Mechanism for terminating a sidelink positioning session

Abstract

Techniques for wireless communications are disclosed. In one aspect, a method performed by a first user equipment (UE) comprises participating in a sidelink (SL) positioning session with a second UE, determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted, and terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session. In some aspects, terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session may be performed via communication on an SL channel, via communication on a channel other than the SL channel, or a combination thereof. In some aspects, terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session comprises terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session via a multicast message, a groupcast message, a broadcast message, or a unicast message.

Description

[Technical field]

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

[0002] Wireless communication systems have evolved through various generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including intermediate 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third generation (3G) high speed data, Internet-enabled wireless services, and fourth generation (4G) services (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). Currently, there are many different types of wireless communication systems in use, including cellular and personal communication service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include Cellular Analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and the like.

[0003]

[0003] The fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, called New Radio (NR), requires, among other improvements, higher data rates, a larger number of connections, and better coverage. The 5G standard by the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to each of tens of thousands of users, and 1 gigabit per second to a few dozen workers on an office floor. To support large sensor deployments, hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported. Thus, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobile communications should be significantly enhanced compared to the current 4G standard. Furthermore, signaling efficiency should be enhanced and latency should be significantly reduced compared to the current standard.

[0004]

[0004] In particular, leveraging the increased data rates and reduced latency of 5G, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication technologies are being implemented to support autonomous driving applications, such as wireless communications between vehicles, between vehicles and roadside infrastructure, between vehicles and pedestrians, etc. Summary of the Invention

[0005]

[0005] The following presents a simplified summary related to one or more aspects disclosed herein. As such, the following summary is not intended to be an extensive overview related to all contemplated aspects, nor is it intended to identify key or critical elements related to all contemplated aspects or to delineate the scope related to any particular aspect. As such, the following summary has the sole purpose of presenting some concepts related to one or more aspects related to the mechanisms disclosed herein in a simplified form prior to the detailed description presented below.

[0006]

[0006] In one aspect, a method of wireless communication implemented by a first user equipment (UE) includes participating in a sidelink (SL) positioning session with a second UE, determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted, and terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session.

[0007]

[0007] In one aspect, the first UE includes a memory, a communication interface, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the communication interface, where the at least one processor is configured to participate in a SL positioning session with the second UE, determine that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted, and terminate or interrupt the SL positioning session.

[0008]

[0008] In one aspect, an apparatus comprising means for performing any of the methods disclosed herein.

[0009]

[0009] In one aspect, a computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising at least one instruction for causing an apparatus to perform any of the methods disclosed herein.

[0010]

[0010] Other objects and advantages associated with the embodiments disclosed herein will become apparent to those skilled in the art based on the accompanying drawings and detailed description.

[0011]

[0011] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in the explanation of various aspects of the present disclosure and are provided merely to illustrate, not to limit, the aspects. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1]

[0012] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communication system according to an aspect of the present disclosure. [Figure 2A]

[0013] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network structure, according to aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 2B] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network structure, according to aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 3A]

[0014] 1 is a simplified block diagram of several sample aspects of components that may be employed in a user equipment (UE) and configured to support communications as taught herein; [Figure 3B] 1 is a simplified block diagram of several sample aspects of components that may be employed in a base station and configured to support communications as taught herein. [Figure 3C] 1 is a simplified block diagram of several sample aspects of components that may be employed in a network entity and configured to support communications as taught herein. [Figure 4A]

[0015] A network diagram illustrating a method for single cell UE positioning that may be implemented where a cell includes multiple UEs engaged in SL communications. [Figure 4B] A network diagram illustrating a method for single cell UE positioning that may be implemented where a cell includes multiple UEs engaged in SL communications. [Diagram 5]

[0016] FIG. 1 is a time and frequency plot illustrating time and frequency resources used for sidelink communication. [Figure 6]

[0017] FIG. 1 is a time and frequency plot showing a resource pool for positioning (RPP). [Figure 7]

[0018] A diagram showing multiple sets of SL positioning reference signal (PRS) resources within an RPP. [Figure 8]

[0019] FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional SL positioning scenario involving a relay UE serving multiple remote UEs without the involvement of a base station. [Figure 9]

[0020] A diagram showing cooperative reservation for SL RPP. [Figure 10A]

[0021] FIG. 1 illustrates some example scenarios involving SL positioning. [Figure 10B] FIG. 1 illustrates some example scenarios involving SL positioning. [Figure 11]

[0022] 1 is a flowchart of an example process related to a mechanism for terminating or aborting a sidelink positioning session, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013]

[0023] Aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and associated drawings, directed to various examples provided for illustration purposes. Alternative aspects may be devised without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Additionally, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the present disclosure.

[0014]

[0024] The words "exemplary" and / or "example" are used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" and / or "example" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Similarly, the term "aspects of the present disclosure" does not require that all aspects of the present disclosure include the described feature, advantage or mode of operation.

[0015]

[0025] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the information and signals described below may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referred to throughout the following description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof, depending in part on the particular application, in part on the desired design, in part on the corresponding technology, etc.

[0016]

[0026] Further, many aspects are described in terms of a sequence of actions to be performed, for example, by elements of a computing device. It will be appreciated that various actions described herein may be performed by specific circuitry (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. Furthermore, a sequence of actions described herein may be considered to be embodied as a whole in any form of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a corresponding set of computer instructions that, when executed, cause or instruct an associated processor of a device to perform the functions described herein. Thus, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in a number of different forms, all of which are contemplated to fall within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Moreover, for each of the aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect may be described herein, for example, as "logic configured to" perform the described actions.

[0017]

[0027] As used herein, the terms "user equipment" (UE), "vehicle UE" (V-UE), "pedestrian UE" (P-UE), and "base station" are not intended to be specific or, as the case may be, limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT) unless otherwise stated. In general, a UE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a vehicle on-board computer, a vehicle navigation device, a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, an asset location device, a wearable (e.g., a smart watch, glasses, an augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) headset, etc.), a vehicle (e.g., a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, etc.), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network. A UE may be mobile or (e.g., at some times) stationary and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" may be referred to interchangeably as a "mobile device", "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber device", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or UT, "mobile terminal", "mobile station", or variations thereof.

[0018]

[0028] A V-UE is a type of UE and may be any in-vehicle wireless communication device, such as a navigation system, a warning system, a head-up display (HUD), an on-board computer, an in-vehicle infotainment system, an automated driving system (ADS), an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), etc. Alternatively, a V-UE may be a portable wireless communication device (e.g., a cell phone, a tablet computer, etc.) carried by a driver of the vehicle or a passenger in the vehicle. The term "V-UE" may refer to an in-vehicle wireless communication device or the vehicle itself, depending on the context. A P-UE is a type of UE and may be a portable wireless communication device carried by a pedestrian (i.e., a user not driving or riding in the vehicle). In general, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, through which the UE may be connected with an external network, such as the Internet, and with other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for connecting to a core network and / or the Internet are also possible for a UE, such as via a wired access network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, etc.), etc.

[0019]

[0029] Depending on the network in which it is deployed, a base station may operate according to one of several RATs in communication with the UE and may alternatively be referred to as an access point (AP), network node, Node B, evolved Node B (eNB), next generation eNB (ng-eNB), new radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as gNB or gNode B), etc. A base station may be used primarily to support wireless access by UEs, including supporting data, voice, and / or signaling connections for supported UEs. In some systems, a base station may provide purely edge node signaling functions, while in other systems it may provide additional control and / or network management functions. A communication link through which a UE may send signals to a base station is referred to as an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., reverse traffic channel, reverse control channel, access channel, etc.). A communication link through which a base station may send signals to a UE is referred to as a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., paging channel, control channel, broadcast channel, forward traffic channel, etc.). The term Traffic Channel (TCH) as used herein can refer to either a UL / reverse traffic channel or a DL / forward traffic channel.

[0020]

[0030] The term "base station" may refer to a single physical transmit reception point (TRP) or multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be collocated. For example, if the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. If the term "base station" refers to multiple collocated physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be an array of antennas of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or in cases where the base station employs beamforming). If the term "base station" refers to multiple non-collocated physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transport medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-collocated physical TRP may be a serving base station that receives measurement reports from a UE and a neighbor base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signal the UE is measuring. A TRP is a point from which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, and therefore, as used herein, references to transmission from or reception at a base station should be understood as referring to the particular TRP of the base station.

[0021]

[0031] In some implementations that support positioning of UEs, a base station may not support wireless access by the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections for the UE), but instead may transmit reference RF signals to the UE to be measured by the UE and / or may receive and measure signals transmitted by the UE. Such a base station may be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., when it transmits RF signals to the UE) and / or a location measurement unit (e.g., when it receives and measures RF signals from the UE).

[0022]

[0032] An "RF signal" comprises electromagnetic waves of a given frequency that transport information through space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, a receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through a multipath channel. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between a transmitter and a receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal. As used herein, an RF signal may also be referred to as a "wireless signal" or simply a "signal" when it is clear from the context that the term "signal" refers to a wireless signal or an RF signal.

[0023]

[0033] 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system 100 according to an aspect of the disclosure. The wireless communication system 100 (sometimes referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 (labeled as "BS") and various UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macrocell base stations (high-power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low-power cellular base stations). In an aspect, the macrocell base stations 102 may include eNBs and / or ng-eNBs where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network, or gNBs where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an NR network, or a combination of both, and the small cell base stations may include femtocells, picocells, microcells, etc.

