Coded wireless sensing for low power high accuracy positioning

Abstract

The invention proposes a system (100) for localization of low-complexity devices like UEs by means of joint wireless (radar) sensing (for timing) and uplink / sidelink pilot transmission (for angle / identification), wherein the wireless (radar) sensing waveform / signal (120) embeds data representing a code / data (121) that can be detected and decoded by the target UE (112) being sensed, and used to generate an uplink / sidelink transmission also containing the code / data (121) or data that can be derived from the embedded code / data (121).

Description

[0001] Coded wireless sensing for low power high accuracy positioning

[0002] FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0003] The invention relates to the field of wireless sensing and communication in wireless networks, such as - but not limited to - integrated sensing and communication.

[0004] BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0005] Localization of low-complexity UE devices with high accuracy within 5G and 6G networks is a key use case, sometimes referred to as low-power high-accuracy positioning (LPHAP). One challenge in achieving high precision ranging for LPHAP is that many low- complexity devices may only implement narrowband signaling, limiting the resolution of timing-based localization approaches by limiting the maximum bandwidth over which they can detect and respond to signals.

[0006] Pure angle-based localization approaches to solve this issue are known in the literature, but do not achieve a sufficient localization accuracy (e.g., + / - 5m) and require repetitious signaling at the low-complexity device for every location fix, potentially draining battery life.

[0007] Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) refers to the idea of using (part of) the communications waveforms for sensing purposes. Many proposed approaches to ISAC implement radar or radar-like techniques to acquire a range and angle to an object of interest as well as the velocity of the moving object of interest, e.g., from a 5G base station.

[0008] Thanks to the integration between sensing and communication in these systems, it becomes possible to embed data within a radar sensing signal. The general idea of mixing 5G / 6G data and radar signals has already been explored, e.g., in reference to the article of Bo Tan et al.: "Improved Sensing and Positioning via 5G and mmWave radar for Airport Surveillance", Proceedings of the 11th SESAR Innovation Days conference, 7-9 December 2021. Further recent work has disclosed embedding information via chirp multiplexing in Batu K. Chalise et al.:" Information embedding in DFRC networks through chirp waveform diversity”, EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, Article number: 14 (2023).

[0009] Furthermore, mmWave radar can achieve extremely high range sensitivity. For example, Kang Min Bae et al.: "OmniScatter: extreme sensitivity mmWave backscattering using commodity FMCW radar", MobiSys '22, Proceedings of the 20th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services, June 2022, pp. 316-329, has showed range "bins" of 10 mm width at 28 GHz with 2 GHz bandwidth, which, although higher than the bandwidth available in 5G NR, demonstrates the order of magnitude.

[0010] However, when considering radar for LPHAP use cases, there may be some drawbacks. Radar angle resolution is limited by the number of antennas at the receiver and is affected by the angle-of-arrival (AoA) at the radar, said resolution being more accurate at low AoAs. Also, the weak signal of the radar return means it is unlikely to be detected at multiple points, as this would be required to generate redundant measurements for greater accuracy.

[0011] Moreover, mixed time- and angle- based localization solutions mixing both uplink time difference of arrival (UL-TDoA) and AoA have been demonstrated in, for example, Alda Xhafa et al.: "Evaluation of5G Positioning Performance Based on UTDoA, AoA and BaseStation Selective Exclusion”, Sensors (Basel), 2022 Jan; 22(1): 101, In which the authors have showed that if redundant observations are available, errors caused by multipath in uplink- AoA measurements can be corrected.

[0012] Thus, the localization of low-complexity devices using only communication signals may suffer from low accuracy due to:

[0013] (i) the likely narrowband capabilities of the low-complexity devices, which will reduce the accuracy of timing-based approaches, or those which mix timing with angle data; and

[0014] (ii) problems with purely angle-based localization approaches which include low resolution and potentially increased power drain on the low-complexity device if repeated signaling is needed.

[0015] On the hand, the localization of low-complexity devices using only radar signals (even where the device to be localized is large enough to make this feasible) may suffer from:

[0016] (i) complexity of implementing a radar system with sufficient angular resolution due to large number of required antennas at the transceiver;

[0017] (ii) weakness of radar return, which further complicates taking multiple angular measurements using multiple receivers; and

[0018] (iii) variability of the measurement accuracy due to dependence on AoA at the radar. Given the above, although mixed radar and communication localization approaches are desirable, it appears that the known techniques suffer from drawbacks when localizing low-complexity UE devices. For example, those techniques based on the concept of using the 5G positioning reference signal (PRS) as a radar-like wideband sensing signal or other 5G signaling, require wideband signaling at the UE to be localized and / or multi-antenna UEs to perform AoA calculations locally on the UE, which may make them infeasible for localizing low-complexity devices.

[0019] SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0020] An object of the present invention is to achieve an enhanced localization or positioning of a low-complexity device.

[0021] An advantage of the present invention is that a wideband wireless sensing signal will be modified to a coded wireless sensing signal to enhance the localization or positioning of a narrowband target device of low-complexity.

[0022] This object is achieved by a method as claimed in claims 1 and 13, by a transmitting sensing device as claimed in claim 16, by a receiving sensing device as claimed in claim 17, by a target device as claimed in claim 18, by a system as claimed in claim 19, and by a computer program product as claimed in claim 20.

[0023] According to a first aspect, a method of obtaining a location estimate of a target device is provided. The method comprises: transmitting, by a transmitting sensing device, a sensing signal; and in response, receiving and using, by the target device, the sensing signal accompanied by a code.

[0024] According to a second aspect, a method of locating of a target device is provided. The method is performed at a target device receiving a sensing signal accompanied by a code, and comprises: generating a response signal using the code; and transmitting the response signal.

[0025] According to a third aspect, a transmitting sensing device is provided. The transmitting sensing device comprises: a transmitter configured to transmit a sensing signal; and a controller configured to add to the sensing signal a code to be received and used in response by the target device.

[0026] According to a fourth aspect, a receiving sensing device is provided. The receiving sensing device comprises: a sensor configured to detect a reflected sensing signal: and a controller configured to determine a location estimate based on the reflected sensing signal.

[0027] According to a fifth aspect, a target device is provided. The target device comprises: a receiver configured to receive a code accompanied by a sensing signal; a controller configured to generate a response signal using the code; and a transmitter configured to transmit the response signal.

[0028] According to a sixth aspect, a system is provided. The system comprises at least: the transmitting sensing device of the third aspect; the receiving sensing device of the fourth aspect; and the target device of the fifth aspect.

[0029] According to a seventh aspect, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product comprises: code means for producing the steps of any of the first and second aspects, when run on a computer device.

