Early indication of sounding reference signals for positioning for inactive or idle user equipment

Abstract

Techniques for wireless communication are disclosed. In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) receives a sounding reference signal (SRS-P) configuration for positioning. The UE also receives first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field while in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state. The SEI field is associated with a first subset of UEs including the UE and at least one additional UE, and is configured to trigger each UE in the first subset of UEs to transmit or not transmit one or more respective SRS-Ps on a set of SRS-P occasions (SRS-O). The UE selectively transmits the one or more SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

Description

Background Art 1. Technical Field

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

[0002] 2. Description of related technologies

[0003] Wireless communication systems have evolved over many generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including transitional 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third generation (3G) high speed data, wireless service with Internet capabilities, and fourth generation (4G) services (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). There are many different types of wireless communication systems in use today, including cellular systems and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and the like.

[0004] The fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, known as New Radio (NR), enables higher data transfer speeds, a greater number of connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. According to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, the 5G standard is designed to provide higher data rates, more accurate positioning (e.g., based on positioning reference signals (RS-P), such as downlink, uplink, or sidelink positioning reference signals (PRS)), and other technical enhancements compared to previous standards. These enhancements, along with the use of higher frequency bands, advances in PRS processes and technologies, and high-density deployments of 5G enable high-precision positioning based on 5G. Summary of the invention

[0005] The following presents a simplified summary of the invention related to one or more aspects disclosed herein. Therefore, the following summary of the invention should neither be considered as an exhaustive overview related to all conceived aspects, nor should it be considered to identify key or decisive elements related to all conceived aspects or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect. Therefore, the sole purpose of the following summary of the invention is to present certain concepts related to one or more aspects of the mechanisms disclosed herein in a brief form before the detailed embodiments presented below.

[0006] In one aspect, a method of operating a user equipment (UE) includes: receiving a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration; receiving a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup including the UE and at least one additional UE, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively sending one or more SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0007] In one aspect, a method of operating a network component includes: sending a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipment (UE); sending a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when each UE in the UE set is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the UE set, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subset to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively receiving one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from each UE in the first UE subset on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set based on the SEI field.

[0008] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor being configured to: receive a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration via the at least one transceiver; receive a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field via the at least one transceiver when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup including the UE and at least one additional UE, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively send one or more SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set via the at least one transceiver according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0009] In one aspect, a network component includes: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor being configured to: send a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipment (UE) via the at least one transceiver; send a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field via the at least one transceiver when each UE in the set of UEs is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first subset of UEs to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively receive one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from each UE in the first subset of UEs on the SRS-O set via the at least one transceiver according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set based on the SEI field.

[0010] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes: a component for receiving a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration; a component for receiving a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup including the UE and at least one additional UE, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and a component for selectively sending one or more SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0011] In one aspect, a network component includes: a component for sending a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipment (UE); a component for sending a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when each UE in the UE set is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the UE set, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subset to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and a component for selectively receiving one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from each UE in the first UE subset on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set based on the SEI field.

[0012] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a user equipment (UE) causes the UE to: receive a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration; receive first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup including the UE and at least one additional UE, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively send one or more SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0013] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a network component causes the network component to: send a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipment (UE); send a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when each UE in the set of UEs is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first subset of UEs to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively receive one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from each UE in the first subset of UEs on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set based on the SEI field.

[0014] Other objects and advantages associated with the various aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the drawings and detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in describing various aspects of the present disclosure and are provided solely for illustration and not limitation of the various aspects.

[0016] Figure 1 An example wireless communication system in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0017] Figure 2A , Figure 2B and Figure 2C Example wireless network structures according to aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0018] Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3C is a simplified block diagram of several sample aspects of components that may be employed in a user equipment (UE), a base station, and a network entity, respectively, and configured to support communications as taught herein.

[0019] Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating example interactions between application programs, application services, an operating system (OS), and hardware using various application programming interfaces (APIs) according to aspects of the present disclosure.

[0020] Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating an example frame structure according to aspects of the present disclosure.

[0021] Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating various downlink channels within an example downlink time slot in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating various uplink channels within an example uplink time slot in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0023] Figure 8 Examples of various positioning methods supported in New Radio (NR) according to aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0024] Fig. 9 Periodic and triggered 5GC Mobile Terminated (MT) Location Request (LR) procedures with Small Data Transmission (SDT) UL and DL positioning in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0025] Fig.10 A downlink (DL)-only positioning procedure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0026] Fig.11 An uplink (UL)-only positioning procedure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0027] Fig.12 A DL+UL positioning procedure according to aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0028] Fig.13 Paging Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) configurations according to aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0029] Fig.14 Tracking Reference Signal (TRS) validity period configurations according to aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0030] Fig.15 An exemplary process of communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0031] Fig.16 An exemplary process of communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] Various aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and related drawings for various examples provided for illustrative purposes. Alternative aspects may be designed without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted to avoid making the relevant details of the present disclosure difficult to understand.

[0033] The words "exemplary" and / or "example" are used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" and / or "example" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term "aspects of the disclosure" does not require that all aspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage, or mode of operation.

[0034] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that any of a variety of different techniques and methods may be used to represent the information and signals described below. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the following description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, light fields or optical particles, or any combination thereof, which depends in part on the specific application, in part on the desired design, in part on the corresponding technology, and so on.

[0035] In addition, many aspects are described in terms of a sequence of actions to be performed by, for example, an element of a computing device. It will be appreciated that the various actions described herein may be performed by a specific circuit (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of the two. In addition, the sequence of actions described herein may be considered to be fully embodied in any form of non-transient computer-readable storage medium, in which a corresponding computer instruction set is stored, which, when executed, will cause or command the associated processor of the device to perform the functionality described herein. Therefore, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in a variety of different forms, all of which have been contemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the various aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect may be described herein as, for example, "logic configured to perform the described actions".

[0036] As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" are not intended to be specific or otherwise limited to any specific radio access technology (RAT). In general, a UE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a consumer asset location device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, glasses, an augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) head-mounted device, etc.), a vehicle (e.g., a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, etc.), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network. A UE may be mobile or may be stationary (e.g., at certain times) and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" may be interchangeably referred to as an "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber device", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or "UT", "mobile device", "mobile terminal", "mobile station" or variations thereof. In general, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network, the UE may be connected to external networks such as the Internet and to other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for the UE to connect to the core network and / or the Internet are also possible, such as through a wired access network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, etc.), etc.

[0037] A base station may operate according to one of several RATs to communicate with a UE, depending on the network in which the base station is deployed, and may alternatively be referred to as an access point (AP), a network node, a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a new radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as a gNB or gNodeB), etc. A base station may be primarily used to support wireless access for UEs, including supporting data, voice, and / or signaling connections for supported UEs. In some systems, a base station may provide only edge node signaling functions, while in other systems, it may provide additional control and / or network management functions. The communication link by which a UE may transmit a signal to a base station is referred to as an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). The communication link by which a base station may transmit a signal to a UE is referred to as a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term "traffic channel (TCH)" may refer to an uplink / reverse traffic channel or a downlink / forward traffic channel.

[0038] The term "base station" may refer to a single physical transmit-receive point (TRP) or multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be co-located. For example, where the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. Where the term "base station" refers to multiple co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be an antenna array of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or where the base station employs beamforming). Where the term "base station" refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transmission medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-co-located physical TRP may be a serving base station that receives measurement reports from a UE and an adjacent base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signal the UE is measuring. Because, as used herein, a TRP is a point by which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, references to transmitting from a base station or receiving at a base station should be understood to refer to a specific TRP of a base station.

[0039] In some specific implementations of supporting UE positioning, the base station may not support wireless access for the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections for the UE), but may instead send a reference signal to be measured by the UE to the UE and / or may receive and measure a signal sent by the UE. Such a base station may be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., in the case of sending a signal to the UE) and / or as a position measurement unit (e.g., in the case of receiving and measuring a signal from the UE).

[0040] An "RF signal" includes an electromagnetic wave of a given frequency that transmits information through the space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels, a receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between a transmitter and a receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal. As used herein, an RF signal may also be referred to as a "wireless signal" or simply a "signal" where it is clear from the context that the term "signal" refers to a wireless signal or an RF signal.

[0041] Figure 1An example wireless communication system 100 according to various aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. The wireless communication system 100 (which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 (labeled as "BS") and various UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macro cell base stations (high power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low power cellular base stations). In one aspect, the macro cell base stations may include eNBs and / or ng-eNBs (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network), or gNBs (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an NR network), or a combination of the two, and the small cell base stations may include femto cells, pico cells, micro cells, etc.

[0042] The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC)) through a backhaul link 122, and interface with one or more location servers 172 (e.g., a location management function (LMF) or a secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP)) through the core network 170. The location server 172 may be part of the core network 170 or may be external to the core network 170. The location server 172 may be integrated with the base station 102. The UE 104 may communicate with the location server 172 directly or indirectly. For example, the UE 104 may communicate with the location server 172 via the base station 102 currently serving the UE 104. The UE 104 may also communicate with the location server 172 via another path, such as via an application server (not shown), via another network, such as via a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) (e.g., AP 150 described below), etc. For signaling purposes, communication between UE 104 and location server 172 may be represented as an indirect connection (e.g., through core network 170, etc.) or a direct connection (e.g., as shown via direct connection 128), with intermediate nodes (if any) omitted from the signaling diagram for clarity.

[0043] Among other functions, the base station 102 may perform functions related to one or more of the following: delivering user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of warning messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through EPC / 5GC) over a backhaul link 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0044] Base station 102 may communicate wirelessly with UE 104. Each of base stations 102 may provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographic coverage area 110. In one aspect, one or more cells may be supported by base station 102 in each geographic coverage area 110. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used to communicate with a base station (e.g., on a frequency resource, which is referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, frequency band, etc.), and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCI), an enhanced cell identifier (ECI), a virtual cell identifier (VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI), etc.) used to distinguish cells operating via the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or other protocol types) that may provide access to different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a specific base station, the term "cell" may refer to either or both of the logical communication entity and the base station supporting it, depending on the context. In addition, because the TRP is generally the physical transmission point of the cell, the terms "cell" and "TRP" can be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term "cell" can also refer to the geographic coverage area (e.g., sector) of a base station, as long as the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within a portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0045] Although the geographic coverage areas 110 of neighboring macrocell base stations 102 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover region), some of the geographic coverage areas 110 may substantially overlap with the larger geographic coverage areas 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' (labeled "SC" for "small cell") may have a geographic coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the geographic coverage areas 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macrocell base stations may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a home eNB (HeNB), which may provide services to a restricted group called a closed subscriber group (CSG).

[0046] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include uplink (also referred to as reverse link) transmissions from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and / or downlink (DL) (also referred to as forward link) transmissions from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna technology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 may be over one or more carrier frequencies. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric for the downlink and uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to the downlink than to the uplink).

[0047] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a WLAN access point (AP) 150 that communicates with a wireless local area network (WLAN) station (STA) 152 in an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz) via a communication link 154. When communicating in the unlicensed spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen before talk (LBT) procedure prior to communication to determine whether a channel is available.

[0048] The small cell base station 102' can operate in licensed and / or unlicensed spectrum. When operating in the unlicensed spectrum, the small cell base station 102' can adopt LTE or NR technology and use the same 5GHz unlicensed spectrum used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102' using LTE / 5G in the unlicensed spectrum can improve the coverage of the access network and / or increase the capacity of the access network. NR in the unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as NR-U. LTE in the unlicensed spectrum can be referred to as LTE-U, Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) or MulteFire.

[0049] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a millimeter wave (mmW) base station 180, which can operate at mmW frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies to communicate with UE 182. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is part of RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz, with a wavelength between 1 mm and 10 mm. The radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near mmW can be extended downward to a frequency of 3 GHz, with a wavelength of 100 mm. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, and it is also referred to as centimeter waves. Communications using mmW / near mmW radio frequency bands have high path loss and relatively short distances. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmitting and / or receiving) on ​​the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for extremely high path loss and short distances. In addition, it should be understood that in an alternative configuration, one or more base stations 102 may also use mmW or near mmW and beamforming for transmission. Therefore, it should be understood that the foregoing illustrations are merely examples and should not be construed as limiting the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0050] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in a specific direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in all directions (omnidirectionally). With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that specific direction, thereby providing a faster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal to the receiving device. In order to change the directionality of the RF signal when transmitting, the network node can control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of the one or more transmitters that broadcast the RF signal. For example, a network node can use an array of antennas (called a "phased array" or "antenna array") that creates RF beams that can be "steered" to point in different directions without actually moving the antennas. Specifically, the RF current from the transmitter is fed to each antenna in the correct phase relationship so that the radio waves from the separate antennas are added together to increase the radiation in the desired direction while canceling to suppress the radiation in the undesired direction.

[0051] The transmit beams can be quasi-co-located, which means that they appear to the receiver (e.g., UE) to have the same parameters, regardless of whether the network node's own transmit antenna is physically co-located. In NR, there are four types of quasi-co-location (QCL) relationships. Specifically, a given type of QCL relationship means that certain parameters about the second reference RF signal on the second beam can be derived based on information about the source reference RF signal on the source beam. Therefore, if the source reference RF signal is QCL type A, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread of the second reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type B, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of the second reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type C, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and average delay of the second reference RF signal sent on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type D, the receiver may use the source reference RF signal to estimate spatial reception parameters of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0052] In receive beamforming, the receiver uses receive beams to amplify RF signals detected on a given channel. For example, the receiver may increase the gain setting of the antenna array in a particular direction and / or adjust the phase setting of the antenna array in a particular direction to amplify the RF signal received from that direction (e.g., increase its gain level). Therefore, when a receiver is said to perform beamforming in a certain direction, it means that the beam gain in that direction is high relative to the beam gain along other directions, or the beam gain in that direction is the highest compared to the beam gain in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc.) of the RF signal received from that direction.

[0053] The transmit beam and the receive beam may be spatially correlated. The spatial relationship means that parameters of a second beam (e.g., a transmit beam or a receive beam) for a second reference signal may be derived based on information about a first beam (e.g., a receive beam or a transmit beam) for a first reference signal. For example, a UE may use a specific receive beam to receive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., a synchronization signal block (SSB)) from a base station. The UE may then form a transmit beam for transmitting an uplink reference signal (e.g., a sounding reference signal (SRS)) to the base station based on the parameters of the receive beam.

[0054] Note that depending on the entity forming the "downlink" beam, the beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam. For example, if the base station is forming a downlink beam to send a reference signal to the UE, the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if the UE is forming a downlink beam, the downlink beam is a receive beam that receives a downlink reference signal. Similarly, depending on the entity forming the "uplink" beam, the beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam. For example, if the base station is forming an uplink beam, it is an uplink receive beam, while if the UE is forming an uplink beam, it is an uplink transmit beam.

[0055] The electromagnetic spectrum is typically subdivided into various categories, bands, channels, etc. based on frequency / wavelength. In 5GNR, two initial operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz–7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz–52.6 GHz). It should be understood that, although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz, FR1 is often (interchangeably) referred to as the “below 6 GHz” band in various documents and articles. A similar naming problem sometimes occurs with respect to FR2, which is often (interchangeably) referred to as the “millimeter wave” band in documents and articles, although different from the extremely high frequency (EHF) band (30 GHz–300 GHz) identified as the “millimeter wave” band by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

[0056] Frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are generally referred to as mid-band frequencies. Recent 5G NR research has identified the operating bands for these mid-band frequencies as frequency range designation FR3 (7.125GHz–24.25GHz). The bands falling within FR3 can inherit FR1 characteristics and / or FR2 characteristics, and thus the features of FR1 and / or FR2 can be effectively extended to mid-band frequencies. In addition, higher frequency bands are currently being explored to extend 5G NR operations to more than 52.6GHz. For example, three higher operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR4a or FR4-1 (52.6GHz–71GHz), FR4 (52.6GHz–114.25GHz), and FR5 (114.25GHz–300GHz). Each of these higher frequency bands falls within the EHF band.

[0057] In view of the above aspects, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that if used in this article, the term "below 6 GHz" and the like can be broadly referred to as frequencies that can be less than 6 GHz, can be within FR1, or can include mid-band frequencies. In addition, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that if the term "millimeter wave" and the like are used in this article, they can be broadly referred to as frequencies that can include mid-band frequencies, can be within FR2, FR4, FR4-a or FR4-1 and / or FR5, or can be within the EHF band.

[0058] In a multi-carrier system (such as 5G), one of the carrier frequencies is referred to as the "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell", and the remaining carrier frequencies are referred to as "secondary carriers" or "secondary serving cells" or "SCells". In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is a carrier operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) used by the UE 104 / 182 and the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 performs an initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific control channels and can be a carrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case). A secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2), which can be configured and used to provide additional radio resources once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier. In some cases, the secondary carrier can be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier may contain only necessary signaling information and signals, for example, since the primary uplink carrier and the primary downlink carrier are usually UE-specific, those UE-specific signaling information and signals may not be present in the secondary carrier. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplink primary carrier. The network is able to change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance the load on different carriers. Because a "serving cell" (whether PCell or SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier on which a base station communicates, the terms "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. are used interchangeably.