[0024]

[0034] The base stations 102 collectively form a RAN and may interface with a core network 174 (e.g., Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or 5G Core (5GC)) through backhaul links 122 and to one or more location servers 172 (e.g., a Location Management Function (LMF) or a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Location Platform (SLP)) through the core network 174. The location server(s) 172 may be part of the core network 174 or may be external to the core network 174. In addition to other functions, the base stations 102 may perform functions related to one or more of the following: forwarding user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection setup and release, load balancing, distribution for non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracing, RAN Information Management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of alert messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through EPC / 5GC) via backhaul links 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0025]

[0035] The base stations 102 may wirelessly communicate with the UEs 104. Each of the base stations 102 may provide communication coverage to a respective geographic coverage area 110. In an aspect, one or more cells may be supported by the base stations 102 in each geographic coverage area 110. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used for communication with a base station (e.g., over some frequency resource, referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, band, etc.) and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., physical cell identifier (PCI), enhanced cell identifier (ECI), virtual cell identifier (VCI), cell global identifier (CGI), etc.) to distinguish cells operating over the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or others) that may provide access to different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a particular base station, the term "cell" may refer to either or both of the logical communication entity and the base station that supports it, depending on the context. In some cases, the term “cell” may also refer to a geographic coverage area (e.g., a sector) of a base station, so long as the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within any portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0026]

[0036] The geographic coverage areas 110 of neighboring macrocell base stations 102 may overlap partially (e.g., in handover regions), but some of the geographic coverage areas 110 may be significantly overlapped by larger geographic coverage areas 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' (labeled "SC" for "small cell") may have a geographic coverage area 110' that significantly overlaps with the geographic coverage area 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macrocell base stations may be known as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include Home eNBs (HeNBs) that may serve restricted groups known as Closed Subscriber Groups (CSGs).

[0027]

[0037] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include uplink transmissions (also referred to as reverse link) from the UE 104 to the base station 102, and / or downlink (DL) transmissions (also referred to as forward link) from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna techniques, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 may be through one or more carrier frequencies. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to the downlink and uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated for the downlink than for the uplink).

[0028]

[0038] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 communicating with a WLAN station (STA) 152 via a communication link 154 in an unlicensed frequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in the unlicensed frequency spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) procedure or a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure before communicating to determine if a channel is available.

[0029]

[0039] The small cell base station 102' may operate in licensed and / or unlicensed frequency spectrums. When operating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the small cell base station 102' may employ LTE or NR technology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum used by the WLAN AP 150. A small cell base station 102' employing LTE / 5G in an unlicensed frequency spectrum may boost coverage to and / or increase capacity of an access network. NR in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as NR-U. LTE in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-U, Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), or MulteFire.

[0030]

[0040] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a mmW base station 180 that may operate in millimeter wave (mmW) and / or near-mmW frequencies in communication with the UE 182. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is a portion of RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near-mmW may extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100 millimeters. The very high frequency (SHF) band, also called centimeter wave, extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz. Communications using the mmW / near-mmW radio frequency bands have high path loss and relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmit and / or receive) over the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range. Moreover, it will be appreciated that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 may also transmit using mmW or near mmW and beamforming. Thus, it will be appreciated that the above description is by way of example only and should not be construed as limiting various aspects disclosed herein.

[0031]

[0041] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in a particular direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in all directions (omnidirectionally). In transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that particular direction, thereby providing a faster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal to the receiving device(s). To change the directionality of the RF signal when transmitting, the network node can control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of the one or more transmitters broadcasting the RF signal. For example, the network node may use an array of antennas (called a "phased array" or "antenna array") that creates beams of RF waves that can be "steered" to point in different directions without actually moving the antennas. In particular, RF current from the transmitter is fed to the individual antennas with the proper phase relationship so that the waves from the separate antennas add together to increase radiation in the desired direction while canceling and suppressing radiation in undesired directions.

[0032]

[0042] A transmit beam may be quasi-colocated, meaning that the transmit beam appears to a receiver (e.g., a UE) to have the same parameters, regardless of whether the network node's transmit antennas themselves are physically colocated. In NR, there are four types of quasi-colocated (QCL) relationships. In particular, a QCL relationship of a given type means that some parameters for a second reference RF signal on a second beam may be derived from information about a source reference RF signal on a source beam. Thus, if the source reference RF signal is QCL type A, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread of the second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type B, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of the second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type C, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of the second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type D, the receiver may use the source reference RF signal to estimate spatial receive parameters of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0033]

[0043] In receive beamforming, a receiver uses receive beams to amplify RF signals detected on a given channel. For example, the receiver can increase the gain setting and / or adjust the phase setting of an array of antennas in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., increase its gain level) an RF signal received from that direction. Thus, when a receiver is said to beamform in a direction, it means that the beam gain in that direction is high relative to the beam gains along other directions, or that the beam gain in that direction is highest compared to the beam gains in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), Signal-to-Interference-Plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), etc.) of the RF signal received from that direction.

[0034]

[0044] The transmit beam and the receive beam may be spatially related. The spatial relationship means that the parameters for the second beam (e.g., transmit beam or receive beam) for the second reference signal may be derived from information about the first beam (e.g., receive beam or transmit beam) for the first reference signal. For example, the UE may use a particular receive beam to receive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., Synchronization Signal Block (SSB)) from a base station. The UE may then form a transmit beam for sending an uplink reference signal (e.g., Sounding Reference Signal (SRS)) to that base station based on the parameters of the receive beam.

[0035]

[0045] Note that a "downlink" beam can be either a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity forming it. For example, if the base station forms a downlink beam to transmit a reference signal to the UE, the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if the UE forms a downlink beam, it is a receive beam to receive the downlink reference signal. Similarly, an "uplink" beam can be either a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity forming it. For example, if the base station forms an uplink beam, it is an uplink receive beam, and if the UE forms an uplink beam, it is an uplink transmit beam.

[0036]

[0046] In 5G, the frequency spectrum in which wireless nodes (e.g., base stations 102 / 180, UEs 104 / 182) operate is divided into multiple frequency ranges: FR1 (450 to 6000 MHz), FR2 (24250 to 52600 MHz), FR3 (above 52600 MHz), and FR4 (between FR1 and FR2). The mmW frequency band generally includes the FR2, FR3, and FR4 frequency ranges. Thus, the terms "mmW" and "FR2" or "FR3" or "FR4" may generally be used interchangeably.

[0037]

[0047] In a multi-carrier system, such as 5G, one of the carrier frequencies is called the "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell" and the remaining carrier frequencies are called the "secondary carrier" or "secondary serving cell" or "SCell". In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is a carrier operating on a primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by the UE 104 / 182 and the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 either performs an initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific control channels and may be a carrier in licensed frequencies (although this is not always the case). The secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2) that may be configured once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier and may be used to provide additional radio resources. In some cases, the secondary carrier may be a carrier in unlicensed frequencies. The secondary carrier may contain only the necessary signaling information and signals, e.g., nothing UE-specific may be present in the secondary carrier, since both the primary uplink carrier and the primary downlink carrier are typically UE-specific. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplink primary carrier. The network can change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance the load on different carriers. Since a "serving cell" (whether a PCell or an SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier over which some base station is communicating, terms such as "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. may be used interchangeably.

[0038]

[0048] For example, still referring to FIG. 1, one of the frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or “PCell”), and the other frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers (“SCells”). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers allows the UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rates. For example, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically lead to a doubling of the data rate (i.e., 40 MHz) compared to that achieved by a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0039]

[0049] In the example of FIG. 1, one or more Earth-orbiting Satellite Positioning System (SPS) Space Vehicles (SVs) 112 (e.g., satellites) may be used as independent sources of location information for any of the illustrated UEs (shown in FIG. 1 as a single UE 104 for simplicity). The UE 104 may include one or more dedicated SPS receivers specially designed to receive SPS signals 124 to derive geolocation information from the SVs 112. An SPS generally includes a system of transmitters arranged to enable a receiver (e.g., UE 104) to determine the location of the receiver on or above the Earth based at least in part on signals (e.g., SPS signals 124) received from a transmitter (e.g., SVs 112). Such transmitters generally transmit signals marked with a repetitive pseudorandom noise (PN) code of a set number of chips. Although generally located in the SVs 112, transmitters may sometimes be located on ground-based control stations, base stations 102, and / or other UEs 104.

[0040]

[0050] Use of the SPS signals 124 may be augmented by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS), which may be associated with or otherwise enabled for use with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems. For example, the SBAS may include augmentation system(s) that provide integrity information, differential corrections, and the like, such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), the Global Positioning System (GPS) Aided Geo Augmented Navigation or GPS and Geo Augmented Navigation system (GAGAN), and the like. Thus, an SPS as used herein may include any combination of one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems and / or augmentation systems, and SPS signals 124 may include SPS signals, SPS-like signals, and / or other signals related to such one or more SPSs.

[0041]

[0051] In particular, leveraging the increased data rates and reduced latency of NR, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication technology is being implemented to support Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) applications, such as wireless communications between vehicles (vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)), between vehicles and roadside infrastructure (vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I)), and between vehicles and pedestrians (vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P)). The goal is for vehicles to be able to sense the environment around them and communicate that information to other vehicles, infrastructure, and personal mobile devices. Such vehicular communications would enable safety, mobility, and environmental improvements that current technologies cannot provide. When fully implemented, the technology is expected to reduce unimpaired vehicle crashes by 80%.