[0030] The proposed aspects of the present invention advantageously allow wideband wireless sensing signals like radar or radar-like signals, which have a fine range resolution, to be able to be modified in order to enhance the localization of narrowband UEs (which would be natively unable to benefit from the range resolution offered by the wideband signal, since the narrowband UEs are unable to receive or decode the whole wideband frequency range).

[0031] Specific advantages of the present invention may include: linking a specific UE (e.g., a target UE) to a specific radar return by means of a code contained / included in (part of) the radar signal, in which it is not necessary to decode the whole frequency range of the radar signal in order to receive the code; enhancing the location precision of the identified UEs by using their uplink replies, triggered by the code, by using the higher precision data for each of the range and angle (which will most often be the radar data for the range and the uplink data for the angle); embedding additional information in the code that simplifies or enhances the overall localization system, like, e.g., data indicating the angle of transmission of a particular radar signal.

[0032] According to a first option which may be combined with the first aspect, the method may further comprise: detecting, by a receiving sensing device, a reflected sensing signal; and determining, by the receiving sensing device, based on the reflected sensing signal, a location estimate.

[0033] According to a second option which may be combined with the first option, the transmitting sensing device and the receiving sensing devices may be co-located.

[0034] According to a third option which may be combined with any of the first and second options, the location estimate may include one or more of: an angle of arrival; a speed; a direction of movement; an orientation; and a distance.

[0035] According to a fourth option which may be combined with any of the first, second, and third options, the method may further comprise: detecting, by the receiving sensing device, a response signal transmitted by the target device and including the code, or a response signal derived from the code.

[0036] According to a fifth option which may be combined with the fourth option, the method may further comprise: linking, by the receiving sensing device, the location estimate to the response signal, the response signal including an identifier of the target device.

[0037] According to a sixth option which may be combined with any of the fourth and fifth options, the method further comprising: determining, by the receiving sensing device, an identity of the target device based on the response signal.

[0038] According to a seventh option which may be combined with any of the first aspect and the first to sixth options, the sensing signal may be transmitted over a wideband to enable sensing signal reflections. According to an eighth option which may be combined with the seventh option, the code may be included in a narrowband of the wideband sensing signal, said narrowband overlapping a reception band of the target device.

[0039] According to a ninth option which may be combined with any of the first aspect and the first to eight options, the code may accompany the sensing signal by being included in the sensing signal, optionally included in a preamble of the sensing signal or in a postamble of the sensing signal.

[0040] According to a tenth option which may be combined with any of the first aspect and the first to ninth options, the code may include data relative to a transmission parameter, the transmission parameter including one or more of a transmission angle, a beam identity, and a transmission power.

[0041] According to an eleventh option which may be combined with any of the first aspect and the fourth to sixth options, the method may further comprise: forwarding, by the receiving sensing device, data included in the response signal to a location determining function.

[0042] According to a twelfth option which may be combined with the second aspect, the response signal may include an identifier of the target device and the code.

[0043] According to a thirteenth option which may be combined with any of the second aspect and the twelfth option, the response signal may be generated only if the code is determined to correspond to the target device.

[0044] It is noted that the above devices may be implemented based on discrete hardware circuitries with discrete hardware components, integrated chips, or arrangements of chip modules, or based on signal processing devices or chips controlled by software routines or programs stored in memories, written on a computer readable media, or downloaded from a network, such as the Internet.

[0045] It shall be understood that the method of claims 1 and 13, the transmitting sensing device of claim 16, the receiving sensing device of claim 17, the target device of claim 18, the system of claim 19, and the computer program product of claim 20 may have similar and / or identical preferred embodiments, in particular, as defined in the dependent claims.

[0046] It shall be understood that a preferred embodiment of the invention can also be any combination of the dependent claims or above embodiments with the respective independent claim. These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.

[0047] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0048] In the following drawings:

[0049] Fig. 1 schematically shows a block diagram of a system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0050] Fig. 2A schematically shows a flow diagram of a main process in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0051] Fig. 2B schematically shows a flow diagram of a first sub-process in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0052] Fig. 2C schematically shows a flow diagram of a second sub-process in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0053] Fig. 3 schematically shows a network system in which the main process is implemented in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0054] Fig. 4 schematically shows a time chart representing SSB bursts embedded in a wireless sensing signal in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0055] Fig. 5 schematically shows a time-frequency resource graph of block resources for a joint uplink-sidelink communication in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0056] Fig. 6 schematically shows a diagram of various entities in a joint uplink-sidelink communication in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0057] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0058] Embodiments of the present invention are described based on a 5G cellular network environment.

[0059] Throughout the present disclosure, the abbreviation "gNB" (5G terminology) or "BS" (base station) is intended to mean an access device / point such as a cellular base station or a Wi-Fi or ultra-wideband (UWB) access point. The gNB may consist of a centralized control plane unit (gNB-CU-CP), multiple centralized user plane units (gNB-CU-UPs) and / or multiple distributed units (gNB-DUs). The gNB is part of a radio access network (RAN), which provides an interface to functions in the core network (CN). The RAN is part of a wireless communication network. It implements a radio access technology (RAT). Conceptually, it resides between a communication device such as a mobile phone, a computer, or any remotely controlled machine and provides connection with its CN. The CN is the communication network's core part, which offers numerous services to customers who are interconnected via the RAN. More specifically, it directs communication streams over the communication network and possibly other networks.

[0060] Furthermore, the terms "base station" (BS) and "network" are often used as synonyms in this disclosure. This means for example that when it is written that the "network" performs a certain operation it may be performed by a CN function of a cellular network, or by a specific base station that is part of such cellular network, and vice versa. It can also mean that part of the functionality is performed by the cellular network and part of the functionality by the base station.

[0061] Throughout the present disclosure, the abbreviation "UE" (3GPP terminology) is intended to mean a user equipment capable of operating with the base station. The UE may be a target UE that is to be located or may be a cooperative UE that may assist the base station with the location of a target UE. In some cases, a target UE that has been located may then function as a cooperative UE. A UE may comprise a legacy UE of full or reduced capability (RedCap) with extensions to support the embodiments of this disclosure or may comprise a low-capability arrangement intended principally to support embodiments of this disclosure. A UE of the latter type may comprise an ultra-low power architecture capable of being powered by a small battery (e.g., a coin cell) and / or by ambient energy harvesting techniques and may use a novel wireless communication protocol that may be optimized for, e.g., simplicity and / or low power operation in place of the legacy protocol. In addition to or instead of a conventional RF transmitter, a tag UE may possess means of modulating an impinging RF waveform using backscattering techniques, said modulations being detectable by a receiver. The simplicity allows the UE to have the form factor of a small tag, similar to an RFID tag. A tag UE typically operates as a target UE but may be capable of supporting some cooperative UE functions.