[0059] For example, still refer to Figure 1 , one of the frequencies used by macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or "PCell"), and the other frequencies used by macrocell base station 102 and / or mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers ("SCells"). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers enables UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rate. For example, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically result in a doubling of the data rate (i.e., 40 MHz) compared to the data rate obtained with a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0060] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a UE 164, which may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 via a communication link 120 and / or communicate with the mmW base station 180 via a mmW communication link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0061] In some cases, UE 164 and UE 182 are capable of sidelink communication. A UE with sidelink capability (SL-UE) can communicate with base station 102 via communication link 120 using a Uu interface (i.e., an air interface between UE and base station). SL-UEs (e.g., UE 164, UE 182) can also communicate directly with each other via a wireless sidelink 160 using a PC5 interface (i.e., an air interface between UEs with sidelink capability). A wireless sidelink (or just "sidelink") is an adaptation of a core cellular network (e.g., LTE, NR) standard that allows direct communication between two or more UEs without communicating through a base station. Sidelink communications can be unicast or multicast and can be used for device-to-device (D2D) media sharing, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2X) communications (e.g., cellular V2X (cV2X) communications, enhanced V2X (eV2X) communications, etc.), emergency rescue applications, etc. One or more SL-UEs in a group of SL-UEs utilizing sidelink communications may be located within the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 102. Other SL-UEs in such a group may be outside the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 102, or may be unable to receive transmissions from the base station 102 for other reasons. In some cases, each group of SL-UEs communicating via sidelink communications may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system, where each SL-UE transmits to each other SL-UE in the group. In some cases, the base station 102 facilitates the scheduling of resources for the sidelink communications. In other cases, the sidelink communications are performed between the SL-UEs without involving the base station 102.

[0062] In one aspect, the sidelink 160 may operate on a wireless communication medium of interest, which may be shared with other vehicles and / or infrastructure access points and other wireless communications between other RATs. A "medium" may include one or more time, frequency, and / or spatial communication resources associated with wireless communications between one or more transmitter / receiver pairs (e.g., covering one or more channels across one or more carriers). In one aspect, the medium of interest may correspond to at least a portion of an unlicensed band shared between various RATs. Although different licensed bands have been reserved for certain communication systems (e.g., by government entities such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States), these systems (particularly those that employ small cell access points) have recently expanded operations into unlicensed bands such as the unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) band used by wireless local area network (WLAN) technology (most notably the IEEE 802.11x WLAN technology commonly referred to as "Wi-Fi"). Example systems of this type include different variants of CDMA systems, TDMA systems, FDMA systems, orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems, and the like.

[0063] Note that although Figure 1 Only two of these UEs are illustrated as SL-UEs (i.e., UEs 164 and 182), but any of the illustrated UEs may be SL-UEs. In addition, although only UE 182 is described as being capable of beamforming, any of the illustrated UEs (including UE 164) may be capable of beamforming. In the case where SL-UEs are capable of beamforming, they may beamform toward each other (i.e., toward other SL-UEs), toward other UEs (e.g., UE 104), toward base stations (e.g., base stations 102, 180, small cells 102', access point 150), etc. Therefore, in some cases, UE 164 and UE 182 may utilize beamforming via side link 160.

[0064] exist Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 1 , the UE illustrated (for simplicity, in Figure 1Any of the UEs 104 (shown as a single UE 104 in FIG. 1 ) may receive a signal 124 from one or more earth orbiting space vehicles (SVs) 112 (e.g., satellites). In one aspect, the SVs 112 may be part of a satellite positioning system that the UEs 104 may use as an independent source of location information. A satellite positioning system typically includes a transmitter system (e.g., SVs 112) positioned to enable a receiver (e.g., UE 104) to determine its position on or above the earth based at least in part on a positioning signal (e.g., signal 124) received from the transmitter. Such transmitters typically transmit signals marked with a repeating pseudo-random noise (PN) code of a set number of chips. Although typically located in the SVs 112, the transmitters may sometimes be located on ground-based control stations, base stations 102, and / or other UEs 104. The UEs 104 may include one or more dedicated receivers that are specifically designed to receive the signal 124 in order to derive geographic location information from the SVs 112.

[0065] In a satellite positioning system, the use of signal 124 may be enhanced by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) that may be associated with or otherwise enabled for use with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems. For example, SBAS may include augmentation systems that provide integrity information, differential corrections, etc., such as Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), Multifunction Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), Global Positioning System (GPS) Assisted Geographic Augmented Navigation, or GPS and Geographic Augmented Navigation System (GAGAN), etc. Thus, as used herein, a satellite positioning system may include any combination of one or more global and / or regional navigation satellites associated with such one or more satellite positioning systems.

[0066] In one aspect, SV 112 may additionally or alternatively be part of one or more non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). In an NTN, SV 112 is connected to an earth station (also referred to as a ground station, NTN gateway, or gateway), which in turn is connected to an element in a 5G network, such as an improved base station 102 (without a ground antenna) or a network node in a 5GC. This element in turn will provide access to other elements in the 5G network, and ultimately provide access to entities outside the 5G network (such as Internet web servers and other user devices). In this way, instead of or in addition to communication signals from a ground base station 102, a UE 104 can receive communication signals (e.g., signal 124) from a SV 112.

[0067] The wireless communication system 100 may also include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, which are indirectly connected to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as “side links”). Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 1 , UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of UEs 104 connected to one of base stations 102 (e.g., UE 190 can indirectly obtain cellular connectivity through the D2D P2P link), and has a D2D P2P link 194 with WLAN STA 152 connected to WLAN AP 150 (UE 190 can indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity through the D2D P2P link). In an example, D2D P2P links 192 and 194 can be supported by any well-known D2D RAT, such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), etc.

[0068] Figure 2A An example wireless network structure 200 is illustrated. For example, the 5GC 210 (also referred to as the Next Generation Core (NGC)) can be functionally viewed as a control plane (C-plane) function 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and a user plane (U-plane) function 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data networks, IP routing, etc.), which operate in conjunction to form a core network. The user plane interface (NG-U) 213 and the control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 to the 5GC 210, and specifically to the user plane function 212 and the control plane function 214, respectively. In an additional configuration, the ng-eNB 224 can also be connected to the 5GC 210 via the NG-C 215 to the control plane function 214 and the NG-U 213 to the user plane function 212. In addition, the ng-eNB 224 can communicate directly with the gNB 222 via the backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the next generation RAN (NG-RAN) 220 may have one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of ng-eNBs 224 and gNBs 222. Either the gNB 222 or the ng-eNB 224 (or both) may communicate with one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

[0069] Another optional aspect may include a location server 230 that can communicate with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance for the UE 204. The location server 230 can be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively can each correspond to a single server. The location server 230 can be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204 that can be connected to the location server 230 via the core network, the 5GC 210, and / or via the Internet (not illustrated). In addition, the location server 230 can be integrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively can be external to the core network (e.g., a third-party server, such as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) server or a service server).

[0070] Figure 2B Another example wireless network structure 240 is illustrated. 5GC 260 (which may correspond to Figure 2AThe 5GC 210 in the 5GC 210 can be functionally viewed as a control plane function provided by an access and mobility management function (AMF) 264, and a user plane function provided by a user plane function (UPF) 262, which operate in conjunction to form a core network (i.e., 5GC 260). The functions of the AMF 264 include: registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, transmission of session management (SM) messages between one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any UE described herein) and a session management function (SMF) 266, a transparent proxy service for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transmission of short message service (SMS) messages between the UE 204 and a short message service function (SMSF) (not shown), and security anchor functionality (SEAF). The AMF 264 also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and the UE 204, and receives an intermediate key established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In the case of authentication based on the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), the AMF 264 retrieves security material from the AUSF. The functionality of the AMF 264 also includes security context management (SCM). The SCM receives keys from the SEAF, which it uses to derive access network specific keys. The functionality of the AMF 264 also includes location service management for regulatory services, for the transmission of location service messages between the UE 204 and the Location Management Function (LMF) 270 (which acts as a location server 230), for the transmission of location service messages between the NG-RAN 220 and the LMF 270, for the allocation of Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer identifiers for interoperation with EPS, and UE 204 mobility event notifications. In addition, the AMF 264 also supports functionality for non-3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) access networks.

[0071] The functions of UPF 262 include: acting as an anchor point for intra-RAT / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an external protocol data unit (PDU) session point for interconnection to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, service steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), service usage reporting, user plane quality of service (QoS) handling (e.g., uplink / downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in downlink), uplink service verification (service data flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and transmitting and forwarding one or more "end markers" to the source RAN node. UPF 262 can also support the delivery of location service messages between UE 204 and a location server (such as SLP 272) on the user plane.

[0072] The functions of SMF 266 include session management, UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, traffic steering configuration for routing traffic to the correct destination at UPF 262, partial control of policy enforcement and QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface through which SMF 266 communicates with AMF 264 is called the N11 interface.

[0073] Another optional aspect may include an LMF 270 that can communicate with the 5GC 260 to provide location assistance for the UE 204. The LMF 270 can be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively can each correspond to a single server. The LMF 270 can be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204, which can be connected to the LMF 270 via the core network, the 5GC 260, and / or via the Internet (not illustrated). SLP 272 may support similar functionality as LMF 270, but LMF 270 may communicate with AMF 264, NG-RAN 220, and UE 204 on a control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to carry signaling messages rather than voice or data), and SLP 272 may communicate with UE 204 and external clients (e.g., third-party servers 274) on a user plane (e.g., using protocols intended to carry voice and / or data, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and / or IP).

[0074] Yet another optional aspect may include a third-party server 274 that may communicate with the LMF 270, SLP 272, 5GC 260 (e.g., via AMF 264 and / or UPF 262), NG-RAN 220, and / or UE 204 to obtain location information (e.g., location estimate) of UE 204. Thus, in some cases, the third-party server 274 may be referred to as a location service (LCS) client or external client. The third-party server 274 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or may alternatively each correspond to a single server.

[0075] The user plane interface 263 and the control plane interface 265 connect the 5GC 260, and specifically the UPF 262 and the AMF 264, respectively, to one or more gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 in the NG-RAN 220. The interface between the gNB 222 and / or ng-eNB 224 and the AMF 264 is referred to as the "N2" interface, and the interface between the gNB 222 and / or ng-eNB 224 and the UPF 262 is referred to as the "N3" interface. The gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 of the NG-RAN 220 may communicate directly with each other via a backhaul connection 223 referred to as an "Xn-C" interface. One or more of the gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 via a wireless interface referred to as a "Uu" interface.

[0076] The functionality of the gNB 222 may be divided between a gNB central unit (gNB-CU) 226, one or more gNB distributed units (gNB-DU) 228, and one or more gNB radio units (gNB-RU) 229. The gNB-CU 226 is a logical node that includes base station functions other than those specifically assigned to the gNB-DU 228, including delivery of user data, mobility control, radio access network sharing, positioning, session management, and the like. More specifically, the gNB-CU 226 generally hosts the radio resource control (RRC), service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) protocols of the gNB 222. The gNB-DU 228 is a logical node that generally hosts the radio link control (RLC) and medium access control (MAC) layers of the gNB 222. Its operation is controlled by the gNB-CU 226. One gNB-DU 228 may support one or more cells, and one cell is supported by only one gNB-DU 228. The interface 232 between the gNB-CU 226 and one or more gNB-DUs 228 is referred to as the "F1" interface. The physical (PHY) layer functionality of the gNB 222 is typically hosted by one or more independent gNB-RUs 229, which perform functions such as power amplification and signal transmission / reception. The interface between the gNB-DU 228 and the gNB-RU 229 is referred to as the "Fx" interface. Thus, the UE 204 communicates with the gNB-CU 226 via the RRC layer, the SDAP layer, and the PDCP layer, communicates with the gNB-DU 228 via the RLC layer and the MAC layer, and communicates with the gNB-RU 229 via the PHY layer.

[0077] The deployment of a communication system (such as a 5G NR system) can be arranged with various components or components in a variety of ways. In a 5G NR system or network, a network node, a network entity, a mobility element of a network, a RAN node, a core network node, a network element or a network equipment (such as a base station or one or more units (or one or more components) that perform base station functionality can be implemented in an aggregated or decomposed architecture. For example, a base station (such as a node B (NB), an evolved NB (eNB), an NR base station, a 5GNB, an access point (AP), a transmit receive point (TRP) or a cell, etc.) can be implemented as an aggregated base station (also referred to as a standalone base station or a single-chip base station) or a decomposed base station.

[0078] The aggregated base station can be configured to utilize a radio protocol stack physically or logically integrated within a single RAN node. The decomposed base station can be configured to utilize a protocol stack physically or logically distributed between two or more units, such as one or more central or centralized units (CU), one or more distributed units (DU), or one or more radio units (RU). In some aspects, the CU can be implemented within a RAN node, and one or more DUs can be co-located with the CU, or alternatively, can be geographically or virtually distributed in one or more other RAN nodes. The DU can be implemented to communicate with one or more RUs. Each of the CU, DU, and RU can also be implemented as a virtual unit, namely a virtual central unit (VCU), a virtual distributed unit (VDU), or a virtual radio unit (VRU).

[0079] Base station type operations or network designs may take into account the aggregated nature of base station functionality. For example, a disaggregated base station may be used in an integrated access backhaul (IAB) network, an open radio access network (O-RAN (network configurations such as those initiated by the O-RAN Alliance)), or a virtualized radio access network (vRAN, also known as a cloud radio access network (C-RAN)). Decomposition may include distributing functionality across two or more units at various physical locations, as well as virtually distributing functionality of at least one unit, which may enable flexibility in network design. Individual units of a disaggregated base station or disaggregated RAN architecture may be configured for wired or wireless communication with at least one other unit.

[0080] Figure 2C An example disaggregated base station architecture 250 is illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The disaggregated base station architecture 250 may include one or more central units (CUs) 280 (e.g., gNB-CUs 226) that may communicate directly with a core network 267 (e.g., 5GC 210, 5GC 260) via a backhaul link, or indirectly with the core network 267 through one or more disaggregated base station units, such as a near real-time (near-RT) RAN intelligent controller (RIC) 259 via an E2 link or a non-real-time (non-RT) RIC 257 associated with a service management and orchestration (SMO) framework 255, or both. The CU 280 may communicate with one or more distributed units (DUs) 285 (e.g., gNB-DUs 228) via respective midhaul links, such as an F1 interface. The DUs 285 may communicate with one or more radio units (RUs) 287 (e.g., gNB-RUs 229) via respective fronthaul links. The RU 287 can communicate with a corresponding UE 204 via one or more radio frequency (RF) access links. In some implementations, a UE 204 can be served by multiple RUs 287 simultaneously.

[0081] Each of the units (i.e., CU 280, DU 285, RU 287, and near-RT RIC 259, non-RT RIC 257, and SMO framework 255) may include or be coupled to one or more interfaces configured to receive or send signals, data, or information (collectively referred to as signals) via a wired or wireless transmission medium. Each of these units or an associated processor or controller that provides instructions to the communication interface of these units may be configured to communicate with one or more of the other units via a transmission medium. For example, these units may include a wired interface configured to receive or send signals to one or more of the other units via a wired transmission medium. Additionally, these units may include a wireless interface that may include a receiver, a transmitter, or a transceiver (such as a radio frequency (RF) transceiver) configured to receive or send signals, or both, to one or more of the other units on a wireless transmission medium.

[0082] In some aspects, CU 280 may host one or more higher layer control functions. Such control functions may include radio resource control (RRC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), etc. Each control function may be implemented with an interface configured to communicate signals with other control functions hosted by CU 280. CU 280 may be configured to handle user plane functionality (i.e., central unit-user plane (CU-UP)), control plane functionality (i.e., central unit-control plane (CU-CP)), or a combination thereof. In some specific implementations, CU 280 may be logically split into one or more CU-UP units and one or more CU-CP units. When implemented in an O-RAN configuration, the CU-UP unit may communicate bidirectionally with the CU-CP unit via an interface (such as an E1 interface). As needed, CU 280 may be implemented to communicate with DU 285 for network control and signaling.

[0083] DU 285 may correspond to a logical unit that includes one or more base station functions for controlling the operation of one or more RUs 287. In some aspects, DU 285 may host one or more of a radio link control (RLC) layer, a medium access control (MAC) layer, and one or more high physical (PHY) layers (such as modules for forward error correction (FEC) coding and decoding, scrambling, modulation and demodulation, etc.) at least in part according to a functional split such as defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). In some aspects, DU 285 may also host one or more low PHY layers. Each layer (or module) may be implemented using an interface that is configured to communicate signals with other layers (and modules) hosted by DU 285 or with control functions hosted by CU 280.

[0084] The lower layer functionality may be implemented by one or more RUs 287. In some deployments, a RU 287 controlled by a DU 285 may correspond to a logical node that hosts RF processing functions or low PHY layer functions (such as performing Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Inverse FFT (iFFT), digital beamforming, physical random access channel (PRACH) extraction and filtering, etc.), or both, based at least in part on functional partitioning (such as lower layer functional partitioning). In such an architecture, the RU 287 may be implemented to handle over-the-air (OTA) communications with one or more UEs 204. In some implementations, real-time and non-real-time aspects of control plane communications and user plane communications with the RU 287 may be controlled by the corresponding DU 285. In some scenarios, this configuration may enable the implementation of the DU 285 and the CU 280 in a cloud-based RAN architecture (such as a vRAN architecture).