[0042]

[0052] Still referring to FIG. 1 , the wireless communication system 100 may include multiple V-UEs 160 that may communicate with the base station 102 over the communication link 120 (e.g., using the Uu interface). The V-UEs 160 may also communicate directly with each other over wireless sidelink 162, with a roadside access point 164 (also referred to as a “roadside unit”) over wireless sidelink 166, or with the UE 104 over wireless sidelink 168. The wireless sidelink (or simply “sidelink”) is an adaptation of the core cellular (e.g., LTE, NR) standard that enables direct communication between two or more UEs without the communication having to go through a base station. Sidelink communications may be unicast or multicast and may be used for device-to-device (D2D) media sharing, V2V communications, V2X communications (e.g., cellular V2X (cV2X) communications, enhanced V2X (eV2X) communications, etc.), emergency rescue applications, etc. One or more of the groups of V-UEs 160 utilizing sidelink communications may be within the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 102. Other V-UEs 160 in such groups may be outside the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 102 or may not otherwise be able to receive transmissions from the base station 102. In some cases, a group of V-UEs 160 communicating via sidelink communications may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each V-UE 160 transmits to every other V-UE 160 in the group. In some cases, the base station 102 facilitates scheduling of resources for sidelink communications. In other cases, sidelink communications occur between the V-UEs 160 without the involvement of the base station 102.

[0043]

[0053] In one aspect, the sidelinks 162, 166, 168 may operate over a wireless communications medium of interest that may be shared with other vehicular and / or infrastructure access points, as well as other wireless communications between other RATs. The "medium" may be comprised of one or more time, frequency, and / or spatial communications resources (e.g., encompassing one or more channels across one or more carriers) associated with wireless communications between one or more transmitter / receiver pairs.

[0044]

[0054] In one aspect, the sidelinks 162, 166, 168 may be cV2X links. The first generation of cV2X is standardized in LTE, and the next generation is expected to be defined in NR. cV2X is a cellular technology that also enables device-to-device communication. In the United States and Europe, cV2X is expected to operate in licensed ITS bands in the sub-6 GHz. In other countries, other bands may be allocated. Thus, as a specific example, the medium of interest utilized by the sidelinks 162, 166, 168 may correspond to at least a portion of the sub-6 GHz licensed ITS frequency band. However, the present disclosure is not limited to this frequency band or cellular technology.

[0045]

[0055] In one aspect, the sidelinks 162, 166, 168 may be dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) links. DSRC is a unidirectional or bidirectional short- to medium-range wireless communication protocol that uses the wireless access for vehicular environments (WAVE) protocol, also known as IEEE 802.11p, for V2V, V2I, and V2P communications. IEEE 802.11p is an approved amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard and operates in the licensed ITS band of 5.9 GHz (5.85-5.925 GHz) in the United States. In Europe, IEEE 802.11p operates in the ITS G5A band (5.875-5.905 MHz). Other bands may be allocated in other countries. The V2V communications briefly described above occur on a safety channel, which in the United States is typically a 10 MHz channel dedicated to safety purposes. The remainder of the DSRC band (total bandwidth is 75 MHz) is intended for other services of interest to drivers, such as road rules, toll collection, parking automation, etc. Thus, as a specific example, the medium of interest utilized by the sidelinks 162, 166, 168 may correspond to at least a portion of the 5.9 GHz licensed ITS frequency band.

[0046]

[0056] Alternatively, the medium of interest may correspond to at least a portion of an unlicensed frequency band shared among various RATs. Although different licensed frequency bands are reserved for some communication systems (e.g., by government agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States), these systems, particularly those employing small cell access points, have recently extended their operation to unlicensed frequency bands, such as the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) bands used by Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technologies, most notably the IEEE 802.11x WLAN technology commonly referred to as "Wi-Fi". Exemplary systems of this type include different variants of CDMA systems, TDMA systems, FDMA systems, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems, and the like.

[0047]

[0057] Communications between V-UEs 160 are referred to as V2V communications, communications between V-UEs 160 and one or more roadside access points 164 are referred to as V2I communications, and communications between V-UEs 160 and one or more UEs 104 (where UEs 104 are P-UEs) are referred to as V2P communications. V2V communications between V-UEs 160 may include, for example, information regarding the position, speed, acceleration, orientation, and other vehicle data of V-UEs 160. V2I information received at V-UEs 160 from one or more roadside access points 164 may include, for example, road rules, parking automation information, etc. V2P communications between V-UEs 160 and UEs 104 may include, for example, information regarding the position, speed, acceleration, and orientation of V-UEs 160, and the position, speed (e.g., if UEs 104 are carried by a user on a bicycle), and orientation of UEs 104.

[0048]

[0058] It should be noted that while FIG. 1 illustrates only two of the UEs as V-UEs (V-UE 160), any of the illustrated UEs (e.g., UEs 104, 152, 182, 190) may be V-UEs. Additionally, while only V-UE 160 and a single UE 104 are illustrated as being connected via sidelink, any of the UEs illustrated in FIG. 1 may be capable of sidelink communication, whether V-UE or P-UE, etc. Additionally, while only UE 182 has been described as being capable of beamforming, any of the illustrated UEs, including V-UE 160, may be capable of beamforming. If V-UE 160 is capable of beamforming, they may beamform toward each other (i.e., toward other V-UEs 160), toward roadside access point 164, toward other UEs (e.g., UEs 104, 152, 182, 190), etc. Thus, in some cases, V-UE 160 may utilize beamforming over sidelinks 162, 166, and 168.

[0049]

[0059] The wireless communication system 100 may further include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, that indirectly connect to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links. In the example of FIG. 1, the UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of the UEs 104 connected to one of the base stations 102 (e.g., through which the UE 190 may indirectly obtain cellular connectivity) and a D2D P2P link 194 with a WLAN STA 152 connected to a WLAN AP 150 (through which the UE 190 may indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity). In an example, the D2D P2P links 192 and 194 may be supported with any well-known D2D RAT, such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct® (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, etc. As another example, the D2D P2P links 192 and 194 may be sidelinks, such as those described above with respect to the sidelinks 162, 166, and 168.

[0050]

[0060] 2A illustrates an exemplary wireless network structure 200. For example, a 5GC 210 (also referred to as Next Generation Core (NGC)) may be considered functionally as a control plane (C-plane) function 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and a user plane (U-plane) function 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data network, IP routing, etc.) that operate cooperatively to form a core network. A user plane interface (NG-U) 213 and a control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect a gNB 222 to the 5GC 210, specifically to the user plane function 212 and the control plane function 214, respectively. In an additional configuration, a ng-eNB 224 may also be connected to the 5GC 210 via the NG-C 215 to the control plane function 214 and the NG-U 213 to the user plane function 212. Additionally, the ng-eNB 224 may communicate directly with the gNB 222 via a backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the next generation RAN (NG-RAN) 220 may have one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of both an ng-eNB 224 and a gNB 222. Either the gNB 222 or the ng-eNB 224 (or both) may communicate with one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

[0051]

[0061] Another optional aspect may include a location server 230, which may be in communication with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance to the UE(s) 204. The location servers 230 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.) or, alternatively, each may correspond to a single server. The location servers 230 may be configured to support one or more location services for the UEs 204 that may connect to the location server 230 via the core network 5GC 210 and / or via the Internet (not shown). Furthermore, the location server 230 may be integrated into a component of the core network or, alternatively, may be external to the core network (e.g., a third-party server, such as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) server or a service server).

[0052]

[0062] 2B illustrates another exemplary wireless network structure 250. A 5GC 260 (which may correspond to 5GC 210 in FIG. 2A) may be considered functionally as a control plane function provided by an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 264 and a user plane function provided by a User Plane Function (UPF) 262, which operate cooperatively to form a core network (i.e., 5GC 260). The functions of the AMF 264 include registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, transport for session management (SM) messages between one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein) and a Session Management Function (SMF) 266, a transparent proxy service for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transport for short message service (SMS) messages between the UE 204 and a Short Message Service Function (SMSF) (not shown), and a Security Anchor Function (SEAF). The AMF 264 also interacts with an Authentication Server Function (AUSF) (not shown) and the UE 204 to receive intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In case of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) based authentication, the AMF 264 retrieves security material from the AUSF. The AMF 264 functions also include Security Context Management (SCM). The SCM receives keys from the SEAF that it uses to derive access network specific keys. The AMF 264 functions also include location service management for barred services, transport for location service messages between the UE 204 and the Location Management Function (LMF) 270 (acting as the location server 230), transport for location service messages between the NG-RAN 220 and the LMF 270, EPS bearer identifier allocation for interworking with the Evolved Packet System (EPS), and UE 204 mobility event notification.In addition, AMF264 also supports functionality for non-3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) access networks.

[0053]

[0063] The functions of the UPF 262 include serving as an anchor point for intra / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), serving as an external protocol data unit (PDU) session point for interconnection to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usage reporting, Quality of Service (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g., uplink / downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in the downlink), uplink traffic validation (Service Data Flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and sending and forwarding one or more "termination markers" to the source RAN node. The UPF 262 may also support the transfer of location service messages over the user plane between the UE 204 and a location server, such as the SLP 272.

[0054]

[0064] The functions of the SMF 266 include session management, UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, configuration of traffic steering in the UPF 262 to route traffic to the appropriate destination, control of policy enforcement and parts of QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface through which the SMF 266 communicates with the AMF 264 is called the N11 interface.