[0062] It is noted that throughout the present disclosure only those blocks, components and / or devices that are relevant for the proposed data distribution function are shown in the accompanying drawings. Other blocks have been omitted for reasons of brevity. Furthermore, blocks designated by same reference numbers are intended to have the same or at least a similar function, so that their function is not described again later.

[0063] Furthermore, a suitable ISAC OFDM-based diagonal waveform structure and corresponding signal processing algorithm have been described in Yi Geng et al.: "A Novel Waveform Design for OFDM-Based Joint Sensing and Communication System", arXiv:2301.03347vl [cs.IT], 9 Jan 2023. This approach allocates the sensing signals along the diagonal of the time-frequency resource block. Therefore, the sensing signals in a linear structure span both the frequency and time domains. The range and velocity of an object can be estimated simultaneously by applying ID-discrete Fourier transform (DFT) to the diagonal sensing signals. Although this sensing signal is not a chirp, such a sensing signal and others, may also be applicable to the scenarios described in the following embodiments. In fact, the OFDM-based diagonal waveform could be considered as a discrete version of a chirp signal.

[0064] System

[0065] Fig. 1 schematically shows a block diagram of a system 100 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0066] The system 100 comprises a plurality of blocks representing a primary cell 110, a wireless sensing signal 120, one or more optional additional BSs / gNBs 130, and a localization network function (LNF) 140.

[0067] The primary cell 110 is considered a region within a cellular communications network covered by a single access point (e.g., a transmission / reception point, or in non- cellular networks, merely the range of coverage around a given access point).

[0068] The primary cell 110 comprises at least a primary BS 111 and a target user equipment device (UE) 112

[0069] The primary BS 111 is the access point serving the primary cell 110 and may consist, in the CU / DU split architecture, of one gNB-CU and multiple gNB-DUs associated with the gNB-CU. This may, for example, be a gNB as defined within the 5G standards.

[0070] The target UE 112 is to be localized and may comprise an asset tracker, a connected vehicle, a smartphone, or any other similar communication device. In principle, any UE can be the target UE 112 for this system 100, but the greatest advantages over known localization systems will occur for target UEs 112 that: (i) implement narrowband signaling (i.e., UEs operating on a reduced frequency range compared to the frequency range for which the primary BS / gNB 111 is capable of generating signals); and

[0071] (ii) are either large enough to generate radar returns from their own structure (such as a connected vehicle), or are permanently attached to such an object (such as an asset tracker that is attached to a large object). It is noted that the radar returns can be defined as echoes generated by the interaction of a sensing signal with objects in the environment and detected by a detector (which may be the same as or a different device from that having emitted the signal). In addition to those echoes from the target UE 112, the echoes may also be from co-operative UEs 113. In the case of echoes being generated from passive objects in the environment of no interest for localization, this is referred to the term "clutter returns". It is further noted, where no radar return can be generated by / associated with the target UE 112, that it may still participate in this system 100 although the ability to generate a finer range measurement than would otherwise be possible using known systems may be limited. However, other advantages may remain (especially where a code embeds additional angular information that may assist in resolving multipath errors as discussed below in the first and second sub-processes).

[0072] Optionally, the primary cell 110 may contain one or more cooperative UEs 113, i.e., one or more UEs that may receive and decode a code 121 (see below) but that are not necessarily the target of the localization. As depicted, one or more cooperative UEs 113' may also be out of the coverage of the cell 110. A cooperative UE may also generate (part of) a sensing signal on behalf of the primary BS / gNB 111. In this sense, the term BS / gNB may be understood to include a cooperative UE operating in this manner on behalf of the primary BS / gNB 111.

[0073] The wireless sensing signal 120 is generated by the primary BS / gNB 111 or a cooperative UE 113. The sensing signal 120 can be any type of signal that can:

[0074] (i) generate radar returns; and

[0075] (ii) contain a code 121.

[0076] It is advantageous that the sensing signal 120 be wideband for thus covering all or most of the frequency range in which the primary BS / gNB 111 operates, and enabling sensing signal reflections thanks to transmission of the sensing signal 120 over its wideband. The code 121 contained / included in the sensing signal 120 comprises a data packet that can be received and decoded by standards-compliant receivers such as the target UE 112. The code 121 is contained within a reduced frequency range (i.e., a frequency subset) of the overall sensing signal 120. Optionally, the same or different code(s) 121 may be contained in different frequency sub-regions of a single sensing signal 120. Optionally, the same or different code(s) 121 may be contained in the same frequency sub-regions but in the different time slot / symbol of a single sensing signal 120, and the code(s) 121 may apply different beam patterns periodically. Optionally, the code embedded frequency range may partially overlap or have no overlap with the sensing signal 120 at all, but they are both in the operating frequency range of the BS / gNB 111. The content of the code 121 complies to a standard that is implemented by at least one UE 112 and at least one BS / gNB 111.

[0077] The code 121 may be contained / included in a narrowband portion of the spectrum of the overall wideband wireless sensing signal 120, i.e., the portion of the sensing signal that can be received and decoded by the target UE 112 being localized. For example, the code 121 may be included in a narrowband of the wideband sensing signal 120, said narrowband overlapping a reception band of the target device 112.

[0078] The code 121 may be part of the sensing signal 120 itself, optionally in a preamble or a postamble of the sensing signal 120, or it may be transmitted before or after the sensing signal 120, e.g., as a preamble that can be decoded by the receiver before the wireless sensing signal is transmitted.

[0079] The code 121 may contain different types of information including the following:

[0080] (a) a pseudorandom number or nonce, which is used as a one-time identifier;

[0081] (b) information about the angle from which a particular transmission or beam was emitted from the primary BS / gNB 111. For example, the code 121 may increase across a range of numbers (e.g., 0 to 360) according to the transmission angle (e.g., from 0 to 360 degrees). Thus, the information may be about transmission parameters such as, e.g., the transmission angle, the beam identity, the transmission power;

[0082] (c) instructions causing certain behaviors from target UEs 112 or cooperative UEs 113 receiving the code 121. For example, the certain behaviors may be selective behaviors including a selective reply (e.g., in the case where only certain UEs 112 are asked to reply to the code 121), or a wildcard functionality (e.g., in the case of a removal of a previous selective reply instruction to revert to any UE 112 replying);

[0083] (d) information being used to identify the primary BS / gNB 111, for example including a numerical identifier;

[0084] (e) information being used by the network to broadcast the cell specific configurations, for example including the structure of synchronization signal block (SSB) in 5G NR that consists of primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and physical broadcast channel (PBCH);

[0085] (f) information being used to schedule and instruct the target UEs 112 or cooperative UEs 113 to generate the uplink / sidelink transmission, such as using what timefrequency resources, modulation and coding scheme (MCS), etc. The information can be configured by radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and the code may only provide an index to a table of parameters configured by the RRC signaling.

