PRS measurement sharing for virtual UE

Abstract

A method for managing a UE group includes determining a plurality of UEs of the UE group based on a proximity of each of the plurality of UEs to at least one other UE of the plurality of UEs, and transmitting an indication of the UE group from a communication device to at least one of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of Greek Patent Application No. 20210100254, entitled "PRS MEASUREMENT SHARING FOR VIRTUAL UE," filed on April 13, 2021, which is assigned to the assignee of this application and the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. [Background technology]

[0002]

[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 service, fourth generation (4G) service (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax), fifth generation (5G) service, and the like. Currently, many different types of wireless communication systems are in use, including cellular and personal communication service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the Cellular Analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile access (GSM) variants of TDMA, and the like.

[0003]

[0003] The fifth generation (5G) mobile standard 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 must be significantly enhanced compared to the current 4G standard. Furthermore, signaling efficiency must be enhanced and latency must be substantially reduced compared to the current standard. Summary of the Invention

[0004]

[0004] In one embodiment, a first UE (User Equipment) includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor is configured to communicate with the second UE via the transceiver to identify a first PRS measurement (positioning reference signal measurement) to be performed by the second UE, receive first location information based on the first PRS measurement from the second UE via the transceiver via sidelink communication, and transmit the first location information to a network entity via the transceiver.

[0005]

[0005] In another embodiment, the first UE includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, and the processor is configured to: transmit, via the transceiver, a location information sharing capability of the first UE to a second UE via sidelink communication; receive, via the transceiver, a request for first location information from the second UE via sidelink communication; measure PRS resources received from the network entity to determine PRS measurements; and transmit, via the transceiver, the first location information based on the PRS measurements to the second UE via sidelink communication.

[0006]

[0006] In another embodiment, a communications device for managing a UE group includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, where the processor is configured to determine a plurality of UEs of the UE group based on a proximity of each of the plurality of UEs to at least one other UE of the plurality of UEs, and to transmit an indication of the UE group via the transceiver to at least one of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

[0007]

[0007] In another embodiment, the first UE includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor is configured to receive, via the transceiver, a UE group indication indicating a group of UEs including the first UE and a second UE, and to communicate, via the transceiver using sidelink communication, with the second UE to identify first location information to be determined by the first UE, or second location information to be determined by the second UE, or a combination thereof.

[0008]

[0008] In another embodiment, the first UE includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor is configured to measure a first PRS resource to determine a first PRS measurement, receive a second PRS measurement of the second PRS resource from the second UE via the transceiver via sidelink communication, and determine whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on a relationship between the first PRS measurement and the second PRS measurement. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a simplified diagram of an exemplary wireless communication system. [Diagram 2]

[0010] 2 is a block diagram of components of the exemplary user equipment shown in FIG. 1. [Diagram 3]

[0011] 1 is a block diagram of components of an exemplary transmit / receive point. [Figure 4]

[0012] Various embodiments are illustrated in FIG. 1, a block diagram of components of an exemplary server. [Diagram 5]

[0013] 1 is a simplified diagram of an example of a vehicle, a server, and a user equipment (UE). [Figure 6]

[0014] 1 is a block diagram of measurement distribution with and without measurement sharing between UEs. [Figure 7]

[0015] 1 is a block diagram of an example user equipment. [Figure 8]

[0016] 1 is a block diagram of an example positioning entity. [Figure 9]

[0017] 1 is a signaling and process flow diagram of a method for providing and measuring PRS resources, requesting reporting of PRS resource measurements, and reporting PRS resource measurements. [Figure 10]

[0018] 1 is a block flow diagram of a location information reporting method. [Figure 11]

[0019] 1 is a block flow diagram of a location sharing method. [Figure 12]

[0020] 1 is a simplified diagram of a vehicle, a server, an example of a user equipment (UE), and a positioning entity. [Figure 13]

[0021] 1 is a signaling and process flow diagram of a method for establishing, managing, and potentially terminating a virtual UE. [Figure 14]

[0022] 14 is a signaling and process flow diagram of the method for sharing location information among the virtual UEs shown in FIG. 13 with a representative. [Figure 15]

[0023] 14 is a signaling and process flow diagram of a method for sharing location information among the virtual UEs shown in FIG. 13 without a representative and determining a location estimate for the virtual UE. [Figure 16]

[0024] 1 is a block flow diagram of a method for managing a UE group. [Figure 17]

[0025] 1 is a block flow diagram of a method for providing location information. [Figure 18]

[0026] 1 is a block flow diagram of a method for identifying unreliable PRS (positioning reference signal) measurements. [Figure 19]

[0027] A simplified diagram of multiple UEs measuring multiple PRS from multiple transmit / receive points. [Figure 20]

[0028] 1 is a block flow diagram of a method for cross-validating a PRS. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010]

[0029] Techniques for measuring PRS (positioning reference signals) and reporting PRS measurements are described herein. For example, a UE (user equipment) may share one or more PRS measurements. A receiving UE may obtain location information (e.g., one or more PRS measurements, one or more processed PRS measurements (e.g., one or more pseudoranges), and / or one or more location estimates) from a nearby donor UE and report the location information from the donor UE as location information for the receiving UE (e.g., as if the receiving UE had made the measurement(s) and / or as if the location estimate was for the receiving UE). The receiving UE may make PRS measurements in addition to receiving one or more measurements from one or more donor UEs, or may not make PRS measurements and receive all PRS measurements from the donor UE. Also or alternatively, multiple UEs may form a cooperating virtual UE that, for example, shares and reports location information as a group (e.g., from a single representative, from multiple representatives, and / or from each of the group members), for example, with location information associated with a group ID for the virtual UE. A positioning entity (e.g., a Location Management Function (LMF), an LMF in a RAN (Radio Access Network), or a UE) may adjust the group, for example, add group members, remove group members, and adjust which group members measure which PRS and / or provide which location information. Also or alternatively, a UE may cross-validate a PRS measurement received from another UE. For example, a receiving UE may receive a first PRS measurement from a first donor UE and compare the first measurement with a second PRS measurement made by the receiving UE and / or a third PRS measurement received from the second donor UE, and determine whether the first PRS measurement is significantly different from the second PRS measurement and / or the third PRS measurement.If at least one of the PRS measurements (e.g., corresponding to a PRS received over a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) path) is suspected to be unreliable, the arrival timing of the PRS corresponding to the PRS measurements may be used to determine which PRS measurements (e.g., corresponding to a PRS received from a line-of-sight (LOS) path) may be reliable. These are examples and other examples may be implemented.

[0011]

[0030] The items and / or techniques described herein may provide one or more of the following capabilities, as well as other capabilities not mentioned: PRS processing overhead may be reduced, for example, by sharing PRS measurements. PRS processing by a particular UE may be reduced, for example, by managing PRS measurements to have another UE perform one or more PRS measurements on behalf of the particular UE. Power consumption for PRS processing may be reduced, for example, by one or more UEs and / or by a server (e.g., LMF). Positioning accuracy may be improved, for example, by obtaining more accurate PRS measurements by a donor UE than are measurable by a beneficiary UE and providing the PRS measurements for the benefit of the beneficiary UE. Other capabilities may be provided, and not all implementations according to the present disclosure must provide any, much less all, of the capabilities discussed. Furthermore, the above-mentioned effects may be achieved by means other than those mentioned, and the items / techniques mentioned do not necessarily produce the mentioned effects.

[0012]

[0031] Obtaining the location of a mobile device accessing a wireless network can be useful for many applications, including, for example, emergency calls, personal navigation, consumer asset tracking, locating friends or family, etc. Existing positioning methods include methods based on measuring radio signals transmitted from various devices or entities, including satellite vehicles (SVs) and terrestrial radio sources in the wireless network, such as base stations and access points. Standardization for 5G wireless networks is expected to include support for various positioning methods that may utilize reference signals transmitted by base stations in a manner similar to how LTE wireless networks utilize positioning reference signals (PRS) and / or cell-specific reference signals (CRS) for current position determination.

[0013]

[0032] The description may, for example, refer to a sequence of actions to be performed by elements of a computing device. The 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 a combination of both. The sequence of actions described herein may be implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a corresponding set of computer instructions that, when executed, cause an associated processor to perform the functions described herein. Thus, the various aspects described herein may be embodied in a number of different forms, all of which are within the scope of the present disclosure, including the claimed subject matter.

[0014]

[0033] The terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" as used herein are not specific or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT) unless otherwise stated. Generally, such a UE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a consumer asset tracking device, 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) fixed and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). The term "UE" as used herein may be referred to interchangeably as an "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber device", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or UT, "mobile terminal", "mobile station", "mobile device", or variations thereof. Generally, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, through which the UE may be connected with external networks such as the Internet and other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are possible for the UE, such as via a wired access network, a WiFi network (e.g., based on IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11, etc.), etc.

[0015]

[0034] A base station may operate according to one of several RATs in communication with UEs depending on the network in which it is deployed. Examples of base stations include an access point (AP), a network node, a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNB), or a generic Node B (gNode B, gNB). Furthermore, in some systems the base station may provide purely edge node signaling functions, while in other systems it may provide additional control and / or network management functions.

[0016]

[0035] A UE may be embodied by any of several types of devices, including, but not limited to, a printed circuit (PC) card, a compact flash device, an external or internal modem, a wireless or wireline phone, a smart phone, a tablet, a consumer asset tracking device, an asset tag, etc. A communication link through which a UE may send signals to a RAN is called an uplink channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). A communication link through which a RAN may send signals to a UE is called a downlink or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) may refer to either an uplink / reverse traffic channel or a downlink / forward traffic channel.

[0017]

[0036] The term "cell" or "sector" as used herein may correspond to one of multiple cells of a base station or to the base station itself, depending on the context. The term "cell" may refer to a logical communication entity used for communication with a base station (e.g., on a carrier) and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., physical cell identifier (PCID), virtual cell identifier (VCID)) to distinguish neighboring cells operating over the same or different carriers. In some examples, a carrier may support multiple cells, and different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), etc.) that may provide access to different types of devices. In some examples, the term "cell" may refer to a portion (e.g., sector) of a geographic coverage area over which a logical entity operates.

[0018]

[0037] Referring to FIG. 1, an example of a communication system 100 includes a UE 105, a UE 106, a radio access network (RAN) 135, here a fifth generation (5G) next generation (NG) RAN (NG-RAN), and a 5G core network (5GC) 140. The UE 105 and / or the UE 106 may be, for example, an IoT device, a location tracker device, a cellular phone, a vehicle (e.g., a car, a truck, a bus, a boat, etc.), or other devices. The 5G network may be referred to as a new radio (NR) network, the NG-RAN 135 may be referred to as a 5G RAN or an NR RAN, and the 5GC 140 may be referred to as an NG core network (NGC). Standardization of the NG-RAN and 5GC is ongoing in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Thus, the NG-RAN 135 and the 5GC 140 may comply with current or future standards for 5G support from the 3GPP. The RAN 135 may be another type of RAN, e.g., a 3G RAN, a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) RAN, etc. The UE 106 may be configured to send and / or receive signals to / from similar other entities in the system 100 and may be similarly coupled to the UE 105, although such signaling is not shown in FIG. 1 for ease of illustration. Similarly, the description focuses on the UE 105 for simplicity. The communication system 100 may utilize information from a constellation 185 of satellite vehicles (SVs) 190, 191, 192, 193 for a satellite positioning system (SPS) (e.g., a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)) such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), a Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), Galileo, or Beidou, or some other regional or local SPS, such as an Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), a European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), or a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). Described below are additional components of the communications system 100. The communications system 100 may include additional or alternative components.

[0019]

[0038] 1, the NG-RAN 135 includes NR Node Bs (gNBs) 110a, 110b and Next Generation eNode Bs (ng-eNBs) 114, and the 5GC 140 includes an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 115, a Session Management Function (SMF) 117, a Location Management Function (LMF) 120, and a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) 125. The gNBs 110a, 110b, and the ng-eNB 114 are communicatively coupled to each other and are each configured to wirelessly communicate bidirectionally with the UE 105, and are each communicatively coupled to and configured to communicate bidirectionally with the AMF 115. The gNBs 110a, 110b, and the ng-eNB 114 may be referred to as base stations (BSs). The AMF 115, the SMF 117, the LMF 120, and the GMLC 125 are communicatively coupled to each other, and the GMLC is communicatively coupled to the external client 130. The SMF 117 may serve as an initial point of contact for a service control function (SCF) (not shown) to create, control, and delete media sessions. A base station, such as the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or the ng-eNB 114, may be a macro cell (e.g., a high-power cellular base station), or a small cell (e.g., a low-power cellular base station), or an access point (e.g., a short-range base station configured to communicate with short-range technologies such as WiFi, WiFi-Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, Bluetooth-low energy (BLE), Zigbee, etc.). One or more of the base stations, e.g., one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or the ng-eNB 114, may be configured to communicate with the UE 105 over multiple carriers. Each of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or the ng-eNB 114 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic area, e.g., a cell. Each cell may be partitioned into multiple sectors as a function of the base station antennas.