[0055]

[0065] Another optional aspect may include an LMF 270, which may be in communication with the 5GC 260 to provide location assistance to the UE 204. The LMF 270 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.) or, alternatively, each may correspond to a single server. The LMF 270 may be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204 that may be connected to the LMF 270 via a core network, the 5GC 260, and / or via the Internet (not shown). The SLP 272 may support similar functions as the LMF 270, except that the LMF 270 may communicate with the AMF 264, the NG-RAN 220, and the UE 204 via a control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to carry signaling messages rather than voice or data), and the SLP 272 may communicate with the UE 204 and external clients (not shown in FIG. 2B) via a user plane (e.g., using protocols intended to carry voice and / or data, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and / or IP).

[0056]

[0066] The user plane interface 263 and the control plane interface 265 connect the 5GC 260, in particular the UPF 262 and the AMF 264, respectively, to one or more gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 in the NG-RAN 220. The interface between the gNB(s) 222 and / or ng-eNB(s) 224 and the AMF 264 is referred to as the “N2” interface, and the interface between the gNB(s) 222 and / or ng-eNB(s) 224 and the UPF 262 is referred to as the “N3” interface. The gNB(s) 222 and / or ng-eNB(s) 224 of the NG-RAN 220 may communicate directly with each other via a backhaul connection 223 referred to as the “Xn-C” interface. One or more of the gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 via a wireless interface referred to as the “Uu” interface.

[0057]

[0067] The functions of the gNB 222 are divided between a gNB Central Unit (gNB-CU) 226 and one or more gNB Distributed Units (gNB-DU) 228. The interface 232 between the gNB-CU 226 and one or more gNB-DUs 228 is called the "F1" interface. The gNB-CU 226 is a logical node that includes base station functions such as forwarding user data, mobility control, radio access network sharing, positioning, session management, etc., except for functions exclusively allocated to the gNB-DU(s) 228. More specifically, the gNB-CU 226 hosts the Radio Resource Control (RRC), Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) protocols of the gNB 222. The gNB-DU 228 is a logical node that hosts the Radio Link Control (RLC), Medium Access Control (MAC), and Physical (PHY) layers of the gNB 222. Its operation is controlled by the gNB-CU 226. One gNB-DU 228 can support one or multiple cells, and one cell is supported by only one gNB-DU 228. Thus, the UE 204 communicates with the gNB-CU 226 via the RRC, SDAP, and PDCP layers, and with the gNB-DU 228 via the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers.

[0058]

[0068] 3A, 3B, and 3C illustrate several example components (represented by corresponding blocks) that may be incorporated in a UE 302 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein), a base station 304 (which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein), and a network entity 306 (which may correspond to or perform any of the network functions described herein, including a location server 230 and an LMF 270, or alternatively may be unrelated to the NG-RAN 220 and / or 5GC 210 / 260 infrastructure illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B, such as a private network) to support file transmission operations taught herein. It will be appreciated that these components may be implemented in different types of devices (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system on a chip (SoC), etc.) in different implementations. The illustrated components may also be incorporated in other devices in a communication system. For example, other devices in the system may include similar components to those described to provide similar functionality. Also, a given device may include one or more of the components. For example, a device may contain multiple transceiver components that enable the device to operate on multiple carriers and / or communicate via different technologies.

[0059]

[0069] The UE 302 and base station 304 each include at least one wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver 310 and 350, respectively, and provide means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for adjusting, means for refraining from transmitting, etc.) over one or more wireless communications networks (not shown), such as an NR network, an LTE network, a GSM network, etc. The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc., over at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) over a wireless communications medium of interest (e.g., some set of time / frequency resources in a particular frequency spectrum). The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be variously configured for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358, respectively (e.g., messages, instructions, information, etc.), and conversely, for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively (e.g., messages, instructions, information, pilots, etc.), in accordance with a designated RAT. In particular, the WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 include one or more transmitters 314 and 354, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358, respectively, and include one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively, for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively.

[0060]

[0070] The UE 302 and base station 304 also each, in at least some cases, include at least one short-range wireless transceiver 320 and 360, respectively. The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be connected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, and provide means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for adjusting, means for refraining from transmitting, etc.) with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc., over at least one designated RAT (e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, PC5, Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC), Wireless Access for Vehicular Environments (WAVE), Near Field Communications (NFC), etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest. The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be variously configured for transmitting and encoding signals 328 and 368, respectively (e.g., messages, instructions, information, etc.), and conversely, for receiving and decoding signals 328 and 368, respectively (e.g., messages, instructions, information, pilots, etc.), in accordance with a specified RAT. In particular, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 include one or more transmitters 324 and 364, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 328 and 368, and include one or more receivers 322 and 362, respectively, for receiving and decoding signals 328 and 368. As specific examples, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be WiFi transceivers, Bluetooth transceivers, Zigbee and / or Z-Wave transceivers, NFC transceivers, or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and / or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) transceivers.

[0061]

[0071] A transceiver circuit including at least one transmitter and at least one receiver may in some implementations comprise an integrated device (e.g., implemented as a transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit of a single communication device), in some implementations comprise separate transmitter devices and separate receiver devices, or in other implementations may be implemented in other manners. In one aspect, the transmitter may include or be coupled to multiple antennas, such as an antenna array (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), that enable each device to perform transmit "beamforming" as described herein. Similarly, the receiver may include or be coupled to multiple antennas, such as an antenna array (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), that enable each device to perform receive beamforming as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitter and receiver may share the same multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), that enable each device to only receive or transmit at a given time, rather than both receive and transmit at the same time. The wireless communications device of the UE 302 and / or base station 304 (e.g., one or both of the transceivers 310 and 320 and / or 350 and 360) may also comprise a network listen module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

[0062]

[0072] The UE 302 and base station 304 also, in at least some cases, include satellite positioning system (SPS) receivers 330 and 370. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 may be connected to one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, and may provide a means for receiving and / or measuring SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, BeiDou signals, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 may comprise any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing the SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 request information and actions from other systems as appropriate, and perform the calculations necessary to determine the positions of the UE 302 and base station 304 using measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithms.

[0063]

[0073] The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include at least one network interface 380 and 390, respectively, providing means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, etc.) with other network entities. For example, the network interfaces 380 and 390 (e.g., one or more network access ports) may be configured to communicate with one or more network entities via a wire-based or wireless backhaul connection. In some aspects, the network interfaces 380 and 390 may be implemented as transceivers configured to support wire-based or wireless signal communication. This communication may involve, for example, sending and receiving messages, parameters, and / or other types of information.

[0064]

[0074] In one aspect, the at least one WWAN transceiver 310 and / or the at least one short-range wireless transceiver 320 may form a (wireless) communication interface of the UE 302. Similarly, the at least one WWAN transceiver 350, the at least one short-range wireless transceiver 360, and / or the at least one network interface 380 may form a (wireless) communication interface of the base station 304. Similarly, the at least one network interface 390 may form a (wireless) communication interface of the network entity 306. The various wireless transceivers (e.g., transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360) and wired transceivers (e.g., network interfaces 380 and 390) may be generally characterized as at least one transceiver or, alternatively, as at least one communication interface. Thus, whether a particular transceiver or communication interface relates to a wired or wireless transceiver or communication interface, respectively, may be inferred from the type of communication being performed (e.g., backhaul communications between network devices or servers generally involve signaling via at least one wired transceiver).

[0065]

[0075] The UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 also include other components that may be used with the operations disclosed herein. The UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 each include at least one processor 332, 384, and 394, for example, to provide functionality related to wireless communications and to provide other processing functionality. The processors 332, 384, and 394 may thus provide means for processing, such as means for determining, means for calculating, means for receiving, means for transmitting, means for indicating, etc. In an aspect, the processors 332, 384, and 394 may include, for example, at least one general-purpose processor, multi-core processor, central processing unit (CPU), ASIC, digital signal processor (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), other programmable logic device or processing circuitry, or various combinations thereof.

[0066]

[0076] The UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 include memory circuitry implementing memory components 340, 386, and 396, respectively (e.g., each including a memory device) for maintaining information (e.g., information indicative of reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). The memory components 340, 386, and 396 may thus provide a means for storing, a means for retrieving, a means for maintaining, etc. In some cases, the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may include SL communication modules 342, 388, and 398, respectively. The SL communication modules 342, 388, and 398 may be hardware circuits that are part of or coupled to the processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, that, when executed, cause the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 to perform the functions described herein. In other aspects, the SL communication modules 342, 388, and 398 may be external to the processors 332, 384, and 394 (e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated with another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the SL communication modules 342, 388, and 398 may be memory modules stored in the memory components 340, 386, and 396, respectively, that when executed by the processors 332, 384, and 394 (or modem processing system, another processing system, etc.) cause the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 to perform the functions described herein. FIG. 3A illustrates possible locations of the SL communication module 342, which may be, for example, part of the at least one WWAN transceiver 310, the memory component 340, the at least one processor 332, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component. FIG. 3B shows possible locations of the SL communications module 388, which may be, for example, part of at least one WWAN transceiver 350, a memory component 386, at least one processor 384, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component.FIG. 3C shows possible locations of an SL communications module 398, which may be, for example, part of at least one network interface 390, a memory component 396, at least one processor 394, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component.