[0086] Amongst candidate sensing signals 120 forthe present invention, there may be three options to obtain a potentially good candidate sensing signal 120 in a 5G embodiment.

[0087] A first option may be a modified version of the positioning reference signal (PRS). Indeed, it was shown in Zhiqing Wei et al.: "5G PRS-Based Sensing: A Sensing Reference Signal Approach for Joint Sensing and Communication System", IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Volume 72, Issue 3, pp. 3250-3263, March 2023, that the PRS can be used for radar sensing as well as digital communications, thereby meaning the PRS can both generate radar returns and embed a code. Thus, the modification required to make the PRS suitable for the present invention would be the embedding of the standardized code.

[0088] A second option may be chirp data transfer techniques, as discussed for example in Batu Krishna Chalise et al.: "Information Embedding in DFRC Networks Through Chirp Waveform Diversity”, EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, 26 Jan, 2023. This will be especially relevant where chirps are used as the radar signal. This may also apply to pseudo-chirps (i.e., chirps that are modified to be transmitted by existing OFDM-based communications systems, as in Alphan §ahin et al.: "DFT-Spread-OFDM-Based Chirp Transmission”, IEEE Communications Letters, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 902-906, March 2021.

[0089] A third option may be to "chain" together different signals in the frequency domain (e.g., with the chain: sensing signal - code - sensing signal), in which case the sensing signal may be extended in the frequency domain by the code, or it may be split into two or more regions and a code transmitted on the intervening frequencies. In this case, the code can in principle be carried by any type of signal so long as it can be generated and transmitted by the base station at the same time as the sensing signal(s). It is noted that in the case where simultaneous transmission is not possible, the system may still operate albeit without some of the localization techniques described in the present disclosure, like, more specifically, the modified two-way ranging, will not work.

[0090] The one or more optional additional BSs / gNBs 130 are BSs / gNBs outside the primary cell 110 that are nevertheless able to (at least) receive uplink (UL) communications from the target UE 112. The optional additional BSs / gNBs 130 are likely to implement similar hardware and software to the primary BS / gNB 111 (i.e., they 130 may for example be BSs / gNBs in a 5G network).

[0091] The LNF 140 is a location determining function that takes in data measured by the primary BS / gNB 111 (and other devices) and forwarded to the LNF 140, and uses a localization algorithm to calculate the location of the target UE 112 (and optionally other parameters). The LNF 140 is run by or accessed by the primary BS / gNB 111, and may advantageously be also available to any cooperative UEs 113 or additional BSs / gNBs 130. Some example localization algorithms of interest that may be implemented by the LNF 140 are described in the present disclosure, like, more specifically, the LMF defined in the 3GPP technical specification TS 37.355 "LTE Positioning Protocol" for 4G LTE and 5G NR positioning.

[0092] Method

[0093] A method 200 of the present invention comprises a main process 200A that refers to a first sub-process 200B and a second sub-process 200C.

[0094] Main process

[0095] Fig. 2A schematically shows a flow diagram of the main process 200A in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0096] In step 201A, the primary BS / gNB 111 acts as a transmitting sensing device by emitting a sensing signal 120 (e.g., a radar sensing signal) comprised of a wideband signal with at least one frequency sub-region that contains data representing a code 121, the content of which complies to a standard that is implemented by at least one UE. The sensing signal 120 may be emitted by the primary BS / gNB 111 regularly as part of its usual sensing activities and according to a policy, or in response to a specific request from the LNF 140, for example a request to localize a specific UE (e.g., the target UE 112) or any UE in the primary cell 110. In an example variation, the primary BS / gNB 111 may instruct a capable cooperative UE within or adjacent to the primary cell 110 to emit the sensing signal 120.

[0097] In step 202A, the entire wideband sensing signal 120 interacts with objects in the environment, generating radar returns (and possibly clutter returns). The returns, as reflected sensing signals, are received and sensed / detected by the primary BS / gNB 111, thus acting as a receiving sensing device 111, for allowing the primary BS / gNB 111 to determine a location estimate. The location estimate may include one or more of: an angle of arrival; a speed; a direction of movement; an orientation; and a distance. In a first option, the returns may also be sensed / detected by other BSs / gNBs 130 or cooperative UEs 113, 113' (multistatic radar), in which case the sensing device (i.e. said interacting objects in the environment) forwards information including time of receipt to the primary BS / gNB 111 and / or to the LNF 140. In a second option, the primary BS / gNB 111 may inform the configuration of the sensing signal 120 to other BSs / gNBs 130 or cooperative UEs 113, 113' (multistatic radar) in the scheme of joint cooperative wireless sensing. In this second option, the configuration of the sensing signal 120 may include the time-frequency-spatial resource information, signal waveform, etc., in which case the cooperative sensing device (other BSs / gNBs 130 or cooperative UEs 113, 113') may sense / detect both the original sensing signals 120 and returns, and forwards information including time of receipt to the primary BS / gNB 111 and / or to the LNF 140.

[0098] In step 203A, the sub-region of the sensing signal 120 containing the code 121 is received and decoded by one or more standards compliant UEs (e.g., 112, 113, 113'). Those UEs receiving the code 121 respond according to the standard.

[0099] In step 204A, receipt of the code 121 may trigger all receiving UEs, or uniquely the target UE 112 if the code 121 is determined to correspond to the target UE 112, to generate and transmit a response signal including / containing: (i) the code 121 as received, and (ii) a unique device identifier for the UE. The response signal may be in the same or different frequency range with respect to the code 121. Standard 5G uplink signaling can be used. The unique device identifier may be, for example, the UE's International mobile equipment identity (I M El ) number, or an ID number that is specific to this system and that is assigned as part of a registration phase. In step 205A, in other embodiments, the UEs may instead behave differently depending on the code 121's data contents. For example, the UE may be requested by data contained in the code 121 to:

[0100] (i) not reply;

[0101] (ii) only reply if its device ID matches one contained in the code 121 or falls within a range given in the code 121;

[0102] (iii) provide orchestration or communication with other nearby UEs (for example, receive their code 121 replies via sidelink (SL) communications and forward these to the primary BS / gNB 111 or to the LNF 140, possibly over a specified upcoming time period.

