Compression of positioning measurement reports

Abstract

Information originally conveyed within the hierarchical structure of the positioning frequency layer is leveraged to determine a unique sequence identifier for each position reference signal (PRS) resource of a sequence of PRS resources used within a positioning session of a user equipment (UE). This unique sequence number can then be used in reporting measurement data by the UE or other reporting device to a location server. Thus, embodiments herein efficiently provide a means for compressing identification information included in position measurement reports to a location server.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly to determining the location of a user equipment (UE) using radio frequency (RF) signals. [Background technology]

[0002]

[0002] Determining the location of a mobile UE in a wireless communication network, often referred to as "positioning" the UE, may be performed using any of a variety of positioning techniques. Many of these techniques may comprise, for example, the transmission of reference signals by one or more transmitting / receiving points (TRPs) of the wireless communication network and measurements of these reference signals by the UE. These measurements may indicate the distance and / or angle between the UE and one or more TRPs, allowing the location of the UE to be determined by multi-angulation, multi-lateration, and / or other geometry-based techniques.

[0003]

[0003] UE position determination often uses multiple measurements involving multiple reference signals, each of which may be uniquely identified by both the network and the UE. Reference signals are usually part of a large hierarchical structure and may require a large amount of signaling overhead to be uniquely identified. Summary of the Invention

[0004] An exemplary method for efficient reporting of position measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication network according to the present disclosure comprises receiving, at a wireless node, assistance data (AD) from a location server during a positioning session, the AD including identification information for at least a first PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE. The method also includes obtaining, at the wireless node, measurement information regarding the first PRS resource. The method also includes sending a first measurement report from the wireless node to the location server, the first measurement report including the measurement information regarding the first PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information for the first PRS resource, and where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session.

[0005] An exemplary method for enabling efficient reporting of position measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network according to the present disclosure comprises determining, at a location server, an identification for each PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE during a positioning session. The method also comprises sending assistance data (AD) to the wireless node, where the AD may comprise, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource generated from the identification information for the respective PRS resource, the sequence identifier being unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session.

[0006]

[0006] An exemplary wireless node enabling efficient reporting of location measurements captured by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication network according to the present disclosure comprises a transceiver, a memory, and one or more processing units communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory. The one or more processing units are configured to receive, via the transceiver, assistance data (AD) from a location server during a positioning session, the AD including identification information for at least a first PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE. The one or more processing units are also configured to obtain measurement information regarding the first PRS resource. The one or more processing units may also be configured to send, via the transceiver, a first measurement report from the wireless node to the location server, the first measurement report comprising measurement information regarding the first PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from identification information for the first PRS resource, and where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among the sequence identifiers of the multiple PRS resources within the positioning session.

[0007]

[0007] An exemplary location server enabling efficient reporting of location measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication network according to the present disclosure comprises a transceiver, a memory, and one or more processing units communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory. The one or more processing units are configured to determine an identification for each PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE during a positioning session. The one or more processing units are also configured to send assistance data (AD) to the wireless node via the transceiver, where the AD may comprise, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource generated from the identification information for the respective PRS resource, the sequence identifier being unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session.

[0008] An exemplary apparatus according to the present disclosure comprises means for receiving assistance data (AD) from a location server during a positioning session, the AD including identification information for at least a first PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by a user equipment (UE). The apparatus also comprises means for obtaining measurement information regarding the first PRS resource. The apparatus also comprises means for sending a first measurement report from the wireless node to the location server, the first measurement report may comprise the measurement information regarding the first PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information for the first PRS resource, and where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session.

[0009] Another exemplary apparatus according to the present disclosure includes means for determining an identity for each PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by a UE during a positioning session. The apparatus also includes means for sending assistance data (AD) to a wireless node, where the AD may include, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource generated from the identity of the respective PRS resource, the sequence identifier being unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session.

[0010] An exemplary non-transitory computer-readable medium according to the present disclosure stores instructions for efficient reporting of position measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication network. The instructions include code for receiving, at a wireless node, assistance data (AD) from a location server during a positioning session, the AD including identification information for at least a first PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE. The instructions also include code for obtaining, at the wireless node, measurement information regarding the first PRS resource. The instructions also include code for sending a first measurement report from the wireless node to the location server, the first measurement report may include measurement information regarding the first PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information for the first PRS resource, and where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session.

[0011]

[0011] An exemplary non-transitory computer-readable medium according to the present disclosure stores instructions for enabling efficient reporting of position measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication network. The instructions include code for determining, at a location server, an identification for each PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE during a positioning session. The instructions also include code for sending assistance data (AD) to the wireless node, the AD including, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource generated from the identification information for the respective PRS resource, the sequence identifier being unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram of a positioning system, according to one embodiment. [Diagram 2]

[0013] FIG. 5 is a diagram of a fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) positioning system illustrating one embodiment of a positioning system implemented within a 5G NR communication system (e.g., the positioning system of FIG. 1). [Diagram 3]

[0014] 1 is a call flow diagram illustrating a basic exchange of assistance data (AD) and measurement data reporting between a user equipment (UE) and a location server according to one embodiment. [Figure 4]

[0015] 1 is a diagram of an example hierarchical structure of PRS resources, PRS resource sets, and transmission / reception points (TRPs) in a positioning frequency layer (PFL), according to one embodiment. [Diagram 5] 1 is a diagram of an example hierarchical structure of PRS resources, PRS resource sets, and transmission / reception points (TRPs) in a positioning frequency layer (PFL), according to one embodiment. [Figure 6]

[0016] 11 is a call flow diagram illustrating different embodiments in which PRS resource sequence ID information is used. [Figure 7]11 is a call flow diagram illustrating different embodiments in which PRS resource sequence ID information is used. [Figure 8]

[0017] FIG. 6 is a diagram of an exemplary hierarchical structure similar to FIG. 5 but with a prefix to the PRS resource sequence ID, according to one embodiment. [Figure 9]

[0018] 2 is a flow diagram of a method for efficient reporting of location measurements taken by a UE in a wireless communications network, according to one embodiment. [Figure 10]

[0019] 1 is a flow diagram of a method for enabling efficient reporting of location measurements taken by a UE in a wireless communications network, according to one embodiment. [Figure 11]

[0020] 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a UE that may be utilized in the embodiments described herein. [Figure 12]

[0021] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a TRP that may be utilized in embodiments described herein. [Figure 13]

[0022] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a computer system that may be utilized in the embodiments described herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013]

[0023] Like reference numbers in various figures indicate like elements according to some exemplary implementations. Furthermore, multiple instances of an element may be indicated by a first number for the element followed by a letter or a hyphen and a second number. For example, multiple instances of element 110 may be indicated as 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, etc., or as 110a, 110b, 110c, etc. When referring to such an element using only the first number, any instance of the element should be understood (e.g., element 110 in the previous example refers to elements 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3, or to elements 110a, 110b, and 110c).

[0014]

[0024] The following description is directed to several implementations for purposes of illustrating the inventive aspects of the disclosure. However, those skilled in the art will readily recognize that the teachings herein may be applied in many different ways. The described implementations may be used to communicate within wireless, cellular, or Internet of Things (IoT) networks, such as systems utilizing 3G, 4G, 5G, 6G, or further implementations thereof, including any of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) IEEE 802.11 standards (including those identified as Wi-Fi technology), Bluetooth standard, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), GSM / General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), Terrestrial Based Radio (TETRA), Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA), Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO), 1xEV-DO, EV-DO RevA, EV-DO RevA, EV-DO RevB, EV-DO RevC, EV-DO RevD ... It may be implemented in any device, system, or network capable of transmitting and receiving radio frequency (RF) signals according to any communications standard, such as RevB, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), High Rate Packet Access (HSPA), High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), Evolved High Rate Packet Access (HSPA+), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), or other known signals.

[0015]

[0025] As used herein, an "RF signal" comprises an electromagnetic wave that transports information through space between a transmitter (or transmitting device) and a receiver (or receiving device). As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, the receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between the transmitter and receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal.

[0016]

[0026] As mentioned, user equipment (UE) position determination often uses multiple measurements involving multiple reference signals, and each reference signal may be uniquely identified by both the network and the UE. Reference signals are typically part of a large hierarchical structure and may require a large amount of signaling overhead to be uniquely identified. Embodiments provided herein address these and other issues by utilizing compression techniques in the measurement data reports provided to the location server, whereby traditional inefficient forms of identification information for each reference signal may be replaced with a unique identifier that sufficiently identifies each reference signal to both the UE and the network. Details regarding such embodiments are provided below. However, first, a description of a wireless communication network environment is provided for context.

[0017]

[0027] 1 is a simplified diagram of a positioning system 100 in which a UE 105, a location server 160, and / or other components of the positioning system 100 can use techniques provided herein for efficient reporting of position measurements captured by the UE 105, according to one embodiment. The techniques described herein may be implemented by one or more components of the positioning system 100. The positioning system 100 may include a UE 105, one or more satellites 110 (also referred to as space vehicles (SVs)) for a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), such as Global Positioning System (GPS), GLONASS, Galileo or Beidou, a base station 120, an access point (AP) 130, a location server 160, a network 170, and an external client 180. Generally speaking, the positioning system 100 can estimate the location of the UE 105 based on RF signals received by and / or sent from the UE 105 and known locations of other components (e.g., GNSS satellites 110, base stations 120, APs 130) that transmit and / or receive the RF signals. Further details regarding specific location estimation techniques are described in more detail with respect to FIG.

[0018]

[0028] It should be noted that FIG. 1 only provides a generalized view of the various components, any or all of which may be utilized as appropriate, and each of which may be replicated as necessary. In particular, while only one UE 105 is shown, it will be understood that many UEs (e.g., hundreds, thousands, millions, etc.) may utilize the positioning system 100. Similarly, the positioning system 100 may include a greater or lesser number of base stations 120 and / or APs 130 than are shown in FIG. 1. The illustrated connections connecting the various components in the positioning system 100 comprise data and signaling connections that may include additional (intermediate) components, direct or indirect physical and / or wireless connections, and / or additional networks. Furthermore, components may be rearranged, combined, separated, substituted, and / or omitted depending on the desired functionality. In some embodiments, for example, the external client 180 may be directly connected to the location server 160. Those skilled in the art will recognize many modifications to the illustrated components.

[0019]

[0029] Depending on the desired functionality, the network 170 may comprise any of a variety of wireless and / or wireline networks. The network 170 may comprise any combination of, for example, public and / or private networks, local and / or wide area networks, etc. Additionally, the network 170 may utilize one or more wired and / or wireless communication technologies. In some embodiments, the network 170 may comprise, for example, a cellular or other mobile network, a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless wide area network (WWAN), and / or the Internet. Examples of the network 170 include a Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network, a 5G wireless network (also referred to as a New Radio (NR) wireless network or a 5th Generation (5G) NR wireless network), a Wi-Fi WLAN, and the Internet. LTE, 5G, and NR are wireless technologies defined or being defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The network 170 may also include two or more networks and / or two or more types of networks.

[0020]

[0030] The base station 120 and the access point (AP) 130 are communicatively coupled to the network 170. In some embodiments, the base station 120 may be owned, maintained, and / or operated by a cellular network provider and may employ any of a variety of wireless technologies, as described herein below. Depending on the technology of the network 170, the base station 120 may comprise a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNode B or eNB), a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station (RBS), an NR Node B (gNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), etc. The base station 120, being a gNB or ng-eNB, may be part of a next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) that may connect to a 5G core network (5GC) if the network 170 is a 5G network. The AP 130 may comprise, for example, a Wi-Fi AP or a Bluetooth AP. Thus, the UE 105 may send and receive information to and from a network-connected device, such as the location server 160, by accessing the network 170 via the base station 120 using the first communication link 133. Additionally or alternatively, the AP 130 may also be communicatively coupled to the network 170 so that the UE 105 may use the second communications link 135 to communicate with network- and Internet-connected devices, including the location server 160.