[0067]

[0077] The UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to the at least one processor 332 to provide a means for sensing or detecting movement and / or orientation information that is independent of movement data derived from signals received by the at least one WWAN transceiver 310, the at least one short-range wireless transceiver 320, and / or the SPS receiver 330. By way of example, the sensor(s) 344 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric altimeter), and / or any other type of movement detection sensor. Moreover, the sensor(s) 344 may include multiple different types of devices and combine their outputs to provide movement information. For example, the sensor(s) 344 may use a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and an orientation sensor to provide the ability to calculate a position in a two-dimensional (2D) and / or three-dimensional (3D) coordinate system.

[0068]

[0078] Additionally, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346 that provides a means for providing instructions (e.g., audible and / or visual instructions) to a user and / or a means for receiving user input (e.g., upon user actuation of a sensing device, such as a keypad, touch screen, microphone, etc.). Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 may also include user interfaces.

[0069]

[0079] Referring more particularly to the at least one processor 384, in the downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the at least one processor 384. The at least one processor 384 may implement functionality for an RRC layer, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. The at least one processor 384 may provide RRC layer functions related to broadcasting of system information (e.g., Master Information Block (MIB), System Information Block (SIB)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functions related to header compression / decompression, security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functions related to transfer of higher layer PDUs, error correction via automatic repeat request (ARQ), concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functions related to mapping between logical channels and transport channels, scheduling information reporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0070]

[0080] The transmitter 354 and receiver 352 may implement Layer 1 (L1) functions related to various signal processing functions. Layer 1, including the physical (PHY) layer, may include error detection on the transport channel, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of the transport channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto the physical channel, modulation / demodulation of the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 354 handles mapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), M-phase shift keying (M-PSK), multi-level quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time and / or frequency domain, and then combined with each other using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to generate a physical channel carrying a time-domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol streams are spatially precoded to generate multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator may be used to determine the coding and modulation scheme, as well as for spatial processing. The channel estimates may be derived from a reference signal and / or channel condition feedback transmitted by the UE 302. Each spatial stream may then be provided to one or more different antennas 356. The transmitter 354 may modulate an RF carrier with the respective spatial stream for transmission.

[0071]

[0081] At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives the signal through its respective antenna(s) 316. The receiver 312 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to at least one processor 332. The transmitter 314 and the receiver 312 implement layer 1 functions related to various signal processing functions. The receiver 312 may perform spatial processing on the information to recover the spatial streams addressed to the UE 302. If multiple spatial streams are addressed to the UE 302, they may be combined by the receiver 312 into a single OFDM symbol stream. The receiver 312 then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time domain to the frequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal comprises a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier and the reference signal are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the base station 304. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates calculated by a channel estimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals originally transmitted by the base station 304 on the physical channel. The data and control signals are then provided to at least one processor 332 that implements Layer 3 (L3) and Layer 2 (L2) functions.

[0072]

[0082] In the uplink, the at least one processor 332 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header recovery, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. The at least one processor 332 is also responsible for error detection.

[0073]

[0083] Similar to the functions described with respect to downlink transmission by the base station 304, the at least one processor 332 provides RRC layer functions related to system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functions related to header compression / decompression and security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functions related to transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction via ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functions related to mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction via hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0074]

[0084] Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from a reference signal or feedback transmitted by the base station 304 may be used by the transmitter 314 to select an appropriate coding and modulation scheme and to enable spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter 314 may be provided to different antenna(s) 316. The transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with each spatial stream for transmission.

[0075]

[0085] Uplink transmissions are processed at the base station 304 in a manner similar to that described with respect to the receiver function at the UE 302. The receiver 352 receives signals through its respective antenna(s) 356. The receiver 352 recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to at least one processor 384.

[0076]

[0086] In the uplink, the at least one processor 384 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header recovery, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the UE 302. The IP packets from the at least one processor 384 may be provided to the core network. The at least one processor 384 is also responsible for error detection.

[0077]

[0087] For convenience, the UE 302, the base station 304, and / or the network entity 306 are illustrated in Figures 3A-3C as including various components that may be configured in accordance with various examples described herein, however, it will be appreciated that the illustrated components may have different functionality in different designs.

[0078]

[0088] Various components of the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may communicate with each other via data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392, respectively. In an aspect, the data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392 may form or be part of communication interfaces of the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306, respectively. For example, when different logical entities are implemented in the same device (e.g., gNB functionality and location server functionality integrated in the same base station 304), the data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392 may provide communication therebetween.

[0079]

[0089] The components of Figures 3A-3C may be implemented in a variety of ways. In some implementations, the components of Figures 3A-3C may be implemented in one or more circuits, such as, for example, one or more processors and / or one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors), where each circuit may use and / or incorporate at least one memory component for storing information or executable code used by the circuit to provide this functionality. For example, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 310-346 may be implemented by a processor and memory component(s) of the UE 302 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 350-388 may be implemented by a processor and memory component(s) of the base station 304 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). Also, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390-398 may be implemented by a processor and memory component(s) of the network entity 306 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). For simplicity, various operations, acts, and / or functions are described herein as being performed "by the UE," "by the base station," "by the network entity," etc. However, it will be appreciated that such operations, acts, and / or functions may actually be performed by particular components or combinations of components of the UE 302, base station 304, network entity 306, etc., such as the processors 332, 384, 394, transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, memory components 340, 386, and 396, SL communication modules 342, 388, and 398, etc.

[0080]

[0090] In some designs, the network entity 306 may be implemented as a core network component. In other designs, the network entity 306 may be separate from the network operator or operation of the cellular network infrastructure (e.g., the NG RAN 220 and / or the 5GC 210 / 260). For example, the network entity 306 may be a component of a private network that may be configured to communicate with the UE 302 through the base station 304 or independently of the base station 304 (e.g., via a non-cellular communication link such as WiFi).

[0081]

[0091] Figures 4A and 4B show two methods for single cell UE positioning that may be implemented when a cell includes multiple UEs engaged in SL communication. In Figures 4A and 4B, a UE transmitting an SL-PRS may be referred to as a "TxUE" and a UE receiving an SL-PRS may be referred to as an "RxUE." The methods shown in Figures 4A and 4B have the technical advantage that they do not require uplink transmission, which can save power.

[0082]

[0092] In Figure 4A, a relay UE 400 (with a known location) participates in positioning estimation of a remote UE 402 without the need to perform an UL PRS transmission to a base station 404 (e.g., a gNB). As shown in Figure 4A, the remote UE 402 receives a DL-PRS from a BS 404 and transmits a SL-PRS to the relay UE 400. This SL-PRS transmission can be low power because the SL-PRS transmission from the remote UE 402 does not need to reach the BS 404, but only the nearby relay UE 400.

[0083]

[0093] In Figure 4B, multiple relay UEs including relay UE 400 acting as a first relay UE and relay UE 406 acting as a second relay UE transmit SL-PRS signals (SL-PRS1 and SL-PRS2, respectively) to remote UE 402. In contrast to the method shown in Figure 4A where remote UE 402 was a TxUE and relay UE 400 was a RxUE, in Figure 4B, their roles are reversed, relay UE 400 and relay UE 406 are TxUEs, and remote UE 402 is a RxUE. Also in this scenario, the SL-PRS signals transmitted by TxUEs may be low power and UL communication is not required.

[0084]

[0094] FIG. 5 is a time and frequency plot showing time and frequency resources used for sidelink communication. A time-frequency grid 500 is divided into subchannels in the frequency domain and into time slots in the time domain. Each subchannel comprises a number (e.g., 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 75, or 100) of physical resource blocks (PRBs), and each slot contains a number (e.g., 14) of OFDM symbols. Sidelink communication may be (pre-)configured to occupy fewer than 14 symbols in a slot. The first symbol of a slot is repeated on the preceding symbol for automatic gain control (AGC) settling. The exemplary slot shown in FIG. 5 includes a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) portion and a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) portion, with the PSCCH followed by a gap symbol. The PSCCH and PSSCH are transmitted in the same slot.

[0085]

[0095] Sidelink communication takes place within a transmit or receive resource pool. Sidelink communication occupies one slot and one or more subchannels. Some slots are not available for sidelink and some slots contain feedback resources. Sidelink communication may be pre-configured (e.g., preloaded on the UE) or configured (e.g., by the base station via RRC). A resource pool used for sidelink positioning or other positioning, referred to herein as a "resource pool for positioning" (RPP), may be defined and a gNB or UE may assign one or more RPP configurations to another UE.

[0086]

[0096] FIG. 6 is a time and frequency plot illustrating an RPP 600 according to some aspects of the disclosure. In FIG. 6, the RPP 600 occupies one or more subchannels in the frequency domain and a portion of one slot in the time domain and includes resources that may be allocated for sidelink transmissions. In FIG. 6, each slot comprises 14 OFDM symbols, with OFDM symbol 1 reserved for AGC and OFDM symbol 14 reserved as a gap symbol. In FIG. 6, the RPP 600 occupies symbols 10-13, e.g., data, CSI-RS, and control data are only allowed in the non-RPP portion 602 of the slot, while in other aspects the RPP may occupy all of the remaining symbols 2-13.

[0087]

[0097] A gNB or other base station may assign one or more RPP configurations to a UE, either directly or through another UE acting as a relay or repeater, and the UE may assign one or more RPP configurations to another UE. For example, a relay UE may assign one or more RPP configurations to a remote UE that the relay UE is serving. The UE may also be assigned a specific SL-PRS resource within the RPP. This is shown in FIG. 7.

