear to report the same or substantially similar positioning fixes to the location server, it is likely that the location data from the UEs is unreliable and that the UEs are in a coverage hole (e.g., coverage hole 410). Since UE-based positioning involves the UEs calculating their own positions (based on, for example, measurements with other network nodes, beam pattern information, UL-DL time division duplex (TDD) configuration, assistance data such as reference time and reference position, or non-3GPP or non-RAT (radio access technology) methods), but the radio network node (e.g., gNB) receives the location data of the UEs from a single relay, the positions of UEs that are actually at different locations but are determined to appear to be clustered at a similar location may indicate NLOS caused by the relay. Therefore, the location server is able to identify a coverage hole based on the similarity or commonality between the positioning information from the UEs (e.g., the location data from the UEs). In some embodiments, the degree to which the location data is substantially similar may be based on a distance threshold and / or the number of UEs with location data within the distance threshold.

[0082] In some implementations, network-based positioning may be performed, in which case the location server may group UEs with similar positioning fixes and determine that these UEs are likely to be in a coverage hole.

[0083] In some embodiments, the network (e.g., location server or LMF) may know and take into account additional information, such as the number of repeaters (e.g., in a particular geographic area or within the network as a whole) and / or the location (or locations) of the repeaters to further enhance the probability of detection and / or reduce false identification of coverage holes. An example of using the location of the repeater in conjunction with the location data as above is: if the UE has a position fix close to the repeater, then it is determined that the UE is within the coverage hole, or the probability that the UE is within the coverage hole is higher.

[0084] 2. Detection of NLOS introduced by repeaters based on uplink measurements

[0085] In some embodiments, the network (e.g., a location server) may request multiple UEs to send corresponding UL-SRS for AoA estimation. In some implementations, the radio network node (e.g., a gNB) may report AoA to the location server based on UL-SRS measurements. If the AoAs measured at the radio network node are the same or substantially similar (e.g., within a specified AoA threshold or range), there is a possibility that UE 404 is under the coverage of a repeater, because the AoA estimation at the radio network node will be based on the signal from the repeater rather than the corresponding location of the UE.

[0086] In some embodiments, the radio network node may derive a spatial relationship between the UL-SRS and a corresponding downlink beam defined by, for example, SSB, CSI-RS or DL-PRS. Figure 3 , the downlink Tx beam 305-c and the uplink Rx beam 311-a may have a spatial relationship because a wireless network node (e.g., base station 320-1) may receive UL-SRS via these beams. Similarly, as another example, the downlink Tx beam 309-c may have a spatial relationship with the uplink Rx beam 311-b. These spatial relationships may indicate a match between an uplink reference signal (UL-SRS) and a downlink beam. If all UL-SRS have the same or substantially similar spatial relationship between the UL-SRS (from multiple UEs) and the downlink beam, there is a possibility that UE 404 is under the coverage of a repeater because the source of the corresponding downlink beam is the wireless network node to the repeater that relays the UL-SRS.

[0087] In some variants, the network may request a specific UE group to send SRS on demand, which may reduce false alarms. For example, a location server may have information about a specific UE group that is known to be in different locations (e.g., based on historical locations, or past positioning or locations stored on the network). Based on this information, the location server may be able to identify the rough locations of other UEs around UE 404 that are suspected to be under the coverage of the repeater. If a specific UE group returns a substantially similar SRS, the location server may infer that at least the UE group (which may include UE 404) is within a coverage hole.

[0088] 3. Downlink measurement-based detection of NLOS introduced by repeaters

[0089] If the UE 404 has an antenna array capable of real-time directional calibration, such as a mmWave or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna panel with beamforming capabilities, the UE 404 is able to detect the NLOS introduced by the repeater. More specifically, in some embodiments, the UE 404 can measure the DL-AoA using PRSs sent from different radio network nodes. For example, the UE 404 can measure the PRSs from the radio network nodes (e.g., gNBs) 402a-402c. If the DL-AoA measured using the PRSs sent from different gNBs is the same or substantially similar (e.g., within a specified AoA threshold or range), there is a possibility that the detected PRS is forwarded by the repeater, indicating the possibility that the NLOS is caused by the repeater and / or that the UE 404 is in a coverage hole.

[0090] In some cases, the larger the measured PRS (eg, multiple measurements from the same radio network node and / or from a greater number of radio network nodes), the higher the confidence level or likelihood that the PRS is forwarded by the relay.

[0091] In contrast, if UE 404 is not in a coverage hole, the DL-AoA measurements would be expected to be different for PRSs sent by different gNBs.

[0092] 4. Repeater on / off for coverage blind spot detection

[0093] In some embodiments, the network (e.g., location server) may schedule an on / off pattern or sequence for a specific known repeater, where the repeater is disabled (off) or enabled (on). In some cases, the network may use functionality of the base station (e.g., gNB, RSU) to disable or enable the repeater. For example, the location server may simply cause the base station to disable the repeater. The location server may set a schedule for disabling and enabling the repeater. The on / off command or pattern may be scheduled only for determining NLOS. In some embodiments, the location server may schedule PRS during the on period and the off period, and during the on period and the off period, the UE 404 may estimate the first arrival path and measure signal parameters such as RSRP, RSRQ, SNR, etc.

[0094] In some embodiments, measurements such as TOA (e.g., based on RSTD) may be determined during the on and off periods. For example, the difference between the TOA while the repeater is on (TOA_on) and the TOA while the repeater is off (TOA_off) may be determined. If TOA_ON – TOA_OFF is small (e.g., less than a threshold), or the statistic associated with multiple determinations of the difference (e.g., variance) is small, the location server may determine that the UE 404 may not be within a coverage hole. If there is a large difference or variance in the difference between the TOA_on and TOA_off measurements, additional flight time to and from the repeater may be indicated. Based on this inference, the location server (or in some embodiments, the UE) may determine that there is a possibility that the UE 404 is within a coverage hole.

[0095] 5. Detection of UE mobility based on NLOS introduced by relays

[0096] In some embodiments, the movement or position change of the UE can be used to determine the NLOS caused by the repeater. In some embodiments, network-based UE positioning can be performed, where the UE reports its mobility to the network (e.g., a location server) and the radio network node obtains location measurements of signals sent by the UE for the location server to calculate the estimated location of the UE. Based on the UE mobility state and the UE position fix determination, the location server can decide whether the UE is under the coverage of the repeater. For example, the UE may report its location or movement over time, but the location server may receive the same or substantially similar location data from a radio network node (e.g., a gNB) that has obtained location measurements of the repeater instead of the UE. This difference between the location reported by the mobile UE and the measurement obtained from the radio network node can indicate NLOS introduced by the repeater.

[0097] In some embodiments, UE-based positioning may be performed, where the UE may utilize its mobility to identify whether a detected path is from a repeater. If the UE is moving, but the positioning performed by the UE is stationary or relatively stable (e.g., within a threshold amount), there is a possibility of NLOS being introduced by the repeater, because the assistance data used to determine the location of the UE may be affected by the presence and location of the repeater when it is relayed via the repeater.

[0098] 6. Indication of NLOS type by UE

[0099] The NLOS indication may be determined and indicated by a UE or a radio network node (eg, a gNB), wherein the NLOS indication indicates whether the NLOS is due to the presence of a repeater.