[0020]

[0039] FIG. 1 provides a generalized view of the various components, any or all of which may be utilized as appropriate, and each of which may be duplicated or omitted as necessary. In particular, while only one UE 105 is shown, many UEs (e.g., hundreds, thousands, millions, etc.) may be utilized in the communication system 100. Similarly, the communication system 100 may include a greater number (or fewer) of SVs (i.e., more or less than the four SVs 190-193 shown), gNBs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, AMF 115, external client 130, and / or other components. The illustrated connections connecting the various components in the communication system 100 include data and signaling connections, which may include additional (intermediate) components, direct or indirect physical and / or wireless connections, and / or additional networks. Additionally, the components may be rearranged, combined, separated, substituted, and / or omitted depending on the desired functionality.

[0021]

[0040] 1 illustrates a 5G-based network, similar network implementations and configurations may be used for other communication technologies, such as 3G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), etc. Implementations described herein (whether for 5G technology and / or for one or more other communication technologies and / or protocols) may be used to transmit (or broadcast) directional synchronization signals, receive and measure directional signals at a UE (e.g., UE 105), and / or provide location assistance to the UE 105 (via the GMLC 125 or other location server), and / or calculate the location of the UE 105 at a location-enabled device, such as the UE 105, gNBs 110a, 110b, or LMF 120, based on measurements received at the UE 105 of such directional transmission signals. The Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) 125, Location Management Function (LMF) 120, Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 115, SMF 117, ng-eNB (eNodeB) 114, and gNB (gNodeB) 110a, 110b are examples and may be replaced by or include various other location server functions and / or base station functions, respectively, in various embodiments.

[0022]

[0041] The system 100 is capable of wireless communication in that the components of the system 100 can communicate with each other (at least sometimes using a wireless connection) directly or indirectly, for example, via the gNBs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, and / or 5GC 140 (and / or one or more other devices, not shown, such as one or more other base transceiver stations). In the case of indirect communication, the communication may be altered during transmission from one entity to another, for example, to change header information of the data packets, to change the format, etc. The UE 105 may include multiple UEs and may be a mobile wireless communication device, but may communicate wirelessly and via a wired connection. The UE 105 may be any of a variety of devices, for example, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a vehicle-based device, etc., although these are examples and other configurations of UEs may be used, as the UE 105 need not be any of these configurations. Other UEs may include wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart jewelry, smart glasses or headsets, etc.). Still other UEs may be used, whether currently existing or developed in the future. Additionally, other wireless devices (whether mobile or not) may be implemented within the system 100 and may communicate with each other and / or with the UE 105, the gNBs 110a, 110b, the ng-eNB 114, the 5GC 140, and / or the external client 130. For example, such other devices may include Internet of Things (IoT) devices, medical devices, home entertainment and / or automation devices, etc. The 5GC 140 may communicate with the external client 130 (e.g., a computer system), for example, to enable the external client 130 to request and / or receive location information regarding the UE 105 (e.g., via the GMLC 125).

[0023]

[0042] The UE 105 or other devices may be configured to communicate in various networks and / or for various purposes and / or using various technologies (e.g., 5G, WiFi communications, multiple frequencies of Wi-Fi communications, satellite positioning, one or more types of communications (e.g., Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything, e.g., V2P (Vehicle-to-Pedestrian), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure), V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle), etc.), IEEE 802.11p, etc.). The V2X communications may be cellular (Cellular-V2X (C-V2X)) and / or WiFi (e.g., DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications)). The system 100 may include multiple cellular networks, such as cellular networks, cellular networks, and / or cellular networks. A multi-carrier transmitter may support operation on multiple carriers (waveform signals of different frequencies). A multi-carrier transmitter may transmit modulated signals simultaneously on multiple carriers. Each modulated signal may be a code division multiple access (CDMA) signal, a time division multiple access (TDMA) signal, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) signal, a single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) signal, etc. Each modulated signal may be sent on a different carrier and may carry pilot, overhead information, data, etc. The UEs 105, 106 may communicate with each other through UE-to-UE sidelink (SL) communications by transmitting over one or more sidelink channels, such as a physical sidelink synchronization channel (PSSCH), a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), or a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH).

[0024]

[0043] The UE 105 may comprise and / or be referred to as a device, a mobile device, a wireless device, a mobile terminal, a terminal, a mobile station (MS), a secure user plane location (SUPL)-enabled terminal (SET), or by some other name. Additionally, the UE 105 may correspond to a cell phone, a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, a PDA, a consumer asset tracking device, a navigation device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a health monitor, a security system, a smart city sensor, a smart meter, a wearable tracker, or some other portable or movable device. Typically, but not necessarily, the UE 105 may support wireless communications using one or more radio access technologies (RATs), such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), LTE, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), IEEE 802.11 WiFi (also referred to as Wi-Fi), Bluetooth (BT), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), 5G New Radio (NR) (e.g., using NG-RAN 135 and 5GC 140), etc. The UE 105 may support wireless communications using, for example, a wireless local area network (WLAN), which may connect to other networks (e.g., the Internet) using a digital subscriber line (DSL) or packet cable. Use of one or more of these RATs may enable the UE 105 to communicate with an external client 130 (e.g., via elements of the 5GC 140 not shown in FIG. 1 or possibly via the GMLC 125) and / or enable the external client 130 to receive location information regarding the UE 105 (e.g., via the GMLC 125).

[0025]

[0044] The UE 105 may include a single entity, or may include multiple entities, such as in a personal area network where a user may employ audio, video and / or data I / O (input / output) devices and / or body sensors and a separate wireline or wireless modem. An estimate of the location of the UE 105 may be referred to as a location, location estimate, location fix, fix, position, position estimate or position fix, and may provide location coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude) of the UE 105 that may or may not include an altitude component (e.g., height above sea level, height or depth above ground, floor level or basement level). Alternatively, the location of the UE 105 may be expressed as a civic location (e.g., as a postal address or as a designation of some point or small area in a building, such as a particular room or floor). The location of the UE 105 may be expressed as an area or volume (defined either geographically or in urban form) within which the UE 105 is expected to be located with some probability or confidence level (e.g., 67%, 95%, etc.). The location of the UE 105 may be expressed as a relative location, for example comprising a distance and a direction from a known location. The relative location may be expressed as relative coordinates (e.g., X, Y (and Z) coordinates) defined relative to some origin at a known location, which may be defined, for example, geographically, with respect to a city, or by reference to a point, area, or volume shown, for example, on a map, floor plan, or building plan. In the description contained herein, use of the term location may comprise any of these variations unless otherwise indicated. When calculating the location of a UE, it is common to determine the values ​​of local x, y, and possibly z coordinates and then convert the local coordinates to absolute coordinates (e.g., for latitude, longitude, and altitude above or below mean sea level), if desired.

[0026]

[0045] The UE 105 may be configured to communicate with other entities using one or more of a variety of technologies. The UE 105 may be configured to indirectly connect to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links. The D2D P2P links may be supported with any suitable D2D radio access technology (RAT), such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, etc. One or more of the groups of UEs utilizing D2D communication may be within a geographic coverage area of ​​a transmission / reception point (TRP), such as one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114. Other UEs in such a group may be outside such geographic coverage area or may not otherwise be able to receive transmissions from the base station. A group of UEs communicating via D2D communication may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system, in which each UE may transmit to other UEs in the group. The TRP may facilitate scheduling of resources for the D2D communication. In other cases, D2D communication may occur between UEs without the involvement of a TRP. One or more of a group of UEs utilizing D2D communication may be within a geographic coverage area of ​​a TRP. Other UEs in such a group may be outside such geographic coverage area or may not otherwise be able to receive transmissions from a base station. A group of UEs communicating via D2D communication may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each UE may transmit to other UEs in the group. A TRP may facilitate scheduling of resources for D2D communication. In other cases, D2D communication may occur between UEs without the involvement of a TRP.

[0027]

[0046] The base stations (BSs) in the NG-RAN 135 shown in FIG. 1 include NR Node Bs referred to as gNBs 110a and 110b. The pair of gNBs 110a, 110b in the NG-RAN 135 may be connected to each other via one or more other gNBs. Access to the 5G network is provided to the UE 105 via wireless communication between the UE 105 and one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and the gNBs 110a, 110b may provide wireless communication access to the 5G C140 for the UE 105 using 5G. In FIG. 1, the serving gNB for the UE 105 is assumed to be gNB 110a, but another gNB (e.g., gNB 110b) may act as a serving gNB if the UE 105 moves to another location or as a secondary gNB to provide additional throughput and bandwidth to the UE 105.

[0028]

[0047] 1 may include the ng-eNB 114, also referred to as next generation evolved node B. The ng-eNB 114 may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b in the NG-RAN 135, possibly via one or more other gNBs and / or one or more other ng-eNBs. The ng-eNB 114 may provide LTE wireless access and / or evolved LTE (eLTE) wireless access to the UE 105. One or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or ng-eNB 114 may be configured to function as positioning-only beacons that may transmit signals to assist in determining the location of the UE 105, but may not receive signals from the UE 105 or other UEs.

[0029]

[0048] The gNBs 110a, 110b and / or ng-eNBs 114 may each comprise one or more TRPs. For example, each sector in a cell of a BS may comprise a TRP, but the multiple TRPs may share one or more components (e.g., may share a processor but have separate antennas). The system 100 may include only a macro TRP, or the system 100 may have different types of TRPs, such as macro, pico, and / or femto TRPs. A macro TRP may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., a radius of several kilometers) and may allow unrestricted access by terminals subscribing to the service. A pico TRP may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a pico cell) and may allow unrestricted access by terminals subscribing to the service. A femto TRP or home TRP may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a femto cell) and may allow restricted access by terminals having an association with a femto cell (e.g., terminals for home users).

[0030]

[0049] As mentioned, FIG. 1 illustrates nodes configured to communicate according to a 5G communication protocol, but nodes configured to communicate according to other communication protocols, such as, for example, an LTE protocol or an IEEE 802.11x protocol, may be used. For example, in an evolved packet system (EPS) that provides LTE wireless access to the UE 105, the RAN may comprise an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), which may comprise base stations comprising evolved node Bs (eNBs). The core network for the EPS may comprise an evolved packet core (EPC). The EPS may comprise an E-UTRAN+EPC, where the E-UTRAN corresponds to the NG-RAN 135 in FIG. 1 and the EPC corresponds to the 5GC 140.

[0031]

[0050] The gNBs 110a, 110b and ng-eNB 114 may communicate with an AMF 115, which communicates with the LMF 120, for positioning functions. The AMF 115 may support mobility of the UE 105, including cell changes and handovers, and may participate in supporting signaling connections to the UE 105 and possibly data and voice bearers for the UE 105. The LMF 120 may communicate directly with the UE 105, for example, through wireless communication or directly with the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or ng-eNB 114. The LMF 120 may support positioning of the UE 105 when the UE 105 accesses the NG-RAN 135 and may support position procedures / methods such as Aided GNSS (A-GNSS), Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) (e.g., downlink (DL) OTDOA or uplink (UL) OTDOA), Round Trip Time (RTT), Multi-cell RTT, Real Time Kinematic (RTK), Precise Point Positioning (PPP), Differential GNSS (DGNSS), Extended Cell ID (E-CID), Angle of Arrival (AoA), Angle of Departure (AoD), and / or other position methods. The LMF 120 may process location service requests for the UE 105 received, for example, from the AMF 115 or from the GMLC 125. The LMF 120 may be connected to the AMF 115 and / or the GMLC 125. The LMF 120 may be referred to by other names such as a Location Manager (LM), Location Function (LF), Commercial LMF (CLMF), or Value Added LMF (VLMF). A node / system implementing the LMF 120 may additionally or alternatively implement other types of location support modules, such as an Enhanced Serving Mobile Location Center (E-SMLC) or a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Location Platform (SLP).At least a portion of the positioning functionality (including derivation of the location of the UE 105) may be implemented in the UE 105 (e.g., using signals transmitted by wireless nodes such as the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or the ng-eNB 114 and / or signal measurements obtained by the UE 105 for assistance data provided to the UE 105 by the LMF 120, for example). The AMF 115 may act as a control node that handles signaling between the UE 105 and the 5GC 140 and may provide QoS (Quality of Service) flow and session management. The AMF 115 may support mobility of the UE 105, including cell changes and handovers, and may participate in supporting signaling connections to the UE 105.

[0032]

[0051] The GMLC 125 may support location requests for the UE 105 received from an external client 130 and may forward such location requests to the AMF 115 for forwarding by the AMF 115 to the LMF 120 or may forward the location requests directly to the LMF 120. A location response from the LMF 120 (e.g., including a location estimate for the UE 105) may be returned to the GMLC 125 either directly or via the AMF 115, which may then return a location response (e.g., including a location estimate) to the external client 130. Although the GMLC 125 is shown connected to both the AMF 115 and the LMF 120, in some implementations, only one of these connections may be supported by the 5GC 140.