[0088]

[0098] FIG. 7 illustrates multiple sets of SL-PRS resources in an RPP according to some aspects of the disclosure. The exemplary RPP 600 in FIG. 6 is used as an example, but the same principles will apply to other RPPs. In FIG. 7, the RPP 600 occupies four consecutive OFDM symbols, OFDM symbols 10-13. Within the RPP 600, three SL-PRS resources are defined: SL-PRS1 occupying OFDM symbols 10 and 11, SL-PRS2 occupying OFDM symbol 12, and SL-PRS3 occupying OFDM symbol 13. In some aspects, the entire RPP and all of the SL-PRS resource sets within the entire RPP may be assigned to a UE for positioning use, but alternatively, a UE may be assigned an RPP but only be allowed a subset of the SL-PRS resource sets within the RPP. For example, in one scenario, RPP 600 may be assigned to only one UE, while in another scenario, one UE may be assigned only SL-PRS1 of RPP 600, and another UE may also be assigned only SL-PRS2 and SL-PRS3 of RPP 600. These examples illustrate the points where RPP resources may be assigned different levels of granularity, including at the RPP level, at the SL-PRS level, or a combination of the above.

[0089]

[0099] FIG. 8 illustrates a conventional SL positioning scenario 800 involving a relay UE 400 serving multiple remote UEs 402 without the involvement of a base station. The relay UE 400 and the remote UEs 402 are (pre-)configured with a set of resource pools (RPPs) for positioning. In this scenario, each remote UE 402 may send a positioning request to the relay UE 400, which may respond to each positioning request by sending a configuration message to the remote UE 402 that assigns an RPP to each remote UE 402 for use by that remote UE. The positioning request may specify a particular RPP that the requesting remote UE 402 wishes to use, or it may be a general request for any available RPP, in which case the relay UE 400 will select an RPP from the set of RPPs. The configuration message may assign the requested RPP (if requested) or the relay UE 400 may choose another RPP from the set of RPPs.

[0090]

[0100] FIG. 9 illustrates a cooperative reservation 900 of SL RPPs. In FIG. 9, a first relay UE 400A serves remote UE 402A and remote UE 402B, and a second relay UE 400B serves remote UE 402C and remote UE 402D. The number of relay UEs and the number of remote UEs each relay UE serves may vary, and these numbers are exemplary and not limiting. Each of the UEs is configured with a predefined set of RPPs. The predefined RPPs may be preloaded on the UE or configured by the serving base station, for example, via the RCC. When a remote UE wishes to transmit in one of the configured resource pools, the remote UE or the associated relay UE broadcasts a reservation request. The reservation message may be transmitted via a broadcast message, a groupcast message, or a multicast message. The reservation message may be transmitted via a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), or a combination thereof. The reservation request includes an indication that the remote UE plans to transmit SL-PRS within the RPP. While the reservation is for the entire RPP, the actual transmission may only be for a subset time and frequency within the RPP, e.g., only a portion of the SL-PRS resources within the RPP. This informs other UEs so that they can take action to reduce interference during the reserved RPP, e.g., by rate-matching, muting, puncturing, reducing transmit power, or a combination thereof, during the reserved RPP and within the specified SL-PRS resources, if applicable. In the example shown in FIG. 9, the relay UE 400B, remote UE 402B, remote UE 402C, and remote UE 402D may respond to the reservation request by modifying their intended transmissions, e.g., to reduce interference with remote UE 402A in the reserved RPP.

[0091]

[0101] 10A and 10B show some example scenarios involving SL positioning. In each of FIG. 10A and 10B, two UEs, UE 104A and UE 104B, whose locations are known, are assisting target UE 104C to find its own location. In the scenario shown in FIG. 10A, each of UE 104A and UE 104B transmits an SL-PRS for UE 104C to receive and measure. Using the known locations of UE 104A and UE 104B along with measurements of the respective SL-PRS transmissions provides target UE 104C with enough information that target UE 104C can calculate its own location. In the scenario shown in FIG. 10B, target UE 104C transmits an SL-PRS that is received and measured by assisting UE 104A and assisting UE 104B. The assisting UEs may send their measurements to target UE 104C, which can then be used along with the known locations of the assisting UEs to determine its own location. Alternatively or additionally, the assisting UEs may send their measurements to a network node, which can use the measurements to calculate the location of the target UE 104C. Alternatively or additionally, the assisting UEs may exchange measurement data with each other, in which case one or both of the assisting UEs can calculate the location of the target UE 104C. These SL positioning sessions may be set up by the UE, by the network, or by both. Positioning sessions are typically not one-shot operations, but instead are continuous (e.g., periodic) activities.

[0092]

[0102] There are situations in which a UE participating in a SL positioning session, such as that shown in Figures 10A and 10B, may wish or need to terminate its participation. While procedures for setting up a SL positioning session, such as that shown in Figures 10A and 10B, are well known, there is currently no mechanism by which a UE participating in a SL positioning session can terminate that session. Therefore, a mechanism for terminating a sidelink positioning session is presented herein.

[0093]

[0103] FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an example process 1100 related to a mechanism for terminating or aborting a sidelink positioning session according to some aspects of the disclosure. In some implementations, one or more process blocks of FIG. 11 may be performed by a UE (e.g., UE 104, UE 302, etc.). In some implementations, one or more process blocks of FIG. 11 may be performed by another device or a group of devices separate from or including the UE. Additionally or alternatively, one or more process blocks of FIG. 11 may be performed by one or more components of the UE 302, such as at least one processor 332, memory 340, at least one WWAN transceiver 310, at least one short-range wireless transceiver 320, SPS receiver 330, SL communication module(s) 342, and / or user interface 346, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing these operations.

[0094]

[0104] As shown in FIG. 11, the process 1100 may include participating in a sidelink (SL) positioning session with the second UE (block 1110). Means for performing the operations of block 1110 may include at least one processor 332, SL communication module(s) 342, and at least one WWAN transceiver 310 of the UE 302. For example, the at least one processor 332 and / or the SL communication module(s) 342 may coordinate or control SL communication involving the receiver(s) 312 and / or the transmitter(s) 314. The first UE may be an assisting UE, e.g., a UE whose location is known with an acceptable degree of uncertainty, and the second UE may be a target UE, e.g., a UE whose location is unknown or not known with an acceptable degree of certainty. Alternatively, the second UE may be an assisting UE and the first UE may be a target UE.

[0095]

[0105] 11, the process 1100 may include determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted (block 1120). Means for performing the operations of block 1120 may include at least one processor 332 and the SL communication module(s) 342 of the UE 302. For example, the at least one processor 332 and / or the SL communication module(s) 342 may determine that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted. In some aspects, determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises determining that the SL positioning session has exceeded or will exceed a maximum SL positioning session duration.

[0096]

[0106] In some aspects, determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises determining that a requirement for the SL positioning session is not met. In some aspects, determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises determining that a requirement for the SL positioning session is not met, and has not been met for a threshold amount of time.

[0097]

[0107] In some aspects, determining that a requirement for an SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that a location estimate of the first UE or the second UE does not meet a location certainty requirement. In some aspects, determining that a requirement for an SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that a speed of the first UE or the second UE exceeds a maximum speed requirement. In some aspects, determining that a requirement for an SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that a mobility state of the first UE or the second UE exceeds a mobility threshold requirement. In some aspects, determining that a requirement for an SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that a condition of a channel being used for the SL positioning session does not meet a channel quality requirement. In some aspects, determining that a requirement for an SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that the first UE or the second UE does not meet a minimum power requirement. In some aspects, determining that a requirement for an SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that a processing time of the first UE or the second UE does not meet a response time requirement. The processing time may also be referred to as a measurement response time, a measurement period time, or a measurement time. In some aspects, determining that the requirements for the SL positioning session are not met comprises determining that the first UE or the second UE does not meet a quality of service (QoS) requirement. In some aspects, the requirements for the SL positioning session were explicitly specified during setup of the SL positioning session. In some aspects, the requirements for the SL positioning session were implicitly determined. In some aspects, setup of the SL positioning session may specify preferred requirements along with minimum acceptable requirements or trigger conditions for terminating or aborting the SL positioning session.

[0098]

[0108] As further shown in FIG. 11, the process 1100 may include terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session (block 1130). Means for performing the operations of block 1130 may include at least one processor 332, one or more SL communication modules 342, and at least one WWAN transceiver 310 of the UE 302. In some aspects, terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session comprises terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session via communication on an SL channel, communication on a channel other than the SL channel, or a combination thereof. For example, if the first UE needs to terminate the SL communication session with the second UE because the SL channel between the first UE and the second UE has deteriorated, the second UE may not receive a termination message from the first UE. In these scenarios, the first UE may route the termination message to the second UE via a third UE, via a base station, or via any other available route. In some aspects, terminating or aborting the SL positioning session may be performed by sending a message to at least the second UE, which may be a groupcast message, a multicast message, a broadcast message, or a unicast message.

[0099]

[0109] In some aspects, terminating or aborting the SL positioning session comprises terminating the SL positioning session. In some aspects, terminating the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to the second UE indicating that the SL positioning session is to be terminated immediately. In some aspects, terminating the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to the second UE indicating that the SL positioning session will be terminated after a delay time.

[0100]

[0110] In some aspects, terminating or suspending the SL positioning session comprises suspending the SL positioning session. In some aspects, terminating the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to the second UE indicating that the SL positioning session will be suspended immediately. In some aspects, terminating the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to the second UE indicating that the SL positioning session will be suspended after a delay time. In some aspects, the message further indicates that the SL positioning session will be reactivated after a second delay time.