[0100] In some embodiments, a PRS-common NLOS may be indicated, where the NLOS radio signal path is an invariant of PRSs sent by different radio network nodes (e.g., gNBs) or via different downlink beams. A PRS-common NLOS may be indicated when the NLOS is caused by a repeater. In some cases, one or more of the above methods (e.g., NLOS detection based on downlink measurements or repeater on / off) may be used to determine the NLOS based on measurements of PRSs originating from different radio network nodes. In some embodiments, determining that the NLOS is an invariant of PRSs sent by different radio network nodes may be based on commonality between the PRSs. For example, a spatial relationship between multiple reference signals and a downlink beam from which the multiple reference signals are received may be determined. The spatial relationship may indicate a match between a reference signal and a downlink beam.

[0101] In some cases, if the network (e.g., location server, radio network node) knows the location of the repeater, and if the location of the repeater maps to the reported NLOS (e.g., based on PRS), the repeater can be used as an additional anchor node for positioning, for example, for use with anchor-based positioning, where a repeater identified by the network can be used as an anchor for positioning. For example, the UE can measure signal parameters (e.g., AoA, AoD) and / or positioning signals (e.g., PRS) with the identified repeater of the known location to identify the presence of NLOS, or even determine the position relative to the repeater.

[0102] In some cases, the location of the relay may be unknown or cannot be estimated. Nevertheless, the UE (or gNB) can still identify the common NLOS based on the invariant PRS.

[0103] In some embodiments, this PRS common type of NLOS may be indicated by a corresponding error indication type (eg, using a unique code or indication) in a positioning parameter such as LPP or NRPPa.

[0104] In some embodiments, PRS-specific NLOS may be indicated, where the NLOS introduced by, for example, the environment varies across PRSs transmitted by different radio network nodes (e.g., gNBs) or beams. This type of NLOS may be more difficult to exploit than PRS-common NLOS because the NLOS may correspond to different radio network nodes or physical environments (e.g., multiple potential nodes and reflective surfaces), making it difficult to map the location of the relay (or multiple) to an anchor node for positioning. In these cases, the PRS ID may be included in the NLOS report (e.g., the UE's indication to the location server), which may help locate the relay in its associated cell.

[0105] In some embodiments, this PRS specific type of NLOS may also be indicated by a corresponding error indication type (eg, using another unique code or indication) in a positioning parameter such as LPP or NRPPa.

[0106] In some embodiments, the UE may identify the PRS common NLOS or the PRS specific NLOS and indicate the PRS common NLOS or the PRS specific NLOS to the location server (e.g., LMF). In some embodiments, the radio network node (e.g., gNB) may use a similar method to identify the PRS common NLOS or the PRS specific NLOS and indicate the PRS common NLOS or the PRS specific NLOS to the location server.

[0107] In some embodiments, when a NLOS is determined or identified using one or more of the above methods and / or the type of NLOS is indicated (e.g., PRS-common or PRS-specific), the location server can then address the NLOS, such as by using anchor-based positioning as described above or enhancements to positioning as described below.

[0108] Enhancements for positioning in NLOS environments

[0109] The possible presence of a repeater or NLOS can generally be detected using one or more of the methods described above. However, there are limitations to positioning in a coverage area (e.g., coverage hole 410) due to, for example, repeaters or physical obstacles that cause NLOS. The NLOS signal path makes it difficult to use a method that utilizes a 3GPP-based communication network such as Figure 2 ) to locate a specific UE.

[0110] Despite these limitations, the positioning of the UE can be enhanced by using different alternative positioning modes. More specifically, in some embodiments, the positioning of the UE can be supported by GNSS-based positioning in a communication network-GNSS fusion method. When NLOS introduced by a repeater is detected or indicated, the network GNSS module or engine can quickly switch to a positioning mode that does not use network-based (e.g., 4G, 5G) position determination or measurement. For example, a location server can send a signal to the UE to switch to GNSS mode so that the UE can obtain its position using, for example, GPS. This location information can then be sent to an appropriate communication network entity, such as a radio network node (e.g., gNB) or a location server (e.g., LMF). This will avoid using a repeater to determine the location of the UE and avoid unreliable position estimates with large positioning errors due to the use of a communication network.

[0111] In some embodiments, the switching may occur for a specified period of time, or until a criterion is met. For example, if the UE is no longer in a coverage hole (e.g., based on the impossibility of this when the indication described above no longer exists), the location server may send a signal to the UE to switch back to the original positioning mode (e.g., based on 3GPP). In some cases, the signal to the UE for switching to GNSS mode may include instructions for the UE to switch back on its own if the criteria are met, so that a separate signal from the location server is not required.

[0112] In some embodiments, when NLOS introduced by a repeater is detected for a PRS resource, the network-GNSS method may filter out measurements based on the PRS resource and instead use GNSS to determine the location of the UE. If the location server (or UE) determines that the PRS is associated with the NLOS introduced by the repeater, the UE or location server (e.g., LMF) may request cancellation of any remaining or scheduled transmissions of the PRS as needed. For example, the location server may signal one or more radio network nodes associated with the repeater (or may be associated with the repeater based on, for example, the known location of the radio network node and / or proximity to a suspected UE in a coverage hole) to stop transmission of the PRS. In some cases, the UE may be able to request directly to a radio network node (e.g., a gNB), or the UE may be able to request to a location server, which in turn may instruct the gNB to stop transmission of the PRS.

[0113] In some embodiments, the UE may also cancel any remaining transmission of the SRS to the network.

[0114] A location server or UE with GNSS capability can thereby use or cause use of an alternative positioning method (e.g., GNSS) as a contingency when NLOS is detected, and / or reduce communications with the communication network by eliminating positioning signals from being exchanged. Embodiments using positioning methods or systems other than 3GPP or GNSS may be similarly effective, such as Wi-Fi positioning and geolocation using probes or beacons exchanged with hotspots or other wireless (e.g., WLAN) access points that may be in LOS.

[0115] method

[0116] Figure 5 1 is a flow chart of a method 500 for detecting a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path associated with a given user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication network according to an embodiment. One or more functions of the method 500 may be performed by a computerized device or system. Figure 5The components of the functions shown in one or more of the illustrated blocks may include hardware and / or software components of such a computerized apparatus or system, such as, for example, a networking device (e.g., a location server), a computer system, or a computer-readable device including a storage medium storing computer-readable and / or computer-executable instructions that are configured to cause at least one processor device or another computerized apparatus to perform functions when executed by at least one processor device. Example components of a server are shown in, for example, Fig. 9 , which is described in more detail below.

[0117] It should also be noted that the operations of method 500 may be performed in any suitable order, not necessarily in the order in which they are performed. Figure 5 In addition, method 500 may include Figure 5 The operations depicted in FIG. 5 may be additional or fewer operations to complete NLOS detection.

[0118] At box 510, the functionality of method 500 may include receiving positioning information from one or more networked devices. In some embodiments, the one or more networked devices include one or more wireless network nodes, one or more UEs, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the positioning information may include information indicating measurements of one or more wireless signals sent between the one or more wireless network nodes and the one or more UEs, location data indicating the location of each of the one or more UEs within the wireless communication network, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, positioning information may be received from one or more wireless network nodes. In some scenarios, the one or more wireless network nodes are multiple wireless network nodes. Examples of wireless network nodes include gNBs, other wireless base stations or access points that support cellular, and wireless APs that support WLAN. In some implementations, location data may be received from one or more UEs. In some scenarios, the one or more UEs are multiple UEs.