[0103] In step 206A, the uplink(UL) / sidelink(SL) reply transmission(s) from the UE(s) including the response signals triggered by the receipt of the code 121 and including data like the code and the unique device identifier for the UE(s), is(are) received and detected by the primary BS / gNB 111, and advantageously by at least one other BS / gNB or UE. In an example embodiment, based on the unique device identifier for the UE(s), the primary BS / gNB 111 may link the location estimate to the corresponding response signal and determine an identity of the corresponding "target" UE. Timing of receipt and data contents of these UL / SL reply transmissions are then forwarded by the primary BS / gNB 111 to the LNF 140.

[0104] In step 207A, the primary BS / gNB 111 (orthe LNF 140) uses conventional radar sensing techniques to calculate the fine range and approximate angle (heading) to all returns generated by the sensing signal 120 (or those in a range of interest like, for example, a reduced angular range of interest). For example, the primary BS / gNB 111 may use frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar to calculate the range from an intermediate frequency, and calculate the approximate angle by means of an antenna array. Alternatively, any other radar or radar-like range and heading calculation techniques may be used. As noted in step 202A, this function may alternatively be performed by external BSs / gNBs or UEs as in multistatic radar. The resulting radar map containing radar returns and possibly clutter returns, which are each associated with a range and approximate angle from the primary BS / gNB 111, is forwarded to the LNF 140 for determining a fine location.

[0105] In step 208A, the LNF 140 associates those UE(s) having replied to the code 121 with a particular radar return via the first sub-process 200B. From this set of responding UEs, the LNF 140 identifies one or more target UEs 112, for which the fine location should be calculated. This determination may be made: (i) based on a policy (for example: all responding UEs become target UEs

[0106] 112; UEs having not been localized for some time exceeding a threshold become target UEs

[0107] 112) or other similar fixed policies;

[0108] (ii) in response to a request from a user or external function to localize a specific UE. In the case of localizing a specific UE, it may be advantageous to trigger a reply only from that UE by adding appropriate data to the code 121 in step 205A (although not strictly necessary).

[0109] In step 209A, once associated to its radar return, the target UE 112's range from the primary BS / gNB 111 is known with high accuracy (using the range to the appropriate radar return). To improve the accuracy of the heading from the primary BS / gNB 111 to the target UE 112, the uplink transmission from the UE 112 is used to refine the angle measurement via the second sub-process 200B. The target UE 112's fine location is calculated by the LNF 140 from the data pair of (range, angle) relative to the primary BS / gNB 111 with highest expected precision. In most cases, this is expected to be the range calculated from the radar measurement and the angle calculated from the UE 112's uplink / sidelink transmission. However, this may not always be true. For example, if the number of antennas at the primary BS / gNB 111 is large and the uplink / sidelink reply from the UE 112 is not received by any additional BSs / gNBs 130, then the unrefined angle from the radar may be the more precise one compared to the angle measured from the uplink / sidelink transmission (which may be subject, e.g., to multipath errors). To deal with such situations, the LNF 140 may advantageously contain expected precision ranges for data that has been measured by the two methods according to the measurement parameters (e.g., the number of additional BSs / gNBs 130 having received the uplink / sidelink reply, the number of antennas at the primary BS / gNB 111, the angular range between the UE 112 and the primary BS / gNB 111, and similar metadata). Such metadata is likely to be implementation-specific and may be measured empirically.

[0110] In step 210A, the fine location of the target UE 112 is forwarded by the LNF 140 to downstream functions stored in a database or to other actions according to a policy.

[0111] First sub-process

[0112] Fig. 2B schematically shows a flow diagram of the first sub-process 200B (UE- to-radar return matching) in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In step 201B, the LNF 140 associates each UE that re-transmitted the code 121 with a particular radar return by matching the fine range and approximate angle of the radar return to the approximate range and angle measured via known uplink / sidelink localization techniques from the UE's uplink / sidelink transmission. Any uplink / sidelink localization techniques may be used, such as, e.g., those techniques based on uplink / sidelink angle of arrival (AoA), on received signal strength (RSS), or on any other known localization techniques. The LNF 140 filters its radar map by the approximate range and angle to the UE to identify plausible radar returns. Where this results in only one plausible match, the UE is associated to that radar return.

[0113] In step 202B, where ambiguities remain, the LNF 140 may attempt to resolve the following potential ambiguities in the UE-to-radar return match. Several scenarios (a), (b), and (c) may occur.

[0114] (a) Where more than one radar return is a plausible match for a UE (especially where that is a target UE 112), the LNF 140 may:

[0115] (i) command the primary BS / gNB 111 to repeat the measurement (i.e., re-transmit the sensing signal 120), ideally with higher power or finer sensitivity in the approximate location of interest, and return to step 201B using the new radar data. Where the UE is moving, this second uplink / sidelink measurement can give a velocity of the UE, which can be used to further filter the radar map by matching the Doppler of the radar returns to the UE's velocity. If the velocity of the UE is known by other means, that can also be used without a second uplink / sidelink measurement. Where the UE is not moving but some of the plausible radar returns are moving (as measured by their Doppler or by their apparent position shifting between subsequent radar measurements), these returns can be excluded;

[0116] (ii) proceed to the second sub-process 200C (angle refinement) to calculate a finer angle to the UE of interest, which may reduce the ambiguity by excluding some of the returns;

[0117] (iii) use any knowledge it has about the size or material of the UE or object to which it is fixed to filter the radar returns by signal strength or angular extent;

[0118] (iv) use the closest plausible match, accepting some uncertainty.

[0119] (b) Where no radar return is associated with a particular UE, the LNF 140 may: (i) command the primary BS / gNB 111 to repeat the measurement (i.e., re-transmit the sensing signal 120), ideally with higher power or finer sensitivity in the approximate location of interest, and return to step 201B using the new radar data.

[0120] (ii) conclude that the UE is too small to generate radar returns, and simply report its approximate location from its uplink / sidelink transmission, without any enhancement from the radar data. As noted elsewhere, even where no enhancement is available from the radar data, the presence of the code 121 may still provide an advantage for localization. For example, where the code 121 contains the angle from which it was emitted by the primary BS / gNB 111, and where the transmissions are beamformed, then the angle data in the code 121 returned by the UE gives information on its approximate heading from the BS / gNB 111, which may be used to resolve multipath errors that may affect localization techniques operating on the UE's uplink transmission alone.