[0101]

[0111] In some aspects, terminating or aborting the SL positioning session comprises sending a status update to the second UE and receiving an instruction from the second UE to terminate or abort the SL positioning session. In some aspects, the first UE informs the second UE that conditions have changed, e.g., such that a previously satisfied requirement is no longer satisfied. Any of the messages described herein may be unicast, groupcast, or multicast messages. For example, a helping UE that no longer satisfies a requirement for a SL positioning session may be involved in multiple SL positioning sessions with different UEs, in which case the helping UE may send a multicast message to inform all of the other UEs involved in the SL positioning session with it that the helping UE is terminating or aborting its participation in the respective SL positioning session. Similarly, the helping UE may send a unicast, multicast, or groupcast message to announce the change in status, and each of the respective other UEs may make an independent decision of whether to terminate an ongoing SL positioning session with the helping UE.

[0102]

[0112] 11, the process 1100 may further include reactivating the SL positioning session (block 1140). Means for performing the operation of block 1130 may include at least one processor 332, the SL communication module(s) 342, and at least one WWAN transceiver 310 of the UE 302. For example, the at least one processor 332 or the SL communication module(s) 342 may reactivate the interrupted SL positioning session after the second delay time expires. In some aspects, reactivating the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to the second UE requesting reactivation of the SL positioning session.

[0103]

[0113] Process 1100 may include additional implementations, such as any single implementation or any combination of implementations with respect to one or more other processes described below and / or elsewhere herein. Although Figure 11 shows example blocks of process 1100, in some implementations process 1100 may include additional, fewer, different, or differently configured blocks than those shown in Figure 11. Additionally or alternatively, two or more of the blocks of process 1100 may be performed in parallel.

[0104]

[0114] As described above, a supporting UE may initiate the termination of its participation in the SL positioning session for various reasons, including but not limited to the following:

[0105] The assisting UE's position estimate is not known, and therefore the assisting UE cannot provide a reliable anchor to aid the target UE's positioning session. For example, when the target UE initiates a session, it may require the assisting UE's location uncertainty to be within a certain threshold distance, e.g., within centimeters, and when the assisting UE knows its location within meters but not centimeters, the assisting UE may terminate or abort the SL positioning session (or at least its participation in the SL positioning session).

[0106] Even if the assisting UE is a high mobility UE and therefore its location is currently known, there are many uncertainties introduced into the positioning session, e.g., due to mobility and delays. For example, if the assisting UE transitions from a low mobility state to a medium or high mobility state, or if the assisting UE detects that its speed is greater than a certain threshold speed in meters per second, for example, the assisting UE may determine that it is no longer a suitable candidate for a SL positioning session.

[0107] The channel conditions of the supporting UE (e.g. its RSRP, SINR, RSSI, etc.) become unfavourable and no longer satisfy the QoS of the positioning session. For example, the quality metric of the timing measurements may become low (or fall below a threshold) and not fulfill the QoS requirements. In Uu, for example, there is a quality metric of TOA measurements defined in meters, e.g. {0.1m, 1, 5, ... 900 meters}.

[0108] The supporting UE has power limitation or transitions to a power limited mode, e.g. to a SL DRX inactive mode, to a SL RRC inactive mode or to an idle state, etc. and therefore has to terminate the positioning session.

[0109] · The processing time of the supporting UE no longer meets the response time QoS requirements of the positioning session, for example due to low battery level or other power constraints.

[0110]

[0115] The termination mechanism may include one or more of the following factors:

[0111]

[0116] The UE may wish to terminate completely or temporarily, for example, the UE may be configured with periodic SL-PRS transmission or reception, or measurement reporting, or positioning fix calculation (or a combination thereof), and may wish to stop doing one or more of these tasks for a period of time (e.g., by sending a message containing start / stop, or sending separate messages for stopping and then resuming).

[0112]

[0117] The UE may be required to send a termination message (or a QoS update message) when any of the conditions described above (e.g., SINR or RSRP or RSSI is below a threshold, the TOA quality metric is less than a threshold, the processing delay does not satisfy a response time threshold, the UE's speed or Doppler estimate is large, the UE's location is unknown, etc.) exist for a specified time period. The threshold and the specified time period may be explicitly configured or implicitly determined or related to a particular QoS metric received when the SL positioning was set up.

[0113]

[0118] An expiration timer in the target UE may be involved in the SL positioning termination procedure. For example, in some aspects, if the target UE receives a PRS after the SINR / RSRP / quality metrics drop below a threshold for a period of time, an expiration timer will start during which the target UE will attempt to reconfigure the positioning session to relieve the assisting UE from transmitting. This is the "grace period" during which the target UE can search for new positioning peers to act as assisting UEs for the positioning task.

[0114]

[0119] An expiration timer in the assisting UE may be involved in the SL positioning termination procedure. For example, in some aspects, after the assisting UE determines that it cannot continue its participation in the positioning session (due to one or more of the reasons described above), the assisting UE may send a message (unicast or broadcast) indicating that it plans to terminate the positioning session. In some aspects, the message may include information to explain why this is happening (e.g., SINR is low, RSRP is low, not enough power, entering sleep mode, unable to meet response time, etc.) along with the timer value. In this case, the assisting UE gives the target UE an opportunity to perform a smooth positioning session handover. When the target UE receives this message, the target UE may begin to request reconfiguration of the positioning session.

[0115]

[0120] In the SL positioning session setup phase, the QoS or positioning session configuration may include a maximum positioning session duration or other required thresholds that may be used to determine when or under which scenarios a termination procedure may be initiated.

[0116]

[0121] In some aspects, a broadcast / multicast SL message may be used to indicate that the UE is terminating one or more positioning sessions. For example, if the UE has limited power and participates in multiple positioning sessions by transmitting SL-PRS, the UE may send a broadcast / multicast message to indicate which positioning session it will stop or that it will stop all positioning sessions.

[0117]

[0122] If the termination procedure is triggered by a low SINR / RSRP, the communication link may also be bad, because if the SINR is bad for positioning, it may also be bad for communication. One issue then becomes how the assisting or target UE will send the termination message. One approach is to allow sending the termination message over another carrier (e.g., a carrier of auxiliary sidelink type, "SL-SUL"), which may have better coverage (but smaller bandwidth) than the carrier used for SL-PRS. For example, two UEs may transmit or receive SL-PRS in the TDD band, but use another band (lower frequency) to send the termination message. Another approach is to consider the positioning session to be dropped if the SL-PRS SINR / RSRP is lower than a specified threshold for a specified time period. This threshold may be different from the threshold used to trigger the SL positioning termination procedure. Yet another approach is that when a UE wants to send a termination message, the UE attempts to send the termination message through the network (Uu link) if other UEs are still connected in the network (e.g., two UEs are too far away to have a direct link between them, but are still both connected to the network), or to reach a assisting UE through a multi-relay configuration, e.g., the target UE sends the message to a relay UE which forwards the message to the assisting UE.

[0118]

[0123] In another aspect, the assisting UE does not explicitly signal its intent to terminate or abort the existing SL positioning session, but instead generates a QoS update message that may include information about the assisting UE, such as its speed, location knowledge estimate / uncertainty, direction of movement, etc., and the target UE makes a decision as to whether the QoS is sufficient. If the QoS is not sufficient, the target UE may issue a message to the assisting UE to terminate or abort the SL positioning session.

[0119]

[0124] It will be appreciated that for any message transmitted by a UE, in some aspects the message may be associated with an ACK or NACK response from the message recipient. For example, for a message sent from one UE to inform other UEs that the UE intends to terminate or abort an SL positioning session, the other UE may issue an ACK or NACK message, whereas a message providing a status update may or may not get an ACK or NACK response depending on the implementation.

[0120]

[0125] As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of process 1100 is that it provides a mechanism for a first UE currently participating in an SL positioning session with a second UE to terminate or abort the SL positioning session due to either a first UE condition or a second UE condition of which the first UE is aware. Either UE may terminate the SL positioning session directly or indirectly, for example, by notifying the other UE of a change in status so that the other UE may take steps to terminate or abort the SL positioning session at its discretion.

[0121]

[0126] In the above detailed description, it can be seen that different features are grouped together in examples. This mode of disclosure should not be understood as an intention that the exemplary clauses have more features than those explicitly stated in each clause. Rather, various aspects of the present disclosure may include fewer than all features of each exemplary clause disclosed. Thus, the following clauses should be considered to be incorporated herein, and each clause can exist as a separate example by itself. Although each dependent clause may refer to a specific combination with one of the other clauses in the clause, the aspect(s) of that dependent clause are not limited to a specific combination. It will be appreciated that other exemplary clauses may also include combinations of the dependent clause aspect(s) with any other dependent clause or independent clause subject matter, or combinations of any features with other dependent and independent clauses. Various aspects disclosed herein expressly include certain combinations (e.g., inconsistent aspects, such as defining an element as both an insulator and a conductor) unless these combinations are expressly expressed or can be easily inferred to be not intended. Moreover, it is also contemplated that aspects of a clause may be included in any other independent clause, even if that clause is not directly dependent on that independent clause.

[0122]

[0127] Example implementations are described in the following numbered clauses.

[0123]

[0128] Clause 1. A method of wireless communications implemented by a first user equipment (UE), the method comprising: participating in a side link (SL) positioning session with a second UE; determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted; and terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session.

[0124]

[0129] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises determining that the SL positioning session has exceeded or will exceed a maximum SL positioning session duration.