[0021]

[0031] The term "base station" as used herein may generally refer to a single physical transmission point or multiple co-located physical transmission points that may be located at a base station 120. A transmit receive point (TRP) (also known as a transmit / receive point) corresponds to this type of transmission point, and the term "TRP" may be used interchangeably with the terms "gNB", "ng-eNB", and "base station" herein. In some cases, a base station 120 may comprise multiple TRPs, e.g., each TRP associated with a different antenna or different antenna array for the base station 120. A physical transmission point may comprise an array of antennas at the base station 120 (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system and / or when the base station employs beamforming). The term "base station" may further refer to multiple non-co-located physical transmission points, which may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transport medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station).

[0022]

[0032] The term "cell" as used herein may generally refer to a logical communication entity used for communication with base station 120 and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., physical cell identifier (PCID), virtual cell identifier (VCID)) to distinguish neighboring cells operating over the same or different carriers. In some examples, a carrier may support multiple cells, and different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communications (MTC), narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), etc.) that may provide access to different types of devices. In some cases, the term "cell" may refer to a portion (e.g., a sector) of a geographic coverage area in which the logical entity operates.

[0023]

[0033] The location server 160 may comprise a server and / or other computing devices configured to determine an estimated location of the UE 105 and / or provide data (e.g., “assistance data”) to the UE 105 for facilitating location measurements and / or location determination by the UE 105. According to some embodiments, the location server 160 may comprise a Home SUPL Location Platform (H-SLP) that may support a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) User Plane (UP) location solution defined by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) and may support location services for the UE 105 based on subscription information for the UE 105 stored in the location server 160. In some embodiments, the location server 160 may comprise a Discovery SLP (D-SLP) or an Emergency SLP (E-SLP). The location server 160 may also comprise an Enhanced Serving Mobile Location Center (E-SMLC) that supports the location of the UE 105 using a Control Plane (CP) location solution for LTE radio access by the UE 105. The location server 160 may further comprise a location management function (LMF) that supports the location of the UE 105 using a control plane (CP) location solution for NR or LTE radio access by the UE 105.

[0024]

[0034] In a CP location solution, signaling for controlling and managing the location of the UE 105 may be exchanged between elements of the network 170 and with the UE 105 using existing network interfaces and protocols, and as signaling from the perspective of the network 170. In a UP location solution, signaling for controlling and managing the location of the UE 105 may be exchanged between the location server 160 and the UE 105 as data from the perspective of the network 170 (e.g., data transported using Internet Protocol (IP) and / or Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)).

[0025]

[0035] As mentioned above (and described in more detail below), the estimated location of the UE 105 may be based on measurements of RF signals sent from and / or received by the UE 105. In particular, these measurements may provide information regarding the relative distance and / or angle of the UE 105 from one or more components (e.g., GNSS satellites 110, AP 130, base station 120) in the positioning system 100. The estimated location of the UE 105 may be estimated geometrically (e.g., using multiangulation and / or multilateration) based on the distance and / or angle measurements along with the known positions of the one or more components.

[0026]

[0036] Terrestrial components such as APs 130 and base stations 120 may be fixed, although embodiments are not so limited. Mobile components may be used. For example, in some embodiments, the location of the UE 105 may be estimated based at least in part on measurements of RF signals 140 communicated between the UE 105 and one or more other UEs 145, which may be mobile or fixed. When one or more other UEs 145 are used in position determination of a particular UE 105, the UE 105 whose position is to be determined may be referred to as a "target UE" and each of the one or more other UEs 145 used may be referred to as an "anchor UE". For position determination of a target UE, the respective positions of the one or more anchor UEs may be known and / or may be determined together with the target UE. Direct communication between the one or more other UEs 145 and the UE 105 may comprise sidelink and / or similar device-to-device (D2D) communication techniques. Sidelink, as defined by 3GPP, is a form of D2D communication under cellular-based LTE and NR standards.

[0027]

[0037] The estimated location of the UE 105 may be used in various applications, such as to assist in direction finding or navigation for a user of the UE 105 or to assist another user (e.g., associated with the external client 180) in locating the UE 105. As used herein, “location” may also be referred to as a “location estimate,” “estimated location,” “location,” “position,” “position estimate,” “position fix,” “estimated location,” “location fix,” or “fix.” The process of determining a location may be referred to as “positioning,” “position determination,” “location determination,” or the like. The location of the UE 105 may comprise an absolute location of the UE 105 (e.g., latitude and longitude and possibly an altitude) or a relative location of the UE 105 (e.g., a location expressed as a distance north or south, east or west, and possibly above or below some other location, such as some other known fixed location, or a location for the UE 105 at some known prior time). A location may be specified as a geodetic location comprising coordinates that may be absolute (e.g., latitude, longitude and possibly altitude), relative (e.g., relative to some known absolute location), or local (e.g., X, Y and possibly Z coordinates according to a coordinate system defined for a local area such as a factory, warehouse, university campus, shopping mall, sports stadium or convention center). A location may instead be a civic location, in which case it may comprise one or more of a street address (e.g., including a country, state, county, city, name or label for a road and / or street, and / or road or street number), and / or a label or name for a place, a building, a part of a building, a floor of a building, and / or a room within a building, etc.The location may further include an indication of uncertainty or error, such as the horizontal and possibly vertical distance by which the location is expected to be incorrect, or an indication of an area or volume (e.g., a circle or ellipse) in which the UE 105 is expected to be located with some level of confidence (e.g., 95% confidence).

[0028]

[0038] The external client 180 may be a web server or remote application that may have some association with the UE 105 (e.g., that may be accessed by a user of the UE 105), or may be a server, application, or computer system that provides location services to some other user or users that may include obtaining and providing the location of the UE 105 (e.g., to enable services such as a friend or relative finder, asset tracking, or child or pet location). Additionally or alternatively, the external client 180 may obtain the location of the UE 105 and provide it to an emergency service provider, a government agency, or the like.

[0029]

[0039] As mentioned above, the exemplary positioning system 100 may be implemented using a wireless communication network, such as an LTE-based or 5G NR-based network. FIG. 2 shows a diagram of a 5G NR positioning system 200 illustrating one embodiment of a positioning system (e.g., the positioning system 100) implementing 5G NR. The 5G NR positioning system 200 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 105 by using access nodes 210, 214, 216 (which may correspond to the base stations 120 and access points 130 of FIG. 1 ) and (optionally) an LMF 220 (which may correspond to the location server 160) to implement one or more positioning methods. Here, the 5G NR positioning system 200 comprises the UE 105 and components of a 5G NR network, including a Next Generation (NG) Radio Access Network (RAN) (NG-RAN) 235 and a 5G Core Network (5G CN) 240. The 5G network may be referred to as an NR network, the NG-RAN 235 may be referred to as a 5G RAN or NR RAN, and the 5G CN 240 may be referred to as an NG core network. The 5G NR positioning system 200 may further utilize information from GNSS satellites 110 from a GNSS system such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) or similar systems (e.g., GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)). Additional components of the 5G NR positioning system 200 are described below. The 5G NR positioning system 200 may include additional or alternative components.

[0030]

[0040] It should be noted that FIG. 2 only provides a generalized view of the various components, any or all of which may be utilized as appropriate, and each of which may be duplicated or omitted as necessary. In particular, while only one UE 105 is shown, it will be understood that many UEs (e.g., hundreds, thousands, millions, etc.) may utilize the 5G NR positioning system 200. Similarly, the 5G NR positioning system 200 may include a greater (or lesser) number of GNSS satellites 110, gNBs 210, ng-eNBs 214, wireless local area networks (WLANs) 216, access and mobility management functions (AMFs) 215, external clients 230, and / or other components. The illustrated connections connecting the various components in the 5G NR positioning system 200 include data and signaling connections, which may include additional (intermediate) components, direct or indirect physical and / or wireless connections, and / or additional networks. Further, components may be rearranged, combined, separated, substituted, and / or omitted depending on the desired functionality.

[0031]

[0041] The UE 105 may comprise and / or be referred to as a device, a mobile device, a wireless device, a mobile terminal, a terminal, a mobile station (MS), a secure user plane location (SUPL)-enabled terminal (SET), or by some other name. Moreover, the UE 105 may correspond to a cell phone, a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a tracking device, a navigation device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, or some other portable or movable device. Generally, although not necessarily, the UE 105 may support wireless communications using one or more radio access technologies (RATs), such as using GSM, CDMA, W-CDMA, LTE, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), 5G NR (e.g., using NG-RAN 235 and 5G CN 240), and the like. The UE 105 may also support wireless communications using a WLAN 216, which may connect to other networks, such as the Internet (as with one or more RATs and as described above with respect to FIG. 1). Use of one or more of these RATs may enable the UE 105 to communicate with and / or receive location information regarding the UE 105 (e.g., via elements of the 5G CN 240 not shown in FIG. 2 or possibly via a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) 225) external clients 230. The external clients 230 of FIG. 2 may correspond to the external clients 180 of FIG. 1 implemented in or communicatively coupled to a 5G NR network.

[0032]

[0042] The UE 105 may include a single entity, or may include multiple entities, such as in a personal area network where a user may employ audio, video and / or data I / O devices and / or body sensors and a separate wireline or wireless modem. An estimate of the location of the UE 105 may be referred to as a location, location estimate, location fix, fix, position, position estimate, or position fix, and may be geodetic and thus provide location coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude) for the UE 105 that may or may not include an altitude component (e.g., height above sea level, height above or below earth level, floor level or basement level). Alternatively, the location of the UE 105 may be expressed as a civic location (e.g., as a postal address or as a designation of some point or small area in a building, such as a particular room or floor). The location of the UE 105 may also be expressed as an area or volume (defined either geodetically or in urban form) within which the UE 105 is expected to be located with some probability or confidence level (e.g., 67%, 95%, etc.). The location of the UE 105 may further be a relative location with distance and direction or relative X, Y (and Z) coordinates defined relative to some origin in a known location, which may be defined, for example, geodetically, with respect to a city, or by reference to a point, area, or volume shown on a map, floor plan, or building plan. In the description contained herein, use of the term location may comprise any of these variations unless otherwise specified. When calculating the location of a UE, it is common to determine the values ​​of local X, Y, and possibly Z coordinates and then convert the local coordinates to absolute coordinates (e.g., for latitude, longitude, and altitude above or below mean sea level) if necessary.

[0033]

[0043] The base stations in the NG-RAN 235 shown in FIG. 2 may correspond to the base stations 120 of FIG. 1 and may include NR Node Bs (gNBs) 210-1 and 210-2 (collectively and generically referred to herein as gNBs 210). Pairs of gNBs 210 in the NG-RAN 235 may be connected to each other (e.g., directly as shown in FIG. 2 or indirectly via other gNBs 210). Access to the 5G network is provided to the UE 105 via wireless communications between the UE 105 and one or more of the gNBs 210, which may provide wireless communications access to the 5G CN 240 for the UE 105 using 5G NR. 5G NR radio access may also be referred to as NR radio access or 5G radio access. In FIG. 2, the serving gNB for UE 105 is assumed to be gNB 210-1, but other gNBs (e.g., gNB 210-2) may act as serving gNBs if UE 105 moves to another location or may act as secondary gNBs to provide additional throughput and bandwidth to UE 105.

[0034]

[0044] The base stations in the NG-RAN 235 shown in FIG. 2 may also or instead include a next generation evolved node B 214, also referred to as an ng-eNB. The ng-eNB 214 may be connected to one or more gNBs 210 in the NG-RAN 235, e.g., directly or indirectly via other gNBs 210 and / or other ng-eNBs. The ng-eNB 214 may provide LTE wireless access and / or evolved LTE (eLTE) wireless access to the UE 105. Some of the gNBs 210 (e.g., gNB 210-2) and / or ng-eNBs 214 in FIG. 2 may be configured to function as positioning-only beacons that may transmit signals (e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS)) and / or broadcast assistance data to assist in positioning the UE 105, but may not receive signals from the UE 105 or other UEs. It should be noted that although only one ng-eNB 214 is shown in FIG. 2, some embodiments may include multiple ng-eNBs 214. The base stations 210, 214 may communicate directly with each other via an Xn communication interface. Additionally or alternatively, the base stations 210, 214 may communicate directly or indirectly with other components of the 5G NR positioning system 200, such as the LMF 220 and the AMF 215.