[0119] In some embodiments, the information indicating measurements between the one or more radio network nodes and the one or more UEs may include (i) an angle of arrival (AoA) estimate based on an uplink or downlink reference signal between the one or more UEs and the one or more radio network nodes, or (ii) a spatial relationship between an uplink reference signal of one of the one or more UEs and a downlink beam of one of the one or more radio network nodes. In some implementations, the uplink reference signal may include an uplink sounding reference signal (UL-SRS). In some implementations, the downlink reference signal may include a downlink positioning reference signal (DL-PRS).

[0120] like Fig. 9As shown, means for performing the functions at block 510 may include a processor(s), memory, a communication subsystem, a wireless communication interface, and / or other components of the server.

[0121] At block 520 , the functions may include determining commonalities associated with the received positioning information.

[0122] In some embodiments, the commonality associated with the received positioning information may include (i) location data indicating that the distances between the plurality of UEs are within a threshold amount, or (ii) an AoA estimate based on an uplink reference signal between the plurality of UEs and one of the wireless network nodes varies by less than a threshold amount. In some embodiments, the commonality may include a spatial relationship indicating a match between an uplink reference signal and a downlink beam. In some embodiments, the commonality may include an AoA estimate based on a downlink reference signal between one or more UEs and one of the plurality of wireless network nodes varies by less than a threshold amount.

[0123] like Fig. 9 As shown, means for performing the functions at block 520 may include a processor(s), memory, and / or other components of the server.

[0124] At block 530, the functionality may include determining that a NLOS wireless signal path exists between a given UE and one or more wireless network nodes based on the determined commonality (e.g., from block 520). In some scenarios, the NLOS wireless signal path may be introduced by a repeater. A repeater may be a wireless network node that is configured to provide a wireless data connection to one or more wireless network nodes, for example, between the UE and the wireless network node. In such a scenario, the UE may be considered to be in a coverage hole (e.g., coverage hole 410).

[0125] For example, the location data may indicate that multiple UEs are close together (e.g., clustered within a threshold distance amount) even though the UEs are not so clustered or are relatively far apart. If a radio network node (e.g., a gNB) or a network entity (e.g., a location server) receives substantially similar location data, this may indicate to the location server the possibility that a repeater is causing NLOS.

[0126] As another example, AoA estimates based on uplink reference signals may be substantially similar and vary by less than a threshold angular amount. This also indicates to the location server the likelihood that the repeater is causing NLOS, since the AoA estimate at the radio network node will be based on the signal from the repeater rather than the corresponding position of the UE. As another example, the spatial relationship (e.g., a match) between an uplink reference signal (e.g., UL-SRS from multiple UEs and relayed by a repeater) and a downlink beam (e.g., from a gNB) may indicate to the location server the likelihood that the repeater is causing NLOS. In some embodiments, the location server may request a specific group of UEs to send SRS, which may reduce false positives of detecting NLOS. The UE group may include UEs that the location server has identified in terms of historical or current location to increase the reliability of the SRS measurement.

[0127] In some embodiments, method 500 may also include (e.g., as part of determining that a NLOS wireless signal path exists) scheduling a repeater on / off mode. This may include disabling the repeater during a time period; receiving a first measurement associated with a downlink positioning signal (e.g., DL-PRS) sent to the UE during the time period; and determining that the UE is within a coverage hole and in wireless data communication with the repeater based on a difference between the first measurement and a second measurement associated with a downlink positioning signal sent to the UE outside of the time period. In some variants, determining that the UE is within a coverage hole is based on a statistical measure of the difference between the first measurement and the second measurement, such as a variance.

[0128] In some embodiments, method 500 may also include (eg, as part of determining the presence of an NLOS wireless signal path) receiving movement information from the UE; and using the location data and the movement information to determine that the UE is within a coverage hole and that the UE is in data communication with the repeater.

[0129] In some embodiments, method 500 may also include (e.g., as part of determining the presence of an NLOS wireless signal path) receiving a plurality of measurements associated with a downlink positioning signal (e.g., DL-PRS) sent to one of the one or more UEs; and determining, based on the plurality of measurements varying by more than a threshold amount, that the NLOS wireless signal path associated with the UE is introduced by the physical environment of the UE (rather than, for example, a repeater).

[0130] Once it is known (or possible) that positioning is affected by NLOS (e.g., the NLOS wireless signal path is caused by a repeater, or by another reason such as a physical obstacle or environment), the network is able to resolve the NLOS and still determine the position of the UE without relying on the wireless communication network (e.g., a data network connected via an infrastructure of base stations such as Figure 2Infrastructure). In some embodiments, method 500 may further include: based on an indication that a NLOS wireless signal path exists (from step 30), switching to a second positioning mode different from the first positioning mode used with one or more wireless network nodes, and determining the position of the UE using the second positioning mode and excluding positioning signals associated with the first positioning mode. The second positioning mode may be different from the first positioning mode based on a wireless communication network and may include GNSS-based positioning of the UE. This network-GNSS fusion approach may enable the UE and the location server to benefit from the fact that a NLOS wireless signal path exists and continue to be able to locate the UE when a network-based approach becomes less reliable (e.g., due to coverage holes or other reasons).

[0131] like Fig. 9 As shown, means for performing the functions at block 530 may include a processor(s), memory, and / or other components of the server.

[0132] Figure 6 is a flow chart of a method 600 for indicating a type of a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in a wireless communication network according to an embodiment. One or more functions of the method 600 may be performed by a computerized device or system. Figure 6 The means for the functions shown in one or more of the illustrated blocks may include hardware and / or software components of such a computerized device or system, such as, for example, a networked device (e.g., UE, base station), a computer system, or a computer-readable device including a storage medium storing computer-readable and / or computer-executable instructions, which are configured to, when executed by at least one processor device, cause at least one processor device or another computerized device to perform functions. Example components of a UE and a base station are shown in, for example Figure 7 and Figure 8 , described in more detail below Figure 7 and Figure 8 .

[0133] It should also be noted that the operations of method 600 may be performed in any suitable order, not necessarily in the order in which they are performed. Figure 6 In addition, method 600 may include Figure 6 The operations depicted in the figure may be more or less than the operations depicted in the figure to accomplish the NLOS type indication.

[0134] At block 610, the functionality of method 600 may include wirelessly receiving a plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of radio network nodes. In some embodiments, the radio network node may include a base station (e.g., a gNB) of a wireless communication network, and the reference signal may include a positioning reference signal (e.g., a downlink PRS) from the radio network node. The radio network nodes 402a-402c are examples of radio network nodes.

[0135] like Figure 6 As shown in FIG. 7 , the means for performing the functions at block 610 may include a processor (or multiple), a memory, a wireless communication interface, and / or other components of a UE or a base station.