[0033]

[0052] As further shown in FIG. 1, the LMF 120 may communicate with the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or the ng-eNB 114 using a New Radio Position Protocol A (sometimes referred to as NPPa or NRPPa), which may be defined in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.455. NRPPa may be the same as, similar to, or an extension of the LTE Positioning Protocol A (LPPa) defined in 3GPP TS 36.455, and NRPPa messages are transferred between the gNB 110a (or gNB 110b) and the LMF 120 and / or between the ng-eNB 114 and the LMF 120 via the AMF 115. As further shown in FIG. 1, the LMF 120 and the UE 105 may communicate using the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP), which may be defined in 3GPP TS 36.355. The LMF 120 and the UE 105 may also or instead communicate using a new radio positioning protocol (sometimes referred to as NPP or NRPP), which may be the same as, similar to, or an extension of LPP, where LPP and / or NPP messages may be transferred between the UE 105 and the LMF 120 via the AMF 115 and the serving gNB 110a, 110b or serving ng-eNB 114 for the UE 105. For example, the LPP and / or NPP messages may be transferred between the LMF 120 and the AMF 115 using a 5G Location Services Application Protocol (LCS AP) and between the AMF 115 and the UE 105 using a 5G Non-Access Stratum (NAS) protocol. The LPP and / or NPP protocols may be used to support positioning of the UE 105 using UE-assisted and / or UE-based location methods such as A-GNSS, RTK, OTDOA, and / or E-CID.The NRPPa protocol may be used to support positioning of the UE 105 using network-based location methods such as E-CID (e.g., when used in conjunction with measurements obtained by the gNBs 110a, 110b, or ng-eNB 114) and / or may be used by the LMF 120 to obtain location related information from the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114, such as parameters defining directional SS (synchronization signal) or PRS transmissions from the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114. The LMF 120 may be collocated or integrated with a gNB or TRP, or may be disposed remotely from the gNBs and / or TRP and configured to communicate directly or indirectly with the gNBs and / or TRP.

[0034]

[0053] In a UE-assisted location method, the UE 105 may obtain location measurements and send the measurements to a location server (e.g., the LMF 120) for computation of a location estimate for the UE 105. For example, the location measurements may include one or more of a received signal strength indication (RSSI), a round trip signal propagation time (RTT), a reference signal time difference (RSTD), a reference signal received power (RSRP), and / or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) for the gNBs 110a, 110b, the ng-eNB 114, and / or the WLAN APs. The location measurements may also or instead include measurements of GNSS pseudorange, code phase, and / or carrier phase for the SVs 190-193.

[0035]

[0054] In a UE-based location method, the UE 105 may obtain location measurements (which may, for example, be the same as or similar to location measurements for a UE-assisted location method) and may calculate the location of the UE 105 (e.g., with the help of assistance data received from a location server such as the LMF 120 or broadcast by a gNB 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, or other base station or AP).

[0036]

[0055] In a network-based location method, one or more base stations (e.g., gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114) or APs may obtain location measurements (e.g., RSSI, RTT, RSRP, RSRQ, or Time of Arrival (ToA) measurements for signals transmitted by the UE 105) and / or receive measurements obtained by the UE 105. The one or more base stations or APs may send the measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 120) for computation of a location estimate for the UE 105.

[0037]

[0056] The information provided by the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114 to the LMF 120 using the NRPPa may include timing and configuration information for directional SS or PRS transmissions and location coordinates. The LMF 120 may provide some or all of this information to the UE 105 as assistance data in LPP and / or NPP messages via the NG-RAN 135 and the 5GC 140.

[0038]

[0057] An LPP or NPP message sent from the LMF 120 to the UE 105 may instruct the UE 105 to do any of a variety of things depending on the desired functionality. For example, the LPP or NPP message may include instructions for the UE 105 to acquire measurements for GNSS (or A-GNSS), WLAN, E-CID, and / or OTDOA (or some other location method). In the case of E-CID, the LPP or NPP message may instruct the UE 105 to acquire one or more measurements (e.g., beam ID, beam width, average angle, RSRP, RSRQ measurements) of directional signals transmitted within a particular cell supported by one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114 (or supported by some other type of base station such as an eNB or WiFi AP). The UE 105 may send the measurement quantities back to the LMF 120 in an LPP or NPP message (e.g., within a 5G NAS message) via the serving gNB 110a (or serving ng-eNB 114) and the AMF 115.

[0039]

[0058] As mentioned, although the communication system 100 is described with respect to 5G technology, the communication system 100 may be implemented to support other communication technologies, such as GSM, WCDMA, LTE, etc., that are used to support and interact with mobile devices, such as the UE 105 (e.g., to implement voice, data, positioning, and other functions). In some such embodiments, the 5GC 140 may be configured to control different air interfaces. For example, the 5GC 140 may be connected to a WLAN using a non-3GPP interworking function (N3IWF, not shown in FIG. 1) in the 5GC 140. For example, the WLAN may support IEEE 802.11 WiFi access for the UE 105 and may comprise one or more WiFi APs. Here, the N3IWF may connect to the WLAN and to other elements in the 5GC 140, such as the AMF 115. In some embodiments, both the NG-RAN 135 and the 5GC 140 may be replaced by one or more other RANs and one or more other core networks. For example, in an EPS, the NG-RAN 135 may be replaced by an E-UTRAN including eNBs, and the 5GC 140 may be replaced by an EPC including a mobility management entity (MME) instead of the AMF 115, an E-SMLC instead of the LMF 120, and a GMLC that may be similar to the GMLC 125. In such an EPS, the E-SMLC may use LPPa instead of NRPPa to send location information to and receive location information from eNBs in the E-UTRAN, and may use LPP to support positioning of the UE 105. In these other embodiments, positioning of the UE 105 using directional PRS may be supported in a manner similar to that described herein for a 5G network, except that the functions and procedures described herein for the gNBs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, AMF 115, and LMF 120 may instead be applied to other network elements, such as eNBs, WiFi APs, MMEs, and E-SMLCs, in some cases.

[0040]

[0059] As mentioned, in some embodiments, the positioning functionality may be implemented at least in part using directional SS or PRS beams sent by base stations (such as gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114) that are within range of the UE whose position is to be determined (e.g., UE 105 of FIG. 1). The UE may, in some instances, use directional SS or PRS beams from multiple base stations (such as gNBs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114) to calculate the UE's position.

[0041]

[0060] 2, UE 200 is an example of one of UEs 105, 106 and comprises a computing platform including a processor 210, a memory 211 including software (SW) 212, one or more sensors 213, a transceiver interface 214 for a transceiver 215 (including a wireless transceiver 240 and a wired transceiver 250), a user interface 216, a satellite positioning system (SPS) receiver 217, a camera 218, and a position device (PD) 219. The processor 210, memory 211, sensors 213, transceiver interface 214, user interface 216, SPS receiver 217, camera 218, and position device 219 may be communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 220 (which may be configured for optical and / or electrical communication, for example). One or more of the illustrated devices (e.g., one or more of the camera 218, the position device 219, and / or the sensor 213) may be omitted from the UE 200. The processor 210 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, e.g., a central processing unit, a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 210 may comprise multiple processors, including a general purpose / application processor 230, a digital signal processor (DSP) 231, a modem processor 232, a video processor 233, and / or a sensor processor 234. One or more of the processors 230-234 may comprise multiple devices (e.g., multiple processors). For example, the sensor processor 234 may comprise, for example, a processor for sensing RF (radio frequency) (wherein one or more (cellular) wireless signals are transmitted and reflections are used to identify, map, and / or track objects), and / or ultrasound, etc. The modem processor 232 may support dual SIM / dual connectivity (or even more SIMs). For example, one SIM (Subscriber Identity Module or Subscriber Identity Module) may be used by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and another SIM may be used by an end user of the UE 200 for connectivity.The memory 211 is a non-transitory storage medium that may include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, disk memory, and / or read only memory (ROM), etc. The memory 211 stores software 212, which may be processor-readable, processor-executable software code that includes instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause the processor 210 to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 212 may not be directly executable by the processor 210, but may be configured, for example, when compiled and executed, to cause the processor 210 to perform a function. The description may refer to the processor 210 performing a function, but this includes other implementations, such as when the processor 210 executes software and / or firmware. The description may refer to the processor 210 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more of the processors 230-234 performing the function. The description may refer to the UE 200 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more suitable components of the UE 200 performing the function. The processor 210 may include memory with stored instructions in addition to and / or in place of the memory 211. The functionality of the processor 210 is described more fully below.

[0042]

[0061] The configuration of UE 200 shown in FIG. 2 is an example and is not limiting of the present disclosure, including the scope of the claims, and other configurations may be used. For example, an exemplary configuration of a UE includes one or more of processors 230-234 of processor 210, memory 211, and wireless transceiver 240. Other exemplary configurations include one or more of processors 230-234 of processor 210, memory 211, a wireless transceiver, and one or more of sensors 213, user interface 216, SPS receiver 217, camera 218, PD 219, and / or wired transceiver.

[0043]

[0062] The UE 200 may comprise a modem processor 232 that may be capable of performing baseband processing of signals received and downconverted by the transceiver 215 and / or the SPS receiver 217. The modem processor 232 may perform baseband processing of signals to be upconverted for transmission by the transceiver 215. Also or alternatively, the baseband processing may be performed by the general purpose / application processor 230 and / or the DSP 231. However, other configurations may be used to perform the baseband processing.

[0044]

[0063] The UE 200 may include sensors 213, which may include one or more of various types of sensors, such as, for example, one or more inertial sensors, one or more magnetometers, one or more environmental sensors, one or more optical sensors, one or more weight sensors, and / or one or more radio frequency (RF) sensors. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) may comprise, for example, one or more accelerometers (e.g., collectively responsive to acceleration of the UE 200 in three dimensions) and / or one or more gyroscopes (e.g., three-dimensional gyroscopes). The sensors 213 may include one or more magnetometers (e.g., three-dimensional magnetometers) for determining an orientation (e.g., relative to magnetic north and / or true north), which may be used for any of a variety of purposes, for example, to support one or more compass applications. The environmental sensors may comprise, for example, one or more temperature sensors, one or more barometric pressure sensors, one or more ambient light sensors, one or more camera imagers, and / or one or more microphones, etc. The sensors 213 may generate analog and / or digital signals, representations of which may be stored in memory 211 and processed by DSP 231 and / or general purpose / application processor 230 supporting one or more applications, such as, for example, applications directed to positioning and / or navigation operations.

[0045]

[0064] The sensors 213 may be used in relative location measurement, relative location determination, motion determination, etc. Information detected by the sensors 213 may be used for motion detection, relative displacement, dead reckoning, sensor-based location determination, and / or sensor-assisted location determination. The sensors 213 may be useful to determine whether the UE 200 is fixed (stationary) or moving, and / or to report some useful information regarding the mobility of the UE 200 to the LMF 120. For example, based on the information acquired / measured by the sensors 213, the UE 200 may notify / report to the LMF 120 that the UE 200 has detected motion or that the UE 200 has moved, and report the relative displacement / distance (e.g., via dead reckoning, or sensor-based location determination, or sensor-assisted location determination enabled by the sensors 213). In another example, for relative positioning information, the sensors / IMUs may be used to determine the angle and / or orientation of other devices relative to the UE 200, etc.

[0046]

[0065] The IMU may be configured to provide measurements on the direction of motion and / or speed of motion of the UE 200 that may be used in relative location determination. For example, one or more accelerometers and / or one or more gyroscopes of the IMU may detect the linear acceleration and rotational velocity of the UE 200, respectively. The linear acceleration and rotational velocity measurements of the UE 200 may be integrated over time to determine the instantaneous direction of motion as well as the displacement of the UE 200. The instantaneous direction of motion and displacement may be integrated to track the location of the UE 200. For example, a reference location of the UE 200 may be determined, for example, using the SPS receiver 217 (and / or by some other means) for a moment in time, and measurements from the accelerometers and gyroscopes obtained after this moment in time may be used in dead reckoning to determine the current location of the UE 200 based on the motion (direction and distance) of the UE 200 relative to the reference location.

[0047]

[0066] The magnetometer can determine the strength of the magnetic field in different directions, which may be used to determine an orientation of the UE 200. For example, the orientation may be used to provide a digital compass for the UE 200. The magnetometer may include a two-dimensional magnetometer configured to detect and provide an indication of the magnetic field strength in two orthogonal dimensions. The magnetometer may include a three-dimensional magnetometer configured to detect and provide an indication of the magnetic field strength in three orthogonal dimensions. The magnetometer may provide a means for sensing the magnetic field and providing an indication of the magnetic field, for example to the processor 210.

[0048]

[0067] The transceiver 215 may include a wireless transceiver 240 and a wired transceiver 250 configured to communicate with other devices through wireless and wired connections, respectively. For example, the wireless transceiver 240 may include a wireless transmitter 242 and a wireless receiver 244 coupled to an antenna 246 for transmitting (e.g., on one or more uplink channels and / or one or more sidelink channels) and / or receiving (e.g., on one or more downlink channels and / or one or more sidelink channels) wireless signals 248 and converting the wireless signals 248 to and from wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signals. The wireless transmitter 242 includes appropriate components (e.g., a power amplifier and a digital-to-analog converter). The wireless receiver 244 includes appropriate components (e.g., one or more amplifiers, one or more frequency filters, and an analog-to-digital converter). The wireless transmitter 242 may include multiple transmitters, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wireless receiver 244 may include multiple receivers, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components. The wireless transceiver 240 may be configured to communicate signals (e.g., with the TRP and / or one or more other devices) according to various radio access technologies (RATs), such as 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobile), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE Direct (LTE-D), 3GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE 802.11 (including IEEE 802.11p), WiFi, WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc. The new radio may use mmWave and / or sub-6 GHz frequencies.The wired transceiver 250 may include a wired transmitter 252 and a wired receiver 254 configured for wired communication, e.g., a network interface that may be utilized to communicate with the NG-RAN 135 to send communications to and receive communications from the NG-RAN 135. The wired transmitter 252 may include multiple transmitters, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wired receiver 254 may include multiple receivers, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components. The wired transceiver 250 may be configured for optical and / or electrical communication, for example. The transceiver 215 may be communicatively coupled to the transceiver interface 214, e.g., by an optical and / or electrical connection. The transceiver interface 214 may be at least partially integrated with the transceiver 215. The wireless transmitter 242, the wireless receiver 244, and / or the antenna 246 may include multiple transmitters, multiple receivers, and / or multiple antennas, respectively, for sending and / or receiving appropriate signals, respectively.