[0035]

[0045] The 5G NR positioning system 200 may also include one or more WLANs 216 that may connect to a non-3GPP interworking function (N3IWF) 250 in the 5G CN 240 (e.g., in case of an untrusted WLAN 216). For example, the WLAN 216 may support IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi access for the UE 105 and may comprise one or more Wi-Fi APs (e.g., AP 130 of FIG. 1). Here, the N3IWF 250 may connect to other elements in the 5G CN 240, such as the AMF 215. In some embodiments, the WLAN 216 may support another RAT, such as Bluetooth. The N3IWF 250 may provide support for secure access by the UE 105 to other elements in the 5G CN 240 and / or support interworking of one or more protocols used by the WLAN 216 and the UE 105 to one or more protocols used by other elements of the 5G CN 240, such as the AMF 215. For example, the N3IWF 250 may support IPSec tunnel establishment with the UE 105, termination of IKEv2 / IPSec protocols with the UE 105, termination of the N2 and N3 interfaces to the 5G CN 240 for the control plane and user plane, respectively, relaying uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) control plane non-access stratum (NAS) signaling between the UE 105 and the AMF 215 across the N1 interface. In some other embodiments, the WLAN 216 may directly connect to an element in the 5G CN 240 (e.g., the AMF 215 as shown by the dashed line in FIG. 2) without going through the N3IWF 250. For example, the direct connection of the WLAN 216 to the 5G CN 240 may be made when the WLAN 216 is a trusted WLAN for the 5G CN 240 and may be enabled using a Trusted WLAN Interworking Function (TWIF), which may be an element in the WLAN 216 (not shown in FIG. 2). It should be noted that although only one WLAN 216 is shown in FIG. 2, some embodiments may include multiple WLANs 216.

[0036]

[0046] An access node may comprise any of a variety of network entities that enable communication between the UE 105 and the AMF 215. This may include a gNB 210, an ng-eNB 214, a WLAN 216, and / or other types of cellular base stations. However, an access node providing the functionality described herein may additionally or alternatively include entities that enable communication to any of a variety of RATs not shown in FIG. 2, which may include non-cellular technologies. Thus, the term "access node" as used in the embodiments described herein below may include, but is not necessarily limited to, a gNB 210, an ng-eNB 214, or a WLAN 216.

[0037]

[0047] In some embodiments, an access node such as the gNB 210, ng-eNB 214, or WLAN 216 (alone or in combination with other components of the 5G NR positioning system 200) may be configured to obtain location measurements of uplink (UL) signals (received from the UE 105) in response to receiving a request for location information from the LMF 220, and / or obtain downlink (DL) location measurements from the UE 105 obtained by the UE 105 for DL ​​signals received by the UE 105 from one or more access nodes. As mentioned, although FIG. 2 illustrates access nodes 210, 214, and 216 configured to communicate according to 5G NR, LTE, and Wi-Fi communication protocols, respectively, access nodes configured to communicate according to other communication protocols may be used, such as, for example, a Node B using a WCDMA protocol for a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), an eNB using an LTE protocol for an Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN), or Bluetooth Beacons using a Bluetooth protocol for a WLAN. For example, in a 4G Evolved Packet System (EPS) providing LTE wireless access to the UE 105, the RAN may comprise an E-UTRAN, which may comprise a base station with an eNB supporting LTE wireless access. The core network for the EPS may comprise an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The EPS may then comprise an E-UTRAN+EPC, where the E-UTRAN corresponds to the NG-RAN 235 and the EPC corresponds to the 5G CN 240 in FIG. 2. The methods and techniques described herein for obtaining a urban location for the UE 105 may be applicable to such other networks.

[0038]

[0048] The gNB 210 and ng-eNB 214 may communicate with an AMF 215, which communicates with the LMF 220, for positioning functions. The AMF 215 may support mobility of the UE 105, including cell changes and handovers of the UE 105 from a first RAT access node 210, 214, or 216 to a second RAT access node 210, 214, or 216. The AMF 215 may also participate in supporting signaling connections to the UE 105 and possibly data and voice bearers for the UE 105. The LMF 220 may support positioning of the UE 105 using a CP location solution when the UE 105 accesses the NG-RAN 235 or the WLAN 216, and may support position procedures and methods including UE-assisted / UE-based and / or network-based procedures / methods, such as Aided GNSS (A-GNSS), Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) (sometimes referred to as Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) in NR), Real Time Kinematic (RTK), Precise Point Positioning (PPP), Differential GNSS (DGNSS), Enhanced Cell ID (ECID), Angle of Arrival (AOA), Angle of Departure (AOD), WLAN positioning, Round Trip Signal Propagation Delay (RTT), Multi-cell RTT, and / or other positioning procedures and methods. The LMF 220 may also process location service requests for the UE 105, for example, received from the AMF 215 or the GMLC 225. The LMF 220 may be connected to the AMF 215 and / or the GMLC 225. In some embodiments, a network such as the 5G CN240 may additionally or alternatively implement other types of location support modules, such as an Evolved Serving Mobile Location Center (E-SMLC) or a SUPL Location Platform (SLP).It should be noted that in some embodiments, at least a portion of the positioning functions (including determining the location of the UE 105) may be performed in the UE 105 (e.g., by measuring downlink PRS (DL-PRS) signals transmitted by wireless nodes such as the gNB 210, the ng-eNB 214 and / or the WLAN 216 and / or using assistance data provided to the UE 105, e.g., by the LMF 220).

[0039]

[0049] The gateway mobile location center (GMLC) 225 may support location requests for the UE 105 received from the external client 230 and may forward such location requests to the AMF 215 for forwarding by the AMF 215 to the LMF 220. A location response from the LMF 220 (e.g., including a location estimate for the UE 105) may similarly be returned to the GMLC 225 either directly or via the AMF 215, which may then return a location response (e.g., including the location estimate) to the external client 230.

[0040]

[0050] A network exposure function (NEF) 245 may be included in the 5G CN 240. The NEF 245 may support secure exposure of capabilities and events related to the 5G CN 240 and the UE 105 to the external clients 230, which may then be referred to as an access function (AF), and may enable secure provision of information from the external clients 230 to the 5G CN 240. The NEF 245 may be connected to the AMF 215 and / or the GMLC 225 for the purposes of obtaining the location (e.g., a civic location) of the UE 105 and providing the location to the external clients 230.

[0041]

[0051] As further shown in FIG. 2, the LMF 220 may communicate with the gNB 210 and / or the ng-eNB 214 using the NR Positioning Protocol A (NRPPa) defined in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.455. NRPPa messages may be transferred between the gNB 210 and the LMF 220 and / or between the ng-eNB 214 and the LMF 220 via the AMF 215. As further shown in FIG. 2, the LMF 220 and the UE 105 may communicate using the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) defined in 3GPP TS 37.355. Here, LPP messages may be transferred between the UE 105 and the LMF 220 via the AMF 215 and the serving gNB 210-1 or the serving ng-eNB 214 for the UE 105. For example, LPP messages may be transferred between the LMF 220 and the AMF 215 using messages for service-based operations (e.g., based on HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)) and between the AMF 215 and the UE 105 using 5G NAS protocols. The LPP protocol may be used to support positioning of the UE 105 using UE-assisted and / or UE-based position methods such as A-GNSS, RTK, TDOA, multi-cell RTT, AOD, and / or ECID. The NRPPa protocol may be used to support positioning of the UE 105 using network-based position methods such as ECID, AOA, uplink TDOA (UL-TDOA), and / or may be used by the LMF 220 to obtain location related information from the gNB 210 and / or ng-eNB 214, such as parameters defining DL-PRS transmissions from the gNB 210 and / or ng-eNB 214.

[0042]

[0052] In the case of UE 105 access to WLAN 216, LMF 220 may use NRPPa and / or LPP to obtain the location of UE 105 in a similar manner as just described for UE 105 access to gNB 210 or ng-eNB 214. Thus, NRPPa messages may be forwarded between WLAN 216 and LMF 220 via AMF 215 and N3IWF 250 to support network-based positioning of UE 105 and / or forwarding of other location information from WLAN 216 to LMF 220. Alternatively, NRPPa messages may be forwarded between N3IWF 250 and LMF 220 via AMF 215 to support network-based positioning of UE 105 based on location related information and / or location measurements known to or accessible to N3IWF 250 and forwarded from N3IWF 250 to LMF 220 using NRPPa. Similarly, LPP and / or LPP messages may be transferred between the UE 105 and the LMF 220 via the AMF 215, the N3IWF 250, and the serving WLAN 216 for the UE 105 to support UE-assisted or UE-based positioning of the UE 105 by the LMF 220.

[0043]

[0053] In a 5G NR positioning system 200, positioning methods may be categorized as being "UE-assisted" or "UE-based". This may depend on where the request to determine the position of the UE 105 originates. For example, if the request originates at the UE (e.g., from an application, or "app," executed by the UE), the positioning method may be categorized as being UE-based. On the other hand, if the request originates from an external client or the AF 230, the LMF 220, or other devices or services within the 5G network, the positioning method may be categorized as being UE-assisted (or "network-based").

[0044]

[0054] In a UE-assisted location method, the UE 105 may obtain location measurements and send the measurements to a location server (e.g., the LMF 220) for computation of a location estimate for the UE 105. In a RAT-dependent location method, the location measurements may include one or more of a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), a round-trip signal propagation time (RTT), a reference signal received power (RSRP), a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a reference signal time difference (RSTD), a time of arrival (TOA), an AOA, a received time-transmitted time difference (Rx-Tx), a differential AOA (DAOA), an AOD, or a timing advance (TA) for one or more access points for the gNB 210, the ng-eNB 214, and / or the WLAN 216. Additionally or alternatively, similar measurements of sidelink signals transmitted by other UEs that may serve as anchor points for positioning of the UE 105 may be made if the locations of the other UEs are known. The location measurements may also or instead include measurements for RAT-independent positioning methods, such as GNSS (e.g., GNSS pseudorange, GNSS code phase, and / or GNSS carrier phase for GNSS satellites 110), WLAN, etc.

[0045]

[0055] In a UE-based location method, the UE 105 may obtain location measurements (which may be the same or similar to location measurements for a UE-assisted location method, for example) and may further calculate the location of the UE 105 (e.g., with the help of assistance data received from a location server such as the LMF 220, an SLP, or broadcast by the gNB 210, the ng-eNB 214, or the WLAN 216).

[0046]

[0056] In a network-based location method, one or more base stations (e.g., gNB210 and / or ng-eNB214), one or more APs (e.g., in WLAN216), or N3IWF250 may obtain location measurements (e.g., RSSI, RTT, RSRP, RSRQ, AOA, or TOA measurements) for signals transmitted by UE105 and / or receive measurements obtained by UE105 or, in the case of N3IWF250, by APs in WLAN216 and send those measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF220) for calculation of a location estimate for UE105.

[0047]

[0057] The positioning of the UE 105 may also be categorized as UL, DL, or DL-UL based depending on the type of signal used for positioning. For example, if the positioning is based only on signals received at the UE 105 (e.g., from a base station or other UE), the positioning may be categorized as DL based. On the other hand, if the positioning is based only on signals transmitted by the UE 105 (e.g., may be received by a base station or other UE), the positioning may be categorized as UL based. Positioning that is DL-UL based includes positioning that is based on signals both transmitted and received by the UE 105, such as RTT-based positioning. Sidelink (SL)-assisted positioning comprises signals communicated between the UE 105 and one or more other UEs. According to some embodiments, the UL, DL, or DL-UL positioning described herein may be capable of using SL signaling as a supplement or replacement for SL, DL, or DL-UL signaling.