[0085] The SMO framework 255 may be configured to support RAN deployment and provisioning of non-virtualized network elements and virtualized network elements. For non-virtualized network elements, the SMO framework 255 may be configured to support the deployment of dedicated physical resources for RAN coverage requirements, which may be managed via an operation and maintenance interface (such as an O1 interface). For virtualized network elements, the SMO framework 255 may be configured to interact with a cloud computing platform (such as an open cloud (O-Cloud) 269) to perform network element lifecycle management (such as instantiating virtualized network elements) via a cloud computing platform interface (such as an O2 interface). Such virtualized network elements may include, but are not limited to, CU 280, DU 285, RU 287, and near-RT RIC 259. In some specific implementations, the SMO framework 255 may communicate with hardware aspects of the 4G RAN (such as an open eNB (O-eNB) 261) via the O1 interface. In addition, in some specific implementations, the SMO framework 255 may communicate directly with one or more RUs 287 via the O1 interface. The SMO framework 255 may also include a non-RT RIC 257 configured to support the functionality of the SMO framework 255 .

[0086] The non-RT RIC 257 may be configured to include logic functions that enable non-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources, artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) workflows including model training and updating, or policy-based guidance of applications / features in the near-RT RIC 259. The non-RT RIC 257 may be coupled to or in communication with the near-RT RIC 259 (such as via an A1 interface). The near-RT RIC 259 may be configured to include logic functions that enable near-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources via data collection and actions through an interface (such as via an E2 interface) that connects one or more CUs 280, one or more DUs 285, or both, and the O-eNB with the near-RT RIC 259.

[0087] In some implementations, in order to generate an AI / ML model to be deployed in the near-RT RIC 259, the non-RT RIC 257 may receive parameters or external enrichment information from an external server. Such information may be utilized by the near-RT RIC 259 and may be received from a non-network data source or from a network function at the SMO framework 255 or the non-RT RIC 257. In some examples, the non-RT RIC 257 or the near-RT RIC 259 may be configured to tune RAN behavior or performance. For example, the non-RT RIC 257 may monitor long-term trends and patterns of performance and employ AI / ML models to perform corrective actions through the SMO framework 255 (such as via reconfiguration of O1) or via the creation of RAN management policies (such as A1 policies).

[0088] Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3C The example embodiment may be incorporated into a UE 302 (which may correspond to any UE described herein), a base station 304 (which may correspond to any base station described herein), and a network entity 306 (which may correspond to or embody any network function described herein, including a location server 230 and a LMF 270, or alternatively may be independent of Figure 2A and Figure 2B Several example components (represented by corresponding boxes) in the NG-RAN 220 and / or 5GC 210 / 260 infrastructure depicted in the present invention (such as a dedicated network) are shown to support operations as described herein. It should be understood that these components can be implemented in different types of devices with different specific implementations (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system on a chip (SoC), etc.). The illustrated components can also be incorporated into other devices in the communication system. For example, other devices in the system may include components similar to those described as providing similar functionality. In addition, a given device may include one or more of these components. For example, a device may include multiple transceiver components that enable the device to operate on multiple carriers and / or communicate via different technologies.

[0089] UE 302 and base station 304 each include one or more wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceivers 310 and 350, respectively, which provide means (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for preventing transmitting, etc.) for communicating via one or more wireless communication networks (not shown), such as NR networks, LTE networks, GSM networks, etc. WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may each be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes (such as other UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc.) via at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) on a wireless communication medium of interest (e.g., a set of time / frequency resources in a particular spectrum). The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 can be configured in different ways to transmit and decode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.) according to a specified RAT, and conversely, receive and decode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.). Specifically, the WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 include: one or more transmitters 314 and 354 for transmitting and decoding the signals 318 and 358, respectively, and one or more receivers 312 and 352 for receiving and decoding the signals 318 and 358, respectively.

[0090] At least in some cases, the UE 302 and the base station 304 each further include one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360, respectively. The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 can be connected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, and provide for communicating over the wireless communication medium of interest via at least one designated RAT (e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 are components (e.g., components for sending, components for receiving, components for measuring, components for tuning, components for preventing sending, etc.) for communicating with other network nodes (such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc.) using a PC5, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), wireless access for vehicle environments (WAVE), near field communication (NFC), ultra-wideband (UWB), etc.). The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 can be configured in different ways to send and decode signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.) according to a specified RAT, and conversely, receive and decode signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.). Specifically, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 include: one or more transmitters 324 and 364 for sending and decoding signals 328 and 368, respectively, and one or more receivers 322 and 362 for receiving and decoding signals 328 and 368, respectively. As a specific example, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be WiFi transceivers, Transceiver, and / or transceiver, NFC transceiver UWB transceiver or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and / or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) transceiver.

[0091] At least in some cases, the UE 302 and the base station 304 also include satellite signal receivers 330 and 370. The satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 may be connected to one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, and may provide components for receiving and / or measuring satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. In the case where the satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 are satellite positioning system receivers, the satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378 may be global positioning system (GPS) signals, global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, Beidou signals, Indian regional navigation satellite system (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. In the case where the satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 are non-terrestrial network (NTN) receivers, the satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378 may be communication signals (e.g., carrying control and / or user data) originating from a 5G network. The satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 may include any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. Satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 may request appropriate information and operations from other systems and, at least in some cases, perform calculations using measurements obtained by any suitable satellite positioning system algorithm to determine the positions of UE 302 and base station 304, respectively.

[0092] The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include one or more network transceivers 380 and 390, respectively, which provide means (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, etc.) for communicating with other network entities (e.g., other base stations 304, other network entities 306). For example, the base station 304 may employ one or more network transceivers 380 to communicate with other base stations 304 or network entities 306 via one or more wired or wireless backhaul links. As another example, the network entity 306 may employ one or more network transceivers 390 to communicate with one or more base stations 304 via one or more wired or wireless backhaul links, or communicate with other network entities 306 via one or more wired or wireless core network interfaces.

[0093] The transceiver may be configured to communicate over a wired or wireless link. A transceiver (whether a wired transceiver or a wireless transceiver) includes a transmitter circuit (e.g., transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) and a receiver circuit (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352, 362). In some implementations, the transceiver may be an integrated device (e.g., implementing the transmitter circuit and the receiver circuit in a single device), in some implementations may include separate transmitter circuits and separate receiver circuits, or in other implementations may be implemented in other ways. The transmitter circuit and the receiver circuit of a wired transceiver (e.g., network transceivers 380 and 390 in some implementations) may be coupled to one or more wired network interface ports. The wireless transmitter circuitry (e.g., transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as antenna arrays, which allow the corresponding device (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform transmit "beamforming", as described herein. Similarly, the wireless receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352, 362) may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as antenna arrays, which allow the corresponding device (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform receive beamforming, as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry may share the same multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) so that the corresponding device can only receive or only transmit at a given time, rather than both receive and transmit at the same time. The wireless transceivers (eg, WWAN transceivers 310 and 350, short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360) may also include a network listening module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

[0094] As used herein, various wireless transceivers (e.g., transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360 in some implementations, and network transceivers 380 and 390) and wired transceivers (e.g., network transceivers 380 and 390 in some implementations) may be generally characterized as a "transceiver," "at least one transceiver," or "one or more transceivers." Thus, whether a particular transceiver is a wired transceiver or a wireless transceiver may be inferred based on the type of communication being performed. For example, backhaul communications between network devices or servers typically involve signaling via a wired transceiver, while wireless communications between a UE (e.g., UE 302) and a base station (e.g., base station 304) will typically involve signaling via a wireless transceiver.

[0095] UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 also include other components that can be used in conjunction with the operations disclosed herein. UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 include one or more processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, for providing functionality related to, for example, wireless communication, and for providing other processing functionality. Thus, processors 332, 384, and 394 may provide means for processing, such as means for determining, means for calculating, means for receiving, means for sending, means for indicating, etc. In one aspect, processors 332, 384, and 394 may include, for example, one or more general purpose processors, multi-core processors, central processing units (CPUs), ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), other programmable logic devices or processing circuits, or various combinations thereof.

[0096] UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 include memory circuitry implementing memory 340, 386, and 396 (e.g., each including a memory device) for maintaining information (e.g., information indicating reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). Thus, memory 340, 386, and 396 may provide means for storing, means for retrieving, means for maintaining, etc. In some cases, UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may include positioning components 342, 388, and 398, respectively. Positioning components 342, 388, and 398 may be hardware circuits that are part of or coupled to processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, which when executed cause UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. In other aspects, positioning components 342, 388, and 398 may be external to processors 332, 384, and 394 (e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated with another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the positioning components 342, 388 and 398 can be memory modules stored in the memories 340, 386 and 396, respectively, which, when executed by the processors 332, 384 and 394 (or a modem processing system, another processing system, etc.), cause the UE 302, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. Figure 3A Possible locations for a location component 342 are illustrated, which may be, for example, part of one or more WWAN transceivers 310, memory 340, one or more processors 332, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component. Figure 3B Possible locations for a location component 388 are illustrated, which may be, for example, part of one or more WWAN transceivers 350, memory 386, one or more processors 384, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component. Figure 3C Possible locations for a location component 398 are illustrated, which may be, for example, part of one or more network transceivers 390, memory 396, one or more processors 394, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component.

[0097] UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to one or more processors 332 to provide a means for sensing or detecting movement and / or orientation information that is independent of motion data derived from signals received by one or more WWAN transceivers 310, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320, and / or satellite signal receivers 330. As an example, sensor 344 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric altimeter), and / or any other type of motion detection sensor. In addition, sensor 344 may include multiple different types of devices and combine their outputs to provide motion information. For example, sensor 344 may use a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and an orientation sensor to provide the ability to calculate positioning in a two-dimensional (2D) and / or three-dimensional (3D) coordinate system.

[0098] In addition, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346, which provides means for providing indications to the user (e.g., audible and / or visual indications) and / or for receiving user input (e.g., when the user actuates a sensing device such as a keypad, touch screen, microphone, etc.). Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 may also include a user interface.

[0099] Referring to the one or more processors 384 in more detail, in a downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the processor 384. The one or more processors 384 may implement functionality for an RRC layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a medium access control (MAC) layer. One or more processors 384 may provide: RRC layer functionality associated with broadcasting of system information (e.g., master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression, security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality associated with delivery of upper layer PDUs, error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ), concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, scheduling information reporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0100] The transmitter 354 and the receiver 352 may implement layer 1 (L1) functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1, including the physical (PHY) layer, may include: error detection on the transport channel, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of the transport channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to the physical channel, modulation / demodulation of the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 354 handles the mapping to the signal constellation based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), M-phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be separated into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., a pilot) in the time and / or frequency domain, and then combined together using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a time domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol stream is spatially pre-decoded to generate multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator may be used to determine coding and modulation schemes and for spatial processing. Channel estimates may be derived from a reference signal and / or channel state feedback sent by the UE 302. Each spatial stream may then be provided to one or more different antennas 356. The transmitter 354 may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0101] At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives the signal through its corresponding antenna 316. The receiver 312 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to one or more processors 332. The transmitter 314 and the receiver 312 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. The receiver 312 can perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for the UE 302. If the destination of multiple spatial streams is the UE 302, they can be combined into a single OFDM symbol stream by the receiver 312. The receiver 312 then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time domain to the frequency domain using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal includes a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier and the reference signal are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation point sent by the base station 304. These soft decisions can be based on channel estimates calculated by a channel estimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals originally sent by the base station 304 on the physical channel. The data and control signals are then provided to one or more processors 332, which implement layer 3 (L3) and layer 2 (L2) functionality.

[0102] In the downlink, one or more processors 332 provide demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. One or more processors 332 are also responsible for error detection.

[0103] Similar to the functionality described in conjunction with downlink transmissions performed by the base station 304, the one or more processors 332 provide: RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression and security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality associated with transmission of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0104] Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from a reference signal or feedback sent by the base station 304 may be used by the transmitter 314 to select appropriate coding and modulation schemes and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter 314 may be provided to different antennas 316. The transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0105] The uplink transmissions are processed at the base station 304 in a manner similar to that described in conjunction with the receiver functionality at the UE 302. The receiver 352 receives the signal through its respective antenna 356. The receiver 352 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to one or more processors 384.

[0106] In the uplink, one or more processors 384 provide demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from UE 302. IP packets from one or more processors 384 may be provided to the core network. One or more processors 384 are also responsible for error detection.

[0107] For convenience, UE 302, base station 304 and / or network entity 306 may Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3C, is shown as including various components that can be configured according to the various examples described herein. However, it should be understood that the illustrated components may have different functionality in different designs. Specifically, FIG. 3A to FIG. 3C The various components in are optional in alternative configurations, and various aspects include configurations that may vary due to design choice, cost, use of the device, or other considerations. For example, in Figure 3A In the case of a wearable device or a tablet computer or a PC or a laptop computer, a specific implementation of the UE 302 may omit the WWAN transceiver 310 (e.g., a wearable device or a tablet computer or a PC or a laptop computer may have Wi-Fi and / or Bluetooth capabilities but no cellular capabilities), may omit the short-range wireless transceiver 320 (e.g., only cellular, etc.), may omit the satellite signal receiver 330, may omit the sensor 344, etc. In another example, in Figure 3B In the case of a wireless cellular network, a specific implementation of the base station 304 may omit the WWAN transceiver 350 (e.g., a Wi-Fi "hotspot" access point without cellular capabilities), or may omit the short-range wireless transceiver 360 (e.g., cellular only, etc.), or may omit the satellite signal receiver 370, etc. For the sake of brevity, illustrations of various alternative configurations are not provided herein, but will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

[0108] Various components of the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may be communicatively coupled to one another via data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392, respectively. In an aspect, the data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392 may form or be part of communication interfaces for the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306, respectively. For example, where different logical entities are embodied in the same device (e.g., gNB and location server functionality incorporated into the same base station 304), the data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392 may provide for communication between the different logical entities.

[0109] Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3C The components of can be implemented in various ways. In some specific implementations, Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3CThe components of may be implemented in one or more circuits, such as, for example, one or more processors and / or one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors). Here, each circuit may use and / or be combined with at least one memory component for storing information or executable code used by the circuit to provide the functionality. For example, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 310 to 346 may be implemented by a processor and memory component of UE 302 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor component). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 350 to 388 may be implemented by a processor and memory component of base station 304 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor component). Moreover, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390 to 398 may be implemented by a processor and memory component of network entity 306 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor component). For simplicity, various operations, actions and / or functions are described herein as being performed "by a UE", "by a base station", "by a network entity", etc. However, it should be understood that such operations, actions and / or functions may actually be performed by specific components or combinations of components of UE302, base station 304, network entity 306, etc. (such as processors 332, 384, 394, transceivers 310, 320, 350 and 360, memories 340, 386 and 396, positioning components 342, 388 and 398, etc.).

[0110] In some designs, the network entity 306 may be implemented as a core network component. In other designs, the network entity 306 may be operated differently from a network operator or cellular network infrastructure (e.g., NG RAN 220 and / or 5GC 210 / 260). For example, the network entity 306 may be a component of a dedicated network that may be configured to communicate with the UE 302 via the base station 304 or independently of the base station 304 (e.g., via a non-cellular communication link such as WiFi).

[0111] Application services are pools of services needed to optimally deploy, run, and improve applications, such as load balancing, application performance monitoring, application acceleration, autoscaling, micro-segmentation, service proxy, service discovery, etc. Services and applications are both software programs, but they usually have different characteristics. Broadly speaking, services usually target smaller and more isolated functions than applications, and applications usually expose and call services, including services in other applications.

[0112] Web services are a type of application services that can be accessed via a Web address for direct application-to-application interaction. Web services can be local, distributed, or Web-based. Web services are based on open standards such as TCP / IP, HTTP, Java, HTML, and XML, and therefore, web services do not rely on any one operating system or programming language. Therefore, software applications written in various programming languages ​​and running on various platforms can use Web services to exchange data through computer networks (such as the Internet) in a manner similar to inter-process communication on a single computer. For example, a client can call a Web service by transmitting an XML message to a Web service and waiting for a corresponding XML response.

[0113] An application programming interface (API) is an interface that facilitates interaction between different systems (e.g., hardware, firmware, and / or software entities or levels). More specifically, an API is a set of defined rules, commands, permissions, and / or protocols that allow one system to interact with another system and access data from another system. For example, an API may provide an interface for higher-level software (e.g., applications, web services, application services, etc.) to access lower-level software (e.g., microservices, operating systems, BIOS, firmware, device drivers, etc.) or hardware components (e.g., USB controllers, memory controllers, transceivers, etc.). Since web services expose the data and functionality of applications, every web service is actually an API, but not every API is a web service.

[0114] One type of API used to build microservice applications is a representational state transfer API, also known as a "REST API" or "RESTful API". REST API is a set of Web API architectural principles, which means that to be a REST API, the interface must adhere to certain architectural constraints. REST APIs typically use HTTP commands and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. It is language-independent because it can be used to connect applications and microservices written in different programming languages. Common commands for REST APIs include HTTP PUT, HTTP POST, HTTP DELETE, HTTP GET, and HTTP PATCH. Developers can use these REST API commands to perform actions on different "resources" within an application or service (such as data in a database). REST APIs can use uniform resource locators (URLs) to locate and indicate the resources on which actions are performed.

[0115] Microservices are individual small, autonomous, independent services and / or functions that together form a larger microservices-based application. Within the application, each microservice performs a defined function, such as authenticating a user or retrieving a specific type of data. The goal of microservices, which are generally language-independent, is to enable them to fit into any type of application and communicate or collaborate with each other to achieve the overall purpose of a larger microservices-based application. When microservices are connected to create a microservices-based application, APIs define the rules that prevent and allow the actions of individual microservices and the interactions between individual microservices. For example, a REST API can be used as rules, commands, permissions, and / or protocols to integrate separate microservices to act as a single application.