[0136] At box 620, the function may include determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on multiple reference signals. One or more methods may be used to determine the NLOS wireless signal path. For example, in some embodiments, downlink measurement-based detection of NLOS may be used, where the UE may measure DL-AoA using PRS sent from different radio network nodes and evaluate their similarities or commonalities to infer and determine the possibility of NLOS caused by a repeater. Such a repeater may be configured to provide wireless data connections to multiple radio network nodes. As another example, in some embodiments, an on / off pattern or sequence of scheduling PRS for a specific known repeater may be used to determine and evaluate TOA_on-TOA_off to infer and determine the possibility of NLOS caused by the repeater.

[0137] like Figure 6 As shown in FIG. 7 , the means for performing the functions at block 620 may include a processor (or multiple), a memory, and / or other components of a UE or a base station.

[0138] At block 630, the functionality may include determining whether at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals. For example, if different PRSs from different gNBs arrive via the same beam, the UE may be able to infer the presence of a repeater. If the PRSs arrive from different beams or angles, there is a possibility that the NLOS wireless signal path is coming from somewhere else (e.g., reflections in the environment including buildings, walls, ground, hills, etc.).

[0139] like Figure 6 As shown in FIG. 7 , the means for performing the functions at block 630 may include a processor (or multiple), a memory, and / or other components of a UE or a base station.

[0140] At block 640, the functionality may include indicating to a network entity whether at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater. In some embodiments, the UE may determine that the determined NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network and indicate this information to a network entity (e.g., a location server or LMF). The network entity may then implement a remediation mechanism based on this indication from the UE, as described elsewhere herein and below.

[0141] In some embodiments, the NLOS indication may be an error indication type or a special error type in LPP or NRPPa. The UE may signal this by sending a report, where a code (e.g., an error code), a tag, a binary indication, or other types of indicators may be included in the report to signal the network entity. In some cases, for example, where the NLOS is not introduced by a repeater, the PRS ID may be included in the report. In some embodiments, the location server may use the indication to deploy the identified repeater as an additional anchor node for anchor-based positioning as described above.

[0142] Although the above blocks of the method 600 are primarily described from the perspective of a UE, in some embodiments, the above blocks may be performed by a radio network node with respect to other radio network nodes.

[0143] like Figure 6 As shown in FIG. 7 , the means for performing the functions at block 640 may include a processor (or multiple), a memory, a wireless communication interface, and / or other components of a UE or a base station.

[0144] Device

[0145] Figure 7 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a UE 105, which can be as described above (e.g., with Figure 1-4 and Figure 6 For example, UE 105 can perform Figure 6 One or more functions of the method shown. It should be noted that Figure 7 It is intended only to provide a general description of the various components, any or all of which may be used as appropriate. It can be noted that in some cases, Figure 7 The components shown can be located in a single physical device and / or distributed among various networked devices that can be located at different physical locations. In addition, as mentioned above, the functions of the UE discussed in the previously described embodiments can be provided by Figure 7 One or more of the illustrated hardware and / or software components may be implemented.

[0146] UE 105 is shown as including hardware elements that can be electrically coupled via bus 705 (or can communicate in other ways as appropriate). The hardware elements can include processor(s) 710, which can include (but is not limited to) one or more general-purpose processors (e.g., application processors), one or more special-purpose processors (e.g., digital signal processor (DSP) chips, graphics acceleration processors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and / or the like) and / or other processing structures or components. Processor(s) 710 may include one or more processing units, which may be housed in a single integrated circuit (IC) or multiple ICs. As shown in FIG. Figure 7 As shown, some embodiments may have a separate DSP 720, depending on the desired functionality. Position determination and / or other determinations based on wireless communications may be provided in the processor(s) 710 and / or the wireless communication interface 730 (discussed below). The UE 105 can also include one or more input devices 770, which can include, but are not limited to, one or more keyboards, touch screens, touch pads, microphones, buttons, dials, switches, and / or the like; and one or more output devices 715, which can include (but are not limited to) one or more displays (e.g., touch screens), light emitting diodes (LEDs), speakers, and / or the like.

[0147] The UE 105 may also include a wireless communication interface 730, which may include, but is not limited to, a modem, a network card, an infrared communication device, a wireless communication device and / or a chipset (such as a Bluetooth® device, an IEEE 802.11 device, an IEEE 802.15.4 device, a Wi-Fi device, a WiMAX device, a WAN device and / or various cellular devices, etc.), and / or the like, wherein the wireless communication interface 730 may enable the UE 105 to communicate with other devices as described in the above embodiments. As described herein, the wireless communication interface 730 may allow, for example, the TRP of the network to transmit (e.g., send and receive) data and signaling via an eNB, a gNB, an ng-eNB, an access point, various base stations and / or other access node types and / or other network components, a computer system and / or any other electronic device communicatively coupled to the TRP. Communication can be performed via one or more wireless communication antennas 732 that send and / or receive wireless signals 734. According to some embodiments, the wireless communication antenna (or multiple) 732 may include multiple discrete antennas, antenna arrays, or any combination thereof. Antenna (or multiple) 732 may be able to use beams (e.g., Tx beams and Rx beams) to send and receive wireless signals. Beamforming may be performed using digital and / or analog beamforming techniques and corresponding digital and / or analog circuits. Wireless communication interface 730 may include such circuits.

[0148] Depending on the desired functionality, the wireless communication interface 730 may include a separate receiver and transmitter, or any combination of transceivers, transmitters, and / or receivers to communicate with base stations (e.g., ng-eNBs and gNBs) and other terrestrial transceivers (such as wireless devices and access points). The UE 105 may communicate with different data networks, which may include various network types. For example, the WWAN may be a CDMA network, a time division multiple access (TDMA) network, a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) network, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) network, a single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) network, a WiMAX (IEEE 802.16) network, and the like. A CDMA network may implement one or more RATs, such as CDMA2000®, WCDMA, and the like. CDMA2000® includes IS-95, IS-2000, and / or IS-856 standards. A TDMA network may implement GSM, a digital advanced mobile phone system (D-AMPS), or some other RAT. An OFDMA network may employ LTE, advanced LTE, 5G NR, and the like. 5G NR, LTE, Advanced LTE, GSM, and WCDMA are described in documents from 3GPP. CDMA2000® is described in documents from a consortium named "3rd Generation Partnership Project 2" (3GPP2). 3GPP and 3GPP2 documents are publicly available. A wireless local area network (WLAN) may also be an IEEE 802.11x network, and a wireless personal area network (WPAN) may be a Bluetooth network, IEEE 802.15x, or some other type of network. The techniques described herein may also be used for any combination of WWAN, WLAN, and / or WPAN.

[0149] The UE 105 can also include a sensor(s) 740. The sensor(s) 740 can include, but are not limited to, one or more inertial sensors and / or other sensors (e.g., accelerometer(s), gyroscope(s), camera(s), magnetometer(s), altimeter(s), microphone(s), proximity sensor(s), light sensor(s), barometer(s), etc.), some of which can be used to obtain location-related measurements and / or other information.

[0150] Embodiments of the UE 105 may also include a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver 780 capable of receiving signals 784 from one or more GNSS satellites using an antenna 782 (which can be the same as the antenna 732). Positioning based on GNSS signal measurements can be used to supplement and / or incorporate the techniques described herein. The GNSS receiver 780 can extract the location of the UE 105 from GNSS satellites of a GNSS system such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), Galileo, GLONASS, the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) over Japan, the IRNSS over India, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) over China, etc. using conventional techniques. In addition, the GNSS receiver 780 is capable of being used with various augmentation systems, such as a satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS), which may be associated with or otherwise enabled for use with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems, such as, for example, the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the Multifunction Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), and / or the Geographic Augmentation Navigation System (GAGAN), and / or the like.