[0048]

[0058] Depending on the type of positioning (e.g., UL, DL, or DL-UL based), the type of reference signal used may vary. For example, in DL-based positioning, these signals may comprise PRS (e.g., DL-PRS transmitted by the base station or SL-PRS transmitted by other UEs) that may be used for TDOA, AOD, and RTT measurements. Other reference signals that may be used for positioning (UL, DL, or DL-UL) may include sounding reference signals (SRS), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), synchronization signals (e.g., synchronization signal block (SSB) synchronization signal (SS)), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), demodulation reference signal (DMRS), etc. Moreover, reference signals may be transmitted in a Tx beam and / or received in a Rx beam (e.g., using beamforming techniques), which may affect angle measurements such as AOD and / or AOA.

[0049]

[0059] 3 is a call flow diagram illustrating a basic exchange of assistance data (AD) and reports between the UE 105 and a location server 160 (e.g., LMF 220) used to determine the position of the UE 105. This may represent, for example, an LPP positioning session between the UE 105 and the location server 160, although embodiments are not necessarily limited to LPP positioning. Additionally, while FIG. 3 illustrates UE-assisted positioning of the UE 105 in which the location server 160 determines the position of the UE, embodiments may not be so limited.

[0050]

[0060] Now, as indicated at arrow 310, a positioning session between the UE 105 and the location server 160 is initiated. Based on the type of positioning (e.g., UE-assisted or UE-based), the positioning session may be initiated by the UE 105 (e.g., if UE-based) or by the location server 160 (e.g., if UE-assisted). Preliminary information such as capabilities of the UE 105 and / or the location server 160 may be exchanged. The initiation of the positioning session at arrow 310 may further indicate a type of positioning to be performed (e.g., based on capabilities). This may include a positioning type in which measurement information captured by the UE 105 is reported to the location server 160. Such positioning types may include, for example, multi-RTT positioning, DL-AoD positioning, DL-TDOA positioning, Extended Cell ID (E-CID) positioning, and / or UL positioning.

[0051]

[0061] In examples where the UE 105 may need configuration information regarding a reference signal (e.g., PRS resources), the UE 105 may optionally request assistance data (AD), as indicated by dashed arrow 320. Whether or not AD is explicitly requested, the location server 160 may determine the AD to provide to the UE 105. This determination may include, in part, determining a PRS resource identification 330. Further details regarding this identification are provided below. The AD with the PRS resource information is then provided by the location server 160 to the UE 105, as indicated at arrow 340.

[0052]

[0062] The location server 160 may then request location information, as indicated by arrow 350. Among other things, the location information may include captured measurements of PRS resources identified in the AD captured by the UE, as indicated at block 360. This measurement data, along with identification information for the PRS resources for which the measurements were captured, are included in the location information sent from the UE 105 to the location server 160, as indicated at arrow 370. The location information comprising the measurement data and corresponding identification information is referred to herein as a "measurement report." Using this information, the location server 160 then determines the location of the UE, as indicated at block 380.

[0053]

[0063] As mentioned, the identification of reference signals (PRS resources) can involve a large amount of signaling overhead. This depends in part on the hierarchical structure of the PRS resources, which is shown in more detail in FIG. 4.

[0054]

[0064] FIG. 4 is a diagram of a hierarchical structure of how PRS resources and PRS resource sets can be used by different TRPs of a given positioning frequency layer (PFL) as defined in 5G NR. In brief, a UE may have some capabilities with respect to being able to aggregate reference signals transmitted by one or more TRPs in a PFL. The use of multiple PRS resources in multiple PFLs can effectively increase the bandwidth of reference signals for measurements taken to determine the UE's position. More specifically, this increase in bandwidth comes from aggregating PRS resources (e.g., processing reference signals together in the signal domain). The ability of a UE to aggregate or transmit these reference signals may be limited by channel spacing, timing offset, phase offset (or phase shift), frequency error, power imbalance, and other such factors between reference signals of different PFLs.

[0055]

[0065] With respect to the network (Uu) interface, the UE 105 may be configured by the location server 160 with one or more PRS resource sets from each of one or more TRPs. Each PRS resource set includes K≧1 PRS resources, which may correspond to the Tx beams of the TRP. A PRS PFL is defined as a collection of PRS resource sets that have the same subcarrier spacing (SCS) and cyclic prefix (CP) type, the same value of PRS bandwidth, the same center frequency, and the same value of comb size. In the current iteration of the NR standard, the UE 105 may be configured with up to four DL PRS PFLs.

[0056]

[0066] NR has multiple frequency bands across different frequency ranges (e.g., Frequency Range 1 (FR1) and Frequency Range 2 (FR2)). The PFL may be on the same band or on different bands. Additionally, as shown in FIG. 4, multiple TRPs (e.g., TRP1 and TRP2) may be on the same PFL. Each TRP may have multiple PRS resource sets, each having one or more PRS resources. In the example PFL shown in FIG. 4, TRP1 has two PRS resource sets and TRP2 has three PRS resource sets. Each PRS resource set has three PRS resources, totaling 15 PRS resources. (Note, however, that the number of TRPs, PRS resource sets, and PRS resources may differ from the numbers shown in the example of FIG. 4. For example, different PRS resource sets may have different numbers of PRS resources.) A PRS "sequence" comprises the PRS resources used in a positioning session of the UE 105 to determine the location of the UE 105. Each sequence may be specific to a UE 105, however different PRS resources within a sequence may be broadcast and measured by multiple UEs at once.

[0057]

[0067] The location server 160 can configure the UE 105 to measure PRS resources, resulting in measurements that can be reported by the UE 105 to the location server 160 to determine the location of the UE 105. This configuration, which can include information such as timing, frequency, etc. for each PRS resource, may be included in the AD provided to the UE 105 from the location server 160. To do so, the AD includes identification information for each PRS resource. Furthermore, when the UE 105 provides measurement data for each measured PRS resource (e.g., in the location information or measurement report sent at arrow 370), the UE 105 includes identification information for each PRS resource together with the measurement data. As mentioned above, this identification information can consume a large amount of signaling overhead. Again, this is partly due to the hierarchy shown in FIG. 4.

[0058]

[0068] In the current version of the applicable NR specifications, this identification information can include six information elements (IEs). These IEs include an identifier of the TRP transmitting the PRS resource (e.g., "dl-PRS-ID-r16"), an optional physical cell ID of the TRP ("nr-PhysCellID-r16"), a global cell ID of the TRP ("nr-CellGlobalID-r16"), an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN) or bandwidth ID ("nr-ARFCN-r16"), a resource ID ("nr-DL-PRS-ResourceID-r16"), and a resource set ID ("nr-DL-PRS-ResourceSetID-r16"). This information is included to cover all types of use cases to ensure accurate identification of each PRS resource. However, it results in an inefficient means of communicating the identification information. Table 1 below provides further details.

[0059] [Table 1]

[0060]

[0069] As shown in Table 1, these IEs can vary in length from 3 to 42 bits, totaling up to 91 bits. However, the purpose of these IEs is to uniquely identify the PRS resources in the sequence, the maximum possible number which is the product of the maximum number of TRPs, the maximum number of resource sets per TRP, and the maximum number of PRS resources per resource set: 256*7*64=114688. The number of bits required to represent this maximum number of possible PRS resource identifiers in the sequence is therefore log2(114688), i.e. 17 bits. This is much smaller than the maximum 91 bits currently used and which represents a large overhead and inefficiency of communicating identification information in this manner. Moreover, in most scenarios, only a small portion of the maximum number of PRS resources is used in the PRS sequence. Therefore, less than 17 bits are required for most positioning sessions.

[0061]

[0070] To address these and other issues, embodiments herein leverage information such as priority information originally conveyed within the hierarchical structure of the positioning frequency layer (e.g., FIG. 4) to determine a unique sequence identifier for each PRS resource of the sequence. This unique sequence number may then be used in reporting measurement data by the UE (or other reporting device, as described below) to a location server. Thus, embodiments herein effectively provide a means for compressing identification information included in location measurement reports.

[0062]

[0071] Returning to FIG. 4, the hierarchical structure is conveyed within the AD provided by the location server to the UE, including the inherent priority of the PRS resources. That is, the PFL, TRP, resource set, and PRS resources are provided within the AD in descending order of measurement priority. Thus, the first PRS resource of the first PRS resource set of the first TRP in the first positioning layer (e.g., the leftmost PRS resource in FIG. 4) has the highest priority, and the last PRS resource of the last PRS resource set of the last TRP in the last positioning layer (e.g., the rightmost PRS resource in FIG. 4) has the lowest priority. The priority of the PRS resources in the sequence is not explicit within the AD, but is therefore known by both the location server and the UE. As mentioned, embodiments leverage this inherent priority information to assign a unique PRS resource sequence identifier or ID to each PRS resource in the sequence. An example is shown in FIG. 5.

[0063]

[0072] Figure 5 is a diagram of the hierarchical structure of the example PRS resources of Figure 4 with assigned PRS resource sequence IDs 500, according to one embodiment. (To avoid confusion, only a portion of the PRS resource sequence IDs 500 are labeled in Figure 5.) Here, each PRS resource sequence ID 500 is simply an index number, with the highest priority PRS resource being given the lowest number and the lowest priority PRS resource being given the highest number. (Depending on the desired functionality, the lowest number may start with zero or one.) Alternate embodiments may use alternative techniques for determining unique sequence numbers for PRS resources within a positioning session based on PRS resource priority.

[0064]

[0073] According to some embodiments, a UE (or other reporting device) providing measurement data for each PRS resource may therefore include a PRS resource sequence ID 500 for the respective PRS resource rather than the various IEs of Table 1. In the example of Figure 5, the PRS resource sequence IDs 500 range from 1 to 15, and therefore only 4 bits are required to convey a unique PRS resource sequence ID 500 for each PRS resource.

[0065]

[0074] According to some embodiments, the UE (or other reporting device) may further include length information indicating the number of bits of the PRS resource sequence ID 500. This may be a sequence-specific number. Thus, in the example of FIG. 5 where the PRS resource sequence ID 500 is 4 bits long, the length information may indicate this. Other sequences may have more or fewer PRS resources and thus the length may be different for different positioning sessions. However, alternative embodiments may have a standard fixed length for the PRS resource sequence ID 500. In such embodiments, a separate length indicator may not be used.

[0066]

[0075] Note that the PRS resource sequence ID 500 is specific to a UE and is valid for the duration of a positioning session. Different positioning sessions between the same UE 105 and location server 160 may result in reuse of a PRS resource sequence ID (e.g., a sequence number or index number) specific to each respective positioning session. Furthermore, a single PRS resource may be used by multiple UEs during different (concurrent) positioning sessions, in which case the PRS resource may have a different PRS resource sequence ID for each positioning session.

[0067]

[0076] It should be further noted that, although the embodiments described with respect to Figures 4 and 5 show how the sequence identifier PRS resource sequence ID 500 is derived from the priority, the embodiments are not so limited. Other algorithms for generating a unique PRS resource sequence ID 500 for each PRS resource in the sequence may be used. These algorithms may use information conveyed in the AD (e.g., information contained in the six IEs for each PRS resource) to determine a unique sequence ID for each PRS resource.

[0068]

[0077] In practice, the use of the PRS resource sequence ID 500 may be implemented in different ways. Figures 6 and 7 are call flow diagrams illustrating such implementations.

[0069]

[0078] FIG. 6 is a call flow diagram illustrating a first implementation in which PRS resource sequence ID information is included in the AD. Here, actions 610-680 generally repeat the corresponding actions 310-380 of FIG. 3 described above. Here, however, the location server 160 further determines a PRS resource sequence ID for each PRS resource included in the AD, as shown in block 635. The PRS resource sequence ID is then included in the AD sent to the UE 105, as shown by arrow 640. Thereafter, after the UE 105 takes measurements of the PRS resources (at block 660), the UE includes the measurement data and the PRS resource sequence ID for each measured PRS resource in the location information sent to the location server 160, as shown by arrow 670. However, since each PRS resource sequence ID uniquely identifies each PRS resource, the UE 105 does not need to further include any of the additional PRS resource identification information that would be required in a conventional PRS measurement report.