[0116] Webhooks enable interaction between web-based applications using customized callbacks. The use of webhooks allows web-based applications to automatically communicate with other web-based applications. Unlike traditional systems where one system (the "subject" system) continuously polls another system (the "observer" system) to obtain certain data, webhooks allow the observer system to automatically push data to the subject system whenever an event occurs. This reduces the significant load on both systems because calls are only made between the two systems when a specified event occurs.

[0117] Webhooks communicate via HTTP and rely on the presence of a static URL that points to an API in the subject system that should be notified when an event occurs on the observer system. Therefore, the subject system needs to specify one or more URLs that will accept event notifications from the observer system.

[0118] Figure 4 4 is a diagram 400 illustrating example interactions between an application 410, an application service 420, an operating system (OS) 430, and hardware 440 using various APIs according to aspects of the present disclosure. In one aspect, the application 410, the application service 420, the operating system 430, and the hardware 440 may be combined in the same device (e.g., UE, base station, etc.).

[0119] like Figure 4 As shown, application service 420 (which may be a web service) includes two microservices 422a and 422b (collectively referred to as microservices 422). However, it should be understood that application service 420 may include more or less than two microservices 422. In some cases, application program 410 may directly access individual microservices 422 via their respective APIs 424a and 424b (collectively referred to as API 424). Figure 4424b is illustrated by application 410 calling microservice 422b via API 424b. Alternatively, application 410 may call application service 420 via API 424c of application service 420. Application service 420 may then call appropriate microservice 422 via corresponding API 424. Figure 4 4 is illustrated by application service 410 representing application program 410 calling microservice 422a via API 424a.

[0120] If called by application 410, microservice 422 can respond to application 410 via callback 412 of application 410. Alternatively, if called by application service 420, microservice 422 can respond to application service 420 via callback 426c of application service 420. In either case, the client (application 410 or application service 420) can call microservice 422 by transmitting, for example, an XML message to microservice 422 via corresponding API 424, and microservice 422 can respond to the client by transmitting a corresponding XML response to callback 412.

[0121] Microservices 422 can access various subsystems within operating system 430 via the subsystem's corresponding API. Figure 4 In the example of , operating system 430 includes location subsystem 432a and communication subsystem 432b (collectively referred to as subsystem 432). Location subsystem 432a may include software and / or firmware for determining the location of a mobile device (e.g., UE). The mobile device being located may be a device including operating system 430 (e.g., a UE that calculates its own location, as in the case of UE-based positioning) or another device that does not include operating system 430 (e.g., where a location server estimates the location of the UE). Communication subsystem 432b may similarly include software and / or firmware for enabling a device including operating system 430 to communicate wirelessly. For example, communication subsystem 432b may implement lower layer communication functionality (e.g., MAC layer functionality, RRC layer functionality, etc.).

[0122] The subsystems 432 each expose corresponding APIs 434a and 434b (collectively, APIs 434) to a higher architectural level. The microservices 422 can call the subsystems 432 via their corresponding APIs 434, and the subsystems 432 can respond to the microservices 422 via callbacks 426a and 426b (collectively, callbacks 426) of the microservices 422. Figure 4In the example of , microservice 422a calls location subsystem 432a, and microservice 422b calls communication subsystem 432b within operating system 430. Therefore, microservice 422a can be a location-related microservice, and microservice 422b can be a communication-related microservice. However, it should be understood that any microservice 422 can call any subsystem 432 via its corresponding API 434.

[0123] exist Figure 4 In the example of FIG. 4 , the hardware 440 includes a satellite signal receiver 442 a, one or more WWAN transceivers 442 b, and one or more short-range wireless transceivers 442 c (collectively referred to as hardware components 442 ). The satellite signal receiver 442 a may correspond to, for example, Figure 3A and Figure 3B The satellite signal receiver 330 or 370 in FIG. One or more WWAN transceivers 442 b may correspond to, for example, Figure 3A and Figure 3B One or more WWAN transceivers 310 or 350 in. One or more short-range wireless transceivers 442c may correspond to, for example Figure 3A and Figure 3B One or more short-range wireless transceivers 320 or 360 in.

[0124] exist Figure 4 In the example of FIG. 4 , the position subsystem 432a may transmit commands (e.g., a request for measurement of a reference signal, a request to send a reference signal, etc.) to the satellite signal receiver 442a, the one or more WWAN transceivers 442b, and / or the one or more short-range wireless transceivers 442c via their APIs 444a, 444b, and 444c, respectively. The satellite signal receiver 442a, the one or more WWAN transceivers 442b, and / or the one or more short-range wireless transceivers 442c may transmit responses to the commands (e.g., measurement of a reference signal, confirmation, etc.) to the position subsystem 432a via callback 436a. Similarly, the communication subsystem 432b may transmit information to be wirelessly transmitted (e.g., user data, measurement reports, etc.) to the one or more WWAN transceivers 442b and / or the one or more short-range wireless transceivers 442c via their APIs 444b and 444c, respectively. The one or more WWAN transceivers 442b and / or the one or more short-range wireless transceivers 442c may transmit wirelessly received information (eg, user data, location requests, positioning assistance data, etc.) to the communication subsystem 432b via the callback 436b.

[0125] As Figure 4In the context of a specific positioning example, a device incorporating the illustrated architecture may be a mobile device, and application 410 may be an application that uses the location of the mobile device (e.g., UE), such as a navigation application (e.g., running locally on the mobile device). Application 410 thus calls application service 420 (via API 424c), which calls microservice 422a (via API 424a), or directly calls microservice 422a (via API 424a). The command from application 410 indicates that application 420 is requesting the location of the mobile device, and may include (or additional commands may include) other information related to the requested location fix, such as the requested quality of service (QoS) (e.g., accuracy and latency).

[0126] Based on the QoS of the location request, the known capabilities of the mobile device (e.g., available positioning technologies, such as satellite-based, NR-based, Wi-Fi-based, etc.), available reference signal configurations (e.g., from nearby base stations), etc., the microservice 422a (via API 434a) calls the location subsystem 432a. It should be noted that the microservice 422a can coordinate with other microservices, other application services, other applications, etc. to obtain the information necessary to locate the mobile device. For example, the microservice 422a may need to access another microservice associated with one or more base stations that the mobile device is expected to measure in order to perform NR-based positioning procedures.

[0127] The microservice 422a may select a positioning technology for obtaining the location of the mobile device based on the known capabilities of the mobile device and the requested QoS. For example, using a satellite signal receiver 442a may provide high accuracy and low latency, but it may be turned off. As another example, using one or more WWAN transceivers 442b may provide low latency, but if the mobile device is indoors, the accuracy may be poor. Based on the selected positioning technology, the microservice 422a sends one or more commands to the location subsystem 432a, requesting the location subsystem 432a to call the satellite signal receiver 442a, one or more WWAN transceivers 442b, or one or more short-range wireless transceivers 442c. In addition, depending on the type of positioning technology selected, the microservice 422a may provide commands on which reference signals to measure, which reference signals to send, etc. In addition, the microservice 422a may indicate the accuracy and latency required for the positioning measurement.

[0128] Based on the command from the microservice 422a, the location subsystem 432a calls the appropriate hardware components (via one or more of the APIs 444). For example, if the positioning technology is NR-based, the location subsystem 432a may send a command to one or more WWAN transceivers 442b to measure and / or send certain reference signals at certain frequencies at certain times. In addition, based on the requested accuracy and latency, the location subsystem 432a may increase or decrease the amount of power and / or processing resources allocated to one or more WWAN transceivers 442b. For example, for higher accuracy requirements, the location subsystem 432a may dedicate more power and / or processing resources to one or more WWAN transceivers 442b.

[0129] The location subsystem 432a receives (via callback 436a) positioning measurements (e.g., reception time, transmission time, signal strength, etc.) from one or more WWAN transceivers 442b and passes them to the microservice 422a (via callback 426a). The microservice 422a can then calculate the location of the mobile device based on the measurements and any other available information (e.g., the location of the base station that sent the measured reference signal). The microservice 422a provides the calculated location of the mobile device to the application 410 via callback 412 or via application service 420 (depending on which entity calls the microservice 422a).

[0130] In some aspects, the application 410 may provide the microservice 422a with credentials or other authorization indicating that the application 410 is allowed to access the location of the mobile device. Alternatively, upon receiving the request from the application 410, the microservice 422a may determine whether the application 410 is authorized. For example, the check may be performed via another microservice, or by calling the operating system 430 to determine whether the application 410 has permission to access the location of the mobile device. Similarly, the microservice 422a may need to provide the operating system 430 with credentials or other authorization indicating that the microservice 422a is allowed to access the location of the mobile device. Alternatively, upon receiving the request from the microservice 422a, the operating system 430 may determine whether the microservice 422a is authorized.

[0131] In some aspects, the application 410 may use a webhook to obtain the location of the mobile device. In this way, each time the mobile device moves from one location to another, the application 410 will be notified. In this case, the observer system will be the microservice 422a, and the subject system will be the application 410. Instead of the application 410 having to periodically call the microservice 422a to check if the location of the mobile device has changed, the webhook created in the application 410 will allow the microservice 422a to automatically push any changes in the location of the mobile device to the application 410 through the registered URL. The microservice 422a can periodically perform positioning operations to determine the location of the mobile device in order to report changes to the application 410.

[0132] Similarly, microservice 422a may use a webhook to obtain changes in the location of the mobile device. However, in this case, because microservice 422a coordinates location determination for certain types of positioning technologies (e.g., NR-based, Wi-Fi-based), the webhook may only apply to certain other types of positioning technologies (e.g., satellite-based, sensor-based). For example, if location subsystem 432a coordinates satellite-based positioning via satellite signal receiver 442a, it may report any detected location changes to microservice 422a via a webhook.

[0133] In some cases, the application 410, application service 420, operating system 430, and hardware 440 may be distributed across multiple devices (e.g., UE, web server, location server, etc.). For example, the application 410 may run on a location server (e.g., LMF 270), the application service 420 may run on a web server, and the operating system 430 and hardware 440 may be combined in a UE (e.g., UE 204).

[0134] Various frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (eg, base stations and UEs). Figure 5 5 is a diagram illustrating an example frame structure according to aspects of the present disclosure. The frame structure may be a downlink or uplink frame structure. Other wireless communication technologies may have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0135] LTE (and in some cases NR) utilizes orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. However, unlike LTE, NR also has the option of using OFDM on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDM divide the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also often called frequency tones, frequency bins, etc. Each subcarrier can be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are transmitted in the frequency domain using OFDM and in the time domain using SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers can be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) can depend on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers can be 15 kilohertz (kHz), and the minimum resource allocation (resource block) can be 12 subcarriers (or 180kHz). Thus, for a system bandwidth of 1.25 megahertz (MHz), 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, or 20 MHz, the nominal fast Fourier transform (FFT) size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048, respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned into multiple subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for a system bandwidth of 1.25 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, or 20 MHz, respectively.

[0136] LTE supports a single parameter set (subcarrier spacing (SCS), symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR may support multiple parameter sets (μ), for example, 15kHz (μ=0), 30kHz (μ=1), 60kHz (μ=2), 120kHz (μ=3), and 240kHz (μ=4) or larger subcarrier spacings may be available. In each subcarrier spacing, there are 14 symbols per slot. For 15kHz SCS (μ=0), there is one slot per subframe, 10 slots per frame, the slot duration is 1 millisecond (ms), the symbol duration is 66.7 microseconds (μs), and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 50. For 30kHz SCS (μ=1), there are two slots per subframe, 20 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.5ms, the symbol duration is 33.3μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 100. For 60kHz SCS (μ=2), there are four slots per subframe, 40 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.25ms, the symbol duration is 16.7μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 200. For 120kHz SCS (μ=3), there are eight slots per subframe, 80 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.125ms, the symbol duration is 8.33μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 400. For 240kHz SCS (μ=4), there are 16 slots per subframe, 160 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.0625ms, the symbol duration is 4.17μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) is 800 with 4K FFT size.

[0137] exist Figure 5 In the example of , a parameter set of 15 kHz is used. Thus, in the time domain, a 10 ms frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes, each subframe is 1 ms, and each subframe includes one time slot. Figure 5 , time is represented horizontally (on the X-axis), where time increases from left to right, while frequency is represented vertically (on the Y-axis), where frequency increases (or decreases) from bottom to top.

[0138] A resource grid may be used to represent a time slot, each of which includes one or more time-concurrent resource blocks (RBs) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) in the frequency domain. The resource grid is further divided into a plurality of resource elements (REs). An RE may correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain. Figure 5In the parameter set of , for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB may contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and seven consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 84 REs. For an extended cyclic prefix, an RB may contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and six consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 72 REs. The number of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0139] Some REs may carry reference (pilot) signals (RS). These reference signals may include positioning reference signals (PRS), tracking reference signals (TRS), phase tracking reference signals (PTRS), cell-specific reference signals (CRS), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS), primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), synchronization signal blocks (SSB), sounding reference signals (SRS), etc., depending on whether the illustrated frame structure is used for uplink communication or downlink communication. Figure 5 Example locations of REs carrying reference signals (labeled "R") are illustrated.

[0140] Figure 6 600 is a diagram illustrating various downlink channels within an example downlink time slot. Figure 6 In , time is represented horizontally (on the X-axis), where time increases from left to right, while frequency is represented vertically (on the Y-axis), where frequency increases (or decreases) from bottom to top. Figure 6 In the example of , a parameter set of 15 kHz is used. Therefore, in the time domain, the illustrated time slot length is one millisecond (ms) divided into 14 symbols.

[0141] In NR, the channel bandwidth or system bandwidth is divided into multiple bandwidth parts (BWPs). A BWP is a set of contiguous RBs selected from a contiguous subset of common RBs for a given parameter set on a given carrier. In general, a maximum of four BWPs can be specified in the downlink and uplink. That is, the UE can be configured to have up to four BWPs on the downlink and up to four BWPs on the uplink. Only one BWP (uplink or downlink) can be active at a given time, which means that the UE can only receive or transmit on one BWP at a time. On the downlink, the bandwidth of each BWP should be equal to or greater than the bandwidth of the SSB, but it may or may not contain the SSB.

[0142] refer to Figure 6, the primary synchronization signal (PSS) is used by the UE to determine the subframe / symbol timing and the physical layer identity. The secondary synchronization signal (SSS) is used by the UE to determine the physical layer cell identity group number and the radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identity group number, the UE can determine the PCI. Based on the PCI, the UE can determine the location of the aforementioned DL-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH) carrying the master information block (MIB) can be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form an SSB (also referred to as SS / PBCH). The MIB provides the number of RBs in the downlink system bandwidth and the system frame number (SFN). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcast system information that is not sent through the PBCH (such as the system information block (SIB)), and paging messages.

[0143] The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries downlink control information (DCI) in one or more control channel elements (CCEs), each CCE includes one or more RE group (REG) bundles (which can span multiple symbols in the time domain), each REG bundle includes one or more REGs, each REG corresponds to 12 resource elements (one resource block) in the frequency domain and one OFDM symbol in the time domain. The set of physical resources used to carry PDCCH / DCI is called a control resource set (CORESET) in NR. In NR, PDCCH is confined to a single CORESET and is transmitted with its own DMRS. This enables UE-specific beamforming for PDCCH.

[0144] exist Figure 6 In the example of , there is one CORESET per BWP, and the CORESET spans three symbols in the time domain (although it could be just one symbol or two symbols). Unlike LTE control channels that occupy the entire system bandwidth, in NR, the PDCCH channel is localized to a specific region (i.e., CORESET) in the frequency domain. Therefore, Figure 6 The frequency components of the PDCCH shown are illustrated as less than a single BWP in the frequency domain. Note that although the illustrated CORESETs are contiguous in the frequency domain, the CORESETs need not be contiguous. Furthermore, a CORESET may span less than three symbols in the time domain.

[0145] The DCI within the PDCCH carries information about uplink resource allocations (persistent and non-persistent) and descriptions of downlink data sent to the UE (referred to as uplink grants and downlink grants, respectively). More specifically, the DCI indicates resources scheduled for downlink data channels (e.g., PDSCH) and uplink data channels (e.g., physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)). Multiple (e.g., up to eight) DCIs may be configured in the PDCCH, and these DCIs may have one of a variety of formats. For example, there are different DCI formats for uplink scheduling, downlink scheduling, uplink transmit power control (TPC), etc. The PDCCH may be transmitted by 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs to accommodate different DCI payload sizes or coding rates.

[0146] Figure 7 7 is a diagram illustrating various uplink channels within an example uplink time slot. Figure 7 In , time is represented horizontally (on the X-axis), where time increases from left to right, while frequency is represented vertically (on the Y-axis), where frequency increases (or decreases) from bottom to top. Figure 7 In the example of , a parameter set of 15 kHz is used. Therefore, in the time domain, the illustrated time slot length is one millisecond (ms) divided into 14 symbols.

[0147] The random access channel (RACH), also known as the physical random access channel (PRACH), may be within one or more time slots within a frame based on the PRACH configuration. The PRACH may include six consecutive RB pairs within a time slot. The PRACH allows the UE to perform initial system access and achieve uplink synchronization. The physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) may be located at the edge of the uplink system bandwidth. The PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as scheduling requests, CSI reports, channel quality indicators (CQI), precoding matrix indicators (PMI), rank indicators (RI), and HARQ ACK / NACK feedback. The physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) carries data and may additionally be used to carry buffer status reports (BSRs), power headroom reports (PHRs), and / or UCI.

[0148] A set of resource elements (REs) used for transmission of PRS is referred to as a "PRS resource". A set of resource elements may span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and 'N' (such as 1 or more) consecutive symbols within a slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol in the time domain, a PRS resource occupies consecutive PRBs in the frequency domain.