[0151] It can be noted that although the GNSS receiver 780 Figure 7 , but the embodiments are not limited thereto. As used herein, the term "GNSS receiver" may include hardware and / or software components configured to obtain GNSS measurements (measurements from GNSS satellites). Therefore, in some embodiments, the GNSS receiver may include a measurement engine executed (as software) by one or more processors, such as processor (or multiple) 710, DSP 720, and / or a processor within the wireless communication interface 730 (e.g., in a modem). The GNSS receiver may also optionally include a positioning engine, wherein the positioning engine is capable of using GNSS measurements from the measurement engine to determine the position of the GNSS receiver using an extended Kalman filter (EKF), a weighted least squares (WLS), a hatch filter, a particle filter, or the like. The positioning engine may also be executed by one or more processors, such as processor (or multiple) 710 or DSP 720.

[0152] The UE 105 may also include and / or communicate with a memory 760. The memory 760 can include, but is not limited to, local and / or network accessible storage, disk drives, drive arrays, optical storage devices, solid-state storage devices (such as random access memory (RAM) and / or read-only memory (ROM), which can be programmable, flash-updatable), and / or the like. Such storage devices may be configured to implement any suitable data storage, including, but not limited to, various file systems, database structures, and / or the like.

[0153] The memory 760 of the UE 105 can also include software elements ( Figure 7 ), including an operating system, device drivers, executable libraries and / or other code, such as one or more applications, as described herein, which may include computer programs provided by various embodiments, and / or may be designed to implement methods provided by other embodiments and / or configure systems provided by other embodiments. Merely by way of example, one or more processes described with respect to the method(s) discussed above may be implemented as code and / or instructions in memory 760, which may be executed by UE 105 (and / or processor(s) 710 or DSP 720 within UE 105). In some embodiments, then, such code and / or instructions can be used to configure and / or adapt a general purpose computer (or other device) to perform one or more operations according to the described methods.

[0154] In some embodiments, the UE 105 may be configured to switch its communication mode to GNSS for positioning in a detected NLOS environment, rather than using a radio access network (e.g., Figure 2 ). As mentioned above and Figure 5 As described in the communication network GNSS fusion method, this switching can be performed or caused by the processor (or multiple) 710 and / or the memory 760 based on, for example, receiving a signal from the location server that a NLOS wireless signal path exists.

[0155] Figure 8 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a base station 120 that can be used as described herein above (e.g., with Figures 1 to 4 and Figure 6 It should be noted that Figure 8 It is intended only to provide a generalized description of the various components, any or all of which may be used as appropriate. In some embodiments, base station 120 may correspond to a gNB, ng-eNB, and / or (more generally) a TRP.

[0156] Base station 120 is shown as including hardware elements that can be electrically coupled via bus 805 (or can communicate in other ways as appropriate). The hardware elements may include processor(s) 810, which can include (but is not limited to) one or more general purpose processors, one or more special purpose processors (e.g., DSP chips, graphics acceleration processors, ASICs, and / or the like), and / or other processing structures or components. Figure 8 As shown, some embodiments may have a separate DSP 820, depending on the desired functionality. According to some embodiments, wireless communication-based position determination and / or other determinations may be provided in the processor(s) 810 and / or the wireless communication interface 830 (discussed below). The base station 120 can also include one or more input devices, which can include (but are not limited to) a keyboard, a display, a mouse, a microphone, a button(s), a dial(s), a switch(s), and / or the like; and one or more output devices, which can include (but are not limited to) a display, a light emitting diode (LED), a speaker, and / or the like.

[0157] The base station 120 may also include a wireless communication interface 830, which may include, but is not limited to, a modem, a network card, an infrared communication device, a wireless communication device and / or a chipset (such as a Bluetooth® device, an IEEE 802.11 device, an IEEE 802.15.4 device, a Wi-Fi device, a WiMAX device, a cellular communication facility, etc.), etc., wherein the wireless communication interface 830 may enable the base station 120 to communicate as described herein. The wireless communication interface 830 may allow data and signaling to be transmitted (e.g., sent and received) to UEs, other base stations / TRPs (e.g., eNBs, gNBs, and ng-eNBs), and / or other network components, computer systems, and / or any other electronic devices described herein. Communication may be performed via one or more wireless communication antennas 832 that send and / or receive wireless signals 834.

[0158] The base station 120 may also include a network interface 880, which can include support for wired communication technologies. The network interface 880 may include a modem, a network card, a chipset, etc. The network interface 880 may include one or more input and / or output communication interfaces to allow data to be exchanged with a network, a communication network server, a computer system, and / or any other electronic device described herein.

[0159] In many embodiments, the base station 120 may also include a memory 860. The memory 860 can include (but is not limited to) local and / or network accessible storage, disk drives, drive arrays, optical storage devices, solid-state storage devices (such as RAM and / or ROM, which can be programmable, flash-updatable), and / or the like. Such storage devices may be configured to implement any suitable data storage, including but not limited to various file systems, database structures, and / or the like.

[0160] The memory 860 of the base station 120 may also include software elements ( Figure 8 ), including an operating system, device drivers, executable libraries, and / or other code, such as one or more application programs, as described herein, which may include computer programs provided by various embodiments, and / or may be designed to implement methods provided by other embodiments and / or configure systems provided by other embodiments. Merely by way of example, one or more programs described with respect to the method(s) discussed above may be implemented as code and / or instructions in memory 860, which may be executed by base station 120 (and / or processor 810 or DSP 820 within base station 120). In some embodiments, then, such code and / or instructions can be used to configure and / or adapt a general purpose computer (or other device) to perform one or more operations according to the described methods.

[0161] In some embodiments, the base station 120 may be configured to switch its communication mode to GNSS for positioning in a detected NLOS environment, rather than using a radio access network (e.g., Figure 2 ). As mentioned above and Figure 5 As described in the communication network GNSS fusion method, this switching can be performed or caused by the processor (or multiple) 810 and / or the memory 860 based on, for example, receiving a signal from the location server that a NLOS wireless signal path exists.

[0162] Fig. 9 900, which may be used in whole or in part to provide one or more network components (eg, Figure 1 , Figure 2 and Figure 5 It should be noted that Fig. 9 It is intended only to provide a general description of the various components, any or all of which may be used as appropriate. Fig. 9 It is broadly shown how the various system elements can be implemented in a relatively separate or relatively more integrated manner. In addition, it can be noted that Fig. 9The components shown can be localized to a single device and / or distributed among various networked devices that may be located at different geographical locations.

[0163] The computer system 900 is shown to include hardware elements that can be electrically coupled via a bus 905 (or can communicate in other ways as appropriate). The hardware elements may include a processor (or multiple) 910, which may include (but is not limited to) one or more general-purpose processors, one or more special-purpose processors (such as digital signal processing chips, graphics acceleration processors, and / or the like) and / or other processing structures, which can be configured to perform one or more of the methods described herein. The computer system 900 may also include one or more input devices 915, which may include but are not limited to a mouse, keyboard, camera, microphone, etc.; and one or more output devices 920, which may include (but are not limited to) a display device, a printer, and / or the like.