[0070]

[0079] Although this implementation requires the inclusion of more information in the AD (e.g., a PRS resource sequence ID for each PRS resource), this implementation can still result in significant overhead savings over a positioning session between the UE 105 and the location server because the UE 105 can repeat steps 660 and 670 multiple times over a positioning session, measuring many PRS resources in providing those measurements to the location server 160 without necessarily receiving further AD from the location server 160.

[0071]

[0080] FIG. 7 is a call flow diagram illustrating a second implementation in which PRS resource sequence ID information is determined separately by the location server 160 and the UE 105. Here, actions 710-780 generally repeat the corresponding actions 610-680 of FIG. 6 described above. Here, however, the location server 160 determines the PRS resource sequence IDs (block 735), but these IDs are excluded from the AD provided to the UE 105, as indicated by arrow 740. Rather than using the PRS resource sequence IDs included in the AD in the manner illustrated in FIG. 6, the UE 105 can instead determine the PRS resource sequence IDs from the AD, as indicated by block 745. The remainder of the actions illustrated in FIG. 7 can then proceed in a manner similar to FIG. 6. Compared to the implementation of FIG. 6, the implementation of FIG. 7 requires slightly more resources from the UE 105 to determine the PRS resource sequence IDs. However, it provides further overhead savings by excluding the PRS resource sequence IDs from the AD provided at arrow 740.

[0072]

[0081] Alternative embodiments can use variations on the processes illustrated in Figures 6 and 7 to accommodate different scenarios that may occur during a positioning session between the location server 160 and the UE 105. For example, according to some embodiments, the PRS resource sequence ID may be redetermined if there is a change to the PRS resources of the sequence during the positioning session. For example, if the UE 105 changes location, additions and / or deletions may occur, which may affect the TRPs at which the UE 105 can measure the PRS resources. More specifically, movement away from a first TRP may result in the UE 105 being unable to measure the PRS resources of the first TRP, while movement towards a second TRP may result in the UE 105 being able to measure the PRS resources of the second TRP, and so on. In such cases, TRPs may be added to or removed from the AD by updates to the AD over the positioning session. This may be conveyed to the UE 105 via, for example, a radio resource control (RRC) message. Furthermore, since the management criteria for RRC messages dictate when the UE 105 must implement the RRC commands, the time at which the UE 105 switches from the previous AD to the new AD may be transparent to both the UE 105 and the location server 160.

[0073]

[0082] Additionally or alternatively, embodiments may implement features that help ensure common indexing between the UE 105 and the location server 160 in some situations where the location server 160 may not know the version of the AD being used by the UE 105. This may occur, for example, in cases where the UE 105 receives AD from a combination of broadcast and unicast AD, or when the UE may have multiple versions of AD available from different cells during a handover process from one cell to another. An example of this is shown in FIG.

[0074]

[0083] 8 is a diagram of a hierarchical structure of PRS resources similar to FIG. 5. Here, however, the PRS resource sequence ID 800 distinguishes between PRS resources received from a broadcast AD (associated with TRP1) and PRS resources received from a unicast AD (associated with TRP2). In this example, the PRS resource sequence ID 800 has a prefix of "0" or "1" to indicate whether the PRS resource is received from a broadcast AD or a unicast AD, respectively. In this way, the location server 160 can ascertain the source of the AD from which the PRS resource sequence ID 800 was determined based on the prefix of the PRS resource sequence ID 800 included in the measurement report provided by the UE 105.

[0075]

[0084] A similar solution may be used during handover scenarios where the UE 105 moves from one cell to another. That is, a prefix may be added to indicate the cell (or TRP) where the AD is used. In this case, a multi-bit prefix may be used to distinguish between the source cell (e.g., "10") and the target cell (e.g., "11").

[0076]

[0085] As mentioned above, the device providing the measurement data to the location server 160 may not always comprise the UE 105 capturing the measurements. That is, in some circumstances, another device may obtain the measurement data captured by the UE 105 and report the measurement data to the location server. This may occur, for example, when a TRP (e.g., a gNB) or a SL UE (e.g., another UE communicatively connected to the UE 105 via an SL connection) receives the measurement data from the UE 105 and relays the measurement data to the location server 160. In such a scenario, the TRP or SL UE may thus determine the PRS resource sequence ID and provide the measurement data including the PRS resource sequence ID, as described herein above.

[0077]

[0086] FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of a method 900 of efficient reporting of location measurements taken by a UE in a wireless communication network according to one embodiment. In some aspects, the functions of the method 900 illustrate functions performed by the UE 105 as illustrated in the flow diagram of FIG. 7. One or more of the functions illustrated in the blocks of FIG. 9 may be performed by a wireless node comprising the UE itself, or a TRP, or a second UE (e.g., an ASL UE) that receives measurement data from the UE. Thus, the means for performing the functions illustrated in one or more of the blocks illustrated in FIG. 9 may be performed by hardware and / or software components of the UE or the TRP. Exemplary components of a UE are illustrated in FIG. 11 and exemplary components of a TRP are illustrated in FIG. 12, both of which are described in more detail below.

[0078]

[0087] At block 910, the function comprises receiving, at the wireless node, an AD from a location server during a positioning session, the AD including identification information for at least a first PRS resource of a plurality of PRS resources to be measured by the UE during the positioning session. In some embodiments, the at least first PRS resource may comprise a plurality of PRS resources, and the AD may include identification information for each of the PRS resources. As mentioned above, the identification information included in the AD may comprise conventional identification information for the PRS resource, such as one or more of the IEs included in Table 1. In particular, the identification information for the first PRS resource may comprise a PFL identifier, a TRP identifier, a physical cell identifier, an ARFCN identifier, a resource set identifier, or a resource identifier, or a combination thereof. Additionally, and as mentioned, the AD received by the wireless node may be unicast from the location server to the wireless node (e.g., via a serving TRP).

[0079]

[0088] The means for performing the functions in block 910 may comprise, for example, a bus 1105, a processing unit 1110, a digital signal processor (DSP) 1120, a wireless communication interface 1130, a memory 1160, and / or other components of the UE 1100, as shown in FIG 11. Additionally or alternatively, the means for performing the functions in block 910 may comprise, for example, a bus 1205, a processing unit 1210, a DSP 1220, a wireless communication interface 1230, a memory 1260, a network interface 1280, and / or other components of the TRP 1200, as shown in FIG 12.

[0080]

[0089] At block 930, the function comprises obtaining, at the wireless node, measurement information related to the first PRS resource. In an embodiment where the wireless node comprises a UE, obtaining the measurement information may comprise capturing one or more measurements of the first PRS resource. In an embodiment where the wireless node comprises a TRP or a second UE, obtaining the measurement information may comprise receiving the measurement information wirelessly from the UE.

[0081]

[0090] The means for performing the functions in block 930 may comprise, for example, a bus 1105, a processing unit 1110, a DSP 1120, a wireless communication interface 1130, a memory 1160, and / or other components of the UE 1100, as shown in FIG 11. Additionally or alternatively, the means for performing the functions in block 930 may comprise, for example, a bus 1205, a processing unit 1210, a DSP 1220, a wireless communication interface 1230, a memory 1260, a network interface 1280, and / or other components of the TRP 1200, as shown in FIG 12.

[0082]

[0091] At block 940, the function comprises sending a first measurement report from the wireless node to the location server, the first measurement report comprising: (i) measurement information regarding a first PRS resource; and (ii) a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from identification information for the first PRS resource, and where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among the sequence identifiers of the multiple PRS resources within the positioning session. As discussed above, the sequence identifier may be based on a priority of the PRS resource. Thus, according to some embodiments, the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource may be generated from the identification information based on a priority of the first PRS resource determined from the identification information. As discussed above with respect to Figures 4, 5, and 8, the priority information may be implied in a hierarchical structure of PRS resource sequences of the positioning session, where the hierarchical structure is described by the identification information in the AD. From this, a PRS resource sequence ID (e.g., an index number) may be specified for each PRS resource. As shown in FIG. 8, the sequence identifier may further include an indicator (e.g., in the form of a prefix having one or more bits) of whether the AD was received via unicast or broadcast and / or whether the AD was received during handover from the source TRP or during handover from the target TRP. As previously shown, a measurement report, such as the first measurement report, may be included in the location information sent by the wireless device in response to a location information request from the location server. As shown in FIG. 7, since the location server can separately determine the sequence identifier, any further identification information (e.g., IEs in Table 1) of the first PRS resource in the first measurement report may not be necessary to identify the measurement information of the first PRS resource to the location server. Thus, any or all of this further identification information may be omitted from the first measurement report. As previously described, the length information of the sequence identifier may be included in the measurement report.As such, according to some embodiments of method 900, the first measurement report further comprises an indication of a length of the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource. The means for performing the functions at block 940 may comprise, for example, a bus 1105, a processing unit 1110, a DSP 1120, a wireless communication interface 1130, a memory 1160, and / or other components of the UE 1100 as shown in FIG. 11. Additionally or alternatively, the means for performing the functions at block 940 may comprise, for example, a bus 1205, a processing unit 1210, a DSP 1220, a wireless communication interface 1230, a memory 1260, a network interface 1280, and / or other components of the TRP 1200 as shown in FIG.

[0083]

[0092] As previously discussed, embodiments may accommodate changes to the AD, such as adding and / or removing a PRS resource from a sequence of a positioning session. Thus, embodiments may further comprise receiving, at the wireless node, an updated AD from a location server, where the updated AD adds a PRS resource to the plurality of PRS resources, removes a PRS resource from the plurality of PRS resources, or both. Such embodiments may further comprise obtaining measurement information regarding a second PRS resource and sending a second measurement report to the location server, where the second measurement report comprises (i) the measurement information regarding the second PRS resource, and (ii) a sequence identifier of the second PRS resource, where the sequence identifier of the second PRS resource is generated from the updated AD.

[0084]

[0093] FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of a method 1000 that enables efficient reporting of location measurements taken by UEs in a wireless communication network, according to one embodiment. In some aspects, the functions of the method 1000 illustrate functions performed by a location server 160, as illustrated in the flow diagram of FIG. 6. One or more of the functions illustrated in the blocks of FIG. 10 may be performed by a location server that may be implemented by a computer system. Thus, the means for performing the functions illustrated in one or more of the blocks illustrated in FIG. 10 may be performed by hardware and / or software components of a computer system. Exemplary components of a computer system are illustrated in FIG. 13, which are described in more detail below.

[0085]

[0094] The function in block 1010 comprises determining, at the location server, an identification information for each PRS resource of a plurality of PRS resources to be measured by the UE during a positioning session between the UE and the location server. The determination may be based in part on an approximate location of the UE (e.g., from historical location information, serving TRP location information, etc.) to determine a TRP at which the UE can measure the PRS resource based on the location of the TRP. Additionally or alternatively, the determination may involve preliminary data exchanged with the UE prior to and / or at the beginning of the positioning session, such as capability information. Furthermore, the determination may involve determining PRS resources to be transmitted by one or more TRPs during the positioning session. One or more TRPs may already be configured to transmit such PRS resources. Additionally or alternatively, the location server may configure one or more TRPs to transmit PRS resources in response to a request to determine the location of the UE. Again, the identification information may comprise a PFL identifier, a TRP identifier, a physical cell identifier, an ARFCN identifier, a resource set identifier, or a resource identifier, or a combination thereof. The means for performing the functions in block 1010 may comprise, for example, a bus 1305, a processing unit 1310, a communication subsystem 1330, a working memory 1335, and / or other components of the computer system 1300 as shown in FIG. 13.