[0149] The transmission of PRS resources within a given PRB has a specific comb size (also referred to as "comb density"). The comb size 'N' represents the subcarrier spacing (or frequency / tone spacing) within each symbol of the PRS resource configuration. Specifically, for comb size 'N', the PRS is transmitted in every Nth subcarrier of one symbol of the PRB. For example, for comb-4, for each symbol of the PRS resource configuration, the RE corresponding to every fourth subcarrier (such as subcarriers 0, 4, 8) is used to transmit the PRS of the PRS resource. Currently, for DL-PRS, comb sizes of comb-2, comb-4, comb-6, and comb-12 are supported. Figure 5 An example PRS resource configuration for comb-4 (which spans four symbols) is illustrated. That is, the positions of shaded REs (labeled "R") indicate a comb-4 PRS resource configuration.

[0150] Currently, DL-PRS resources can span 2, 4, 6, or 12 consecutive symbols in a slot using a full frequency domain staggered pattern. DL-PRS resources can be configured in any downlink or flexible (FL) symbol configured by higher layers in a slot. There may be a constant energy per resource element (EPRE) for all REs of a given DL-PRS resource. The following are the symbol-by-symbol frequency offsets for comb sizes 2, 4, 6, and 12 on 2, 4, 6, and 12 symbols. 2-symbol Comb-2: {0,1}; 4-symbol Comb-2: {0,1,0,1}; 6-symbol Comb-2: {0,1,0,1,0,1}; 12-symbol Comb-2: {0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1}; 4-symbol Comb-4: {0,2,1,3} (as in Figure 5 ); 12-symbol comb-4: {0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3}; 6-symbol comb-6: {0,3,1,4,2,5}; 12-symbol comb-6: {0,3,1,4,2,5,0,3,1,4,2,5}; and 12-symbol comb-12: {0,6,3,9,1,7,4,10,2,8,5,11}.

[0151] A "PRS resource set" is a set of PRS resources used to send a PRS signal, where each PRS resource has a PRS resource ID. In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP. A PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a specific TRP (identified by the TRP ID). In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set have the same periodicity, a common muting pattern configuration, and the same repetition factor (such as "PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor") across time slots. The periodicity is the time from the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the first PRS instance to the same first repetition of the same first PRS resource of the next PRS instance. The periodicity may have a length selected from: 2^μ*{4,5,8,10,16,20,32,40,64,80,160,320,640,1280,2560,5120,10240} time slots, where μ=0,1,2,3. The repetition factor may have a length selected from {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32} slots.

[0152] A PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam (or beam ID) transmitted from a single TRP (where one TRP may transmit one or more beams). That is, each PRS resource in a PRS resource set may be transmitted on a different beam, and therefore, a "PRS resource" (or simply "resource") may also be referred to as a "beam". Note that this does not have any implication on whether the UE knows the TRP and beam on which the PRS is transmitted.

[0153] A "PRS instance" or "PRS opportunity" is an instance of a periodically repeated time window (such as a group of one or more consecutive time slots) in which a PRS is expected to be sent. A PRS opportunity may also be referred to as a "PRS positioning opportunity", "PRS positioning instance", "positioning opportunity", "positioning instance", "positioning repetition", or simply "opportunity", "instance", or "repetition".

[0154] A "positioning frequency layer" (also referred to simply as a "frequency layer") is a set of one or more PRS resource sets with the same values ​​for certain parameters across one or more TRPs. Specifically, the set of PRS resource sets has the same subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix (CP) type (meaning that all parameter sets supported for the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) are also supported by PRS), the same point A, the same value of the downlink PRS bandwidth, the same starting PRB (and center frequency), and the same comb size. The point A parameter takes the value of the parameter "ARFCN-ValueNR" (where "ARFCN" stands for "absolute radio frequency channel number") and is an identifier / code that specifies a pair of physical radio channels for transmission and reception. The downlink PRS bandwidth can have a granularity of four PRBs, and the minimum value is 24 PRBs and the maximum value is 272 PRBs. Currently, up to four frequency layers have been defined, and up to two PRS resource sets can be configured per TRP per frequency layer.

[0155] The concept of frequency layer is somewhat similar to the concept of component carrier and bandwidth part (BWP), but the difference is that component carrier and BWP are used by one base station (or macro cell base station and small cell base station) to send data channels, while frequency layer is used by several (usually three or more) base stations to send PRS. The UE can indicate the number of frequency layers that the UE can support when the UE transmits its positioning capabilities to the network (such as during an LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) session). For example, the UE can indicate whether it can support one or four positioning frequency layers.

[0156] It should be noted that the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" generally refer to specific reference signals used for positioning in NR and LTE systems. However, as used herein, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may also refer to any type of reference signal that can be used for positioning, such as but not limited to: PRS, TRS, PTRS, CRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB, SRS, UL-PRS, etc. as defined in LTE and NR. In addition, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may refer to a downlink positioning reference signal, an uplink positioning reference signal, or a sidelink positioning reference signal, unless otherwise indicated by the context. If it is necessary to further distinguish the type of PRS, the downlink positioning reference signal may be referred to as a "DL-PRS", the uplink positioning reference signal (e.g., SRS for positioning, i.e., PTRS) may be referred to as a "UL-PRS", and the sidelink positioning reference signal may be referred to as a "SL-PRS". In addition, for signals (e.g., DMRS) that can be sent in the downlink, uplink, and / or sidelink, these signals may be preceded by "DL," "UL," or "SL" to distinguish the direction. For example, "UL-DMRS" may be different from "DL-DMRS."

[0157] The following are the currently supported DCI formats. Format 0-0: Fallback for PUSCH scheduling; Format 0-1: Non-fallback for PUSCH scheduling; Format 1-0: Fallback for PDSCH scheduling; Format 1-1: Non-fallback for PDSCH scheduling; Format 2-0: Notify the UE group of the timeslot format; Format 2-1: Notify the UE group of PRBs and OFDM symbols, where the UE can assume that there is no transmission for the UE; Format 2-2: Transmit TPC commands for PUCCH and PUSCH; and Format 2-3: Transmission of a set of SRS requests and TPC commands for SRS transmission. Note that the fallback format is the default scheduling option, which has non-configurable fields and supports basic NR operation. In contrast, the non-fallback format is flexible to adapt to NR features.

[0158] On the one hand, Figure 5 The reference signal carried on the RE marked with "R" in the figure can be an SRS. The SRS sent by the UE can be used by the base station to obtain channel state information (CSI) for the transmitting UE. CSI describes how the RF signal propagates from the UE to the base station and represents the combined effect of scattering, attenuation, and power attenuation with distance. The system uses SRS for resource scheduling, link adaptation, massive MIMO, beam management, etc.

[0159] The set of REs used for transmission of SRS is called "SRS resource" and can be identified by the parameter "SRS-ResourceId". The set of resource elements can span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and 'N' (e.g., one or more) consecutive symbols within a time slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol, an SRS resource occupies one or more consecutive PRBs. An "SRS resource set" is a set of SRS resources used for transmission of SRS signals and is identified by an SRS resource set ID ("SRS-ResourceSetId").

[0160] The transmission of the SRS resource within a given PRB has a specific comb size (also referred to as "comb density"). The comb size 'N' represents the subcarrier spacing (or frequency / tone spacing) within each symbol of the SRS resource configuration. Specifically, for comb size 'N', the SRS is transmitted in every Nth subcarrier of one symbol of the PRB. For example, for comb-4, for each symbol of the SRS resource configuration, the REs corresponding to every fourth subcarrier (such as subcarriers 0, 4, 8) are used to transmit the SRS of the SRS resource. Figure 5 In the example of FIG. 1 , the illustrated SRS is comb-tooth-4 on four symbols. That is, the position of the shaded SRS RE indicates the SRS resource configuration of comb-tooth-4.

[0161] Currently, SRS resources with a comb size of Comb-2, Comb-4, or Comb-8 can span 1, 2, 4, 8, or 12 consecutive symbols within a slot. The following are the symbol-by-symbol frequency offsets for the currently supported SRS comb patterns. 1-Symbol Comb-2: {0}; 2-Symbol Comb-2: {0,1}; 2-Symbol Comb-4: {0,2}; 4-Symbol Comb-2: {0,1,0,1}; 4-Symbol Comb-4: {0,2,1,3} (as in Figure 5 in the example); 8-symbol comb-4: {0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3}; 12-symbol comb-4: {0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3,0,2,1,3}; 4-symbol comb-8: {0,4,2,6}; 8-symbol comb-8: {0,4,2,6,1,5,3,7}; and 12-symbol comb-8: {0,4,2,6,1,5,3,7,0,4,2,6}.

[0162] In general, as mentioned, the UE sends the SRS so that the receiving base station (serving base station or neighboring base station) can measure the channel quality (i.e., CSI) between the UE and the base station. However, the SRS may also be specifically configured as an uplink positioning reference signal for uplink-based positioning procedures, such as uplink arrival time difference (UL-TDOA), round-trip time (RTT), uplink arrival angle (UL-AoA), etc. As used herein, the term "SRS" may refer to an SRS configured for channel quality measurement or an SRS configured for positioning purposes. When it is necessary to distinguish between two types of SRS, the former may be referred to as "SRS for communication" and / or the latter may be referred to as "SRS for positioning" or "SRS for positioning" in this article.

[0163] Several enhancements to the previous definition of SRS have been proposed for "SRS for Positioning" (also known as "UL-PRS"), such as a new staggering pattern within the SRS resource (in addition to a single symbol / comb-2), a new comb type for SRS, a new sequence for SRS, a larger number of SRS resource sets per component carrier, and a larger number of SRS resources per component carrier. In addition, the parameters "SpatialRelationInfo" and "PathLossReference" are to be configured based on the downlink reference signal or SSB from the adjacent TRP. Furthermore, one SRS resource may be sent outside the active BWP, and one SRS resource may span multiple component carriers. Moreover, the SRS may be configured in the RRC connected state and sent only within the active BWP. In addition, there may be no frequency hopping, no repetition factor, a single antenna port, and new lengths for the SRS (e.g., 8 and 12 symbols). There may also be open-loop power control and no closed-loop power control, and comb-8 (i.e., SRS sent every eighth subcarrier in the same symbol) may be used. Finally, the UE may transmit from multiple SRS resources through the same transmit beam for UL-AoA. All of these are features outside the current SRS framework, which is configured through RRC higher layer signaling (and potentially triggered or activated through MAC Control Element (MAC-CE) or Downlink Control Information (DCI)).

[0164] As will be appreciated, the UE needs to be able to demodulate (also referred to as "decode") the PDCCH in order to read the DCI and thereby obtain the scheduling of resources allocated to the UE on the PDSCH and PUSCH. If the UE fails to demodulate the PDCCH, the UE will not know the location of the PDSCH resources, and it will continue to try to demodulate the PDCCH using different PDCCH candidate sets in subsequent PDCCH monitoring opportunities. If the UE fails to demodulate the PDCCH after a certain number of attempts, the UE declares a radio link failure (RLF). In order to overcome the PDCCH demodulation problem, the search space is configured for efficient PDCCH detection and demodulation.

[0165] In general, the UE will not attempt to demodulate every PDCCH candidate that may be scheduled in a time slot. In order to reduce the constraints on the PDCCH scheduler and to reduce the number of blind demodulation attempts made by the UE, a search space is configured. The search space is indicated by a set of consecutive CCEs that the UE is expected to monitor for scheduling assignments / grants related to a certain component carrier. There are two types of search spaces used for PDCCH to control each component carrier: Common Search Space (CSS) and UE-Specific Search Space (USS).

[0166] The common search space is shared across all UEs, while the UE-specific search space is used for each UE (i.e., the UE-specific search space is specific to a specific UE). For the common search space, the DCI cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is scrambled with the system information radio network temporary identifier (SI-RNTI), random access RNTI (RA-RNTI), temporary cell RNTI (TC-RNTI), paging RNTI (P-RNTI), interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), slot format indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, TPC-PUSCH-RNTI, TPC-SRS-RNTI, cell RNTI (C-RNTI), or configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) for all common procedures. For the UE-specific search space, the DCI CRC is scrambled with the C-RNTI or CS-RNTI because these are specific to an individual UE.

[0167] The UE demodulates the PDCCH using four UE-specific search space aggregation levels (1, 2, 4, and 8) and two common search space aggregation levels (4 and 8). Specifically, for the UE-specific search space, aggregation level "1" has six PDCCH candidates per time slot and is six CCEs in size. Aggregation level "2" has six PDCCH candidates per time slot and is 12 CCEs in size. Aggregation level "4" has two PDCCH candidates per time slot and is eight CCEs in size. Aggregation level "8" has two PDCCH candidates per time slot and is 16 CCEs in size. For the common search space, aggregation level "4" has four PDCCH candidates per time slot and is 16 CCEs in size. Aggregation level "8" has two PDCCH candidates per time slot and is 16 CCEs in size.

[0168] Each search space includes a set of consecutive CCEs that can be allocated to a PDCCH (referred to as PDCCH candidates). The UE demodulates all PDCCH candidates in these two search spaces (USS and CSS) to find DCI for the UE. For example, the UE can demodulate the DCI to obtain scheduled uplink grant information on the PUSCH and downlink resources on the PDSCH. It should be noted that the aggregation level is the number of REs of the CORESET that carry the PDCCH DCI message and is expressed in the form of CCEs. There is a one-to-one mapping between the aggregation level and the number of CCEs per aggregation level. That is, for aggregation level "4", there are four CCEs. Thus, as shown above, if the aggregation level is "4" and the number of PDCCH candidates in a time slot is "2", the size of the search space is "8" (i.e., 4x 2=8).

[0169] NR supports a variety of cellular network-based positioning technologies, including downlink-based positioning methods, uplink-based positioning methods, and downlink and uplink-based positioning methods. Downlink-based positioning methods include: Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) in LTE, Downlink Time Difference of Arrival (DL-TDOA) in NR, and Downlink Angle of Departure (DL-AoD) in NR. Figure 8 Examples of various positioning methods according to various aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated. In the OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure illustrated in scenario 810, the UE measures the difference between the arrival times (ToA) of reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS)) received from paired base stations (referred to as reference signal time difference (RSTD) or arrival time difference (TDOA) measurements), and reports these differences to a positioning entity. More specifically, the UE receives identifiers (IDs) of a reference base station (e.g., a serving base station) and multiple non-reference base stations in auxiliary data. The UE then measures the RSTD between the reference base station and each non-reference base station. Based on the known positions of the base stations involved and the RSTD measurements, a positioning entity (e.g., a UE for UE-based positioning or a location server for UE-assisted positioning) can estimate the position of the UE.

[0170] For DL-AoD positioning illustrated in scenario 820, the positioning entity uses measurement reports from the UE regarding received signal strength measurements of multiple downlink transmit beams to determine the angle between the UE and the transmitting base station. The positioning entity can then estimate the position of the UE based on the determined angle and the known position of the transmitting base station.

[0171] Uplink-based positioning methods include uplink time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA) and uplink angle of arrival (UL-AoA). UL-TDOA is similar to DL-TDOA, but is based on uplink reference signals (e.g., sounding reference signals (SRS)) sent by the UE to multiple base stations. Specifically, the UE sends one or more uplink reference signals, which are measured by a reference base station and multiple non-reference base stations. Each base station then reports the reception time of the reference signal (referred to as relative time of arrival (RTOA)) to a positioning entity (e.g., a location server) that knows the location and relative timing of the base stations involved. Based on the receive-to-receive (Rx-Rx) time difference between the reported RTOA of the reference base station and the reported RTOA of each non-reference base station, the known location of the base stations, and their known timing offsets, the positioning entity can use TDOA to estimate the position of the UE.

[0172] For UL-AoA positioning, one or more base stations measure the received signal strength of one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) received from the UE on one or more uplink receive beams. The positioning entity uses the signal strength measurements and the angle of the receive beams to determine the angle between the UE and the base station. Based on the determined angle and the known location of the base station, the positioning entity can then estimate the location of the UE.

[0173] Downlink and uplink based positioning methods include: enhanced cell ID (E-CID) positioning and multiple round trip time (RTT) positioning (also referred to as "multi-cell RTT" and "multi-RTT"). In the RTT procedure, a first entity (e.g., a base station or UE) sends a first RTT-related signal (e.g., a PRS or SRS) to a second entity (e.g., a UE or a base station), and the second entity sends a second RTT-related signal (e.g., an SRS or PRS) back to the first entity. Each entity measures the time difference between the arrival time (ToA) of the received RTT-related signal and the transmission time of the transmitted RTT-related signal. The time difference is called the received to transmitted (Rx-Tx) time difference. The Rx-Tx time difference measurement can be made or adjusted to include only the time difference between the nearest time slot boundary of the received signal and the transmitted signal. The two entities may then transmit their Rx-Tx time difference measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 270), which calculates the round trip propagation time (i.e., RTT) between the two entities based on the two Rx-Tx time difference measurements (e.g., calculated as the sum of the two Rx-Tx time difference measurements). Alternatively, one entity may transmit its Rx-Tx time difference measurements to the other entity, which then calculates the RTT. The distance between the two entities may be determined based on the RTT and a known signal speed (e.g., the speed of light). For multi-RTT positioning illustrated in scenario 830, a first entity (e.g., a UE or a base station) performs an RTT positioning procedure with multiple second entities (e.g., multiple base stations or UEs) to enable the location of the first entity to be determined (e.g., using multilateration) based on the distance to the second entity and the known location of the second entity. RTT and multi-RTT methods may be combined with other positioning techniques (such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD) to improve location accuracy, as illustrated in scenario 840.