[0164] The computer system 900 may also include (and / or communicate with) one or more non-transitory storage devices 925, which can include (but are not limited to) local and / or network accessible storage devices, and / or can include (but are not limited to) disk drives, drive arrays, optical storage devices, solid-state storage devices (such as RAM and / or ROM, which can be programmable, flash-updatable), and / or the like. Such storage devices may be configured to implement any suitable data storage, including but not limited to various file systems, database structures, and / or the like. As described herein, such data storage may include databases and / or other data structures for storing and managing messages and / or other information to be sent to one or more devices via a hub.

[0165] The computer system 900 may also include a communication subsystem 930, which may include wireless communication technologies and wired technologies (such as Ethernet, coaxial communication, universal serial bus (USB), etc.) managed and controlled by a wireless communication interface 933. The wireless communication interface 933 may include one or more wireless transceivers, which may send and receive wireless signals 955 (e.g., signals according to 5G NR or LTE) via a wireless antenna (or multiple) 950. Therefore, the communication subsystem 930 may include a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an infrared communication device, a wireless communication device and / or a chipset and / or the like, which may enable the computer system 900 to communicate with any device (including user equipment (UE), base station and / or other TRP and / or any other electronic device described herein) on any or all of the communication networks described herein. Therefore, as described in the embodiments of this document, the communication subsystem 930 may be used to receive and send data.

[0166] In many embodiments, the computer system 900 will also include a working memory 935, which may include a RAM or ROM device, as described above. The software elements shown as being located within the working memory 935 may include an operating system 940, device drivers, executable libraries, and / or other code, such as one or more applications 945, which may include computer programs provided by various embodiments, and / or may be designed to implement methods provided by other embodiments and / or configure systems provided by other embodiments, as described herein. Merely by way of example, one or more programs described with respect to the method(s) discussed above may be implemented as codes and / or instructions executable by a computer (and / or a processor within a computer); in one aspect, then, such codes and / or instructions may be used to configure and / or adapt a general-purpose computer (or other device) to perform one or more operations according to the described methods.

[0167] In some embodiments, the computer system 900 may be configured to implement a processor (or multiple) 910 and / or a memory 935, which sends a signal to a UE or a base station to switch between a current positioning mode and another positioning mode based on determining the presence of NLOS. For example, the computer system 900 may instruct a UE in a coverage shadow area to switch from a first positioning mode used with one or more wireless network nodes (e.g., gNB) to a GNSS-based positioning mode, and may use the GNSS-based positioning mode and exclude the positioning signal associated with the first positioning mode to determine the position of the UE. The computer system 900 may also switch back to the first positioning mode.

[0168] The set of these instructions and / or codes may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as the storage device(s) 925 described above. In some cases, the storage medium may be incorporated into a computer system, such as the computer system 900. In other embodiments, the storage medium may be separate from the computer system (e.g., a removable medium, such as an optical disk), and / or provided in an installation package so that the storage medium can be used to program, configure, and / or adapt a general-purpose computer having the instructions / code stored thereon. These instructions may take the form of executable code that may be executed by the computer system 900, and / or may take the form of source and / or installable code that, after being compiled and / or installed on the computer system 900 (e.g., using any of a variety of commonly available compilers, installers, compression / decompression utilities, etc.), then takes the form of executable code.

[0169] It will be clear to those skilled in the art that substantial variations may be made depending on specific requirements. For example, custom hardware may also be used and / or specific elements may be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets, etc.), or both. In addition, connections to other computing devices such as network input / output devices may be employed.

[0170] With reference to the accompanying drawings, components that can include memory can include non-transitory machine-readable media. As used herein, the terms "machine-readable medium" and "computer-readable medium" refer to any storage medium that participates in providing data that enables a machine to operate in a particular manner. In the embodiments provided above, various machine-readable media may involve providing instructions / codes to a processor and / or other device (or multiple) for execution. Additionally or alternatively, machine-readable media may be used to store and / or carry such instructions / codes. In many embodiments, computer-readable media are physical and / or tangible storage media. Such media can take many forms, including but not limited to non-volatile media and volatile media. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, magnetic and / or optical media, any other physical media with hole patterns, RAM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or box, or any other medium from which a computer can read instructions and / or codes.

[0171] The methods, systems and devices discussed herein are examples. Various embodiments may appropriately omit, replace or add various processes or components. For example, features described with respect to certain embodiments may be combined in various other embodiments. Different aspects and elements of the embodiments may be combined in a similar manner. The various components of the accompanying drawings provided herein can be embodied in hardware and / or software. In addition, the technology is rigorous, so many elements are examples that do not limit the scope of the present disclosure to those specific examples.

[0172] It has proven convenient at times, primarily for reasons of common usage, to refer to such signals as bits, information, values, elements, symbols, characters, variables, terms, numbers, digits, etc. It will be understood, however, that all of these or similar terms are associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels. Unless otherwise specifically stated, as will be apparent from the above discussion, it will be appreciated that throughout this specification, discussions using terms such as "processing," "computing," "calculating," "determining," "ascertaining," "identifying," "correlating," "measuring," "performing," etc. refer to the actions or processes of a specific apparatus, such as a special purpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device. Thus, in the context of this specification, a special purpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device is capable of manipulating or transforming signals, which are typically represented as physical electronic, electrical, or magnetic quantities within a memory, register, or other information storage device, transmission device, or display device of the special purpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device.

[0173] The terms "and" and "or" as used herein may include various meanings, which are also expected to depend at least in part on the context in which the terms are used. Generally, "or", if used in an associative list, such as A, B, or C, is intended to mean A, B, and C (used here in an inclusive sense), as well as A, B, or C (used here in an exclusive sense). In addition, the term "one or more" as used herein may be used to describe any feature, structure, or characteristic in a singular form, or may be used to describe a certain combination of features, structures, or characteristics. However, it should be noted that this is merely an illustrative example and the subject matter claimed is not limited to this example. In addition, if used in an associative list (such as A, B, or C), the term "at least one of..." can be interpreted to mean any combination of A, B, and / or C, such as A, AB, AA, AAB, AABBCCC, etc.

[0174] Several embodiments have been described, and various modifications, alternative configurations, and equivalents may be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the above elements may be merely components of a larger system, where other rules may take precedence over or otherwise modify the application of the various embodiments. In addition, multiple steps may be performed before, during, or after considering the above elements. Therefore, the above description does not limit the scope of the present disclosure.

[0175] In view of this description, embodiments may include different combinations of features. Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0176] Clause 1. A method for indicating a type of a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in a wireless communication network, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals; determining whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and indicating to a network entity whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater; wherein the repeater is configured to provide data connections with the plurality of wireless network nodes.

[0177] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein the plurality of reference signals comprises a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals (PRS) transmitted by a respective plurality of radio network nodes.

[0178] Clause 3. The method of any of clauses 1-2, wherein determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: measuring an angle of arrival (AoA) estimate based on the plurality of reference signals; and determining that the AoA estimate changes by less than a threshold amount.