[0086]

[0095] The function in block 1020 comprises generating, at the location server, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource based on the identification information, the sequence identifier being unique within the positioning session. Again, the sequence identifier may be based on a priority of the PRS resource. Thus, according to some embodiments, generating, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource based on the identification information may comprise determining a priority of the respective PRS resource based on the identification information and generating a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource based on the priority of the respective PRS resource. Furthermore, as previously described with respect to Figures 4, 5, and 8, the priority information may be implied in a hierarchical structure of PRS resource sequences of the positioning session, the hierarchical structure being described by the identification information determined in block 1010. From this, a PRS resource sequence ID (e.g., an index number) may be specified for each PRS resource. The means for performing the functions in block 1020 may comprise, for example, a bus 1305, a processing unit 1310, a communication subsystem 1330, a working memory 1335, and / or other components of the computer system 1300 as shown in FIG. 13.

[0087]

[0096] The function in block 1030 comprises sending an AD to a wireless node, the AD comprising a sequence identifier of each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources. Again, the wireless node may comprise a serving TRP of the UE or a second UE. Alternatively, the wireless node may comprise the UE itself. As described in the embodiments herein, this inclusion of the sequence identifier of each PRS resource in the AD may enable the wireless node receiving the AD to simply use the sequence identifier of the PRS when reporting measurement information for the PRS. Although identification information for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources may be included in the AD sent to the wireless node in block 1030 to further help configure the wireless node to obtain measurements of the PRS resources, such information may not be needed in a mutual measurement report provided by the wireless node and therefore may be omitted in such a report. The means for performing the function in block 1030 may comprise, for example, a bus 1305, a processing unit 1310, a communication subsystem 1330, a working memory 1335, and / or other components of the computer system 1300, as shown in FIG. 13.

[0088]

[0097] Again, embodiments may accommodate changes to the AD. Such embodiments may comprise, for example, determining, at a location server, an updated location of the UE, and determining, in response to determining the updated location of the UE, an updated AD at the location server that adds a PRS resource to the plurality of PRS resources, removes a PRS resource from the plurality of PRS resources, or both. Embodiments may further comprise determining, at the location server, for each of at least one PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, (i) a new priority of the at least one PRS resource based on the updated AD, and (ii) a new sequence identifier of the at least one PRS resource. The location server may then send the updated AD to the wireless node, the updated AD including the new sequence identifier of the at least one PRS resource.

[0089]

[0098] As further illustrated in Figure 7, the location server may then determine a location of the UE based on the measurement report (e.g., included in the location information received from the UE). Accordingly, such an embodiment may comprise receiving, at the location server, a measurement report from the wireless node, and determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the measurement report, where the measurement report comprises (i) measurement information for at least one PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, and (ii) a sequence identifier of the at least one PRS resource.

[0090]

[0099] FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of a UE 1100 that may be utilized as described herein above (e.g., in connection with FIGS. 1-10). For example, the UE 1100 may correspond to the UE 105 and / or wireless node described herein. Thus, the UE 1100 may perform one or more of the functions of the method illustrated in FIG. 9. It should be noted that FIG. 11 merely provides a generalized view of various components, any or all of which may be utilized as desired. Additionally, as previously discussed, the functions of the UE described in the previously described embodiments may be performed by one or more of the hardware and / or software components illustrated in FIG. 11.

[0091]

[0100] A UE 1100 is shown comprising hardware elements that may be electrically coupled (or in other communication, as appropriate) via a bus 1105. The hardware elements may include processing unit(s) 1110, which may include, but are not limited to, one or more general purpose processors, one or more special purpose processors (such as DSP chips, graphics acceleration processors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.), and / or other processing structures or means. As shown in FIG. 11, some embodiments may have a separate DSP 1120 depending on the desired functionality. Location determination and / or other determinations based on wireless communication may be provided in the processing unit(s) 1110 and / or in a wireless communication interface 1130 (described below). The UE 1100 may also include one or more input devices 1170, which may include, but are not limited to, one or more keyboards, touch screens, touch pads, microphones, buttons, dials, switches, etc., and one or more output devices 1115, which may include, but are not limited to, one or more displays (e.g., touch screens), light emitting diodes (LEDs), speakers, etc.

[0092]

[0101] The UE 1100 may also include a wireless communication interface 1130, which may comprise, but is not limited to, a modem (such as a Bluetooth device, an IEEE 802.11 device, an IEEE 802.15.4 device, a Wi-Fi device, a WiMAX device, a WAN device, and / or various cellular devices), a network card, an infrared communication device, a wireless communication device, and / or a chipset, etc., which may enable the UE 1100 to communicate with other devices as described in the above embodiments. The wireless communication interface 1130 may enable data and signaling to be communicated (e.g., transmitted and received) with the TRP of the network, for example, via an eNB, a gNB, an ng-eNB, an access point, various base stations, and / or other access node types, and / or with other network components, computer systems, and / or any other electronic devices communicatively coupled to the TRP, as described herein. The communication may be performed via one or more wireless communication antennas 1132 that send and / or receive wireless signals 1134. According to some embodiments, the wireless communication antenna(s) 1132 may comprise multiple individual antennas, an antenna array, or any combination thereof. The antenna(s) 1132 may be capable of transmitting and receiving wireless signals using beams (e.g., Tx beams and Rx beams). Beamforming may be performed using digital and / or analog beamforming techniques with digital and / or analog circuitry, respectively. The wireless communication interface 1130 may include such circuitry.

[0093]

[0102] Depending on the desired functionality, the wireless communication interface 1130 may comprise separate receivers and transmitters, or any combination of transceivers, transmitters, and / or receivers, for communicating with base stations (e.g., ng-eNBs and gNBs), as well as other terrestrial transceivers, such as wireless devices and access points. The UE 1100 may communicate with different data networks, which may comprise a variety of network types. For example, a wireless wide area network (WWAN) may be a CDMA network, a time division multiple access (TDMA) network, a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) network, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) network, a single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) network, a WiMAX (IEEE 802.16) network, etc. The CDMA network may implement one or more RATs, such as CDMA2000, WCDMA, etc. CDMA2000 includes IS-95, IS-2000, and / or IS-856 standards. The TDMA network may implement GSM, Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System (D-AMPS), or some other RAT. The OFDMA network may employ LTE, LTE Advanced, 5G NR, etc. 5G NR, LTE, LTE Advanced, GSM, and WCDMA are described in documents from 3GPP. CDMA2000 is described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project X3" (3GPP2). 3GPP and 3GPP2 documents are publicly available. The wireless local area network (WLAN) may also be an IEEE 802.11x network, and the wireless personal area network (WPAN) may be a Bluetooth network, an IEEE 802.15x, or some other type of network. Also, the techniques described herein may be used for any combination of WWAN, WLAN, and / or WPAN.

[0094]

[0103] The UE 1100 may further include sensor(s) 1140. The sensor(s) 1140 may comprise, without limitation, one or more inertial sensors and / or other sensors (e.g., accelerometer(s), gyroscope(s), camera(s), magnetometer(s), altimeter(s), microphone(s), proximity sensor(s), light sensor(s), barometer(s), etc.), some of which may be used to obtain location relationship measurements and / or other information.

[0095]

[0104] An embodiment of the UE 1100 may also include a GNSS receiver 1180 capable of receiving signals 1184 from one or more Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellites using an antenna 1182 (which may be the same as the antenna 1132). Positioning based on GNSS signal measurements may be utilized to complement and / or incorporate the techniques described herein. The GNSS receiver 1180 may use conventional techniques to extract a position of the UE 1100 from GNSS satellites 110 of a GNSS system, such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Galileo, GLONASS, Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) over Japan, IRNSS, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) over China, etc. Moreover, the GNSS receiver 1180 may be used in conjunction with various augmentation systems (e.g., Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS)) that may be associated with or otherwise enabled for use with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems, such as, for example, the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), and the Geo Augmented Navigation system (GAGAN).

[0096]

[0105] It should be noted that although the GNSS receiver 1180 is shown in FIG. 11 as a separate component, the embodiments are not so limited. The term “GNSS receiver” as used herein may comprise hardware and / or software components configured to acquire GNSS measurements (measurements from GNSS satellites). In some embodiments, the GNSS receiver may thus comprise a measurement engine executed (as software) by one or more processing units, such as the processing unit(s) 1110, the DSP 1120, and / or a processing unit (e.g., in a modem) within the wireless communication interface 1130. The GNSS receiver may also optionally include a positioning engine, which may use the GNSS measurements from the measurement engine to determine the position of the GNSS receiver using an extended Kalman filter (EKF), weighted least squares (WLS), a hatch filter, a particle filter, etc. The positioning engine may also be executed by one or more processing units, such as the processing unit(s) 1110 or the DSP 1120.

[0097]

[0106] The UE 1100 may further include and / or be in communication with a memory 1160. The memory 1160 may include, but is not limited to, local and / or network accessible storage, disk drives, drive arrays, optical storage devices, and solid-state storage devices such as random access memory (RAM) that may be programmable, flash updatable, etc., and / or read-only memory (ROM). Such storage devices may be configured to implement any suitable data store, including, but not limited to, various file systems, database structures, etc.

[0098]

[0107] The memory 1160 of the UE 1100 may also comprise computer programs provided by various embodiments and / or may comprise software elements (not shown in FIG. 11 ) including other code, such as an operating system, device drivers, executable libraries, and / or one or more application programs, that may be designed to implement methods and / or configure systems provided by other embodiments as described herein. By way of example only, one or more procedures described with respect to the method(s) described above may be implemented as code and / or instructions in the memory 1160 that are executable by the UE 1100 (and / or the processing unit(s) 1110 or DSP 1120 within the UE 1100). In one aspect, such code and / or instructions may then be used to configure and / or adapt a general-purpose computer (or other device) to perform one or more operations in accordance with the described methods.

[0099]

[0108] 12 illustrates one embodiment of a TRP 1200 that may be utilized as described herein above (e.g., in connection with FIGS. 1-11). For example, the TRP 1200 may correspond to a base station 120, a gNB 210, an ng-eNB 214, and / or a wireless node described herein. It should be noted that FIG. 12 merely provides a generalized view of various components, any or all of which may be utilized as desired.

[0100]

[0109] The TRP 1200 is shown with hardware elements that may be electrically coupled (or otherwise in communication as needed) via a bus 1205. The hardware elements may include a processing unit 1210, which may include, but is not limited to, one or more general-purpose processors, one or more special-purpose processors (such as DSP chips, graphics acceleration processors, ASICs, etc.), and / or other processing structures or processing means. As shown in FIG. 12, some embodiments may have a separate DSP 1220 depending on the desired functionality. Position determination and / or other determinations based on wireless communication may be provided in the processing unit 1210 and / or in the wireless communication interface 1230 (described below), according to some embodiments. The TRP 1200 may also include one or more input devices, which may include, but are not limited to, a keyboard, a display, a mouse, a microphone, buttons, dials, switches, etc., and one or more output devices, which may include, but are not limited to, a display, a light-emitting diode (LED), a speaker, etc.

[0101]

[0110] The TRP 1200 may also include a wireless communication interface 1230, which may comprise, but is not limited to, a modem (such as a Bluetooth device, an IEEE 802.11 device, an IEEE 802.15.4 device, a Wi-Fi device, a WiMAX device, a cellular communication facility), a network card, an infrared communication device, a wireless communication device, and / or a chipset, etc., which may enable the TRP 1200 to communicate as described herein. The wireless communication interface 1230 may enable data and signaling to be communicated (e.g., transmitted and received) to a UE, other base stations / TRPs (e.g., eNBs, gNBs, and ng-eNBs), and / or other network components, computer systems, and / or any other electronic devices described herein. The communication may be performed via one or more wireless communication antennas 1232 that transmit and / or receive wireless signals 1234.

[0102]

[0111] The TRP 1200 may also include a network interface 1280, which may include support for wired communication technologies. The network interface 1280 may include a modem, a network card, a chipset, etc. The network interface 1280 may include one or more input and / or output communication interfaces to allow data to be exchanged with a network, a communication network server, a computer system, and / or any other electronic device described herein.

[0103]

[0112] In many embodiments, the TRP 1200 may further comprise memory 1260. Memory 1260 may include, but is not limited to, local and / or network accessible storage, disk drives, drive arrays, optical storage devices, and solid-state storage devices such as RAM and / or ROM that may be programmable, flash updatable, etc. Such storage devices may be configured to implement any suitable data store, including, but not limited to, various file systems, database structures, etc.