[0174] The E-CID positioning method is based on radio resource management (RRM) measurements. In E-CID, the UE reports the serving cell ID, timing advance (TA), and the identifiers of the detected neighboring base stations, the estimated timing, and the signal strength. The UE's position is then estimated based on this information and the known location of the base stations.

[0175] To assist the positioning operation, a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) may provide assistance data to the UE. For example, the assistance data may include: an identifier of the base station (or cell / TRP of the base station) from which the reference signal is measured, reference signal configuration parameters (e.g., the number of consecutive time slots including PRS, the periodicity of consecutive time slots including PRS, a silent sequence, a frequency hopping sequence, a reference signal identifier, a reference signal bandwidth, etc.), and / or other parameters applicable to a particular positioning method. Alternatively, the assistance data may originate directly from the base station itself (e.g., in a periodically broadcast overhead message, etc.). In some cases, the UE itself may be able to detect neighboring network nodes without using assistance data.

[0176] In the case of OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedures, the assistance data may also include an expected RSTD value and an associated uncertainty or search window around the expected RSTD. In some cases, the value range of the expected RSTD may be + / -500 microseconds (μs). In some cases, when any of the resources used for positioning measurements are in FR1, the value range of the uncertainty of the expected RSTD may be + / -32μs. In other cases, when all resources used for positioning measurements are in FR2, the value range of the uncertainty of the expected RSTD may be + / -8μs.

[0177] The position estimate may be referred to by other names, such as a position estimate, a position, a fix, a position fix, a fix, etc. The position estimate may be geodetic and include coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude), or may be municipal and include a street address, a postal address, or some other verbal description of the location. The position estimate may be further defined relative to some other known position or defined in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). The position estimate may include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume within which the position is expected to be included with some specified or default confidence level).

[0178] In some designs, a positioning SRS (SRS-P) may be configured to be transmitted in the RRC_INACTIVE state. For example, a periodic and semi-persistent positioning SRS may be configured for SRS-P transmission in RRC_INACTIVE. In a specific example, RRCRelease(SuspendConfig[SRS-PosRRC-InactiveConfig]) may be used to configure SRS-P for the RRC_INACTIVE state, for example:

[0179]

[0180] Table 1

[0181] Fig. 9 A periodic and triggered 5GC mobile terminated (MT) location request (LR) procedure 900 with small data transmission (SDT) UL and DL positioning according to various aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. The procedure 900 can be broadly characterized as including a first SDT procedure for SRS-P configuration between (1) to (10) and a second SDT procedure for measurement reporting between (11a) to (17).

[0182] refer to Fig. 9 , when the event is triggered at (2), the UE uses SDT to transmit a request for SRS (3). The SRS configuration is provided in the RRC release (10) that completes the 1st SDT. After performing DL measurements (11a), the UE reports the measurements (12). For additional context, it is noted that UL-only positioning will only use the first SDT procedure, and DL-only positioning will only use the second SDT procedure. Location request information and assistance data are pre-configured (1). The remainder of process 900 is generally well known and therefore will not be further described herein for the sake of brevity.

[0183] In some designs, the RRC configures parameters for TA verification for SRS-P transmission under RRC_INACTIVE. For example, an SDT solution may be followed. On the one hand, if the configured TA for the positioning SRS is valid, the MAC entity shall send a positioning periodic SRS or a semi-persistent SRS as defined in TS 38.214. On the one hand, if the current RSRP value of the downlink path loss reference does not increase / decrease by more than the inactivePosSRS-RSRP-ChangeThreshold compared to the stored downlink path loss reference RSRP value, the MAC may consider the TA valid when the following conditions are met. On the one hand, if the UE performs connection recovery in a cell different from the cell in which the srs-PosRRC-InactiveConfig is configured, the UE may release any srs-PosRRC-InactiveConfig (e.g., invalidate the TA timer configuration at any cell reselection). On the one hand, the parameters configured by the RRC may include, for example:

[0184] inactivePosSRS-TimeAlignmentTimer controls how long the MAC entity considers positioning SRS transmissions in RRC_INACTIVE as uplink time aligned,

[0185] inactivePosSRS-RSRP-ChangeThreshold: RSRP threshold used to increase / decrease RSRP for time alignment verification,

[0186] inactivePosSRS-NrOfSS-BlocksToAverage: the number of SSBs with the highest RSRP used to derive the downlink path loss reference for TA verification, and

[0187] inactivePosSRS-AbsThreshSS-BlocksConsolidation: Absolute RSRP threshold used to determine the SSB set to derive the downlink path loss reference for TA verification.

[0188] Fig.10 A DL-only positioning procedure 1000 is illustrated according to various aspects of the present disclosure. The DL-only positioning procedure 1000 corresponds to Fig. 9 Different representations of the second SDT procedure between (11a)-(17) of process 900.

[0189] refer to Fig.10 , at 1002, the UE is in deep sleep. At 1004, the UE wakes up and receives SSB. At 1006, the UE transitions to light sleep mode. At 1008, the UE wakes up and monitors paging opportunities (POs) (e.g., paging PDCCH). At 1010, the UE returns to deep sleep. At 1012, the UE wakes up and receives / measures DL-PRS. At 1014, the UE returns to deep sleep. At 1016, the UE wakes up and receives / measures DL-PRS. At 1018, the UE returns to deep sleep.

[0190] Fig.11 An UL-only positioning procedure 1100 is illustrated in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The UL-only positioning procedure 1100 corresponds to Fig. 9 Different representations of the first SDT procedure between (1)-(10) of process 900.

[0191] refer to Fig.11, at 1102, the UE is in deep sleep. At 1104, the UE wakes up and receives SSB. At 1106, the UE transitions to light sleep mode. At 1108, the UE wakes up and monitors paging opportunities (PO) (e.g., paging PDCCH). At 1110, the UE sends SRS-P. At 1112, the UE returns to deep sleep. At 1114, the UE wakes up and receives SSB. At 1116, the UE transitions to light sleep mode. At 1118, the UE wakes up and monitors PO (e.g., paging PDCCH). At 1120, the UE sends SRS-P. At 1122, the UE returns to deep sleep. At 1124, the UE wakes up and receives SSB. At 1126, the UE transitions to light sleep mode. At 1128, the UE wakes up and monitors PO (e.g., paging PDCCH). At 1130, the UE sends an SRS-P, after which the UE returns to deep sleep.

[0192] Fig.12 The DL+UL positioning procedure 1200 according to various aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. The DL+UL positioning procedure 1200 corresponds to Fig. 9 The first SDT procedure between (1)-(10) of process 900 and Fig. 9 Different representations of the second SDT procedure between (11a to 17) of process 900. The DL+UL positioning procedure 1200 is described with respect to a 4-step RACH procedure.

[0193] refer to Fig.12At 1202, the UE wakes up and receives SIB. At 1204, the UE transitions to shallow sleep (e.g., for 10 ms). At 1206, the UE wakes up and receives SIB. At 1208, the UE transitions to shallow sleep (e.g., for 10 ms). At 1210, the UE wakes up and sends a PRACH preamble. At 1212, the UE transitions to micro sleep (MS) (e.g., for 4 ms). At 1214, the UE wakes up and receives a random access response (RAR). At 1216, the UE transitions to MS (e.g., for 2 ms). At 1218, the UE wakes up and sends Msg3. At 1220, the UE transitions to MS (e.g., for 2 ms). At 1222, the UE wakes up and receives Msg4. At 1224, the UE transitions to MS (e.g., for 2 ms). At 1226, the UE wakes up and receives RRC release. At 1228, the UE transitions to deep sleep. At 1230, the UE wakes up and receives DL-PRS. At 1232, the UE transitions to MS (e.g., for 5 ms). At 1234, the UE wakes up and sends SRS-P. At 1236, the UE transitions to deep sleep. At 1238, the UE wakes up and receives DL-PRS. At 1240, the UE transitions to MS (e.g., for 5 ms). At 1242, the UE wakes up and sends SRS-P. At 1244, the UE transitions to deep sleep. At 1246, the UE wakes up and receives SSB. At 1248, the UE transitions to shallow sleep (e.g., for 10 ms). At 1250, the UE wakes up and receives SIB. At 1252, the UE transitions to shallow sleep (e.g., for 10 ms). At 1254, the UE wakes up and sends PRACH preamble. At 1256, the UE transitions to the MS (e.g., for 4 ms). At 1258, the UE wakes up and receives a random access response (RAR). At 1260, the UE transitions to the MS (e.g., for 2 ms). At 1262, the UE wakes up and sends Msg3. At 1264, the UE transitions to the MS (e.g., for 2 ms). At 1266, the UE wakes up and receives Msg4. At 1268, the UE transitions to the MS (e.g., for 2 ms). At 1270, the UE wakes up and receives an RRC release.

[0194] refer to Fig.12 As described above, process 1200 may include two SDT procedures to complete the DL+UL positioning process, wherein in the first SDT procedure, the SRS configuration is provided to the UE, and the second SDT procedure is for the purpose of measurement reporting under RRC inactivity. Fig. 9As in , when an event is triggered, the UE uses SDT to transmit a request for SRS (3). The SRS configuration is provided in the RRC release (10) that completes the first SDT procedure. After performing DL measurements, the UE uses a second SDT procedure to report the measurements (12). As described above, UL-only positioning will only use the first SDT procedure, and DL-only positioning will only use the second SDT procedure.

[0195] PDCCH-based signaling is adopted in the Rel-17 Paging Early Indicator (PEI) design. The new DCI format 2_7 is used for PEIPDCCH. In the new DCI format 2_7, one bit in the DCI payload indicates a UE subgroup or a UE group of PO, depending on whether the subgroup is configured. PEI does not carry SI change indication or Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) / Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) notification. The UE receives the paging PDCCH as indicated by the PEI to receive this information.

[0196] In terms of UE behavior, PEI acts as a wake-up signal, and if PEI is not detected, the UE does not process the paging PDCCH on the upcoming PO. In some designs, whether the UE monitors PEI depends on the UE specific implementation. If the UE decides not to monitor PEI, it monitors and the UE can monitor PO according to TS 38.304. In some designs, the UE does not expect to process information from more than one DCI with CRC scrambled with RNTI for broadcast or UE group common information in the same timeslot (following subclause 10.1 of TS38.213). In some designs, the UE does not receive paging PDCCH and PEI in the same timeslot.

[0197] In some designs, PEI can be used to page UE subgroups. For example, UEs sharing the same PO can be divided into multiple paging subgroups. PEI can be configured to indicate which paging subgroup has a new paging (for example, if at least one UE in the UE subgroup is to be paged, each UE in the UE subgroup is instructed to monitor the corresponding PO via PEI). In this case, only the UEs associated with the particular paging subgroup are awakened to receive the paging instead of all UEs sharing the PO. In some designs, up to 8 subgroups can be configured (for example, for a 3-bit PEI). In some designs, a PEI without sub-grouping can be implemented by configuring only one subgroup for the PEI.

[0198] In some designs, UEs are assigned to subgroups by core network components. For example, the core network component assigns a subgroup ID to the UE via NAS signaling, for example based on UE characteristics such as paging probability. In some designs, the same core network assigned subgroup ID is used across all cells in the TA and is used for both core network paging and RAN paging. In some designs, the total number of subgroups assigned by the core network depends on the network configuration (e.g., by operations, administration, and maintenance (OA&M) components). Alternatively, UEs may be assigned to subgroups based on UE IDs. For example, if the UE supports PEI, the UE may support UE-ID-based subgroup grouping. In one aspect, the UE hashes its UE-ID to derive its subgroup ID. In some designs, if the UE does not use eDRX, a 5G-S-TMSI modulo 8192 may be utilized, and if the UE uses eDRX, a 5G-S-TMSI modulo 32768 may be utilized.

[0199] In some designs, the following information is sent with DCI format 1_0 with a CRC scrambled by the P-RNTI:

[0200] Short message indicator - 2 digits.

[0201] Short message - 8 bits. If only scheduling information for paging is carried, this bit field is reserved.

[0202] Frequency Domain Resource Assignment If only short messages are carried, this bit field is reserved. Is the size of CORESET 0.

[0203] Time domain resource assignment - 4 bits. If only short messages are carried, this bit field is reserved.

[0204] VRB to PRB mapping - 1 bit. If only short messages are carried, this bit field is reserved.

[0205] Modulation and coding scheme - 5 bits. If only short messages are carried, this bit field is reserved.

[0206] TB scaling - 2 bits. If only short messages are carried, this bit field is reserved.

[0207] Reserved bits - 6 bits.

[0208] In some designs, DCI format 2_7 is used to signal paging early indication and TRS availability indication for one or more UEs. The following information is sent with DCI format 2_7 with CRC scrambled by PEI-RNTI:

[0209] Paging Indication Field - Units,

[0210] in is the number of paging occasions configured by the higher layer parameter PONumPerPEI. In case the higher layer parameter subgroupsNumPerPO is configured, is the number of subgroups of the paging occasion configured by subgroupsNumPerPO; otherwise is set to 1, and if subgroupsNumPerPO is configured, each bit in this field indicates a UE subgroup for a paging occasion; otherwise, each bit in this field indicates a UE group for a paging occasion, and

[0211] TRS Availability Indication - If TRS-ResourceSetConfig is configured, 1, 2, 3,

[0212] 4, 5, or 6 bits; otherwise, 0 bits.

[0213] In some designs, the size of DCI format 2_7 is indicated by a higher layer parameter payloadSizeDCI_format2_7. In some designs, the number of information bits in format 2_7 should be equal to or less than the payload size of format 2_7. In some designs, if the number of information bits in format 2_7 is less than the size of format 2_7, the remaining bits are reserved.

[0214] In some designs, whether to send TRS is indicated by L1 signaling in both the paging PDCCH and the PEI. The same design principle for TRS availability indication can be used for two DCI formats (1_0 and 2_7). In some designs, the TRS availability information in the paging PDCCH decouples the support for PEI and TRS features. Once the TRS resources are configured in the SIB, the L1-based availability indication is always enabled for all configured TRS resources. The UE can receive different TRS availability indication contents from the PEI and the associated paging PDCCH. In some designs, whether the UE receives both the PEI and the paging PDCCH to receive the TRS availability indication depends on the specific implementation of the UE. In some designs, if the PEI indicates that the group or subgroup of the UE is not paged, the UE is not required to receive the paging PDCCH.

[0215] Fig.13A paging PDCCH configuration 1300 according to various aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. The paging PDCCH configuration 1300 includes a TRS availability indication bitmap 1304 with a plurality of reserved bits. For example, the TRS availability indication bitmap 1304 may include up to 6 bits (e.g., 6 is the number of reserved bits in the paging PDCCH). In some designs, the TRS resource set configuration provides a group ID, and the group ID value i is mapped to the bit i in the TRS availability indication bitmap 1304. In some designs, multiple TRS resource sets may be configured with the same group ID. In some designs, if the bit value = '1', the TRS resource set is available, and if the bit value = '0', the UE retains the availability information received earlier. In some designs, the starting bit of the TRS availability indication bitmap 1304 in the paging PDCCH 1300 is the first bit in the reserved bits. In the PEI, the TRS availability indication field starts from the next bit after the end of the paging indication field.

[0216] In some designs, if indicated, the TRS at the configured timing is available within the time duration. In some designs, the start of the duration is the first paging frame (PF) from the current default paging cycle in which the UE receives an availability indication. In some designs, the duration value may be configured by a higher layer to be one of {1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512} default paging cycles. In some designs, this approach may be more robust than explicitly turning off TRS via PEI or paging PDCCH. In some designs, if the configured validity duration is >10.24s and the UE does not support eDRX, whether the validity duration length is greater than 10.24s depends on the UE specific implementation. In some designs, when the validity duration is not configured, the default validity duration is 2 default paging cycles.

[0217] In some designs, the TRS availability indication sent on all PDCCH monitoring occasions of the same PEI-O or PO is the same (e.g., this takes into account UE beam switching within the validity duration). In some designs, the validity durations of different sets of TRS resource sets corresponding to different bits in the availability indication field may be different and maintained independently. In some designs, the UE may receive another L1-based signaling for the TRS availability indication before the validity duration associated with the previous signaling for the TRS availability indication expires. In some designs, bit '1' updates the validity duration of the associated TRS resources based on the current signaling, and bit '0' maintains the existing validity duration indicated by the last signaling with bit value 1.

[0218] Fig.14 1400 is an example of a TRS validity period configuration according to aspects of the present disclosure. Fig.14In FIG. 14 , it is assumed that the TRS validity duration starts at T0 at PF 1402. At 1404, a PEI is received with a TRS availability indication bit = 1. At 1406, a PEI is received with a TRS availability indication bit = 0. The validity duration of the TRS ends at T1.

[0219] Various aspects of the present disclosure are directed to SRS-P early indication (SEI). In some designs, SEI may be configured similarly to PEI, except that SEI is used to trigger a UE subgroup to send SRS-P instead of waking up and monitoring PO. Such aspects may provide various technical advantages, such as triggering SRS-P transmission with less latency, more flexibility, etc.

[0220] Fig.15 An exemplary process 1500 of communicating according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. Fig.15 Process 1500 is performed by a UE such as UE 302.

[0221] refer to Fig.15 At 1510, the UE 302 (e.g., the receiver 312 or 322, etc.) receives a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration. In some designs, the SRS-P configuration may be received via L1 signaling, or L2 signaling, or L3 signaling. In one aspect, the means for performing the reception of 1510 may include the receiver 312 or 322, etc., of the UE 302.