[0125]

[0130] Clause 3. The method of any of clauses 1 to 2, wherein determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises determining that a requirement for the SL positioning session is not met.

[0126]

[0131] Clause 4. The method of clause 3, wherein determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or aborted comprises determining that a requirement for the SL positioning session is not met and has not been met for a threshold amount of time.

[0127]

[0132] Clause 5. The method of any of clauses 3 to 4, wherein determining that a requirement for a SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that a location estimate of the first UE or the second UE does not meet a location certainty requirement.

[0128]

[0133] Clause 6. The method of any of clauses 3 to 5, wherein determining that the requirements for the SL positioning session are not met comprises determining that a velocity of the first UE or the second UE exceeds a maximum velocity requirement.

[0129]

[0134] Clause 7. The method of any of clauses 3 to 6, wherein determining that a requirement for a SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that a mobility state of the first UE or the second UE exceeds a mobility threshold requirement.

[0130]

[0135] Clause 8. The method of any of clauses 3 to 7, wherein determining that a requirement for the SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that a condition of a channel being used for the SL positioning session does not meet a channel quality requirement.

[0131]

[0136] Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 3 to 8, wherein determining that a requirement for a SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that the first UE or the second UE does not meet a minimum power requirement.

[0132]

[0137] Clause 10. The method of any of clauses 3 to 9, wherein determining that a requirement for the SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that a processing time, a measurement response time, a measurement period time, or a measurement time of the first UE or the second UE does not meet a response time requirement.

[0133]

[0138] Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 3 to 10, wherein determining that a requirement for the SL positioning session is not met comprises determining that the first UE or the second UE does not meet a Quality of Service (QoS) requirement.

[0134]

[0139] Clause 12. A method according to any of clauses 3 to 11, in which requirements for the SL positioning session are explicitly specified during setup of the SL positioning session.

[0135]

[0140] Clause 13. The method according to any of clauses 3 to 12, in which the requirements for the SL positioning session are implicitly determined.

[0136]

[0141] Clause 14. The method of any of clauses 1 to 13, wherein terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session comprises terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session via communication on the SL channel, communication on a channel other than the SL channel, or a combination thereof.

[0137]

[0142] Clause 15. The method of any of clauses 1 to 14, wherein terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session comprises terminating the SL positioning session.

[0138]

[0143] Clause 16. The method of clause 15, wherein terminating the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to the second UE indicating that the SL positioning session is to be immediately terminated.

[0139]

[0144] Clause 17. The method of any of clauses 15 to 16, wherein terminating the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to the second UE indicating that the SL positioning session will be terminated after a delay time.

[0140]

[0145] Clause 18. The method of any of clauses 1 to 17, wherein terminating or aborting the SL positioning session comprises aborting the SL positioning session.

[0141]

[0146] Clause 19. The method of clause 18, wherein terminating the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to the second UE indicating that the SL positioning session is to be immediately interrupted.

[0142]

[0147] Clause 20. The method of any of clauses 18 to 19, wherein terminating the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to the second UE indicating that the SL positioning session will be interrupted after a delay time.

[0143]

[0148] Clause 21. The method of clause 20, wherein the message further indicates that the SL positioning session is to be reactivated after a second delay time.

[0144]

[0149] Clause 22. The method of any of clauses 18 to 21, further comprising reactivating the SL positioning session.

[0145]

[0150] Clause 23. The method of clause 22, wherein reactivating the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to the second UE requesting reactivation of the SL positioning session.

[0146]

[0151] Clause 24. The method of any of clauses 1 to 23, wherein terminating or aborting the SL positioning session comprises sending a status update to the second UE; and receiving an instruction from the second UE to terminate or abort the SL positioning session.

[0147]

[0152] Clause 25. Apparatus comprising means for carrying out the method according to any one of clauses 1 to 22.

[0148]

[0153] Clause 26. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising at least one instruction for causing an apparatus to perform a method according to any one of clauses 1 to 22.

[0149]

[0154] Clause 25. An apparatus comprising a memory, a communication interface, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the communication interface, wherein the memory, the communication interface, and the at least one processor are configured to perform a method according to any one of clauses 1 to 24.

[0150]

[0155] Clause 26. Apparatus comprising means for carrying out the method according to any one of clauses 1 to 24.

[0151]

[0156] Clause 27. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions, the computer executable comprising at least one instruction for causing a computer or processor to perform a method according to any one of clauses 1 to 24.

[0152]

[0157] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referred to throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0153]

[0158] Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various exemplary components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Those skilled in the art may implement the described functionality in various ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0154]

[0159] The various example logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed using a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but alternatively, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0155]

[0160] The methods, sequences and / or algorithms described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software modules may reside in a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a read only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). Alternatively, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

[0156]

[0161] In one or more exemplary aspects, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or code. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and computer communication media, including any medium that enables transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media may comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of media. As used herein, disk and disc include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray disc, where disks typically reproduce data magnetically and discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0157]

[0162] Although the above disclosure illustrates exemplary aspects of the present disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications may be made herein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and / or actions of the method claims according to the aspects of the present disclosure described herein need not be performed in any particular order. Furthermore, although elements of the present disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated.

Claims

1. 1. A method of wireless communication implemented by a first user equipment (UE), the method comprising: participating in a side link (SL) positioning session with at least a second UE, during which the first UE transmits or receives at least one SL positioning reference signal (SL-PRS), and a location of the first or second UE is determined based on measurements of the at least one SLPRS; determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or aborted; terminating or aborting the SL positioning session; A method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to at least the second UE indicating that the SL positioning session will be terminated or interrupted immediately or that the SL positioning session will be terminated or interrupted after a delay time.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the SL-PRS is transmitted during the SL positioning session using a first SL channel, and the message is sent to the second UE via a second SL channel different from the first SL channel, or via another channel that is not an SL channel.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises determining that the SL positioning session has exceeded or will exceed a maximum SL positioning session duration.

5. Determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises determining that a requirement for the SL positioning session is not met, and determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises: determining that the requirements for the SL positioning session are not met and have not been met for a threshold amount of time; or determining that a location estimate of the first UE or the second UE does not meet a location certainty requirement; or determining that a speed of the first UE or the second UE exceeds a maximum speed requirement; or determining that a mobility state of the first UE or the second UE exceeds a mobility threshold requirement; or determining that the condition of a channel being used for the SL positioning session does not meet a channel quality requirement; or determining that the first UE or the second UE does not meet a minimum power requirement; or determining that a processing time, a measurement response time, a measurement period time, or a measurement time of the first UE or the second UE does not meet a response time requirement; or Determining that the first UE or the second UE does not meet a quality of service (QoS) requirement. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the requirements for the SL positioning session are explicitly specified during a setup of the SL positioning session.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the requirements for the SL positioning session are implicitly determined.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein terminating or aborting the SL positioning session comprises terminating or aborting the SL positioning session via a multicast message, a groupcast message, a broadcast message, or a unicast message.

9. Memory, A communication interface; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and to the communication interface; a first user equipment (UE), the at least one processor comprising: participating in a side link (SL) positioning session with at least a second UE, during which the first UE transmits or receives at least one SL positioning reference signal (SL-PRS), and a location of the first or second UE is determined based on measurements of the at least one SLPRS; determining that the SL positioning session should be terminated or aborted; terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session; A first user equipment (UE) configured to:

10. The first UE of claim 9, wherein terminating or interrupting the SL positioning session comprises sending a message to at least the second UE indicating that the SL positioning session will be terminated or interrupted immediately or that the SL positioning session will be terminated or interrupted after a delay time.

11. A first UE as described in claim 10, wherein the SL-PRS is transmitted during the SL positioning session using a first SL channel, and the message is sent to the second UE via a second SL channel different from the first SL channel, or via another channel that is not an SL channel.

12. 10. The first UE of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor being configured to determine that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises the at least one processor being configured to determine that the SL positioning session has exceeded or will exceed a maximum SL positioning session duration.

13. The at least one processor being configured to determine that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises the at least one processor being configured to determine that a requirement for the SL positioning session is not met, and the at least one processor being configured to determine that the SL positioning session should be terminated or interrupted comprises the at least one processor being configured to: configured to determine that the requirements for the SL positioning session are not met and have not been met for a threshold amount of time; or configured to determine that a location estimate of the first UE or the second UE does not meet a location certainty requirement; or configured to determine that a speed of the first UE or the second UE exceeds a maximum speed requirement; or being configured to determine that a mobility state of the first UE or the second UE exceeds a mobility threshold requirement; or determining that the condition of a channel being used for the SL positioning session does not satisfy a channel quality requirement; or being configured to determine that the first UE or the second UE does not meet a minimum power requirement; or being configured to determine that a processing time, a measurement response time, a measurement period time, or a measurement time of the first UE or the second UE does not meet a response time requirement; or being configured to determine that the first UE or the second UE does not meet a quality of service (QoS) requirement. The first UE of claim 9, comprising:

14. The first UE of claim 9 , wherein the requirements for the SL positioning session are explicitly specified during a setup of the SL positioning session.

15. 10. The first UE of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor being configured to terminate or interrupt the SL positioning session comprises the at least one processor being configured to terminate or interrupt the SL positioning session via a multicast message, a groupcast message, a broadcast message, or a unicast message.

16. 10. The first UE of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor being configured to terminate or interrupt the SL positioning session comprises the at least one processor being configured to: send a status update to at least the second UE; and receive an instruction from at least the second UE to terminate or interrupt the SL positioning session.

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