[0104]

[0113] The memory 1260 of the TRP 1200 may also comprise computer programs provided by various embodiments and / or software elements (not shown in FIG. 12 ) including other code, such as an operating system, device drivers, executable libraries, and / or one or more application programs, that may be designed to implement methods and / or configure systems provided by other embodiments as described herein. By way of example only, one or more procedures described with respect to the methods described above may be implemented as code and / or instructions in the memory 1260 executable by the TRP 1200 (and / or the processing unit 1210 or DSP 1220 therein). In one aspect, such code and / or instructions may then be used to configure and / or adapt a general-purpose computer (or other device) to perform one or more operations according to the methods described.

[0105]

[0114] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a computer system 1300 that may be used in whole or in part to provide the functionality of one or more network components, including the location server described in the embodiments herein. It should be noted that FIG. 13 merely provides a generalized view of the various components, any or all of which may be utilized as appropriate. Thus, FIG. 13 broadly illustrates how individual system elements may be implemented in a relatively separated or relatively more integrated manner. Additionally, it should be noted that the components illustrated by FIG. 13 may be localized in a single device and / or distributed among various networked devices that may be disposed in different geographic locations.

[0106]

[0115] A computer system 1300 is shown comprising hardware elements that may be electrically coupled (or in other manner in communication, as appropriate) via a bus 1305. The hardware elements may include processing unit(s) 1310, which may comprise, but are not limited to, one or more general purpose processors, one or more special purpose processors (such as digital signal processing chips, graphics acceleration processors, etc.), and / or other processing structures that may be configured to perform one or more of the methods described herein. The computer system 1300 may also comprise one or more input devices 1315, which may comprise, but are not limited to, a mouse, keyboard, camera, microphone, etc., and one or more output devices 1320, which may comprise, but are not limited to, a display device, printer, etc.

[0107]

[0116] Computer system 1300 may further include (and / or be in communication with) one or more non-transitory storage devices 1325, which may comprise, but are not limited to, local and / or network accessible storage and / or solid-state storage devices, such as, but not limited to, disk drives, drive arrays, optical storage devices, RAM and / or ROM, which may be programmable, flash updatable, etc. Such storage devices may be configured to implement any suitable data store, including, but not limited to, various file systems, database structures, etc. Such data stores may include database(s) and / or other data structures used to store and manage messages and / or other information to be sent via the hub to one or more devices, as described herein.

[0108]

[0117] The computer system 1300 may also include a communication subsystem 1330, which may comprise wireless communication technologies managed and controlled by a wireless communication interface 1333, as well as wired technologies (Ethernet, coaxial communication, Universal Serial Bus (USB), etc.). The wireless communication interface 1333 may comprise one or more wireless transceivers that may send and receive wireless signals 1355 (e.g., signals according to 5G NR or LTE) via a wireless antenna(s) 1350. Thus, the communication subsystem 1330 may comprise a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an infrared communication device, a wireless communication device, and / or a chipset, etc., that may enable the computer system 1300 to communicate over any or all of the communication networks described herein to any device on the respective network, including a UE, a base station / TRP, and / or any other electronic device described herein. Thus, the communication subsystem 1330 may be used to receive and send data as described in the embodiments herein.

[0109]

[0118] In many embodiments, the computer system 1300 further comprises a working memory 1335, which may comprise a RAM or ROM device, as described above. The software elements shown as being located within the working memory 1335 may comprise computer programs provided by various embodiments, as described herein, and / or may comprise other code, such as an operating system 1340, device drivers, executable libraries, and / or one or more applications 1345, which may be designed to implement methods and / or configure systems provided by other embodiments. By way of example only, one or more procedures described with respect to the method(s) described above may be implemented as code and / or instructions executable by a computer (and / or a processing unit within a computer), and in one aspect, such code and / or instructions may then be used to configure and / or adapt a general-purpose computer (or other device) to perform one or more operations in accordance with the described methods.

[0110]

[0119] A set of these instructions and / or code may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as storage device(s) 1325 described above. In some cases, the storage medium may be incorporated within a computer system, such as computer system 1300. In other embodiments, the storage medium may be separate from the computer system (e.g., a removable medium, such as an optical disk) and / or may be provided in an installation package such that the storage medium may be used to program, configure, and / or adapt a general-purpose computer with the instructions / code stored thereon. These instructions may take the form of executable code that is executable by computer system 1300 and / or may take the form of source code and / or installable code that, when compiled and / or installed on computer system 1300 (e.g., using any of a variety of commonly available compilers, installation programs, compression / decompression utilities, etc.), then takes the form of executable code.

[0111]

[0120] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that substantial variations may be made according to particular requirements. For example, customized hardware may also be used, and / or particular elements may be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software such as applets), or both. Furthermore, connection to other computing devices, such as network input / output devices, may be employed.

[0112]

[0121] With reference to the accompanying figures, components that may include memory may include non-transitory machine-readable media. As used herein, the terms "machine-readable media" and "computer-readable media" refer to any storage medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operate in a specific manner. In the embodiments provided above, various machine-readable media may participate in providing instructions / code to a processing unit and / or other device(s) for execution. Additionally or alternatively, machine-readable media may be used to store and / or transport such instructions / code. In many implementations, the computer-readable media is a physical and / or tangible storage medium. Such media may take many forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, magnetic and / or optical media, any other physical media with patterns of holes, RAM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), flash EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer can read instructions and / or code.

[0113]

[0122] The methods, systems, and devices described herein are examples. Various embodiments may omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components, as appropriate. For example, features described with respect to some embodiments may be combined in various other embodiments. Different aspects and elements of the embodiments may be combined in a similar manner. Various components of the diagrams provided herein may be implemented in hardware and / or software. Also, technology evolves, and thus many of the elements are examples, and those examples do not limit the scope of the disclosure to those specific examples.

[0114]

[0123] It has proven convenient at times, primarily for reasons of common usage, to refer to such signals as bits, information, values, elements, symbols, characters, variables, terms, numbers, numerals, or the like. It should be understood, however, that all of these or similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels. Unless otherwise indicated, and as is apparent from the above description, it should be appreciated that throughout this specification descriptions utilizing terms such as "processing," "computing," "calculating," "determining," "ascertaining," "identifying," "associating," "measuring," "performing," and the like refer to the actions or processes of a particular apparatus, such as a special purpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device. Thus, in the context of this specification, a special purpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device is capable of manipulating or transforming signals that are commonly represented as electronic, electrical, or magnetic physical quantities in memories, registers, or other information storage devices, transmission devices, or display devices of the special purpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device.

[0115]

[0124] The terms "and" and "or" as used herein may include various meanings that are also expected to depend at least in part on the context in which such terms are used. In general, when "or" is used to associate a list, such as A, B, or C, it shall mean A, B, and C, as used herein in an inclusive sense, as well as A, B, or C, as used herein in an exclusive sense. Furthermore, the term "one or more" as used herein may be used to describe any feature, structure, or characteristic in the singular, or may be used to describe any combination of features, structures, or characteristics. However, it should be noted that this is merely an illustrative example, and that claimed subject matter is not limited to this example. Furthermore, the term "at least one of," when used to associate a list, such as A, B, or C, may be interpreted to mean any combination of A, B, and / or C, such as A, AB, AA, AAB, AABBCCC, etc.

[0116]

[0125] Although several embodiments have been described, various modifications, alternative configurations, and equivalents may be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the above elements may only be components of a larger system, and other rules may take precedence over or otherwise modify the application of the various embodiments. Also, some steps may be taken before, during, or after the above elements are considered. Thus, the above description does not limit the scope of the present disclosure.

[0117]