[0121] (c) Where there is more than one UE that may potentially be a match to a single radar return (e.g., devices in close proximity to each other), the BS / gNB 111 may:

[0122] (i) iterate the transmission of the sensing signal 120 but with a different code 121 each time; in such a way that the code 121 triggers a reply from each of the ambiguous UEs in turn. This may resolve the situation in some but not all cases (for example, where some of the ambiguous UEs move away from the radar return between subsequent measurements). Optionally, on each measurement, the ambiguous UEs that are not triggered by the code 121 to generate uplink / sidelink replies may be recruited as cooperative UEs 113, 113'; the recruitment may be performed via a code 121 used specifically for that purpose or via any other form of signaling. The cooperative UEs 113, 113' may, for example, each sense the AoA of the signals from the target UE 112, which may help to identify which UE is closer to a given radar return;

[0123] (ii) else, the LNF 140 may use the range to the single radar return as the fine range to all of the ambiguous UEs.

[0124] In step 203B, additionally or alternatively, the LNF 140 may attempt to resolve any ambiguities by further refining its angle measurement to the UE via one of the techniques in the first sub-process 200C. In some cases, once finer angle data is available, the ambiguity may disappear.

[0125] Second sub-process Fig. 2C schematically shows a flow diagram of the second sub-process 200C

[0126] (angle refinement) in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0127] In step 201C, depending on the contents of the code 121 and the number of collaborating external devices, the LNF 140 may attempt to refine its estimate of the angle from the primary BS / gNB 111 to the target UE 112 via several methods denoted by (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) as listed below.

[0128] (a) Repeated single receiver uplink / sidelink AoA

[0129] (i) Where the UE's re-transmission of the code 121 is only received by the primary BS / gNB 111, the LNF 140 uses this transmission to measure an approximate angle to the UE via the first sub-process 200B. This first sub-process 200B may be repeated or iterated, which will sometimes help to come to a better angle measurement. Especially in cases where there are strong multipath components, it may be advantageous to use different beamforming settings from the primary BS / gNB 111 for each transmission of the sensing signal 120, since this may help to identify a direct line-of-sight (LoS) path to the target UE 112.

[0130] (b) Refinement based on code contents

[0131] (i) As above-mentioned, the primary BS / gNB 111 may optionally embed angular information into its transmitted code 121, for example, angular information giving the angle of transmission. Then, angle refinement may be achieved simply by decoding the contents of the returned code 121 by the UE, which will be different depending on its angle from the primary BS / gNB 111. This may be especially useful in cases of strong multipath, as it allows easy identification of the LoS path from the primary BS / gNB 111 to the target UE 112.

[0132] (c) Multi-receiver uplink / sidelink positioning

[0133] (i) Where the target UE 112's re-transmission of the code 121 is received by multiple additional BS / gNBs 130, they may collaborate to sense a more accurate angle of the UE 112 (or, simply directly calculate its position) using known multi-AoA positioning, e.g., as above-discussed in reference to a technique mixing angle and timing data or to a technique operating on angle data only. For the technique mixing timing and angle data, it will be advantageous in most cases to use the timing data from the radar measurement (assuming the UE-to-radar return matching has been successful).

[0134] (ii) To support co-operation between the primary BS / gNB 111 and the additional BSs / gNBs 130, the code 121 in this case may contain data identifying the primary BS / gNB 111 (or a suitable ID for a network function) such that the radar and angle data from the primary BS / gNB 111 can be combined by the LNF 140 with the angle or position data from the additional BSs / gNBs 130.

[0135] (d) Multi-cell ranging

[0136] (i) Allow multiple BSs / gNBs to transmit the wideband ranging signal jointly in a cooperative way, and the code 121 may include the ID information of the BS / gNB. As a result, the target UE 112 may transmit different uplink / sidelink replies to the received code 121, so that each BS / gNB may receive its own code 121 reply from the target UE 112.

[0137] (ii) The LNF 140 may use the location information received from multiple BSs / gNBs to calculate the position of the target UE 112.

[0138] (e) Modified two-way ranging

[0139] (i) The primary BS / gNB 111 receives both the radar echo and the target UE 112's uplink / sidelink transmission. The time of arrival (ToA) of the uplink / sidelink transmission at the primary BS / gNB 111 is a function of the range to the target UE 112 plus an (unknown) processing delay at the target UE 112. Using the round-trip time (RTT) from the radar return, the LNF 140 can calculate the processing delay (using the equation: Delay = ToA - 0.5 * RTT) and can thus calculate the time of transmission (ToT) for the target UE 112' s uplink / sidelink transmission.

[0140] (ii) This ToT is transmitted to several other additional BSs / gNBs 130 or cooperative UEs 113, 113' (for which the position is known) to enhance their AoA-based localization of the UE by rejecting multipath components by finding the shortest ToA signal arriving after the known ToT.

[0141] Network system

[0142] Fig. 3 schematically shows a network system 300 in which the main process 200A of the method 200 can be implemented in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention and in reference to the system 100 of Fig. 1.

[0143] As shown, the network system 300 comprises: a pallet of goods 301 containing an asset tracker 302 of interest for localization as a target UE 112; another pallet of goods 301' containing another asset tracker 302' of no interest for localization as a UE of no interest; an indoor base station 303 as a primary base station 111; and other, more distant, base stations 303' as additional base stations 130. In step 300-1 referring to step 201A of the main process 200A, the indoor base station 303 emits radar sensing signals 120 to sense its environment. The radar signal waveform contains a code 121 that can be received even by narrowband UEs 112, 113, 113'.

[0144] In step 300-2 referring to step 202A of the main process 200A, the radar signal interacts with physical objects in the environment, e.g., with the pallets of goods 301, 301' that respectively emit radar returns from the pallet containing the asset tracker 302 as the target UE 112 (the radar returns serving to give a fine range to the target UE 112) and clutter returns from the "passive" pallet containing the other asset tracker 302' as the UE of no interest.

[0145] In step 300-3 referring to steps 203A and 204A of the main process 200A, the asset tracker 302 as the target UE 112 receives and decodes the code 121 prior to responding on the uplink by transmitting a response signal containing the code and the unique identifier for the asset tracker 302 as the target UE 112.

[0146] In step 300-4 referring to steps 206A and 209A of the main process 200A, the uplink reply transmission from the asset tracker 302 as the target UE 112 is received at the indoor base station 303 as the primary base station 111.

[0147] In step 300-4' referring to steps 206A and 209A of the main process 200A, the uplink reply transmission from the asset tracker 302 as the target UE 112 is received at other, more distant, base stations 303' or asset trackers 301'.