[0222] refer to Fig.15 At 1520, UE 302 (e.g., receiver 312 or 322, etc.) receives first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state. In some designs, the first DCI may be included as part of a PDCCH. In one aspect, the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup including the UE and at least one additional UE. In another aspect, the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set. In one aspect, the means for performing the reception of 1520 may include a receiver 312 or 322, etc. of UE 302.

[0223] refer to Fig.15At 1530, the UE 302 (e.g., the positioning component 342, the processor 332, the transmitter 314 or 324, etc.) selectively transmits one or more SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field. For example, based on the configuration of the SEI field (e.g., whether the corresponding bit mapped to the subgroup of the UE is set to '1' or '0', similar to PEI), the SRS-P may or may not be transmitted at 1530. In an aspect, the means for performing the transmission of 1530 may include the positioning component 342, the processor 332, the transmitter 314 or 324, etc. of the UE 302.

[0224] Fig.16 An exemplary process 1600 of communicating according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. Fig.16 Process 1600 is performed by a network component (e.g., BS 304 or a network entity 306, such as LMF, or an O-RAN component, such as RU / CU / DU, etc.).

[0225] refer to Fig.16 At 1610, a network component (e.g., a transmitter 354 or 364, a network transceiver 380 or 390, etc.) sends a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipment (UE). In some designs, the SRS-P configuration may be sent via L1 signaling, or L2 signaling, or L3 signaling. In an aspect, means for performing the sending of 1610 may include a transmitter 354 or 364, a network transceiver 380 or 390, etc. of the network component (e.g., in an example where the network component corresponds to the BS 304 or the network entity 306).

[0226] refer to Fig.16 At 1620, a network component (e.g., a transmitter 354 or 364, a network transceiver 380 or 390, etc.) transmits a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when each UE in the set of UEs is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state. In one aspect, the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the set of UEs. In another aspect, the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first subset of UEs to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on a set of SRS-P opportunities (SRS-O). In one aspect, the means for performing the transmission of 1620 may include a transmitter 354 or 364, a network transceiver 380 or 390, etc. of the network component (e.g., in an example where the network component corresponds to a BS 304 or a network entity 306).

[0227] refer to Fig.16At 1630, a network component (e.g., receiver 352 or 362, network transceiver 380 or 390, positioning component 388 or 398, processor 384 or 394, etc.) selectively receives one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from each UE in the first UE subgroup on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set based on the SEI field. For example, based on the configuration of the SEI field (e.g., whether the corresponding bit mapped to the subgroup of UEs is set to '1' or '0', similar to PEI), at 1630, SRS-Ps may or may not be received from a particular UE subgroup. In an aspect, means for performing the selective reception of 1630 may include the receiver 352 or 362, network transceiver 380 or 390, positioning component 388 or 398, processor 384 or 394, etc. of the network component (e.g., in an example where the network component corresponds to BS 304 or network entity 306).

[0228] refer to Figure 15 to Figure 16 In some designs, the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration. Fig.15 At 1530 of , the UE sends one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field. Fig.16 At 1630, the network component receives one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from each UE in the first UE subset on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set based on the SEI field. In some designs, the SRS-P may be sent periodically by RRC_IDLE and RRC_INACTIVE UEs throughout the validity duration associated with the SEI field based on the network configuration.

[0229] Alternatively, the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration. Fig.15 At 1530 of , the UE does not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field. Fig.16 At 1630, the network component receives one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from any UE in the first UE subset on the SRS-O set according to a corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set without SEI fields.

[0230] refer to Figure 15 to Figure 16In some designs, the first DCI also includes a paging early indication (PEI) field. In one aspect, the PEI field is associated with a second UE subgroup including the UE and one or more additional UEs, and the PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second UE subgroup to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a paging occasion (PO). For example, the PEI field may correspond to the first bit of the TRS availability indication bitmap 1304, and the SEI field may correspond to the second bit of the TRS availability indication bitmap 1304. Thus, 6 bits may be split between TRS (for paging) and SRS (for positioning). In other designs, 6 bits of the TRS availability indication bitmap 1304 may be dedicated to the SEI field / bit (e.g., in this case, the TRS availability indication bitmap 1304 is not used for paging, but all UEs may monitor PO). In one aspect, the first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is received in a first time slot, and the paging PDCCH is received in a second time slot different from the first time slot. In yet another aspect, the first UE subgroup and the second UE subgroup are the same.Alternatively, the first UE subgroup and the second UE subgroup are different.In some designs, the paging PDCCH is scrambled with a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for broadcast.

[0231] refer to Figure 15 to Figure 16 In terms of signaling, PDCCH-based signaling can be used for the first DCI including the SEI field. For example, a new DCI format 2_X can be defined for the PDCCH including the SEI. In one aspect, one bit in the DCI payload indicates a UE subgroup or a UE group for SRS-O, depending on whether the subgroup is configured. In one aspect, the SEI field can carry an SI change indication or an ETWS / CMAS notification.

[0232] refer to Figure 15 to Figure 16 In some designs, the SEI acts as a wake-up signal, and if the SEI field is not detected (i.e., not detected with a bit configuration that triggers SRS-P transmission), the UE does not send SRS-P on the upcoming SRS-O. Alternatively, the SEI field acts as a sleep signal, and if the SRS-EI is detected (i.e., not detected with a bit configuration that triggers sleep), the UE does not send SRS-P on the upcoming SRS-O. In one aspect, the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information, and the paging PDCCH is scrambled with the RNTI for broadcast. In some designs, the UE does not expect to process information from more than one DCI with a CRC scrambled with the RNTI for broadcast or UE group common information in the same time slot.

[0233] refer to Figure 15 to Figure 16In some designs, the SEI field includes an indication of the number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set. For example, the SRS-O set includes SRS-Os corresponding to the indicated number of SRS-Os in consecutive SRS-P frames. For example, the SEI field indicates SRSOnumPerSEI SRSOs in X consecutive SRS frames (SRS-F). The SRS frames may correspond to paging frames, or may be configured separately (e.g., as a multiple of the SRS periodicity). In one aspect, "X consecutive frames" may also be referred to as an SRS cycle or equivalent to a paging cycle (also referred to as I-DRX).

[0234] refer to Figure 15 to Figure 16 , in some designs, the SEI field includes an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os including an SRS-O set. For example, the first DCI may include an SEI bitmap, which includes multiple SEI fields. Each SEI field in the multiple SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup in the multiple UE subgroups, and each SEI field in the multiple SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P on the corresponding SRS-O set. As described above, in one example, the SEI bitmap may correspond to some or all of the TRS availability indication bitmap 1304. In some designs, the size of the SEI bitmap is based on the number of first bits associated with the number of SRS-Os in each corresponding SRS-O set multiplied by the number of UE subgroups in the multiple UE subgroups. For example, assume that the SEI bitmap includes SRSOnumPerSEI bit segments, each bit segment has K bits, where if subgroup grouping is configured, K=subgroupsNumPerSRSO, otherwise K=1. On the one hand, the i-th bit of each segment corresponds to the i-th subgroup. In one aspect, if subgroup grouping is configured, the size of the bitmap is SRSOnumPerSEI×subgroupsNumPerSRSO, otherwise the size of the bitmap is SRSOnumPerSEI.

[0235] refer to Figure 15 to Figure 16 In some designs, the mapping of the UE and at least one UE-attached UE to the first UE subgroup is based on: a UE identifier (ID), or a number of SRS-P frames in an SRS-P cycle, or a number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or an index of a corresponding SRS-O within a corresponding SRS-P frame, or any combination thereof.

[0236] For example, the UE determines the index of its associated bit segment based on the SRSO index within the SRS cycle. In one aspect, the SRSO index is counted continuously for the SRSO in the SRS cycle. In one aspect, the UE may determine the index of its associated bit segment based on the SRSO index within the SRS cycle. PO =((UE_ID mod N)×Ns +i s )mod SRSOnumPerSRSEI maps the SRSO index to the bit segment based on the relative SRSO index within the bitmap, thus

[0237] N: total number of SRS frames in the SRS cycle

[0238] ·N s : Number of SRSOs per SRS frame

[0239] · s : The index of SRSO in the SRS frame

[0240] In one aspect, if subgroup grouping is configured, then within the bit segment, the bits used as the SRS indication for the subgroup of UEs are determined by the subgroup index i of the UE. SG Determine, for example, bit i of the paging indication bitmap PO ×K+i SG In some designs, a bit value of '1' triggers UEs belonging to the indicated subgroup to send SRS-P at the indicated SRS-O, and a bit value of '0' triggers UEs belonging to the indicated subgroup to not send SRS-P at the indicated SRS-O.

[0241] refer to Figure 15 to Figure 16 In some designs, the UE receives (and the network component sends) a second DCI including an indication of whether the SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both, while the UE is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state. This aspect is similar to the Fig.14 The TRS availability indication bits described in 1404 and 1406 of . In one aspect, the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or the second DCI corresponds to another DCI that is different from the first DCI and includes another SEI field, or the second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or the second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof. For example, when the UE remains in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE, the SRS-P configuration verification indication can be used to ensure SRS-P continuity (e.g., without significant power consumption increase and without high latency) in the event of a cell change.

[0242] In the above detailed description, it can be seen that different features are grouped together in each example. This disclosure should not be understood as an intention that the example clauses have more features than the features explicitly mentioned in each clause. On the contrary, various aspects of the present disclosure may include less than all the features of the disclosed individual example clauses. Therefore, the following clauses should be considered to be incorporated into the description accordingly, wherein each clause itself can be used as a separate example. Although each dependent clause may refer to a specific combination of one clause with other clauses in a clause, the aspects of the dependent clause are not limited to a specific combination. It should be understood that other example clauses may also include a combination of the subject matter of the dependent clause aspect with any other dependent clause or independent clause or any feature with other dependent clauses and independent clauses. Various aspects disclosed herein explicitly include these combinations, unless it is clearly expressed or can be easily inferred that a specific combination is not intended to be used (e.g., contradictory aspects, such as defining an element as both an electrical insulator and an electrical conductor). In addition, it is also expected that various aspects of the clause may be included in any other independent clause, even if the clause is not directly dependent on the independent clause.

[0243] Specific implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0244] Clause 1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration; receiving a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup including the UE and at least one additional UE, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively sending the one or more SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0245] Clause 2. A method according to clause 1, wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration, and wherein the selective sending includes sending the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0246] Clause 3. A method according to any one of clauses 1 to 2, wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to not send the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration, and wherein the selective sending includes not sending the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration.

[0247] Clause 4. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 3, wherein the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information.

[0248] Clause 5. A method according to any one of clauses 1 to 4, wherein the first DCI also includes a paging early indication (PEI) field, wherein the PEI field is associated with a second UE subgroup including the UE and one or more additional UEs, and wherein the PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second UE subgroup to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a paging occasion (PO).

[0249] Clause 6. The method of clause 5, wherein the first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is received in a first time slot, and wherein the paging PDCCH is received in a second time slot different from the first time slot.

[0250] Clause 7. A method as described in any of clauses 5 to 6, wherein the first UE subgroup and the second UE subgroup are the same.

[0251] Clause 8. A method as described in any of clauses 5 to 7, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are different.

[0252] Clause 9. A method as described in any of clauses 5 to 8, wherein the paging PDCCH is scrambled with a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for broadcast.

[0253] Clause 10. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 9, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of the number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set.

[0254] Clause 11. The method of clause 10, wherein the SRS-O set includes SRS-Os corresponding to the indicated number of SRS-Os in consecutive SRS-P frames.

[0255] Clause 12. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 11, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os constituting the SRS-O set.

[0256] Clause 13. A method according to clause 12, wherein the first DCI includes an SEI bitmap, the SEI bitmap includes multiple SEI fields, wherein each SEI field of the multiple SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup in multiple UE subgroups, and wherein each SEI field of the multiple SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P on the corresponding SRS-O set.

[0257] Clause 14. The method of clause 13, wherein a size of the SEI bitmap is based on a number of first bits associated with a number of SRS-Os in each respective SRS-O set multiplied by a number of UE subgroups in the plurality of UE subgroups.

[0258] Clause 15. A method according to any one of clauses 1 to 14, wherein the mapping of the UE and the at least one UE additional UE to the first UE subgroup is based on: a UE identifier (ID), or the number of SRS-P frames in an SRS-P cycle, or the number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or the index of the corresponding SRS-O within the corresponding SRS-P frame, or any combination thereof.

[0259] Clause 16. The method according to any one of clauses 1 to 15 further includes: receiving a second DCI including an indication of whether the SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both, when the UE is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.

[0260] Clause 17. A method according to clause 16, wherein the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to another DCI that is different from the first DCI and includes another SEI field, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof.

[0261] Clause 18. A method of operating a network component, comprising: sending a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipment (UE); sending a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when each UE in the set of UEs is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first subset of UEs to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively receiving one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from each UE in the first subset of UEs on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set based on the SEI field.

[0262] Clause 19. The method of clause 18, wherein the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information.

[0263] Clause 20. A method according to any one of clauses 18 to 19, wherein the first DCI also includes a paging early indication (PEI) field, wherein the PEI field is associated with a second subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second subset of UEs to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for a paging occasion (PO).

[0264] Clause 21. The method of clause 20, wherein the first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is sent in a first time slot, and wherein the paging PDCCH is sent in a second time slot different from the first time slot.

[0265] Clause 22. A method as described in any of clauses 20 to 21, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are the same.

[0266] Clause 23. A method as described in any of clauses 18 to 22, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of the number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set.

[0267] Clause 24. A method as described in any of clauses 18 to 23, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os constituting the SRS-O set.

[0268] Clause 25. A method according to clause 24, wherein the first DCI includes an SEI bitmap, the SEI bitmap including multiple SEI fields, wherein each of the multiple SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup in multiple UE subgroups, and wherein each of the multiple SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P on the corresponding SRS-O set.

[0269] Clause 26. A method according to any one of clauses 18 to 25, wherein the mapping of each UE in the first UE subgroup to the first UE subgroup is based on: a UE identifier (ID), or the number of SRS-P frames in an SRS-P cycle, or the number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or the index of the corresponding SRS-O within the corresponding SRS-P frame, or any combination thereof.

[0270] Clause 27. The method according to any one of clauses 18 to 26 further includes: sending a second DCI including an indication of whether the corresponding SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both, when each UE in the first UE subgroup is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.

[0271] Clause 28. A method according to clause 27, wherein the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to another DCI that is different from the first DCI and includes another SEI field, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof.

[0272] Clause 29. A user equipment (UE), the user equipment (UE) comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor being configured to: receive a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration via the at least one transceiver; receive a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field via the at least one transceiver when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup including the UE and the at least one additional UE, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively send the one or more SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set via the at least one transceiver according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0273] Clause 30. A UE according to clause 29, wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration, and wherein the selective sending includes sending the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0274] Clause 31. A UE according to any one of clauses 29 to 30, wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to not send the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration, and wherein the selective sending includes not sending the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration.

[0275] Clause 32. A UE as set forth in any of clauses 29 to 31, wherein the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information.

[0276] Clause 33. A UE according to any one of clauses 29 to 32, wherein the first DCI also includes a paging early indication (PEI) field, wherein the PEI field is associated with a second UE subgroup comprising the UE and one or more additional UEs, and wherein the PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second UE subgroup to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a paging occasion (PO).

[0277] Clause 34. The UE of clause 33, wherein the first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is received in a first time slot, and wherein the paging PDCCH is received in a second time slot different from the first time slot.

[0278] Clause 35. A UE as set forth in any of clauses 33 to 34, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are the same.

[0279] Clause 36. A UE as set forth in any of clauses 33 to 35, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are different.

[0280] Clause 37. A UE as set out in any of clauses 33 to 36, wherein the paging PDCCH is scrambled with a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for broadcast.

[0281] Clause 38. A UE as set forth in any of clauses 29 to 37, wherein the SEI field comprises an indication of a number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set.

[0282] Clause 39. A UE as described in clause 38, wherein the SRS-O set includes SRS-Os corresponding to the indicated number of SRS-Os in consecutive SRS-P frames.

[0283] Clause 40. A UE as described in any of clauses 29 to 39, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os constituting the SRS-O set.

[0284] Clause 41. A UE according to clause 40, wherein the first DCI includes a SEI bitmap, the SEI bitmap including multiple SEI fields, wherein each of the multiple SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup in a plurality of UE subgroups, and wherein each of the multiple SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P on the corresponding SRS-O set.

[0285] Clause 42. A UE as described in clause 41, wherein a size of the SEI bitmap is based on a number of first bits associated with a number of SRS-Os in each respective SRS-O set multiplied by a number of UE subgroups in the plurality of UE subgroups.

[0286] Clause 43. A UE according to any one of clauses 29 to 42, wherein the mapping of the UE and the at least one UE additional UE to the first UE subgroup is based on: a UE identifier (ID), or the number of SRS-P frames in an SRS-P cycle, or the number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or the index of the corresponding SRS-O within the corresponding SRS-P frame, or any combination thereof.

[0287] Clause 44. A UE according to any one of clauses 29 to 43, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver when the UE is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state, a second DCI including an indication of whether the SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both.

[0288] Clause 45. A UE according to clause 44, wherein the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to another DCI that is different from the first DCI and includes another SEI field, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof.

[0289] Clause 46. A network component, the network component comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor being configured to: send a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipment (UEs) via the at least one transceiver; send a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field via the at least one transceiver when each UE in the set of UEs is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first subset of UEs to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively receive the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from each UE in the first subset of UEs on the SRS-O set via the at least one transceiver according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set based on the SEI field.