[0179] Clause 4. A method according to any of clauses 1-3, wherein determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on multiple reference signals includes: disabling a repeater during a time period; performing a first measurement associated with a first reference signal received during the time period; and determining that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater based at least on a difference between the first measurement and a second measurement associated with a second reference signal received outside of the time period.

[0180] Clause 5. A method according to any one of clauses 1-4, wherein the commonality between the multiple reference signals includes a spatial relationship between the multiple reference signals and a downlink beam from which the multiple reference signals are received; and the method also includes determining that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater based on the existence of the commonality, or determining that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is not introduced by a repeater based on the absence of the commonality.

[0181] Clause 6. A method according to any of clauses 1-5, wherein indicating to the network entity comprises: sending information to the network entity indicating that at least one NLOS radio signal path is introduced by a repeater; and the information is configured to be used by the network entity for positioning of a user equipment (UE).

[0182] Clause 7. A method according to any of clauses 1-6, wherein the information is further configured to be used in conjunction with a known location of the relay for locating the UE.

[0183] Clause 8. A method according to any one of clauses 1-7, wherein the information is also configured to be used to locate the UE by: switching to a second positioning mode that is different from a first positioning mode used with multiple wireless network nodes; and determining the position of the UE using the second positioning mode and excluding positioning signals associated with the first positioning mode.

[0184] Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 1-8, wherein the second positioning mode comprises a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based positioning of the UE.

[0185] Clause 10. A device comprising: one or more network interfaces; a memory; and one or more processors, communicatively coupled to the one or more network interfaces and the memory, and configured to: receive a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; determine at least one non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in a wireless communication network based on the plurality of reference signals; determine whether at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and indicate to a network entity whether at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater; wherein the repeater is configured to provide data connections with the plurality of wireless network nodes.

[0186] Clause 11. The apparatus of clause 10, wherein the plurality of reference signals comprises a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals (PRS) transmitted by a respective plurality of radio network nodes.

[0187] Clause 12. The apparatus of any of clauses 10-11, wherein determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: measuring an angle of arrival (AoA) estimate based on the plurality of reference signals; and determining that the AoA estimate changes by less than a threshold amount.

[0188] Clause 13. An apparatus according to any of clauses 10-12, wherein determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on multiple reference signals includes: disabling a repeater during a time period; performing a first measurement associated with a first reference signal received during the time period; and determining that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater based at least on a difference between the first measurement and a second measurement associated with a second reference signal received outside of the time period.

[0189] Clause 14. A device according to any one of clauses 10-13, wherein the commonality between the multiple reference signals includes a spatial relationship between the multiple reference signals and a downlink beam from which the multiple reference signals are received; and the one or more processors are further configured to: determine that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater based on the existence of the commonality, or determine that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is not introduced by a repeater based on the absence of the commonality.

[0190] Clause 15. The apparatus of any of clauses 10-14, wherein indicating to the network entity comprises: sending to the network entity information indicating that at least one NLOS radio signal path is introduced by a repeater; and the information is configured to be used by the network entity to locate a user equipment (UE).

[0191] Clause 16. The apparatus of any of clauses 10-15, wherein the information is further configured to be used in conjunction with a known location of the relay for locating the UE.

[0192] Clause 17. A device according to any of clauses 10-16, wherein the information is also configured to be used to locate the UE by: switching to a second positioning mode that is different from a first positioning mode used with multiple wireless network nodes; and determining the position of the UE using the second positioning mode and excluding positioning signals associated with the first positioning mode; and the second positioning mode includes global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based positioning of the UE.

[0193] Clause 18. A non-transitory computer-readable device comprising a storage medium, the storage medium comprising a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions being configured to, when executed by one or more processors, cause the computerized device to: receive a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; determine at least one non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in a wireless communication network based on the plurality of reference signals; determine whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and indicate to a network entity whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater; wherein the repeater is configured to provide a data connection with the plurality of wireless network nodes.

[0194] Clause 19. The non-transitory computer-readable device of Clause 18, wherein the plurality of reference signals comprises a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals (PRS) transmitted by a respective plurality of radio network nodes.

[0195] Clause 20. The non-transitory computer-readable device of any of clauses 18-19, wherein determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: measuring an angle of arrival (AoA) estimate based on the plurality of reference signals; and determining that the AoA estimate changes by less than a threshold amount.

[0196] Clause 21. A non-transitory computer-readable device according to any of clauses 18-20, wherein determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on multiple reference signals includes: disabling a repeater during a time period; a first measurement associated with a first reference signal received during the time period; and determining that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater based at least on a difference between the first measurement and a second measurement associated with a second reference signal received outside of the time period.

[0197] Clause 22. A non-transitory computer-readable device according to any of clauses 18-21, wherein the commonality between the multiple reference signals includes a spatial relationship between the multiple reference signals and a downlink beam from which the multiple reference signals are received; and the multiple instructions are also configured to, when executed by one or more processors, cause the computerized device to: determine that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater based on the existence of the commonality, or determine that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is not introduced by a repeater based on the absence of the commonality.

[0198] Clause 23. A non-transitory computer-readable device according to any of clauses 18-22, wherein indicating to the network entity comprises: sending information to the network entity indicating that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater; and the information is configured to be used by the network entity to locate the UE.

[0199] Clause 24. A non-transitory computer-readable device according to any one of clauses 18-23, wherein the information is also configured to be used to locate the UE by: switching to a second positioning mode that is different from a first positioning mode used with multiple wireless network nodes; and determining the position of the UE using the second positioning mode and excluding positioning signals associated with the first positioning mode; and the second positioning mode includes global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based positioning of the UE.

[0200] Clause 25. An apparatus comprising: a component for receiving a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; a component for determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path in a wireless communication network based on the plurality of reference signals; a component for determining whether at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and a component for indicating to a network entity whether at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater; wherein the repeater is configured to provide data connections with the plurality of wireless network nodes.

[0201] Clause 26. The apparatus of clause 25, wherein the plurality of reference signals comprises a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals (PRS) transmitted by a respective plurality of radio network nodes.

[0202] Clause 27. An apparatus according to any of clauses 25-26, wherein the means for determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on multiple reference signals includes: means for measuring an angle of arrival (AoA) estimate based on the multiple reference signals; and means for determining that the AoA estimate changes by less than a threshold amount.

[0203] Clause 28. An apparatus according to any of clauses 25-27, wherein the component for determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on multiple reference signals includes: a component for disabling a repeater during a time period; a component for performing a first measurement associated with a first reference signal received during the time period; and a component for determining that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater based on at least a difference between the first measurement and a second measurement associated with a second reference signal received outside the time period.

[0204] Clause 29. An apparatus according to any one of clauses 25-28, wherein the commonality between the multiple reference signals includes a spatial relationship between the multiple reference signals and a downlink beam from which the multiple reference signals are received; and the computerized apparatus further includes: a component for (i) determining that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater based on the existence of the commonality, or (ii) determining that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is not introduced by a repeater based on the absence of the commonality.

[0205] Clause 30. An apparatus according to any one of clauses 25-29, wherein the component for indicating to a network entity includes a component for sending information to the network entity indicating that at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater; the information is also configured to be used to locate the UE by: switching to a second positioning mode that is different from a first positioning mode used with multiple wireless network nodes; and determining the position of the UE using the second positioning mode and excluding positioning signals associated with the first positioning mode; and the second positioning mode includes global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based positioning of the UE.