[0126] In view of this description, embodiments may include different combinations of features. Example implementations are described in the following numbered clauses. Clause 1. A method for efficient reporting of position measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the method comprising: receiving, at a wireless node, assistance data (AD) from a location server during a positioning session, wherein the AD includes identification information for at least a first PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE; acquiring, at the wireless node, measurement information for a first PRS resource; and sending a first measurement report from the wireless node to a location server, wherein the first measurement report comprises the measurement information for the first PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information for the first PRS resource, and wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information based on a priority of the first PRS resource determined from the identification information. Clause 3. The method of any of clauses 1 to 2, wherein the identification information for the first PRS resource comprises a positioning frequency layer (PFL) identifier, a transmission / reception point (TRP) identifier, a physical cell identifier, an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN) identifier, a resource set identifier, or a resource identifier, or a combination thereof. Clause 4. The method of any of clauses 1-3, further comprising: receiving, at the wireless node, an updated AD from a location server, wherein the updated AD adds a PRS resource to the plurality of PRS resources, removes a PRS resource from the plurality of PRS resources, or both; obtaining measurement information regarding a second PRS resource; and sending a second measurement report to the location server, wherein the second measurement report comprises the measurement information regarding the second PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the second PRS resource, wherein the sequence identifier of the second PRS resource is generated from the updated AD. Clause 5. The method of any of clauses 1 to 4, wherein the wireless node comprises a serving TRP for the UE or a second UE, and obtaining the measurement information comprises receiving the measurement information wirelessly from the UE. Clause 6. The method of any of clauses 1 to 4, wherein the wireless node comprises a UE. Clause 7. The method of any of clauses 1 to 6, wherein the first measurement report further comprises an indication of a length of a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource. Clause 8. The method of any of clauses 1 to 7, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource includes an indicator that the AD is received via unicast or broadcast. Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 1 to 8, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource includes an indicator of the TRP over which the AD was received. Clause 10. A method for enabling efficient reporting of position measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the method comprising: determining, at a location server, an identification for each PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE during a positioning session; and sending assistance data (AD) to the wireless node, wherein the AD comprises, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource generated from the identification information for the respective PRS resource, and wherein the sequence identifier is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. Clause 11. The method according to clause 10, wherein for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource is generated from the identification information based on a priority of the respective PRS resource determined from the identification information. Clause 12. A method according to any of clauses 10 to 11, wherein the identification information comprises, for each PRS resource, a positioning frequency layer (PFL), a transmission / reception point (TRP), a physical cell identifier, an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN), a resource set identifier, or a resource identifier, or a combination thereof. Clause 13. The method of any of clauses 10-12, further comprising: determining, at the location server, an updated location of the UE; and in response to determining the updated location of the UE, sending an updated AD from the location server to the wireless node, wherein the updated AD adds a PRS resource to the plurality of PRS resources, removes a PRS resource from the plurality of PRS resources, or both, wherein the updated AD includes a new sequence identifier of at least one PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources. Clause 14. The method of any of clauses 10 to 13, wherein the wireless node comprises a serving TRP for the UE or a second UE. Clause 15. The method of any of clauses 10 to 13, wherein the wireless node comprises a UE. Clause 16. A method according to any one of clauses 10 to 15, wherein the AD includes identification information for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources. Clause 17. The method of any of clauses 10-16, further comprising: receiving, at the location server, a measurement report from the wireless node; and determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the measurement report, wherein the measurement report comprises measurement information for at least one PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources and a sequence identifier of the at least one PRS resource. Clause 18. A wireless node enabling efficient reporting of location measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the wireless node comprising: a transceiver; a memory; and one or more processing units communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, the one or more processing units configured to: receive, via the transceiver, assistance data (AD) from a location server during a positioning session, wherein the AD obtains measurement information for a first PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE, the measurement information including an identification information for at least a first PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources; and send, via the transceiver, a first measurement report from the wireless node to the location server, wherein the first measurement report comprises the measurement information for the first PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information for the first PRS resource, and wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. Clause 19. A wireless node as described in clause 18, wherein the one or more processing units are configured to generate the first PRS resource based on a priority of the first PRS resource determined from the identification information. Clause 20. A wireless node as described in any of clauses 18 to 19, wherein one or more processing units are configured to determine a positioning frequency layer (PFL) identifier, a transmission / reception point (TRP) identifier, a physical cell identifier, an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN) identifier, a resource set identifier, or a resource identifier, or a combination thereof, from identification information for the first PRS resource. Clause 21. The wireless node of any of clauses 18 to 20, wherein the one or more processing units are further configured to: receive an updated AD from the location server via the transceiver, where the updated AD adds a PRS resource to the plurality of PRS resources, removes a PRS resource from the plurality of PRS resources, or both; obtain measurement information regarding a second PRS resource; and send a second measurement report via the transceiver to the location server, where the second measurement report comprises the measurement information regarding the second PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the second PRS resource, where the sequence identifier of the second PRS resource is generated from the updated AD. Clause 22. A wireless node according to any of clauses 18 to 21, wherein the wireless node comprises a serving TRP of the UE or a second UE, and wherein one or more processing units are configured to receive measurement information wirelessly from the UE to obtain the measurement information. Clause 23. A wireless node according to any of clauses 18 to 21, wherein the wireless node comprises a UE. Clause 24. A wireless node according to any of clauses 18 to 23, wherein the one or more processing units are configured to include, within the first measurement report, an indication of the length of the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource. Clause 25. A wireless node according to any of clauses 18 to 24, wherein one or more processing units are configured to include, within a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, an indicator that the AD is received via unicast or broadcast. Clause 26. A wireless node according to any of clauses 18 to 25, wherein the one or more processing units are configured to include within a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource an indicator of the TRP via which the AD was received. Clause 27. A location server enabling efficient reporting of position measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the location server comprising: a transceiver, a memory, and one or more processing units communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, the one or more processing units configured to: determine an identification for each PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE during a positioning session; and send assistance data (AD) via the transceiver to the wireless node, wherein the AD comprises, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource generated from the identification information for the respective PRS resource, and wherein the sequence identifier is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. Clause 28. The location server according to clause 27, wherein the one or more processing units are configured to generate the first PRS resource based on a priority of the first PRS resource determined from the identification information. Clause 29. A location server according to any of clauses 27 to 28, wherein to determine identification information for each PRS resource, one or more processing units are configured to determine a positioning frequency layer (PFL), a transmission / reception point (TRP), a physical cell identifier, an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN), a resource set identifier, or a resource identifier, or a combination thereof. Clause 30. The location server of any of clauses 27 to 29, wherein the one or more processing units are further configured to: determine an updated location of the UE; and, in response to determining the updated location of the UE, send an updated AD to the wireless node via the transceiver, wherein the updated AD adds a PRS resource to the plurality of PRS resources, removes a PRS resource from the plurality of PRS resources, or both, wherein the updated AD includes a new sequence identifier of at least one PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources. Clause 31. The location server according to any of clauses 27 to 30, wherein the one or more processing units are configured to send the AD to a serving TRP of the UE or to a second UE in order to send the AD to the wireless node. Clause 32. A location server according to any of clauses 27 to 30, wherein the one or more processing units are configured to send the AD to the UE in order to send the AD to the wireless node. Clause 33. A location server according to any of clauses 27 to 32, wherein the one or more processing units are configured to include, in the AD, identification information for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources. Clause 34. A location server as described in any of clauses 27 to 33, further configured in one or more processing units to receive, via the transceiver, a measurement report from the wireless node, and to determine a location of the UE based at least in part on the measurement report, wherein the measurement report comprises measurement information regarding at least one PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources and a sequence identifier of the at least one PRS resource. Clause 35. An apparatus comprising: means for receiving assistance data (AD) from a location server during a positioning session, wherein the AD includes identification information for at least a first PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by a user equipment (UE), means for acquiring measurement information for a first PRS resource, and means for sending a first measurement report from the wireless node to the location server, wherein the first measurement report comprises the measurement information for the first PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information for the first PRS resource, and wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. Clause 36. The apparatus of clause 35, further comprising means for generating a sequence identifier for the first PRS resource from the identification information based on a priority of the first PRS resource determined from the identification information. Clause 37. An apparatus as described in any of clauses 35 to 36, wherein the identification information for the first PRS resource comprises a positioning frequency layer (PFL) identifier, a transmission / reception point (TRP) identifier, a physical cell identifier, an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN) identifier, a resource set identifier, or a resource identifier, or a combination thereof. Clause 38. The apparatus of any of clauses 35-37, further comprising: means for receiving, in a wireless node, an updated AD from a location server, wherein the updated AD adds a PRS resource to the plurality of PRS resources, removes a PRS resource from the plurality of PRS resources, or both; means for obtaining measurement information regarding a second PRS resource; and means for sending a second measurement report to the location server, wherein the second measurement report comprises measurement information regarding the second PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the second PRS resource, wherein the sequence identifier of the second PRS resource is generated from the updated AD. Clause 39. The apparatus of any of clauses 35 to 38, wherein the wireless node comprises a serving TRP for the UE or a second UE, and the means for obtaining measurement information comprises means for receiving measurement information wirelessly from the UE. Clause 40. The apparatus of any of clauses 35 to 38, wherein the wireless node comprises a UE. Clause 41. The apparatus of any of clauses 35 to 40, wherein the first measurement report further comprises an indication of a length of a sequence identifier for the first PRS resource. Clause 42. The apparatus of any of clauses 35-41, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource includes an indicator that the AD is received via unicast or broadcast. Clause 43. An apparatus as described in any of clauses 35 to 42, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource includes an indicator of the TRP over which the AD was received. Clause 44. An apparatus comprising: means for determining an identification information for each PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by a user equipment (UE) during a positioning session; and means for sending assistance data (AD) to a wireless node, wherein the AD comprises, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource generated from the identification information for the respective PRS resource, and wherein the sequence identifier is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. Clause 45. The apparatus of clause 44, further comprising means for generating, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for each PRS resource generated from the identification information based on a priority of the respective PRS resource determined from the identification information. Clause 46. The apparatus of any of clauses 44 to 45, wherein the identification information comprises, for each PRS resource, a positioning frequency layer (PFL), a transmission / reception point (TRP), a physical cell identifier, an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN), a resource set identifier, or a resource identifier, or a combination thereof. Clause 47. The apparatus of any of clauses 44-46, further comprising: means for determining an updated location of the UE; and means for sending an updated AD from the apparatus to the wireless node in response to determining the updated location of the UE, wherein the updated AD adds a PRS resource to the plurality of PRS resources, removes a PRS resource from the plurality of PRS resources, or both, and wherein the updated AD includes a new sequence identifier for at least one PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources. Clause 48. The apparatus according to any of clauses 44 to 47, wherein the wireless node comprises a serving TRP of the UE or a second UE. Clause 49. The apparatus of any of clauses 44 to 47, wherein the wireless node comprises a UE. Clause 50. The apparatus of any of clauses 44 to 49, wherein the AD includes identification information for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources. Clause 51. The apparatus of any of clauses 44-50, further comprising: means for receiving a measurement report from the wireless node, wherein the measurement report comprises measurement information for at least one PRS resource of a plurality of PRS resources and a sequence identifier for the at least one PRS resource, and means for determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the measurement report. Clause 52. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for efficient reporting of position measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the instructions comprising: code for performing: receiving, at a wireless node, assistance data (AD) from a location server during a positioning session, where the AD includes identification information for at least a first PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE; acquiring, at the wireless node, measurement information for a first PRS resource; and sending a first measurement report from the wireless node to the location server, where the first measurement report comprises the measurement information for the first PRS resource and a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information for the first PRS resource, and where the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. Clause 53. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for enabling efficient reporting of position measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the instructions comprising code for determining, at a location server, an identification for each PRS resource of a plurality of position reference signal (PRS) resources to be measured by the UE during a positioning session; and sending assistance data (AD) to the wireless node, wherein the AD comprises, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource generated from the identification information for the respective PRS resource, and wherein the sequence identifier is unique among the sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session.

Claims

1. 1. A method for efficient reporting of location measurements taken by a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the method comprising: receiving, at a wireless node, assistance data (AD) from a location server during a positioning session, wherein the AD includes an identification of at least a first Position Reference Signal (PRS) resource of a plurality of PRS resources to be measured by the UE; obtaining, at the wireless node, measurement information relating to the first PRS resource; sending a first measurement report from the wireless node to the location server, wherein the first measurement report comprises: the measurement information relating to the first PRS resource; and a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information for the first PRS resource, and wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. A method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information based on a priority of the first PRS resource determined from the identification information.

3. The identification information for the first PRS resource is: Positioning Frequency Layer (PFL) Identifier; Transmitting / receiving point (TRP) identifier, A physical cell identifier, Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (ARFCN) identifier; A resource set identifier, or A resource identifier, or Combinations of these The method of claim 1 , comprising:

4. receiving, at the wireless node, an updated AD from a location server, wherein the updated AD adds a PRS resource to the plurality of PRS resources, removes a PRS resource from the plurality of PRS resources, or both; Obtaining measurement information regarding a second PRS resource; and sending a second measurement report to the location server, wherein the second measurement report comprises: the measurement information relating to the second PRS resource; and a sequence identifier of the second PRS resource; wherein the sequence identifier of the second PRS resource is generated from the updated AD. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

5. the wireless node comprises a serving TRP of the UE or a second UE, and obtaining the measurement information comprises receiving the measurement information wirelessly from the UE; or The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless node comprises the UE.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first measurement report further comprises an indication of a length of the sequence identifier for the first PRS resource.

7. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource includes an indicator of whether the AD is received via unicast or broadcast, and / or the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource includes an indicator of the TRP via which the AD was received.

8. 1. A method for enabling efficient reporting of location measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the method comprising: determining, at a location server, an identity for each Position Reference Signal (PRS) resource of a plurality of PRS resources to be measured by the UE during a positioning session; sending assistance data (AD) to a wireless node, wherein the AD comprises, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource generated from the identification information of the respective PRS resource, wherein the sequence identifier is unique among sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session; A method comprising:

9. receiving, at the location server, measurement reports from the wireless nodes, wherein the measurement reports comprise: measurement information relating to at least one PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources; the sequence identifier of the at least one PRS resource; Equipped with determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the measurement report; and The method of claim 8 further comprising:

10. 1. A wireless node enabling efficient reporting of location measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the wireless node comprising: A transceiver; Memory, one or more processing units communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory; wherein one or more processing units are receiving, via said transceiver, assistance data (AD) from a location server during a positioning session, wherein the AD includes an identification of at least a first position reference signal (PRS) resource of a plurality of PRS resources to be measured by the UE; obtaining measurement information regarding the first PRS resource; sending a first measurement report from the wireless node to the location server via the transceiver, wherein the first measurement report comprises: the measurement information relating to the first PRS resource; and a sequence identifier of the first PRS resource, wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is generated from the identification information for the first PRS resource, and wherein the sequence identifier of the first PRS resource is unique among sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. A wireless node configured to:

11. A wireless node as described in claim 10, further configured to perform a method as described in any one of claims 2 to 7.

12. 1. A location server that enables efficient reporting of location measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the location server comprising: A transceiver; Memory, one or more processing units communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory; wherein one or more processing units are determining an identity for each Position Reference Signal (PRS) resource of a plurality of PRS resources to be measured by the UE during a positioning session; sending assistance data (AD) to a wireless node via the transceiver, wherein the AD comprises, for each PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources, a sequence identifier for the respective PRS resource generated from the identification information for the respective PRS resource, wherein the sequence identifier is unique among sequence identifiers of the plurality of PRS resources within the positioning session. A location server configured to:

13. the one or more processing units: receiving a measurement report from the wireless node via the transceiver, wherein the measurement report comprises: measurement information relating to at least one PRS resource of the plurality of PRS resources; the sequence identifier of the at least one PRS resource; Equipped with determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the measurement report; and The location server of claim 12 , further configured to:

14. 8. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions for efficient reporting of location measurements taken by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the instructions comprising code for a wireless node to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

15. 10. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions for enabling efficient reporting of location measurements taken by user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, the instructions comprising code for a location server to perform the method of any one of claims 8 to 9.

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