[0148] In step 300-5 referring to steps 207A and 209A of the main process 200A, the indoor base station 303 as the primary base station 111 identifies and localizes the asset tracker 302 as the target UE 112, based on all angle data from the uplink reply transmission serving to refine the angle measurement.

[0149] Network access

[0150] The above-described method 200 may be applicable to a network access procedure wherein the access device may transmit the wireless sensing signal next to the SSB / master information block (M I B) or a system information block 1 (SI Bl).

[0151] Fig. 4 schematically shows a time chart 400 representing SSB bursts 402 embedded in the wireless sensing signal 120 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the SSBs 401 (designated as SSB#0 to SSB#Lmax-l) are grouped in a block to form a SSB burst 402 transmitted with a configurable periodicity 403 of 5, 10, 20, 40, 80 or 160 ms. The maximum number of SSBs 401 in a single burst 402 is indicated with Lmax. The SSBs 401 grouped in a SSB burst 402 are involved in a beam sweeping procedure. Each SSB 401 is associated with a different beam 404 (designated as B0 to BLmax-1) that points to a different direction in the space.

[0152] In an embodiment, after selecting a beam 404 (associated with a SSB 401), the return of the UE may be included in the random-access channel (RACH) procedure.

[0153] In another embodiment, the code 121 embedded in the wideband wireless sensing signal 120 may be the SSBs 401 from the BS / gNB. The same code content may use beam sweeping technology to sweep the beams 404 in different directions, so that the target UE 112 may detect the best SSB reception beam direction, and respond the reply with the signal beamformed in the direction of the best SSB reception beam direction. The target UE 112 may embed the best beam direction information in the code reply.

[0154] In another embodiment, the code reply may be the RACH preamble transmission (Msgl or MsgA) for the 4-step or 2-step RACH respectively.

[0155] In another embodiment, the access device may use information about the beam 404 selected by the UE together with position information learned about the UE to determine which beam 404 should be used for the subsequent communication. For instance, a UE may have selected a particular beam 404 because it is the one that has the highest signal strength, but the access device may determine from the sensing signal 120 it is about moving in an area wherein the particular beam 404 is not the best option. Based on this, the access device may, e.g., change the direction of the particular beam 404, or inform the UE about its preferred beam configuration.

[0156] Uplink data transmission

[0157] In an embodiment, the code 121 embedded in the wideband wireless sensing signal may be the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) scheduling information for the UE, and the code reply may be the scheduled uplink transmission from the scheduled UE.

[0158] Joint uplink sidelink communication

[0159] Fig. 5 schematically shows a time-frequency resource graph 500 of block resources RB_UL, RB_SL for a joint uplink-sidelink communication in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Therein, the vertical axis, which is denoted as F_RB, represents the frequency domain, and the horizontal axis, which is denoted as T, represents the time domain where the largest unit is the frame, which is subdivided into subframes, themselves split into slots comprising symbols. As shown, the sidelink communication between UEs may be jointly scheduled together with the uplink communication from the UE to the BS / gNB.

[0160] In an embodiment, the same code reply may be duplicated in the uplink and sidelink transmission simultaneously.

[0161] Fig. 6 schematically shows a diagram 600 of various entities 111, 112, 113, 113', 130 in a joint uplink-sidelink communication in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0162] In this embodiment of the diagram 600, a new joint uplink-sidelink communication control information may be defined, so that the BS / gNB 111 can specifically schedule the code reply from the target UE 112 as joint uplink-sidelink communication. In this case, the uplink communication may share the same spectrum resource of the resource pool (designated as SLRP in Fig. 5) for the sidelink communication. Therefrom, the BS / gNB 111 and the cooperative UEs 113, 113' may be able to receive the joint uplink-sidelink transmission jointly.

[0163] In another embodiment, the primary BS / gNB 111 may share the joint uplink- sidelink communication scheduling information with other additional BSs / gNBs 130. Therefrom, the other additional BSs / gNBs 130 may be able to receive the joint uplink-sidelink transmission jointly.

[0164] Scheduling of integrated wireless sensing and communication

[0165] Primary BS / gNB 111 may need to inform other additional BSs / gNBs 130 or cooperative UEs 113, 113' on where and when the integrated wireless sensing and communication signal may be transmitted in the time-frequency-spatial resource grid.

[0166] In an embodiment, the integrated wireless sensing and communication signal can be scheduled by the network in the form of a type of downlink control information, and the network informs the cooperative UEs 113, 113' on the scheduling information before the transmission of wireless sensing and communication signal.

[0167] In another embodiment, the time-frequency resource configuration of the integrated wireless sensing and communication signal, such as the frequency range and time domain allocation of the wideband wireless sensing signal 120, the frequency range and time domain allocation of the embedded code / data 121 relative to the wideband wireless sensing signal 120, can be configured by higher-layer RRC signaling by the network to the cooperative UEs 113, 113', so that the scheduling information sent by the network to the cooperative UEs 113, 113' may have a compact form and may only need to include an index pointing to a table of parameters configured by the higher-layer RRC signaling.

[0168] In another embodiment, the narrowband communication signal embedded in the wideband wireless sensing signal 120 may use the legacy downlink assignment via the PDCCH to inform the target UE 112 to receive the downlink code / data transmission on the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

[0169] In another embodiment, the narrowband communication signal embedded in the wideband wireless sensing signal 120 may use a new type of downlink control information format to deliver the code / data 121 directly via the PDCCH without the need to transmit the code / data 121 on the PDSCH.

[0170] To summarize, the present invention proposes a system 100 and method 200 for localization of low-complexity devices like UEs, for example, UEs of low-capability (e.g., in a non-limiting manner, UEs with only a single antenna and / or implementing only narrowband signaling and / or powered by a small cell or by ambient energy harvesting techniques) or UEs of higher capability, by means of joint wireless (radar) sensing for timing and uplink / sidelink pilot transmission for angle / identification, wherein the wireless (radar) sensing waveform / signal 120 embeds data representing a code / data 121 that can be detected and decoded by the target UE 112 being sensed, and used to generate an uplink / sidelink transmission also containing the code / data 121 or data that can be derived from the embedded code / data 121.

[0171] By receipt of the uplink / sidelink transmission of the code / data 121 at both the original / primary base station 111 and several other / additional base stations 130 or anchor / cooperative UEs 113, 113', multiple redundant angle-of-arrival (AoA) measurements can be derived to add to the precise range measurement acquired by the radar, and so the base stations 111, 130 can jointly localize and identify the target UE 112.