[0049]

[0068] The user interface 216 may comprise one or more of several devices, such as, for example, a speaker, a microphone, a display device, a vibrating device, a keyboard, a touch screen, etc. The user interface 216 may include two or more of these devices. The user interface 216 may be configured to allow a user to interact with one or more applications hosted by the UE 200. For example, the user interface 216 may store representations of analog and / or digital signals in the memory 211 for processing by the DSP 231 and / or the general purpose / application processor 230 in response to actions from a user. Similarly, applications hosted on the UE 200 may store representations of analog and / or digital signals in the memory 211 for presenting output signals to the user. The user interface 216 may include audio input / output (I / O) devices, including, for example, speakers, microphones, digital-to-analog circuits, analog-to-digital circuits, amplifiers, and / or gain control circuits (including two or more of any of these devices). Other configurations of audio I / O devices may be used. Also or alternatively, the user interface 216 may include one or more touch sensors that respond to touch and / or pressure, for example, on a keyboard and / or touch screen of the user interface 216.

[0050]

[0069] The SPS receiver 217 (e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver) may be capable of receiving and acquiring the SPS signals 260 via the SPS antenna 262. The SPS antenna 262 is configured to convert the SPS signals 260 from wireless signals to wired signals, e.g., electrical or optical signals, and may be integrated with the antenna 246. The SPS receiver 217 may be configured to process, in whole or in part, the acquired SPS signals 260 to estimate the location of the UE 200. For example, the SPS receiver 217 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 200 by trilateration using the SPS signals 260. The general purpose / application processor 230, the memory 211, the DSP 231, and / or one or more dedicated processors (not shown) may be utilized with the SPS receiver 217 to process, in whole or in part, the acquired SPS signals and / or to calculate the estimated location of the UE 200. The memory 211 may store representations (e.g., measurements) of the SPS signals 260 and / or other signals (e.g., signals acquired from the wireless transceiver 240) for use in performing positioning operations. The general purpose / application processor 230, the DSP 231, and / or one or more special purpose processors, and / or the memory 211 may provide or support a location engine for use in processing the measurements to estimate the location of the UE 200.

[0051]

[0070] The UE 200 may include a camera 218 for capturing still or moving images. The camera 218 may comprise, for example, an imaging sensor (e.g., a charge-coupled device or a CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) imager), a lens, analog-to-digital circuitry, a frame buffer, etc. Additional processing, conditioning, encoding, and / or compression of signals representing the captured images may be performed by the general-purpose / application processor 230 and / or the DSP 231. Also or alternatively, a video processor 233 may perform conditioning, encoding, compression, and / or manipulation of signals representing the captured images. The video processor 233 may, for example, decode / decompress stored image data for presentation on a display device (not shown) of the user interface 216.

[0052]

[0071] The position device (PD) 219 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 200, the movement of the UE 200, and / or the relative location of the UE 200, and / or time. For example, the PD 219 may be in communication with and / or include some or all of the SPS receiver 217. The PD 219 may operate in conjunction with the processor 210 and memory 211 to perform at least a portion of one or more positioning methods as appropriate, but the description herein may refer to the PD 219 being configured to perform or performing according to the positioning method(s). Also or alternatively, the PD 219 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 200 using ground-based signals (e.g., at least some of the signals 248) for trilateration, to assist in the acquisition and use of the SPS signals 260, or both. The PD 219 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 200 based on the cell of the serving base station (e.g., cell center) and / or another technique such as E-CID. The PD 219 may be configured to use one or more images from the camera 218 and image recognition combined with known locations of landmarks (e.g., natural landmarks such as mountains, and / or man-made landmarks such as buildings, bridges, streets, etc.) to determine the location of the UE 200. The PD 219 may be configured to use one or more other techniques (e.g., relying on the UE's self-reported location (e.g., part of the UE's location beacon)) to determine the location of the UE 200 and may use a combination of techniques (e.g., SPS and terrestrial positioning signals) to determine the location of the UE 200.The PD 219 may include one or more of the sensors 213 (e.g., gyroscope(s), accelerometer(s), magnetometer(s), etc.) that may sense and provide an indication of an orientation and / or motion of the UE 200, which the processor 210 (e.g., general purpose / application processor 230 and / or DSP 231) may be configured to use to determine the motion (e.g., velocity vector and / or acceleration vector) of the UE 200. The PD 219 may be configured to provide an indication of the uncertainty and / or error of the determined position and / or motion. The functionality of the PD 219 may be provided in various manners and / or configurations, for example, by the general purpose / application processor 230, the transceiver 215, the SPS receiver 217, and / or another component of the UE 200, and may be provided by hardware, software, firmware, or various combinations thereof.

[0053]

[0072] 3, an example of a TRP 300 of a gNB 110a, 110b and / or ng-eNB 114 comprises a computing platform including a processor 310, a memory 311 including software (SW) 312, and a transceiver 315. The processor 310, the memory 311, and the transceiver 315 may be communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 320 (which may be configured for optical and / or electrical communication, for example). One or more of the depicted devices (e.g., wireless transceiver) may be omitted from the TRP 300. The processor 310 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 310 may comprise multiple processors (including, for example, a general purpose / application processor, a DSP, a modem processor, a video processor, and / or a sensor processor as shown in FIG. 2). Memory 311 is a non-transitory storage medium that may include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, disk memory, and / or read only memory (ROM), etc. Memory 311 stores software 312, which may be processor-readable, processor-executable software code that includes instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause processor 310 to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, software 312 may not be directly executable by processor 310, but may be configured, for example, when compiled and executed, to cause processor 310 to perform functions.

[0054]

[0073] The description may refer to the processor 310 performing a function, including other implementations, such as when the processor 310 executes software and / or firmware. The description may refer to the processor 310 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more of the processors included in the processor 310 performing the function. The description may refer to the TRP 300 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more appropriate components of the TRP 300 performing the function (e.g., the processor 310 and the memory 311) (and thus one of the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or ng-eNBs 114). The processor 310 may include a memory with stored instructions in addition to and / or instead of the memory 311. The functionality of the processor 310 is described more fully below.

[0055]

[0074] The transceiver 315 may include a wireless transceiver 340 and / or a wired transceiver 350 configured to communicate with other devices over wireless and wired connections, respectively. For example, the wireless transceiver 340 may include a wireless transmitter 342 and a wireless receiver 344 coupled to one or more antennas 346 for transmitting (e.g., on one or more uplink channels and / or one or more downlink channels) and / or receiving (e.g., on one or more downlink channels and / or one or more uplink channels) wireless signals 348 and converting signals from the wireless signals 348 to wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signals and from the wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signals to the wireless signals 348. Thus, the wireless transmitter 342 may include multiple transmitters, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wireless receiver 344 may include multiple receivers, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components. The wireless transceiver 340 may be configured to communicate signals (e.g., with the UE 200, one or more other UEs, and / or one or more other devices) according to various radio access technologies (RATs), such as 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobile), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE Direct (LTE-D), 3GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE 802.11 (including IEEE 802.11p), WiFi, WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, Zigbee, and the like.The wired transceiver 350 may include a wired transmitter 352 and a wired receiver 354 configured for wired communications, e.g., a network interface that may be utilized to communicate with the LMF 120 and / or the NG-RAN 135 to send communications to and receive communications from one or more other network entities. The wired transmitter 352 may include multiple transmitters, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wired receiver 354 may include multiple receivers, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components. The wired transceiver 350 may be configured for optical communications and / or electrical communications, for example.

[0056]

[0075] 3 is an example and not a limitation of the present disclosure, including the claims, and other configurations may be used. For example, the description herein discusses the TRP 300 being configured to or performing certain functions, but one or more of these functions may be performed by the LMF 120 and / or the UE 200 (i.e., the LMF 120 and / or the UE 200 may be configured to perform one or more of these functions).

[0057]

[0076] 4, the server 400, of which the LMF 120 is an example, comprises a computing platform including a processor 410, a memory 411 including software (SW) 412, and a transceiver 415. The processor 410, the memory 411, and the transceiver 415 may be communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 420 (which may be configured for optical and / or electrical communication, for example). One or more of the illustrated devices (e.g., wireless transceiver) may be omitted from the server 400. The processor 410 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 410 may comprise multiple processors (including, for example, a general purpose / application processor, a DSP, a modem processor, a video processor, and / or a sensor processor, as shown in FIG. 2). The memory 411 is a non-transitory storage medium that may include a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a disk memory, and / or a read-only memory (ROM), etc. The memory 411 stores software 412, which may be processor-readable, processor-executable software code that includes instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause the processor 410 to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 412 may not be directly executable by the processor 410, but may be configured, for example, when compiled and executed, to cause the processor 410 to perform a function. The description may refer to the processor 410 performing a function, but this includes other implementations, such as when the processor 410 executes software and / or firmware. The description may refer to the processor 410 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more of the processors included in the processor 410 that perform the function. The description may refer to the server 400 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more suitable components of the server 400 that perform the function.The processor 410 may include memory with stored instructions in addition to and / or instead of the memory 411. The functionality of the processor 410 is described more fully below.

[0058]

[0077] The transceiver 415 may include a wireless transceiver 440 and / or a wired transceiver 450 configured to communicate with other devices over wireless and wired connections, respectively. For example, the wireless transceiver 440 may include a wireless transmitter 442 and a wireless receiver 444 coupled to one or more antennas 446 for transmitting (e.g., on one or more downlink channels) and / or receiving (e.g., on one or more uplink channels) wireless signals 448 and converting signals from the wireless signals 448 to wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signals and from the wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signals to the wireless signals 448. Thus, the wireless transmitter 442 may include multiple transmitters, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wireless receiver 444 may include multiple receivers, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components. The wireless transceiver 440 may be configured to communicate signals (e.g., with the UE 200, one or more other UEs, and / or one or more other devices) according to various radio access technologies (RATs), such as 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobile), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE Direct (LTE-D), 3GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE 802.11 (including IEEE 802.11p), WiFi, WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, Zigbee, and the like. The wired transceiver 450 may include a wired transmitter 452 and a wired receiver 454 configured for wired communications, e.g., a TRP 300, and / or a network interface that may be utilized to communicate with the NG-RAN 135 to send communications to and receive communications from one or more other network entities.The wired transmitter 452 may include multiple transmitters, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wired receiver 454 may include multiple receivers, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components. The wired transceiver 450 may be configured for optical and / or electrical communications, for example.

[0059]

[0078] The description herein may refer to the processor 410 performing a function, including other implementations, such as where the processor 410 executes software and / or firmware (stored in memory 411). The description herein may refer to the server 400 performing a function as shorthand for one or more appropriate components of the server 400 (e.g., the processor 410 and the memory 411) that perform the function.

[0060]

[0079] The configuration of the server 400 shown in FIG. 4 is an example and is not limiting of the present disclosure, including the claims, and other configurations may be used. For example, the wireless transceiver 440 may be omitted. Also or alternatively, the description herein describes the server 400 being configured to perform or performing several functions, but one or more of these functions may be performed by the TRP 300 and / or the UE 200 (i.e., the TRP 300 and / or the UE 200 may be configured to perform one or more of these functions).

[0061]

[0080] Positioning Technique

[0081] For terrestrial positioning of UEs in cellular networks, techniques such as Advanced Forward Link Trilateralization (AFLT) and Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) often operate in a "UE-assisted" mode, where measurements of reference signals (e.g., PRS, CRS, etc.) transmitted by the base station are made by the UE and then provided to a location server. The location server then calculates the UE's position based on the measurements and the known locations of the base stations. Because these techniques use a location server rather than the UE itself to calculate the UE's position, these positioning techniques are not frequently used in applications such as car navigation or cell phone navigation, which instead generally rely on satellite-based positioning.

[0062]

[0082] UEs may use a satellite positioning system (SPS) (Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)) for high accuracy positioning using Precise Point Positioning (PPP) or Real Time Kinematic (RTK) techniques. These techniques use assistance data, such as measurements, from ground stations. LTE Release 15 allows the data to be encrypted so that only UEs that have subscribed to the service can read the information. Such assistance data changes over time. Thus, a UE that has subscribed to the service may not be able to easily "decrypt" the data for other UEs by transferring it to other UEs that have not paid for the subscription. The transfer would need to be repeated each time the assistance data changes.