[0290] Clause 47. The network component of Clause 46, wherein the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information.

[0291] Clause 48. A network component according to any one of clauses 46 to 47, wherein the first DCI also includes a paging early indication (PEI) field, wherein the PEI field is associated with a second subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second subset of UEs to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for a paging occasion (PO).

[0292] Clause 49. The network component of clause 48, wherein the first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is sent in a first time slot, and wherein the paging PDCCH is sent in a second time slot different from the first time slot.

[0293] Clause 50. A network component as set forth in any of clauses 48 to 49, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are the same.

[0294] Clause 51. A network component as described in any of clauses 46 to 50, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of the number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set.

[0295] Clause 52. A network component as described in any of clauses 46 to 51, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os constituting the SRS-O set.

[0296] Clause 53. A network component according to clause 52, wherein the first DCI includes an SEI bitmap, the SEI bitmap including multiple SEI fields, wherein each SEI field of the multiple SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup in a plurality of UE subgroups, and wherein each SEI field of the multiple SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P on the corresponding SRS-O set.

[0297] Clause 54. A network component according to any one of clauses 46 to 53, wherein the mapping of each UE in the first UE subgroup to the first UE subgroup is based on: a UE identifier (ID), or the number of SRS-P frames in an SRS-P cycle, or the number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or the index of the corresponding SRS-O within the corresponding SRS-P frame, or any combination thereof.

[0298] Clause 55. A network component according to any one of clauses 46 to 54, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: send a second DCI via the at least one transceiver when each UE in the first UE subgroup is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state, including an indication of whether the corresponding SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both.

[0299] Clause 56. A network component according to clause 55, wherein the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to another DCI that is different from the first DCI and includes another SEI field, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof.

[0300] Clause 57. A user equipment (UE), comprising: a component for receiving a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration; a component for receiving a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup including the UE and at least one additional UE, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and a component for selectively sending the one or more SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0301] Clause 58. A UE according to clause 57, wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration, and wherein the selective sending includes sending the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0302] Clause 59. A UE according to any one of clauses 57 to 58, wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to not send the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration, and wherein the selective sending includes not sending the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration.

[0303] Clause 60. A UE as set forth in any of clauses 57 to 59, wherein the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information.

[0304] Clause 61. A UE according to any one of clauses 57 to 60, wherein the first DCI also includes a paging early indication (PEI) field, wherein the PEI field is associated with a second UE subgroup comprising the UE and one or more additional UEs, and wherein the PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second UE subgroup to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for a paging occasion (PO).

[0305] Clause 62. The UE of clause 61, wherein the first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is received in a first time slot, and wherein the paging PDCCH is received in a second time slot different from the first time slot.

[0306] Clause 63. A UE as set forth in any of clauses 61 to 62, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are the same.

[0307] Clause 64. A UE as set forth in any of clauses 61 to 63, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are different.

[0308] Clause 65. A UE as set forth in any of clauses 61 to 64, wherein the paging PDCCH is scrambled with a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for broadcast.

[0309] Clause 66. A UE as described in any of clauses 57 to 65, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of the number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set.

[0310] Clause 67. The UE of clause 66, wherein the SRS-O set comprises SRS-Os corresponding to the indicated number of SRS-Os in consecutive SRS-P frames.

[0311] Clause 68. A UE as described in any of clauses 57 to 67, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os constituting the SRS-O set.

[0312] Clause 69. A UE according to clause 68, wherein the first DCI includes a SEI bitmap, the SEI bitmap including multiple SEI fields, wherein each of the multiple SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup in a plurality of UE subgroups, and wherein each of the multiple SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P on the corresponding SRS-O set.

[0313] Clause 70. A UE as described in clause 69, wherein a size of the SEI bitmap is based on a number of first bits associated with a number of SRS-Os in each respective SRS-O set multiplied by a number of UE subgroups in the plurality of UE subgroups.

[0314] Clause 71. A UE according to any one of clauses 57 to 70, wherein the mapping of the UE and the at least one UE additional UE to the first UE subgroup is based on: a UE identifier (ID), or the number of SRS-P frames in an SRS-P cycle, or the number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or the index of the corresponding SRS-O within the corresponding SRS-P frame, or any combination thereof.

[0315] Clause 72. A UE according to any one of clauses 57 to 71, further comprising: a component for receiving a second DCI including an indication of whether the SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both, when the UE is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.

[0316] Clause 73. A UE according to clause 72, wherein the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to another DCI that is different from the first DCI and includes another SEI field, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof.

[0317] Clause 74. A network component comprising: a component for sending a positioning sounding reference signal (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipment (UE); a component for sending a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when each UE in the set of UEs is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first subset of UEs to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and a component for selectively receiving the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from each UE in the first subset of UEs on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set based on the SEI field.

[0318] Clause 75. The network component of clause 74, wherein the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information.

[0319] Clause 76. A network component according to any one of clauses 74 to 75, wherein the first DCI also includes a paging early indication (PEI) field, wherein the PEI field is associated with a second subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second subset of UEs to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for a paging occasion (PO).

[0320] Clause 77. The network component of clause 76, wherein the first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is sent in a first time slot, and wherein the paging PDCCH is sent in a second time slot different from the first time slot.

[0321] Clause 78. A network component as described in any of clauses 76 to 77, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are the same.

[0322] Clause 79. A network component as described in any of clauses 74 to 78, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of the number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set.

[0323] Clause 80. A network component as described in any of clauses 74 to 79, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os constituting the SRS-O set.

[0324] Clause 81. A network component according to clause 80, wherein the first DCI includes an SEI bitmap, the SEI bitmap including multiple SEI fields, wherein each SEI field of the multiple SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup in a plurality of UE subgroups, and wherein each SEI field of the multiple SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P on the corresponding SRS-O set.

[0325] Clause 82. A network component according to any one of clauses 74 to 81, wherein the mapping of each UE in the first UE subgroup to the first UE subgroup is based on: a UE identifier (ID), or the number of SRS-P frames in an SRS-P cycle, or the number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or the index of the corresponding SRS-O within the corresponding SRS-P frame, or any combination thereof.

[0326] Clause 83. A network component according to any one of clauses 74 to 82, further comprising: a component for sending a second DCI including an indication of whether the corresponding SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both, when each UE in the first UE subgroup is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.

[0327] Clause 84. A network component according to clause 83, wherein the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to another DCI that is different from the first DCI and includes another SEI field, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof.

[0328] Clause 85. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a user equipment (UE), causes the UE to: receive a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration; receive a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup including the UE and at least one additional UE, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively send the one or more SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0329] Clause 86. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to clause 85, wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration, and wherein the selective sending includes sending the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

[0330] Clause 87. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of clauses 85 to 86, wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to not send the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration, and wherein the selective sending includes not sending the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration.

[0331] Clause 88. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 85 to 87, wherein the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information.

[0332] Clause 89. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of clauses 85 to 88, wherein the first DCI also includes a paging early indication (PEI) field, wherein the PEI field is associated with a second UE subgroup including the UE and one or more additional UEs, and wherein the PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second UE subgroup to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for a paging occasion (PO).

[0333] Clause 90. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 89, wherein the first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is received in a first time slot, and wherein the paging PDCCH is received in a second time slot different from the first time slot.

[0334] Clause 91. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 89 to 90, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are the same.

[0335] Clause 92. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 89 to 91, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are different.

[0336] Clause 93. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 89 to 92, wherein the paging PDCCH is scrambled with a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for broadcast.

[0337] Clause 94. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 85 to 93, wherein the SEI field comprises an indication of a number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set.

[0338] Clause 95. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of Clause 94, wherein the set of SRS-Os comprises SRS-Os corresponding to the indicated number of SRS-Os in consecutive SRS-P frames.

[0339] Clause 96. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as described in any of clauses 85 to 95, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os that constitute the SRS-O set.

[0340] Clause 97. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to clause 96, wherein the first DCI includes an SEI bitmap, the SEI bitmap including multiple SEI fields, wherein each SEI field of the multiple SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup of multiple UE subgroups, and wherein each SEI field of the multiple SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P on the corresponding SRS-O set.

[0341] Clause 98. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as described in Clause 97, wherein a size of the SEI bitmap is based on a number of first bits associated with a number of SRS-Os in each respective SRS-O set multiplied by a number of UE subgroups in the plurality of UE subgroups.

[0342] Clause 99. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of clauses 85 to 98, wherein the mapping of the UE and the at least one UE additional UE to the first UE subgroup is based on: a UE identifier (ID), or the number of SRS-P frames in an SRS-P cycle, or the number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or the index of the corresponding SRS-O within the corresponding SRS-P frame, or any combination thereof.

[0343] Clause 100. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of clauses 85 to 99, further comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the UE, cause the UE to: receive a second DCI including an indication of whether the SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both, when the UE is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.

[0344] Clause 101. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to clause 100, wherein the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to another DCI that is different from the first DCI and includes another SEI field, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof.

[0345] Clause 102. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a network component, cause the network component to: send a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipment (UE); send a first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when each UE in the set of UEs is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first subset of UEs to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on an SRS-P opportunity (SRS-O) set; and selectively receive the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps from each UE in the first subset of UEs on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration from the SRS-P configuration set based on the SEI field.

[0346] Clause 103. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 102, wherein the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information.

[0347] Clause 104. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of clauses 102 to 103, wherein the first DCI also includes a paging early indication (PEI) field, wherein the PEI field is associated with a second subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second subset of UEs to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for a paging occasion (PO).

[0348] Clause 105. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 104, wherein the first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is sent in a first time slot, and wherein the paging PDCCH is sent in a second time slot different from the first time slot.

[0349] Clause 106. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 104 to 105, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are the same.

[0350] Clause 107. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 102 to 106, wherein the SEI field comprises an indication of a number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set.

[0351] Clause 108. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 102 to 107, wherein the SEI field comprises an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os constituting the SRS-O set.

[0352] Clause 109. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to clause 108, wherein the first DCI includes an SEI bitmap, the SEI bitmap including multiple SEI fields, wherein each SEI field of the multiple SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup in a plurality of UE subgroups, and wherein each SEI field of the multiple SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P on the corresponding SRS-O set.

[0353] Clause 110. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of clauses 102 to 109, wherein the mapping of each UE in the first UE subgroup to the first UE subgroup is based on: a UE identifier (ID), or the number of SRS-P frames in an SRS-P cycle, or the number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or the index of the corresponding SRS-O within the corresponding SRS-P frame, or any combination thereof.

[0354] Clause 111. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of clauses 102 to 110, further comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the network component, cause the network component to: send a second DCI including an indication of whether the corresponding SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both, when each UE in the first UE subgroup is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state.

[0355] Clause 112. A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to clause 111, wherein the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to another DCI that is different from the first DCI and includes another SEI field, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof.

[0356] It should be understood by those skilled in the art that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different techniques and methods. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, light fields or optical particles, or any combination thereof.

[0357] In addition, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, circuits and algorithmic steps described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software or a combination of the two. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various exemplary components, frames, modules, circuits and steps have been generally described above in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints proposed to the entire system. Those skilled in the art can implement the described functionality in different ways for each specific application, but such specific implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0358] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in an alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, a combination of one or more microprocessors and a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0359] The methods, sequences and / or algorithms described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be directly embodied in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software module may reside in a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An example storage medium is coupled to a processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. In an alternative solution, the storage medium may be integral with the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). In an alternative solution, the processor and the storage medium may reside in a user terminal as discrete components.

[0360] In one or more example aspects, the function can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the function can be stored on a computer-readable medium or sent by a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or codes. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, including any medium that facilitates the sending of a computer program from one place to another. Storage media can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage devices, disk storage devices or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program codes in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer. In addition, any connection is appropriately referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is sent from a website, a server or other remote source using a coaxial cable, an optical fiber cable, a twisted pair, a digital subscriber line (DSL) or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio and microwaves, then coaxial cable, optical fiber cable, twisted pair, DSL or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio and microwaves are included in the definition of the medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray disc, where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0361] Although the foregoing disclosure exemplifies the exemplary aspects of the present disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications may be made herein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. In addition, the functions, steps and / or actions of the method claims according to the various aspects of the present disclosure described herein do not need to be performed in any particular order. In addition, although the elements of the present disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural form may also be considered unless explicitly stated to be limited to the singular.

Claims

1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: Receive the sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration; receiving first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup comprising the UE and at least one additional UE, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on a set of SRS-P opportunities (SRS-O); as well as The one or more SRS-Ps are selectively transmitted on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration, and The selectively transmitting comprises transmitting the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to not transmit the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration, and The selectively transmitting comprises not transmitting the one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on the SRS-O set according to the corresponding SRS-P configuration. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information.

5. The method according to claim 1, The first DCI further includes a Paging Early Indication (PEI) field, wherein the PEI field is associated with a second UE subgroup comprising the UE and one or more additional UEs, and The PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second UE subgroup to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a paging occasion (PO).

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is received in a first time slot, and The paging PDCCH is received in a second time slot different from the first time slot. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first UE subgroup and the second UE subgroup are the same.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the first UE subgroup and the second UE subgroup are different.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the paging PDCCH is scrambled with a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) for broadcasting.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of a number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the SRS-O set comprises SRS-Os corresponding to the indicated number of SRS-Os in consecutive SRS-P frames.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os constituting the SRS-O set.

13. The method according to claim 12, The first DCI includes a SEI bitmap, and the SEI bitmap includes a plurality of SEI fields. wherein each SEI field in the plurality of SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup in the plurality of UE subgroups, and Each SEI field in the plurality of SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P in the corresponding SRS-O set.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a size of the SEI bitmap is based on a number of first bits associated with a number of SRS-Os in each respective SRS-O set multiplied by a number of UE subgroups in the plurality of UE subgroups.

15. The method according to claim 1, The mapping of the UE and the at least one additional UE to the first UE subgroup is based on: UE Identifier (ID), or The number of SRS-P frames in the SRS-P cycle, or The number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or the index of the corresponding SRS-O within the corresponding SRS-P frame, or Any combination of them.

16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: When the UE is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state, a second DCI including an indication of whether the SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both, is received.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to another DCI different from the first DCI and including another SEI field, or The second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or The second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof.

18. A method of operating a network component, the method comprising: Sending a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipments (UEs); sending first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when each UE in the set of UEs is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on a set of SRS-P opportunities (SRS-O); as well as The one or more respective SRS-Ps are selectively received from each UE in the first subset of UEs on the SRS-O set according to respective SRS-P configurations from the set of SRS-P configurations based on the SEI field. The method of claim 18 , wherein the first DCI is scrambled with group common (GC) information.

20. The method according to claim 18, The first DCI further includes a Paging Early Indication (PEI) field, wherein the PEI field is associated with a second subset of the set of UEs, and The PEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the second UE subgroup to decode or not decode a paging physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a paging occasion (PO).

21. The method according to claim 20, The first DCI including the PEI and the SEI is sent in a first time slot, and The paging PDCCH is sent in a second time slot different from the first time slot.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the first subgroup of UEs and the second subgroup of UEs are the same.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of a number of SRS-Os in the SRS-O set.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein the SEI field includes an indication of one or more specified SRS-Os constituting the SRS-O set.

25. The method according to claim 24, The first DCI includes a SEI bitmap, and the SEI bitmap includes a plurality of SEI fields. wherein each SEI field in the plurality of SEI fields is associated with a different UE subgroup in the plurality of UE subgroups, and Each SEI field in the plurality of SEI fields is configured to trigger each UE in the corresponding UE subgroup to send or not send at least one corresponding SRS-P in the corresponding SRS-O set.

26. The method according to claim 18, The mapping of each UE in the first UE subgroup to the first UE subgroup is based on: UE Identifier (ID), or The number of SRS-P frames in the SRS-P cycle, or The number of SRS-Os per SRS-P frame, or The index of the corresponding SRS-O within the corresponding SRS-P frame, or any combination thereof.

27. The method of claim 18, further comprising: When each UE in the first UE subgroup is in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state, a second DCI is sent including an indication of whether the corresponding SRS-P configuration remains valid, or whether the SEI field of the first DCI remains valid, or both.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the second DCI corresponds to the first DCI, or wherein the second DCI corresponds to another DCI different from the first DCI and including another SEI field, or The second DCI corresponds to a paging DCI message, or The second DCI corresponds to a paging early indication (PEI) DCI, or a combination thereof.

29. A user equipment (UE), the user equipment (UE) comprising: Memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor being configured to: receiving, via the at least one transceiver, a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration; receiving, via the at least one transceiver, first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first UE subgroup comprising the UE and at least one additional UE, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on a set of SRS-P opportunities (SRS-O); as well as The one or more SRS-Ps are selectively transmitted via the at least one transceiver on the SRS-O set according to the SRS-P configuration based on the SEI field.

30. A network component, the network component comprising: Memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor, the at least one processor being communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor being configured to: transmitting, via the at least one transceiver, a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) configuration set to a set of user equipment (UE); transmitting, via the at least one transceiver, first downlink control information (DCI) including an SRS-P early indication (SEI) field when each UE in the set of UEs is in a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or an RRC idle state, wherein the SEI field is associated with a first subset of the set of UEs, and wherein the SEI field is configured to trigger each UE in the first UE subgroup to send or not send one or more corresponding SRS-Ps on a set of SRS-P opportunities (SRS-O); as well as The one or more respective SRS-Ps are selectively received from each UE in the first subset of UEs via the at least one transceiver on the SRS-O set according to respective SRS-P configurations from the set of SRS-P configurations based on the SEI field.

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