[0172] As such, the proposed invention attempts to "inherit" the wideband nature of the radar 111, 130 to precisely localize a target device 112 in the range domain as well as the velocity of the moving target device 112, and to then use a (narrowband) reply from that target device 112 to enhance the positioning / localization accuracy in the angle domain and allow for the identification of the target device / object 112. The code 121 may therefore be contained in a narrowband portion of the spectrum of the overall wireless sensing signal 120, i.e., the portion of the sensing signal 120 that can be received and decoded by the target device 112 being localized. The code 121 may be part of the wireless sensing signal 120 itself or it may be transmitted before or after the wireless sensing signal 120, e.g., as a preamble that can be decoded by the receiver 112 before the wireless sensing signal 120 is transmitted.

[0173] Hence, more generally, the invention may provide the following features: a sensing device operating in a system for localization of narrowband UEs using coded wireless sensing signals; the wireless sensing signal having a wider bandwidth than that which can be received by the UE; the wireless sensing signal embedding data (i.e., a code) within a subsection of its bandwidth that can be received by the UE; the receipt by the UE of the code within this subsection causes a standardized response from the UE, which can be used to identify the UE and thus associate the identified UE to its radar return as well as enable additional functions (e.g., enhanced angle-domain localization).

[0174] While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, such illustration and description are to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive. The invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. It can be applied to various types of mobile devices for backscattering or as cooperative receivers, such as mobile phone, vital signs monitoring / telemetry devices, smartwatches, detectors, vehicles (for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication or more general vehicle-to- everything (V2X) communication), V2X devices, Internet of Things (loT) hubs, loT devices, including low-power medical sensors for health monitoring, medical (emergency) diagnosis and treatment devices, for hospital use or first-responder use, virtual reality (VR) headsets, etc. The base station may be any network access device (such as a Node B: eNB, eNodeB, gNB, gNodeB, ng-eNB, etc.; an access point or the like) that provides a geographical service area.

[0175] While a wideband wireless sensing signal is used in the above embodiments, the invention is applicable to other sensing signals such as an OFDM-based sensing signal and chirp signals.

[0176] Furthermore, at least some of the above embodiments may be implemented to provide enhanced network functions and equipment for 5G / 6G / xG cellular networks.

[0177] Other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfil the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage. The foregoing description details certain embodiments of the invention. It will be appreciated, however, that no matter how detailed the foregoing appears in the text, the invention may be practiced in many ways, and is therefore not limited to the embodiments disclosed. It should be noted that the use of particular terminology when describing certain features or aspects of the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being re-defined herein to be restricted to include any specific characteristics of the features or aspects of the invention with which that terminology is associated.

[0178] Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to "at least one of A, B, and C, etc." is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., "a system having at least one of A, B, and C" would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and / or A, B, and C together, etc. In those instances where a convention analogous to "at least one of A, B, or C, etc." is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., "a system having at least one of A, B, or C" would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and / or A, B, and C together, etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and / or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase "A or B" will be understood to include the possibilities of "A" or "B" or "A and B. At least some steps of the described operations like those indicated in Figs. 2A to 2C can be implemented as program code means of at least one computer program and / or as dedicated hardware of the related network device or function, respectively. The computer program may be stored and / or distributed on a suitable medium, such as an optical storage medium or a solid-state medium, supplied together with or as part of other hardware, but may also be distributed in other forms, such as via the Internet or other wired or wireless telecommunication systems.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method (200) of obtaining a location estimate of a target device (112), the method (200) comprising: transmitting (201A), by a transmitting sensing device (111), a sensing signal (120); and in response, receiving and using (203A), by the target device (112), the sensing signal (120) accompanied by a code (121).

2. The method (200) of claim 1, further comprising: detecting (202A), by a receiving sensing device (111), a reflected sensing signal; and determining (202A), by the receiving sensing device (111), based on the reflected sensing signal, a location estimate.

3. The method (200) of claim 2, wherein the transmitting sensing device (111) and the receiving sensing device (111) are co-located.

4. The method (200) of any of claims 2 to 3, wherein the location estimate includes one or more of: an angle of arrival; a speed; a direction of movement; an orientation; and a distance.

5. The method (200) of any of claims 2 to 4, further comprising: detecting (206A), by the receiving sensing device (111), a response signal transmitted (204A) by the target device (112) and including the code (121), or a response signal derived from the code (121).

6. The method (200) of claim 5, further comprising:linking (206A), by the receiving sensing device (111), the location estimate to the response signal, the response signal including an identifier of the target device (112).

7. The method (200) of any of claims 5 and 6, further comprising: determining (206A), by the receiving sensing device (111), an identity of the target device (112) based on the response signal.

8. The method (200) of any of the preceding claims, wherein the sensing signal (120) is transmitted over a wideband to enable sensing signal reflections.

9. The method (200) of claim 8, wherein the code (121) is included in a narrowband of the wideband sensing signal (120), said narrowband overlapping a reception band of the target device (112).

10. The method (200) of any of the preceding claims, wherein the code (121) accompanies the sensing signal (120) by being included in the sensing signal (120), optionally included in a preamble of the sensing signal (120) or a postamble of the sensing signal (120).

11. The method (200) of any of the preceding claims, wherein the code (121) includes data relative to a transmission parameter, the transmission parameter including one or more of a transmission angle, a beam identity, and a transmission power.

12. The method (200) of any of claims 5 to 7, further comprising: forwarding (206A), by the receiving sensing device (111), data included in the response signal-to a location determining function (140).

13. A method (200) of locating a target device (112), wherein the method (200) is performed at a target device (112) receiving a sensing signal (120) accompanied by a code (121), and comprises: generating (204A) a response signal using the code (121), and transmitting (204A) the response signal.

14. The method (200) of claim 13, wherein the response signal includes an identifier of the target device (112) and the code (121).

15. The method (200) of any of claims 13 to 14, wherein the response signal is generated only if the code (121) is determined to correspond to the target device (112).

16. A transmitting sensing device (111), comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit a sensing signal; and a controller configured to add to the sensing signal a code (121) to be received and used in response by the target device (112).

17. A receiving sensing device (111), comprising: a sensor configured to detect a reflected sensing signal: and a controller configured to determine a location estimate based on the reflected sensing signal.

18. A target device (112), comprising: a receiver configured to receive a code (121) accompanied by a sensing signal (120); a controller configured to generate a response signal using the code (121); and a transmitter configured to transmit the response signal.

19. A system (100), comprising at least: the transmitting sensing device (111) of claim 16; the receiving sensing device (111) of claim 17; and the target device (112) of claim 18.

20. A computer program product, comprising: code means for producing the steps of any of claims 1 to 12 and claims 13 to 15, when run on a computer device.

Images