Claims

1. A method for indicating a type of a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in a wireless communication network, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals; determining whether at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and indicating to a network entity whether the at least one NLOS radio signal path is introduced by the repeater; The repeater is configured to provide data connections with the plurality of wireless network nodes.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The plurality of reference signals include a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals (PRS) transmitted by the corresponding plurality of radio network nodes.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein Determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: measuring an angle of arrival (AoA) estimate based on the plurality of reference signals; and It is determined that the AoA estimate has changed by less than a threshold amount.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein Determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: disabling the repeater for a period of time; making a first measurement associated with a first reference signal received during the time period; and Based at least on a difference between the first measurement and a second measurement associated with a second reference signal received outside of the time period, it is determined that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The commonality among the plurality of reference signals comprises a spatial relationship between the plurality of reference signals and a downlink beam from which the plurality of reference signals are received; and The method also includes determining that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater based on the presence of the commonality, or determining that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is not introduced by the repeater based on the absence of the commonality.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Indicating to the network entity comprises sending to the network entity information indicating that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater; and The information is configured to be used by the network entity to locate a user equipment (UE).

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The information is also configured to be used in conjunction with the known location of the relay to locate the UE.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The information is also configured to be used for locating the UE in the following manner: switching to a second positioning mode different from the first positioning mode used with the plurality of wireless network nodes; and The position of the UE is determined using the second positioning pattern and excluding positioning signals associated with the first positioning pattern.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein: The second positioning mode includes a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based positioning of the UE.

10. A device comprising: One or more network interfaces; Memory; and one or more processors, communicatively coupled to the one or more network interfaces and the memory, and configured to: receiving a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; determining at least one non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in the wireless communication network based on the plurality of reference signals; determining whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and indicating to the network entity whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater; The repeater is configured to provide data connections with the plurality of wireless network nodes.

11. The device according to claim 10, wherein: The plurality of reference signals include a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals (PRS) transmitted by the corresponding plurality of radio network nodes.

12. The device according to claim 10, wherein: Determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: measuring an angle of arrival (AoA) estimate based on the plurality of reference signals; and It is determined that the AoA estimate has changed by less than a threshold amount.

13. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein: Determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: disabling the repeater for a period of time; making a first measurement associated with a first reference signal received during the time period; and Based at least on a difference between the first measurement and a second measurement associated with a second reference signal received outside of the time period, it is determined that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater.

14. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein: The commonality among the plurality of reference signals comprises a spatial relationship between the plurality of reference signals and a downlink beam from which the plurality of reference signals are received; and The one or more processors are further configured to determine that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater based on the presence of the commonality, or determine that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is not introduced by the repeater based on the absence of the commonality.

15. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein: Indicating to the network entity comprises sending to the network entity information indicating that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater; and The information is configured to be used by the network entity to locate a user equipment (UE).

16. The device according to claim 15, wherein: The information is also configured to be used in conjunction with the known location of the relay to locate the UE.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein: The information is also configured to be used for locating the UE in the following manner: switching to a second positioning mode different from the first positioning mode used with the plurality of wireless network nodes; and determining a location of the UE using the second positioning pattern and excluding positioning signals associated with the first positioning pattern; and The second positioning mode includes a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based positioning of the UE.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable device comprising a storage medium, the storage medium comprising a plurality of instructions configured to, when executed by one or more processors, cause a computerized device to: receiving a plurality of reference signals, the plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of wireless network nodes; determining at least one non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless signal path in the wireless communication network based on the plurality of reference signals; determining whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by a repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and indicating to the network entity whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater; The repeater is configured to provide data connections with the plurality of wireless network nodes.

19. The non-transitory computer readable device of claim 18, wherein: The plurality of reference signals include a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals (PRS) transmitted by the respective plurality of radio network nodes.

20. The non-transitory computer readable device of claim 18, wherein: Determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: measuring an angle of arrival (AoA) estimate based on the plurality of reference signals; and It is determined that the AoA estimate has changed by less than a threshold amount.

21. The non-transitory computer readable device of claim 18, wherein: Determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: disabling the repeater for a period of time; making a first measurement associated with a first reference signal received during the time period; and Based at least on a difference between the first measurement and a second measurement associated with a second reference signal received outside of the time period, it is determined that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater.

22. The non-transitory computer readable device of claim 18, wherein: The commonality among the plurality of reference signals comprises a spatial relationship between the plurality of reference signals and a downlink beam from which the plurality of reference signals are received; and The plurality of instructions are also configured to, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computerized device to: determine, based on the presence of the commonality, that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater, or to determine, based on the absence of the commonality, that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is not introduced by the repeater.

23. The non-transitory computer readable device of claim 18, wherein: Indicating to the network entity comprises sending to the network entity information indicating that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater; and The information is configured to be used by the network entity to locate the UE.

24. The non-transitory computer readable device of claim 23, wherein: The information is further configured to be used for locating the UE in the following manner: switching to a second positioning mode different from the first positioning mode used with the plurality of wireless network nodes; and determining a location of the UE using the second positioning pattern and excluding positioning signals associated with the first positioning pattern; and The second positioning mode includes a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based positioning of the UE.

25. An apparatus comprising: means for receiving a plurality of reference signals originating from a corresponding plurality of radio network nodes; means for determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path in the wireless communication network based on the plurality of reference signals; means for determining whether the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater of the wireless communication network based at least on the presence or absence of commonality between the plurality of reference signals; and means for indicating to a network entity whether the at least one NLOS radio signal path is introduced by the repeater; The repeater is configured to provide data connections with the plurality of wireless network nodes.

26. The device according to claim 25, wherein: The plurality of reference signals include a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals (PRS) transmitted by the corresponding plurality of radio network nodes.

27. The apparatus according to claim 25, wherein: The means for determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: means for measuring an angle of arrival (AoA) estimate based on the plurality of reference signals; and Means for determining that the AoA estimate changes by less than a threshold amount.

28. The apparatus according to claim 25, wherein: The means for determining at least one NLOS wireless signal path based on the plurality of reference signals comprises: means for disabling said repeater for a period of time; means for making a first measurement associated with a first reference signal received during the time period; and The device is configured to determine that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is a component introduced by the repeater based at least on a difference between the first measurement and a second measurement associated with a second reference signal received outside the time period.

29. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein: The commonality among the plurality of reference signals comprises a spatial relationship between the plurality of reference signals and a downlink beam from which the plurality of reference signals are received; as well as The computerized apparatus also includes means for determining (i) based on the presence of the commonality that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater, or (ii) based on the absence of the commonality that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is not introduced by the repeater.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein: The means for indicating to the network entity comprises means for sending to the network entity information indicating that the at least one NLOS wireless signal path is introduced by the repeater; The information is also configured to be used for locating the UE in the following manner: switching to a second positioning mode different from the first positioning mode used with the plurality of wireless network nodes; and determining a position of the UE using the second positioning mode and excluding positioning signals associated with the first positioning mode; and The second positioning mode includes a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based positioning of the UE.

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