[0063]

[0083] In UE-assisted positioning, the UE sends measurements (e.g., TDOA, Angle of Arrival (AoA), etc.) to a positioning server (e.g., LMF / eSMLC). The positioning server has a Base Station Almanac (BSA) that contains multiple "entries" or "records," one record per cell, where each record contains the geographic cell location but may also contain other data. An identifier for a "record" among the multiple "records" in the BSA may be referenced. The BSA and measurements from the UE may be used to calculate the UE's position.

[0064]

[0084] In traditional UE-based positioning, the UE calculates its own position and thus avoids sending measurements to the network (e.g., a location server), which in turn improves latency and scalability. The UE uses the relevant BSA record information from the network (e.g., the location of the gNB (more broadly, the base station)). The BSA information may be encrypted. However, since the BSA information changes much less frequently than, for example, the PPP or RTK assistance data previously described, it may be easier to make the BSA information available (compared to PPP or RTK information) to UEs that do not subscribe and have not paid for a decryption key. The transmission of reference signals by the gNB makes the BSA information potentially accessible to crowdsourcing or wardriving, essentially allowing the generation of BSA information based on in-situ and / or over-the-top observations.

[0065]

[0085] Positioning techniques may be characterized and / or assessed based on one or more criteria, such as position determination accuracy and / or latency. Latency is the time elapsed between an event that triggers the determination of location-related data and the availability of that data at a positioning system interface, e.g., the interface of the LMF 120. At the initialization of the positioning system, the latency for availability of location-related data is called the time-to-first-fix (TTFF) and is greater than the latency after the TTFF. The inverse of the time elapsed between two successive availability of location-related data is called the update rate, i.e., the rate at which location-related data is generated after the first fix. The latency may depend, for example, on the processing capability of the UE. For example, the UE may report its processing capability as the duration of DL PRS symbols in time units (e.g., milliseconds) that the UE can process per T amount of time (e.g., Tms) for a 272 PRB (physical resource block) allocation. Other examples of capabilities that may affect latency are the number of TRPs that a UE can handle PRSs, the number of PRSs that a UE can handle, and the bandwidth of the UE.

[0066]

[0086] One or more of a number of different positioning techniques (also called positioning methods) may be used to determine the location of an entity such as one of the UEs 105, 106. For example, known positioning techniques include RTT, multi-RTT, OTDOA (also called TDOA, including UL-TDOA and DL-TDOA), Extended Cell Identification (E-CID), DL-AoD, UL-AoA, etc. RTT uses the time for a signal to travel from one entity to another and back to determine the distance between the two entities. This distance, as well as the known location of a first one of the entities and the angle (e.g., azimuth) between the two entities may be used to determine the location of a second one of the entities. In multi-RTT (also called multi-cell RTT), multiple distances from one entity (e.g., UE) to another entity (e.g., TRP) and the known locations of the other entities may be used to determine the location of the one entity. In TDOA techniques, the difference in travel time between one entity and another entity may be used to determine the relative distance from the other entity, which may be used in combination with the known location of the other entity to determine the location of the one entity. Angle of arrival and / or departure angle may be used to help determine the location of an entity. For example, the angle of arrival or departure of a signal may be used in combination with the distance between the devices (determined using the signals, e.g., the travel time of the signal, the received power of the signal, etc.) and the known location of one of the devices to determine the location of the other device. The angle of arrival or departure may be an azimuth angle relative to a reference direction such as true north. The angle of arrival or departure may be a zenith angle relative to directly above the one entity (i.e., relative to a direction radially outward from the center of the Earth).E-CID uses the serving cell's identity, timing advance (i.e., the difference between receive and transmit times at the UE), estimated timing and power of detected neighbor cell signals, and possibly the angle of arrival (e.g., of a signal at the UE from a base station, or vice versa) to determine the location of the UE. In TDOA, the difference in the arrival times at a receiving device of signals from different sources, along with the known locations of the sources and known offsets in the transmit times from the sources, are used to determine the location of the receiving device.

[0067]

[0087] In network-centric RTT estimation, the serving base station instructs the UE to scan / receive RTT measurement signals (e.g., PRS) on serving cells of two or more neighboring base stations (and the serving base station, since typically at least three base stations are required). One or more base stations transmit the RTT measurement signals on low reuse resources (e.g., resources used by the base station to transmit system information) allocated by the network (e.g., a location server such as the LMF 120). The UE records the arrival time (also called receive time, reception time, time of reception, or time of arrival (ToA)) of each RTT measurement signal relative to the UE's current downlink timing (e.g., as derived by the UE from a DL signal received from its serving base station), transmits (e.g., when commanded by its serving base station) a common or individual RTT response message (e.g., a sounding reference signal (SRS) for positioning, i.e., UL-PRS) to one or more base stations, and records in the payload of each RTT response message the time difference T between the ToA of the RTT measurement signal and the transmission time of the RTT response message. Rx→Tx (i.e., UE T Rx-Tx or UE Rx-TxThe RTT response message will include a reference signal from which the base station can infer the ToA of the RTT response. The difference T Tx→Rx The time difference T Rx→Tx By comparing it with, the base station can infer the propagation time between the base station and the UE and the base station can determine the distance between the UE and the base station by assuming the speed of light during this propagation time.

[0068]

[0088] The UE-centric RTT estimation is similar to the network-based method, except that the UE (e.g., when commanded by the serving base station) transmits an uplink RTT measurement signal that is received by multiple base stations in the UE's vicinity. Each participating base station responds with a downlink RTT response message, which may include in the RTT response message payload the time difference between the ToA of the RTT measurement signal at the base station and the transmission time of the RTT response message from the base station.

[0069]

[0089] For both network-centric and UE-centric procedures, the party performing the RTT calculation (network or UE) typically (but not always) sends an initial message or signal (e.g., an RTT measurement signal) and the other side responds with one or more RTT response messages or signals, which may include the difference between the ToA of the initial message or signal and the transmission time of the RTT response message or signal.

[0070]

[0090] Multi-RTT techniques may be used to determine a location. For example, a first entity (e.g., a UE) may send out one or more signals (e.g., unicast, multicast, or broadcast from a base station), and multiple second entities (e.g., base stations and / or other TSPs such as UEs) may receive signals from the first entity and respond to the received signals. The first entity receives responses from multiple second entities. The first entity (or another entity such as an LMF) may use the responses from the second entity to determine a distance to the second entity, and may use the multiple distances and the known location of the second entity to determine the location of the first entity by trilateration.

[0071]

[0091] In some cases, additional information may be obtained in the form of a linear direction (which may be, for example, in the horizontal plane or in three dimensions), or possibly an angle of arrival (AoA) or angle of departure (AoD) that defines a range of directions (e.g., for the UE from the location of the base station). The intersection of the two directions may provide another estimate of the location for the UE.

[0072]

[0092] In positioning techniques using PRS (positioning reference signal) signals (e.g., TDOA and RTT), PRS signals sent by multiple TRPs are measured and the arrival time of the signal, the known transmission time, and the known location of the TRPs are used to determine the distance from the UE to the TRP. For example, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) may be determined for PRS signals received from multiple TRPs and used in TDOA techniques to determine the location of the UE. Positioning reference signals may be referred to as PRS or PRS signals. PRS signals are usually sent using the same power, and PRS signals with the same signal characteristics (e.g., the same frequency shift) may interfere with each other, so that a PRS signal from a more distant TRP may be buried in a PRS signal from a closer TRP, and so that a signal from a more distant TRP may not be detected. PRS muting may be used to help reduce interference by muting some PRS signals (reducing the power of the PRS signal, e.g., to 0, and thus not transmitting the PRS signal). In this way, a weaker PRS signal (at the UE) may be more easily detected by the UE without the weaker PRS signal interfering with a stronger PRS signal. The terms RS and their variants (e.g., PRS, SRS, CSI-RS (Channel State Information Reference Signal)) may refer to one reference signal or two or more reference signals.

[0073]

[0093] Positioning reference signals (PRS) include downlink PRS (DL PRS, often referred to simply as PRS) and uplink PRS (UL PRS), which may be referred to as SRS (Sounding Reference Signal) for positioning. The PRS may comprise a PN code (pseudorandom code) or may be generated using a PN code (e.g., by modulating a carrier signal with the PN code) so that the source of the PRS may act as a pseudolite. The PN code may be unique to the PRS source (at least within a designated area so that the same PRS from different PRS sources do not overlap). The PRS may comprise a PRS resource and / or a PRS resource set of a frequency layer. A DL PRS positioning frequency layer (or simply frequency layer) is a collection of DL PRS resource sets from one or more TRPs with PRS resource(s) having common parameters configured by the higher layer parameters DL-PRS-PositioningFrequencyLayer, DL-PRS-ResourceSet, and DL-PRS-Resource. Each frequency layer has a DL PRS subcarrier spacing (SCS) for the DL PRS resource set and DL PRS resources in the frequency layer. Each frequency layer has a DL PRS cyclic prefix (CP) for the DL PRS resource set and DL PRS resources in the frequency layer. In 5G, a resource block occupies 12 consecutive subcarriers and a specified number of symbols. A common resource block is a set of resource blocks that occupy a channel bandwidth. A bandwidth portion (BWP) is a set of adjacent common resource blocks, which may include all common resource blocks within the channel bandwidth or a subset of a common resource block. Also, the DL PRS point A parameter defines the frequency of the reference resource block (and the lowest subcarrier of the resource block), and the DL PRS resources belong to the same DL PRS resource set with the same point A, and all DL PRS resource sets belong to the same frequency layer with the same point A.The frequency layers also have the same DL PRS bandwidth, the same starting PRB (and center frequency), and the same value of comb size (i.e., the frequency of PRS resource elements per symbol, where every Nth resource element is a PRS resource element for comb N). A PRS resource set may be identified by a PRS resource set ID and associated with a particular TRP (identified by a cell ID) transmitted by an antenna panel of a base station. A PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set may be associated with an omnidirectional signal and / or a single beam (and / or beam ID) transmitted from a single base station (where a base station may transmit one or multiple beams). Each PRS resource in a PRS resource set may be transmitted on a different beam, and thus a PRS resource or simply a resource may also be referred to as a beam. This does not have any implication as to whether the base station and the beam on which the PRS is transmitted are known to the UE.

[0074]

[0094] The TRP may be configured to send the DL PRS per schedule, for example, by instructions received from a server and / or by software in the TRP. According to the schedule, the TRP may send the DL PRS intermittently, for example, periodically at a fixed interval from the first transmission. The TRP may be configured to send one or more PRS resource sets. A resource set is a collection of PRS resources across one TRP, where the resources have the same period, common muting pattern configuration (if any), and the same repetition factor across a slot. Each of the PRS resource sets comprises multiple PRS resources, and each PRS resource comprises multiple OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) resource elements (REs) that may be in multiple resource blocks (RBs) in N (one or more) consecutive symbols in a slot. PRS resources (or reference signal (RS) resources in general) may be referred to as OFDM PRS resources (or OFDM RS resources). An RB is a collection of REs spanning an amount of one or more consecutive symbols in the time domain and an amount of consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain (12 for 5G RBs). Each PRS resource is composed of an RE offset, a slot offset, a symbol offset within the slot, and the number of consecutive symbols the PRS resource may occupy within the slot. The RE offset defines the starting RE offset of the first symbol in the DL PRS resource in frequency. The relative RE offsets of the remaining symbols in the DL PRS resource are defined based on the initial offset. The slot offset is the starting slot of the DL PRS resource with respect to the corresponding resource set slot offset. The symbol offset determines the starting symbol of the DL PRS resource within the starting slot. The transmitted RE may repeat across slots, with each transmission being called a repetition, and as a result there may be multiple repetitions within a PRS resource. The DL PRS resources in a DL PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP, and each DL PRS resource has a DL PRS resource ID.A DL PRS resource ID in a DL PRS resource set is associated with a single beam transmitted from a single TRP (although a TRP may transmit one or multiple beams).

[0075]

[0095] The PRS resources may also be defined by quasi-co-location and start PRB parameters. The quasi-co-location (QCL) parameter may define any quasi-co-location information of the DL PRS resources with other reference signals. The DL PRS may be configured to be QCL type D with DL PRS or SS / PBCH (synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel) blocks from a serving or non-serving cell. The DL PRS may be configured to be QCL type C with SS / PBCH blocks from a serving or non-serving cell. The start PRB parameter defines the start PRB index of the DL PRS resources with respect to reference point A. The start PRB index may have a granularity of one PRB and a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 2176 PRBs.

[0076]

[0096] A PRS resource set is a collection of PRS resources with the same periodicity, the same muting pattern configuration (if any), and the same repetition factor across slots. Each time at which all repetitions of all PRS resources of a PRS resource set are configured to be transmitted is called an "instance." Thus, an "instance" of a PRS resource set is a specified number of repetitions for each PRS resource, and a specified number of PRS resources in a PRS resource set, such that an instance is complete when a specified number of repetitions have been transmitted for each of the specified number of PRS resources. An instance may also be called an "opportunity." A DL PRS configuration, including a DL PRS transmission schedule, may be provided to a UE to facilitate (or even enable) the UE to measure the DL PRS.

[0077]

[0097] Multiple frequency layers of a PRS may be aggregated to give an effective bandwidth larger than any one of the layer bandwidths alone. Multiple frequency layers of component carriers (which may be contiguous and / or distinct), that meet criteria such as being quasi-co-located (QCLed), having the same antenna ports, etc., may be stitched together to give a larger effective PRS bandwidth (for DL ​​and UL PRS), resulting in increased time-of-arrival measurement accuracy. Stitching comprises combining PRS measurements across individual bandwidth pieces such that the stitched PRS can be treated as if taken from a single measurement. When QCLed, the different frequency layers behave similarly, allowing stitching of PRSs to result in a larger effective bandwidth. The larger effective bandwidth, sometimes referred to as the aggregated PRS bandwidth or the aggregated PRS frequency bandwidth, provides better time-domain resolution (e.g., of TDOA). An aggregated PRS includes a collection of PRS resources, where each PRS resource of the aggregated PRS may be referred to as a PRS component, and each PRS component may be transmitted on a different component carrier, band, or frequency layer, or on a different portion of the same band.

[0078]

[0098] RTT positioning is an active positioning technique in that the RTT uses positioning signals sent by the TRP to the UE and by the UE (participating in the RTT positioning) to the TRP. The TRP may send DL-PRS signals that are received by the UE, and the UE may send SRS (sounding reference signal) signals that are received by multiple TRPs. The sounding reference signal may be called SRS or SRS signal. In 5G multi-RTT, coordinated positioning may be used, and the UE sends a single UL-SRS for positioning that is received by multiple TRPs, rather than sending a separate UL-SRS for positioning for each TRP. A TRP participating in multi-RTT typically looks for UEs currently camped on that TRP (served UEs, the TRP is the serving TRP) and also looks for UEs camped on neighboring TRPs (neighboring UEs). The neighboring TRPs may be TRPs of a single BTS (base transceiver station) (e.g., gNB), or may be TRPs of one BTS and TRPs of separate BTSs. In RTT positioning, including multi-RTT positioning, the DL-PRS and UL-SRS signals for the positioning signals in the PRS / SRS for the positioning signal pair used to determine the RTT (and thus the distance between the UE and the TRP) may be close in time to each other, so that errors due to UE movement and / or UE clock drift and / or TRP clock drift are within acceptable limits. For example, the signals in the PRS / SRS for the positioning signal pair may be transmitted from the TRP and the UE within about 10 ms of each other, respectively. It has been found that when the SRS for the positioning signal is sent by the UE and the PRS and SRS for the positioning signal are carried close in time to each other, especially when many UEs attempt to position simultaneously, radio frequency (RF) signal congestion (which may cause excessive noise, etc.) may occur and / or calculation congestion may occur in the TRP attempting to measure many UEs simultaneously.

[0079]

[0099] RTT positioning can be UE-based or UE-assisted. In UE-based RTT, the UE 200 determines the RTT and the corresponding distance to each of the TRPs 300 and the location of the UE 200 based on the distance to the TRPs 300 and the known location of the TRPs 300. In UE-assisted RTT, the UE 200 measures positioning signals and provides measurement information to the TRPs 300, which determines the RTT and distance. The TRPs 300 provide distances to a location server, e.g., server 400, which determines the location of the UE 200, e.g., based on the distances to the different TRPs 300. The RTT and / or distances can be determined by the TRPs 300 receiving signals from the UE 200, by the TRPs 300 in combination with one or more other devices, e.g., one or more other TRPs 300 and / or server 400, or by one or more devices other than the TRPs 300 receiving signals from the UE 200.

[0080]

[0100] Various positioning techniques are supported in 5G NR. NR native positioning methods supported in 5G NR include DL-only, UL-only, and DL+UL positioning methods. Downlink-based positioning methods include DL-TDOA and DL-AoD. Uplink-based positioning methods include UL-TDOA and UL-AoA. Combined DL+UL-based positioning methods include RTT with one base station and RTT with multiple base stations (multi-RTT).

[0081]

[0101] A position estimate (e.g., for a UE) may be called by other names, such as a location estimate, location, position, position fix, fix, etc. A position estimate may be geodetic and comprise coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude) or may be civic and comprise a street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of the location. A position estimate may further be defined relative to some other known location or in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). A position estimate may include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume that is expected to contain the location with some specified or default confidence).

[0082]

[0102] PRS measurement sharing

[0103] 5 and 6 with further reference to FIGS. 1-4, location information (e.g., one or more PRS measurements, one or more processed PRS measurements (e.g., one or more pseudoranges), and / or one or more location estimates) may be shared between UEs that are close enough together that location information for one UE (e.g., measurements made by one UE or a location estimate for one UE) may be treated as location information for another UE while still providing acceptable positioning accuracy. For example, UEs 511, 512, 513 may be disposed in close proximity to each other and share PRS measurements for positioning purposes with an accuracy of the order of the separation of UEs 511-513. In this example, UE 511 is a smart watch, UE 512 is a smartphone, and UE 513 is a vehicular UE (integrated into vehicle 500 and indicated by an antenna housing in FIG. 5). The UEs 511-513 are disposed within a few meters (e.g., 2 meters) of each other and therefore may share PRS measurements or use a common location estimate for a resolution of a few meters or less (higher number of meters), e.g., a positioning accuracy of 2 m or better. As shown, each of the UEs 511-513 receives PRSs 531, 532, 533 from the base station 520, the UEs 512, 513 provide location information 542, 543 (e.g., PRS measurements, processed PRS measurements, and / or location estimates) to the UE 511 via sidelink, and the UE 511 provides a measurement report 550 with the location information to the server 400. The measurement report 550 may include one or more PRS measurements made by the UE 511 and / or one or more PRS measurements made by one or more of the UEs 512, 513. 6, the amount of measurements 610 made (and possibly reported) by the UE 511 without the UE 511 receiving shared measurements from the UEs 512, 513 is much larger than the amount of measurements 620 made (and possibly reported) by the UE 511 when the UE 511 receives shared location information 630 corresponding to measurements made by the UEs 512, 513. Some of the measurements 620 may be the same as some of the location information 630.With sharing, the UE 511 may save energy by avoiding measuring one or more PRS resources when the UE 511 receives or is expected to receive location information from the UE 512, 513. FIG. 6 is an example and not to scale, for example, the measurements 620 made by the UE 511 with sharing may be much less (e.g., 1 / 10) than the measurements 610 made without location information sharing. Location information sharing may be performed in an individual benefit mode with information shared with a UE and used for the benefit of that UE (to determine the location of that UE) or in a group benefit mode with location information shared and used for the benefit of a group of UEs (to determine a location that may be used for the location of each of the UEs in the group). Location information sharing in the individual benefit mode may be transparent to the server 400, and location information sharing in the group benefit mode is visible to the server 400. The individual benefit mode may be referred to as a connected mode because the UE 511 may be considered to be connected to riding on location information from one or more other UEs. For example, in the individual benefit mode, the UE 511 may obtain all PRS measurements from one or more other UEs in the group (e.g., without the UE 511 making PRS measurements). As another example, the UE 511 may make one or more PRS measurements but use and / or report only the PRS measurements obtained from other UEs in the group. The group benefit mode may be referred to as a ride-share mode because the group of UEs may be considered to be riding together and may act as a virtual UE to provide location information for the group of UEs. In the group benefit mode, the positioning entity, which may be the server 400 (e.g., LMF) or a server 400 integrated with the TRP 300 (e.g., LMF in the and RAN), is aware of the task offloading between UEs. The individual benefit mode or the group benefit mode may be used when the positioning accuracy requirements are loose enough that it is acceptable not to know the exact location of the UE or UEs in the cluster of UEs, respectively.However, location estimation may be improved for a device with limited positioning accuracy by leveraging location information from a device capable of higher positioning accuracy (e.g., higher bandwidth, more processing power, etc.) and / or by obtaining location information (e.g., PRS measurements) with less positioning error than a device with limited positioning accuracy obtains, for example, for one or more particular measurements. For example, a vehicle UE 513 may be capable of processing more PRS instances than a smartwatch UE 511 and therefore may be able to obtain more accurate measurements of the same PRS than the UE 511.

[0083]

[0104] 7, the UE 700 includes a processor 710, a transceiver 720, and a memory 730 communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 740. The UE 700 may include the components shown in FIG. 7 and one or more other components, such as any of the components shown in FIG. 2, and thus the UE 200 may be an example of a UE 700. For example, the processor 710 may include one or more of the components of the processor 210. The transceiver 720 may include one or more of the components of the transceiver 215, such as the wireless transmitter 242 and antenna 246, or the wireless receiver 244 and antenna 246, or the wireless transmitter 242, the wireless receiver 244, and the antenna 246. Also or alternatively, the transceiver 720 may include the wired transmitter 252 and / or the wired receiver 254. Memory 730 may be configured similarly to memory 211, including, for example, software with processor-readable instructions configured to cause processor 710 to perform functions.

[0084]

[0105] The description herein may refer to the processor 710 performing functions, including other implementations, such as when the processor 710 executes software and / or firmware (stored in memory 730). The description herein may refer to the UE 700 performing functions as shorthand for one or more appropriate components of the UE 700 performing the functions (e.g., the processor 710 and the memory 730). The processor 710 may include a PRS measurement unit 750, a location information reporting unit 760, a location information sharing unit 770, and a cross-validation unit 780 (possibly together with the memory 730 and, where appropriate, the transceiver 720). The PRS measurement unit 750, the location information reporting unit 760, the location information sharing unit 770, and the cross-validation unit 780 are further described below, and the description may refer generally to the processor 710, or generally to the UE 700, as performing any of the functions of the PRS measurement unit 750, the location information reporting unit 760, the location information sharing unit 770, and the cross-validation unit 780, which the UE 700 is configured to perform. The location information sharing unit 770 may be configured to transmit location information to and / or receive location information from another UE.

[0085]

[0106] 8, the positioning entity 800 includes a processor 810, a transceiver 820, and a memory 830 communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 840. The positioning entity 800 may include the components shown in FIG. 8 and may include one or more other components, such as any of the components shown in FIG. 2, or FIG. 3, and / or FIG. 4, such that the positioning entity 800 may be part of the server 400 (e.g., a location server such as an LMF), integrated into the TRP 300, or integrated into the UE 700. Thus, a reference to the processor 810, the transceiver 820, or the memory 830 is equivalent to a reference to the corresponding components of the server 400, the TRP 300, or the UE 700. For example, the transceiver 820 may include one or more of the components of the transceiver 215 or the transceiver 315 and / or the transceiver 415, e.g., the antenna 246 and the wireless transmitter 242 and / or the wireless receiver 244, the antenna 346 and the wireless transmitter 342 and / or the wireless receiver 344, and / or the antenna 446 and the wireless transmitter 442 and / or the wireless receiver 444. Also or alternatively, the transceiver 820 may include the wired transmitter 252 and / or the wired receiver 254, or the wired transmitter 352 and / or the wired receiver 354, and / or the wired transmitter 452 and / or the wired receiver 454. The memory 830 may be configured similarly to the memory 211, or the memory 311 and / or the memory 411, e.g., including software with processor-readable instructions configured to cause the processor 810 to perform functions.

[0086]

[0107] The description herein may refer to the processor 810 performing functions, including other implementations, such as when the processor 810 executes software and / or firmware (stored in memory 830). The description herein may refer to the positioning entity 800 performing functions as shorthand for one or more suitable components (e.g., the processor 810 and the memory 830) of the positioning entity 800 performing functions. The processor 810 (possibly together with the memory 830, and optionally the transceiver 820) may include a virtual UE management unit 850 and a virtual UE location information management unit 860. The virtual UE management unit 850 and the virtual UE location information management unit 860 are described further below, and the description may refer to the processor 810 generally, or to the positioning entity 800 generally, as performing any of the functions of the virtual UE management unit 850 and / or the virtual UE location information management unit 860, which the positioning entity is configured to perform.

[0087]

[0108] Individual Profit Mode

[0109] Referring again to FIG. 5 and further to FIG. 7, in the individual benefit mode, a UE 700 (e.g., UE 511) may offload one or more PRS measurements in a procedure that is transparent to the server 400 with little or no impact on the LPP protocol. A donor UE (e.g., UE 512 and / or UE 513) is a UE that provides one or more PRS measurements to another UE. A recipient UE (also called a hitchhiker UE) is a UE, e.g., UE 511, that receives one or more PRS measurements over a sidelink from one or more other UEs. In the individual benefit mode, each UE (donor and recipient) maintains an independent positioning session (for measurements and reporting) with the server 400. The donor UE may provide PRS measurements with a UE-neutral PRS-ID (i.e., a PRS-ID that is not UE specific) to the recipient UE, and the recipient UE may report the PRS measurements with the UE-neutral PRS-ID and / or with a UE-specific PRS-ID corresponding to the recipient UE. The UE 700, e.g., the location information sharing unit 770, may be configured to be only a donor UE, or only a recipient UE, or both a donor UE and a recipient UE, and each of the UEs 511-513 is an example of a UE 700.

[0088]

[0110] Various information may be shared by the donor UE to the recipient UE, such as RSRP, RSTD, Rx-Tx (e.g., UE Rx-TxMeasurements such as AoA, AoD, timestamps, etc. (e.g., any available measurements defined in LPP) may be provided by the location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE to the location information sharing unit 770 of the recipient UE. Also or alternatively, one or more location estimates may be provided by the location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE to the location information sharing unit 770 of the recipient UE, for example, if the donor UE is in a UE-based (UE-B) positioning mode or in a UE-assisted (UE-A) positioning mode, is a location client, and receives a location estimate (for the donor UE) from the server 400 (e.g., LMF). A donor UE in a UE-B positioning mode may share measurements (including processed measurements) and / or location estimates with a recipient UE in a UE-B positioning mode. A donor UE in a UE-B positioning mode may share measurements with a recipient UE in a UE-A positioning mode. A donor UE in a UE-A positioning mode may share measurements with a recipient UE in a UE-A positioning mode. A donor UE in UE-A positioning mode may share positioning and / or location estimates (if the donor UE has a location estimate from the server) with a receiving UE in UE-B positioning mode.

[0089]

[0111] The location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE may be configured to associate each shared measurement (including processed measurements) with a PRS-ID. The PRS-ID may have any of a variety of forms and levels of detail. In the case of Uu-PRS (e.g., DL-PRS from the TRP 300 to the UE 700), the PRS-ID may include a TRP-ID, a TRP-ID and a PRS resource set ID, or a TRP-ID and a PRS resource set ID and a PRS resource ID. What level of detail is provided for the PRS-ID may depend on what type of positioning technique the measurement is to be used for and / or what type of measurement is being shared. For example, in the case of RSTD, giving only the TRP-ID may be sufficient to allow the receiving UE to determine the cell or site of the measurement. In the case of AoA or AoD, the PRS-ID may include a PRS resource ID because multiple RSRP positioning measurements corresponding to multiple PRS resources may be given and / or resolution at the PRS resource level may be required to meet the desired accuracy. In the case of SL-PRS (sidelink PRS between UEs), the PRS-ID may include the UE-ID, or the UE-ID and the SL-PRS resource related ID. The PRS-ID provided by the donor UE is a UE-neutral ID, e.g., a global ID, which the location information sharing unit 770 of the receiving UE 700 may convert to a PRS-ID specific to the receiving UE.

[0090]

[0112] The location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE may be configured to share a subset of the location information available for sharing by the donor UE. For example, the location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE may be configured to share a number of representative measurements per TRP, per PRS resource set, or per PRS source site (e.g., a base station that may include multiple TRPs). The location information sharing unit 770 may be configured to select which location information to share based on one or more factors. For example, the location information sharing unit 770 may apply an earliest arrival principle to select location information corresponding to the PRS resource that arrived earliest at the donor UE. The earliest arrival principle may be applied in particular for RSTD that is performed with timing measurements, e.g., earliest ToA measurements. As another example, the location information sharing unit 770 may apply a strongest principle to select location information corresponding to the PRS resource that arrived at the donor UE with the highest power. The strongest principle may be applied in particular for power measurements, e.g., RSRP measurements. To select positioning per site, the donor UE uses knowledge of the location of each anchor node (e.g., TRP, UE). The donor UE may obtain location information of each anchor node in the assistance data provided to the donor UE when the donor UE is in UE-B positioning mode, or by request from the donor UE when the donor UE is in UE-A positioning mode. The server 400 may provide a single location for a group of co-located TRPs, which reduces overhead compared to providing a location for each of the co-located TRPs separately. The PRS measurement unit 750 of the donor UE may use the single location for the group of TRPs to avoid redundant measurements, for example, by measuring one PRS corresponding to the site of the co-located TRP.

[0091]

[0113] 9 with further reference to FIGS. 1-8, a signaling and process flow 900 for granting and measuring PRS resources, requesting reporting of PRS resource measurements, and reporting PRS resource measurements includes the steps shown. The flow 900 is an example, as steps may be added, reordered, and / or removed. Signals may be exchanged directly between the UEs 901, 902, 903 and the server 400 in the flow 900 and / or may be exchanged via the TRP 300.

[0092]

[0114] In stage 910, the UEs 901-903 request and receive assistance data (AD). The UEs 901-903 send AD requests 911, 912, 913, and the server 400 responds by sending assistance data messages 914, 915, 916 with the respective ADs to the UEs 901-903. Although the AD messages 914-916 are shown sent from the server 400 to the UEs 901-903, the ADs may be sent to the UEs 901-903 by the TRP 300. The AD messages 914-916 include respective PRS schedules and PRS configurations (e.g., original PRS configurations and / or PRS reconfigurations) for the UEs 901-903. The PRS schedules may provide schedules for DL-PRS, SL-PRS, and / or UL-PRS. The PRS schedule indicates the timing and frequency of the PRS resources to assist the UEs 901-903 in measuring the scheduled PRS resources. The PRS schedule is provided to the UEs 901-903 and the TRP 300 by the server 400 (e.g., provided to the UEs 901-903 via the TRP 300). The server 400 may send an indication of the PRS schedule (e.g., its parameters) to the TRP 300, and the TRP 300 (e.g., the processor 310) may determine the PRS schedule based on the indication from the server 400.

[0093]

[0115] At stage 920, a location session between the server 400 and each of the recipient UE 901, donor UE 902, and donor UE 903 is initiated. The UEs 901-903 perform a handshake by exchanging appropriate messages to establish a respective positioning session for exchanging signaling for use in determining the location of the recipient UE 901. The handshake may include determining a positioning technique and appropriate location information (measurements and / or location estimates) to be determined. Each of the UEs 901-903 may be an example of a UE 700, where the UE 901 is configured to at least receive shared location information from the donor UEs 902, 903, and the donor UEs 902, 903 are configured to at least share location information with the recipient UE 901.

[0094]

[0116] In step 930, the recipient UE 901 determines whether any of the donor UEs 902, 903 are within an acceptable proximity of the recipient UE 901. At this point, the recipient UE 901 is a candidate recipient UE (which has not yet received shared location information) and the donor UEs 902, 903 are candidate donor UEs (which have not yet shared location information with the recipient UE 901), but are referred to as donor UEs. The recipient UE 901 determines the proximity of the donor UEs 902, 903 to determine whether either or both of the donor UEs 902, 903 are within an acceptable proximity of the recipient UE 901. The acceptable proximity may be a proximity where the candidate donor UE is close enough that location information determined by the candidate donor UE may be used by the recipient UE 901 as location information for the recipient UE 901 to determine a location estimate for the recipient UE 901 that meets a desired positioning accuracy (and / or one or more other QoS metrics). For example, the acceptable proximity may be that the candidate donor UE is within a threshold distance of the recipient UE 901. The recipient UE 903 may determine whether each of the donor UEs 902, 903 is within acceptable proximity using one or more of a variety of techniques. For example, the location information sharing unit 770 may include one or more of the sensors 213 (e.g., radar and / or lidar) and / or transceiver 720 to exchange ranging signals 931 with the donor UE 902 and / or exchange ranging signals 932 with the donor UE 903 to determine the proximity. The ranging signals 931, 932 may include radar signals, lidar signals, and / or SL-PRS. Any of the ranging signals 931, 932 may be used to determine the RTT and thus the distance between the receiver UE 901 and each of the donor UEs 902, 903. The SL-PRS may be used to determine the RTT, RSSI, and / or RSRP to determine the distance between the receiver UE 901 and each of the donor UEs 902, 903.As another example, SL discovery may indicate the proximity of the UEs, e.g., with sidelink communication being sent from the receiving UE 901 with a known transmit power, and if the receiving UE 901 receives an acknowledgment that the donor UE 902 and / or donor UE 903 received the SL communication, the receiving UE 901 may conclude that the responding UE 902, 903 is within acceptable proximity. For example, the receiving UE 901 may know that for the transmit power and frequency used for the SL communication, the distance is within acceptable proximity to receive the SL communication with sufficient power to be decoded. As another example, the receiving UE 901 may connect with one or more candidate donor UEs using a short-range wireless technology such as WLAN (wireless local area network), BLUETOOTH, and / or low energy BLUETOOTH, with successful connection equating to acceptable proximity. For example, the UE 511 may register with the UE 513 in response to entering the vehicle 500. As another example, the UE's proximity may be determined using observed time delays and / or comparing UE locations (e.g., determined using GNSS and / or one or more other techniques). The receiving UE 901 may require a candidate donor UE to be within a threshold proximity for a threshold amount of time to be considered a donor UE. The receiving UE 901 may determine that a candidate donor UE is within acceptable proximity based on the receiving UE 901 and the candidate donor UE having the same or similar neighbor lists of TRPs. The receiving UE 901 may determine that a candidate donor UE is within acceptable proximity based on the receiving UE 901 and the candidate donor UE moving similarly (e.g., moving in unison by being in the same vehicle). Still other techniques may be used to determine whether a candidate UE is within acceptable proximity of the receiving UE 901.

[0095]

[0117] Also, at stage 930, the receiver UE 901 negotiates with the donor UE 902, 903 regarding the capabilities of the UE 902, 903. The receiver UE 901 sends capability requests 933, 934 to the donor UE 902, 903 requesting a report of the capabilities of the donor UE 902, 903. In response to the requests 933, 934, the donor UE 902, 903 transmit respective capability reports 935, 936 to the receiver UE 901 indicating one or more capabilities of the donor UE 902, 903, respectively. For example, one or more of the capability reports 935, 936 may indicate one or more processing capabilities (e.g., bandwidth, buffer size, number of instances that can be measured) of the donor UE 902, 903, respectively. As another example, one or more of the capability reports 935, 936 may indicate one or more PRS measurement sharing capabilities, e.g., the type of location information that the UEs 902, 903 can determine and share with the recipient UE 901, and / or the UE-neutral PRS-IDs of scheduled PRS resources for the donor UEs 902, 903. The capability reports 935, 936 may indicate which PRS resources the donor UEs 902, 903 plan to measure and / or which location information the donor UEs 902, 903 plan to determine. The contents of the capability reports 935, 936 may be included in the AD message 914 provided to the recipient UE 901 (e.g., in some cases not sent by the donor UEs 902, 903 in separate capability reports 935, 936 as shown). The recipient UE 901 may send a behavior request 937 to the donor UE 902 and / or a behavior request 938 to the donor UE 903 to explicitly and / or implicitly request one or more shared behaviors. For example, the recipient UE 901 may explicitly request that the donor UE 902, 903 measure one or more PRS resources and / or determine location information that the donor UE 902, 903 does not plan to measure and / or determine. As another example, the recipient UE 901 may provide one or more QoS criteria desired by the recipient UE 901, and the donor UE 902, 903 may reply with what behavior the donor UE 902, 903 will provide.For example, the donor UEs 902, 903 may indicate that the respective donor UEs 902, 903 will provide location information on a best-effort basis and may provide the location information if the donor UEs 902, 903 have the location information. As another example, the donor UEs 902, 903 may indicate that the respective donor UEs 902, 903 will obtain additional (unplanned) location information (e.g., take one or more unplanned measurements and / or process one or more measurements to determine other location information (e.g., processed measurements and / or location estimates)) based on a request from the recipient UE 901. There may be multiple communications between the recipient UE 901 and one or both of the donor UEs 902, 903 to agree on the behavior of the donor UEs 902, 903 (e.g., supplemental capability reports sent by the UEs 902, 903 in response to requests 937, 938 and possibly supplemental requests sent in response to the supplemental capability reports, etc.).

[0096]

[0118] Also, in stage 930, the receiving UE 901 selects one or more candidate donor UEs to act as donor UEs and which location information to share. For example, the location information sharing unit 770 of the receiving UE 901 may identify multiple candidate donor UEs within an acceptable proximity and select one or more of these candidate donor UEs to share location information based on one or more factors. For example, the location information sharing unit 770 of the receiving UE 901 may, for example, select the candidate donor UE with the highest processing capability. As another example, the location information sharing unit 770 of the receiving UE 901 may select the candidate donor UE with the most PRS resources scheduled in common with the receiving UE 901 (e.g., based on UE-neutral PRS-ID) to help reduce processing performed by the receiving UE 901, for example. As another example, the location information sharing unit 770 of the receiving UE 901 may select the candidate donor UE closest to the receiving UE 901 (e.g., based on received signal strength, and / or based on the coarse location estimate of the receiving UE 901 and the location estimate of the donor UE, and / or based on one or more other factors). The location information sharing unit 770 of the receiving UE 901 may select one or more of the candidate donor UEs based on a combination of factors such as processing capacity and overlapping scheduled PRS resources. If multiple candidate donor UEs are equally desirable based on one or more factors, a tiebreaker may be employed, for example, to select a closer candidate donor UE (e.g., shorter RTT or stronger RSRP). The receiving UE 901 sends a sharing request to each of the donor UEs 902, 903 with which the receiving UE 901 has selected to share location information. In this example, the receiving UE 901 transmits a sharing request 939 to the donor UE 902.

[0097]

[0119] The sharing request 939 may include an indication of a requested periodicity for the donor UE 902 to share location information with the receiving UE 901. The requested periodicity (e.g., aperiodic, periodic, or semi-persistent (i.e., aperiodically triggered periodic)) may depend on the reporting periodicity of the receiving UE 901. For example, if the receiving UE 901 is providing aperiodic measurement reporting, the receiving UE 901 may request aperiodic location information sharing from the donor UE 902. The sharing request 939 may be sent by the receiving UE 901 via the sidelink or through the serving cell (e.g., through the TRP 300) using SCI (Sidelink Control Information), Sidelink-MAC-CE (Sidelink-Media Management Area Admission and Exit Management-Control Element), or Sidelink-RRC (Sidelink Radio Resource Control), so that location information sharing may be initiated by them. The sharing request 939 may include detailed measurement request information. For example, in the case of Uu-PRS (PRS between TRP and UE), the sharing request 939 may include a specific TRP, a specific TRP and PRS resource set, or a specific TRP and PRS resource set and PRS resource. The sharing request 939 may, for example, identify a TRP from which the receiving UE 901 wants the donor UE 902 to measure the PRS, or may identify a TRP and request the donor UE 902 to measure the PRS from one or more TRPs other than the identified TRP. As another example, the receiving UE 901 may identify one or more measurements that the donor UE 902 should exclude from sharing with the receiving UE 901 (e.g., to avoid redundancy since the receiving UE 901 will be making the measurements). In the case of SL-PRS, the sharing request 939 may include a UE-ID, or a UE-ID and a SL-PRS resource relationship ID.

[0098]

[0120] In stage 940, the TRP 300 sends the PRSs 941, 942 to the UEs 901, 902, respectively. For example, the TRP 300 sends the PRSs 941, 942 according to the PRS schedule indicated in the AD messages 914, 915. In this example, the DL-PRS is sent by the TRP 300, but other PRSs (e.g., the SL-PRS) may also or alternatively be transmitted to the recipient UE 901 and / or the donor UE 902 in stage 940. The PRSs 941, 942 may be equivalent, for example, if the TRP 300 is broadcasting the PRSs.

[0099]

[0121] In step 950, the receiving UE 901 may measure none, a subset, or all of the PRSs 941, and the donor UE 902 may measure at least a portion of the PRSs 942. For example, in sub-step 951, the PRS measurement unit 750 of the receiving UE 901 may measure none of the PRS resources of the PRSs 941, or may measure one or more PRS resources of the PRSs 941, based on, for example, desired measurements for the positioning technique used, QoS criteria to be met, location information expected to be received from the donor UE 902, and / or processing limitations / requirements (e.g., power limitations) of the receiving UE 901. In sub-step 952, the PRS measurement unit 750 of the receiving UE 901 may, for example, measure all, less than all, or no PRSs 941. The PRS measurement unit 750 of the donor UE 902 may, for example, measure one or more PRS resources of the PRS 942 based on the measurement behavior agreed upon (explicitly or implicitly (e.g., to satisfy one or more agreed criteria, such as location information to be provided)) in stage 930. For example, the donor UE 902 may adopt a best-effort behavior with respect to measuring the PRS, or may measure one or more additional PRS resources as appropriate, for example, to satisfy a request by the recipient UE 901 and if the additional measurements are within any measurement limits of the donor UE 902. In sub-stages 951, 952, the receiving UE 901 and / or donor UE 902 may determine location information from one or more respective PRS measurements (e.g., PRS measurements and / or processed PRS measurements (e.g., pseudoranges for UE-assisted or UE-based positioning, and location estimates for UE-based positioning). The location information may include one or more processed measurements (e.g., pseudoranges) and / or one or more location estimates of the receiving UE 901 or donor UE 902, respectively.

[0100]

[0122] In step 960, the donor UE 902 transmits location information 961 to the recipient UE 901. The location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE 902 transmits the location information determined by the donor UE 902, for example, the location information to be provided agreed upon in step 930, to the recipient UE 901 via sidelink communication. The location information may be provided periodically, semi-persistently, or aperiodically (for example, in response to an aperiodic request from the recipient UE 901, such as the sharing request 939). The location information 961 may indicate a PRS measured to obtain the corresponding location information, where the PRS is indicated by a UE neutral ID. The location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE 902 converts a UE-specific PRS-ID for the donor UE 902 into a UE neutral ID and transmits it to the recipient UE 901, and the location information sharing unit 770 of the recipient UE 901 converts the UE neutral ID into a UE-specific ID corresponding to the recipient UE 901.

[0101]

[0123] In stage 970, the receiving UE 901 may cross-validate the location information. For example, the cross-validation unit 780 of the receiving UE 901 may compare the location information received from the donor UE 902 with similar location information determined by the receiving UE 901 and / or similar location information received from another donor UE (in close proximity to the receiving UE 901). For example, the cross-validation unit 780 of the receiving UE 901 may compare the PRS measurements from the location information 961 with similar measurements made by the PRS measurement unit 750 of the receiving UE 901. The measurements may correspond to, for example, the same PRS source site, the same TRP, the same PRS resource set, or the same PRS resource. If the measurements differ by less than a threshold amount (e.g., the absolute value of the difference (subtraction) is less than a threshold or the absolute value of the ratio is less than another threshold), the cross-validation unit 780 of the receiving UE 901 determines that both of the measurements may be reliable or that both of the measurements may be unreliable. If the measurements differ by more than a threshold amount, then at least one of the measurements is determined to be unreliable (e.g., due to multipath), e.g., undesirable to be used to determine the location of the recipient UE 901. For example, in the case of a timing measurement where one measurement is determined to be unreliable (an outlier), the cross-validation unit 780 may identify the measurement corresponding to the earlier arriving PRS resource as potentially reliable and the measurement corresponding to the later arriving PRS resource as unreliable. The earlier arriving PRS resource has an earlier arrival time, i.e., the ToA measurement of the earlier arriving PRS resource will be earlier in time than the ToA measurement of the later arriving PRS resource. As another example, if the RTT measurements differ by more than a threshold amount, the larger RTT measurement may be identified as unreliable. Since the recipient UE 901 and the donor UE 902 are in close proximity, the RTT measurements by the UEs 901, 902 for the same PRS source site are expected to be very similar. Thus, for example, if one RTT measurement is 10 ms and the other is 100 ms, the 100 ms RTT measurement may be identified as unreliable. Cross-validation is described further below.

[0102]

[0124] Also, in stage 970, the receiving UE 901 transmits a measurement report 971 to the server 400. The measurement report 971 may be transmitted from the receiving UE 901 to the server 400 directly or via the TRP 300. The location information reporting unit 760 of the receiving UE 901 may omit any location information determined to be unreliable by cross-validation. The measurement report 971 may include location information corresponding to one or more measurements made by the receiving UE 901 and / or one or more measurements made by the donor UE 902 (e.g., similar to the measurements 620 and location information 630 shown in FIG. 6). The measurement report 971 may include one or more receiving UE measurements that are similar to one or more donor UE measurements, e.g., measurements of the same PRS resource, or the same site, or the same TRP, or PRS resources from the same TRP resource set. The location information reporting unit 760 of the receiving UE 901 may format the measurement report 971 to correspond to the receiving UE 901, for example, identifying the PRS by a UE-specific PRS-ID corresponding to the receiving UE 901. The location information reporting unit 760 of the receiving UE 901 may not provide an indication that any location information in the measurement report 971 was provided by the donor UE 902, so as to make the location information sharing transparent to the server 400.

[0103]

[0125] At stage 980, the server 400 determines location information for the UE-assisted positioning. For example, the processor 410 uses the measurement report 971, and possibly other information (e.g., measurements from one or more TRPs 300 of one or more signals from the receiving UE 901) to determine location information for the receiving UE 901, e.g., one or more signal measurements, one or more distances (e.g., pseudoranges), and / or one or more location estimates for the receiving UE 901.

[0104]

[0126] At stage 990, one or more early termination requests may be exchanged and / or one or more requests to change the sharing configuration may be exchanged. For example, the receiver UE 901 and / or the donor UE 902 may send a termination request 991 to the donor UE 902 or the receiver UE 901, respectively. The termination request 991 may request termination of location information sharing before expiration of the time for periodic or semi-persistent sharing. As another example, the receiver UE 901 and / or the donor UE 902 may send a reconfiguration request 992 to the donor UE 902 or the receiver UE 901, respectively. The reconfiguration request 992 may request to start a new negotiation of sharing behavior and / or may indicate one or more specific location information sharing behaviors (e.g., specific location information desired, a change to best effort sharing, etc.).

[0105]

[0127] 1-9, a location information reporting method 1000 includes the steps shown. However, the method 1000 is by way of example and not by way of limitation. The method 1000 may be altered, for example, by having steps added, removed, reordered, combined, performed simultaneously, and / or by splitting a single step into multiple steps.

[0106]

[0128] At stage 1010, the method 1000 includes communicating by the first UE with the second UE to identify a first PRS measurement to be made by the second UE. For example, at stage 930, the recipient UE 901 communicates with the donor UE 902 to identify (e.g., to determine or agree upon) one or more PRS measurements to be made by the donor UE 902 (instead of or in addition to the recipient UE 902). The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, may comprise means for communicating with the second UE in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the antenna 246 and the wireless transmitter 242, possibly the wireless receiver 244).

[0107]

[0129] At stage 1020, the method 1000 includes receiving, by the first UE from the second UE via sidelink communication, first location information based on the first PRS measurement. For example, at stage 960, the receiving UE 901 receives location information 961 based on the measurement of PRS 942 in substage 952. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for receiving the first location information.

[0108]

[0130] At stage 1030, the method 1000 includes transmitting the first location information from the first UE to a network entity. For example, at stage 970, the location information reporting unit 760 of the receiving UE 901 transmits a measurement report 971 to the server 400 including the location information determined by the donor UE 902 and shared with the receiving UE 901. The measurement report 971 may or may not include the location information determined from one or more PRS measurements made by the receiving UE 901. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the antenna 246 and the wireless transmitter 242), may comprise means for transmitting the first location information and the second location information to a network entity.

[0109]

[0131] Implementations of method 1000 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, method 1000 comprises determining a proximity of the second UE to the first UE, and transmitting the first location information to the network entity comprises transmitting the first location information to the network entity based on the proximity of the second UE to the first UE being acceptably close. For example, at stage 930, the receiving UE 901 may determine a proximity to the candidate donor UE, for example, by exchanging ranging signals using one or more of the sensors (e.g., radar, lidar, etc.) and / or by exchanging one or more signals received by wireless receiver 244 via antenna 246 (possibly in response to one or more signals transmitted by wireless transmitter 242 via antenna 246). The recipient UE 901 may negotiate with the donor UE 902 (and / or other donor UEs) only if the donor UE 902 is determined to be acceptably close to the recipient UE 901 (e.g., within a threshold distance, within communication range of the recipient UE 901 with a transmit power of the recipient UE 901 below a threshold, etc.). As another example, the recipient UE 901 may only transmit location information received from the donor UE 902 if the donor UE 902 is determined to be acceptably close to the recipient UE 901. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, possibly in combination with one or more of the transceiver 720 (e.g., the antenna 246, the wireless receiver 244, and possibly the wireless transmitter 242) and / or the sensors 213 (e.g., a radar sensor, a lidar sensor, etc.), may comprise means for determining proximity to a candidate donor UE. In another example implementation, the method 1000 comprises identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE and selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs based on processing capabilities of the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor.For example, in stage 930, the recipient UE 901 may use the processing capabilities (shown in the capability reports 935, 936) of multiple UEs within acceptable proximity of the recipient UE 901 to determine proximity to candidate donor UEs and select a donor UE (or multiple donor UEs) from which to receive location information. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, possibly in combination with one or more of the transceiver 720 (e.g., the antenna 246, the wireless receiver 244, and possibly the wireless transmitter 242) and / or the sensor 213 (e.g., a radar sensor, a lidar sensor, etc.), may comprise means for identifying candidate UEs within acceptable proximity of the recipient UE 901, and the processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, may comprise means for selecting a second UE to act as a location information donor (e.g., selecting the donor UE 902 from the candidate UEs) based on the processing capabilities of the multiple candidate UEs. In another example implementation, the method 1000 comprises identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of the first UE and selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on an overlap between a first PRS configuration associated with the first UE and a second PRS configuration each associated with a respective one of the plurality of candidate UEs. For example, in stage 930, the recipient UE 901 may use the PRS configurations of the plurality of UEs within the acceptable proximity of the recipient UE 901 to determine a proximity to the candidate donor UE and select a donor UE (or a plurality of donor UEs) from which to receive location information, e.g., a UE having a PRS configuration with the most PRS resources in common with the PRS configuration of the recipient UE 901. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, may comprise means for selecting a second UE to act as a location information donor (e.g., selecting a donor UE 902 from the candidate UEs) based on an overlap between the PRS configuration of the first UE and the PRS configuration of the plurality of candidate UEs.In another example implementation, the method 1000 comprises identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of the first UE and selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on the second UE being closest to the first UE among the plurality of candidate UEs. For example, at stage 930, the recipient UE 901 may determine a proximity to the candidate donor UEs and use the candidate donor UE closest to the recipient UE 901 as the donor UE. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, may comprise means for selecting the second UE to act as a location information donor (e.g., selecting the donor UE 902 from the candidate UEs) based on the second UE being closest to the first UE.

[0110]

[0132] Also or alternatively, implementations of the method 1000 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the method 1000 comprises transmitting a request to the second UE for the second UE to transmit the first location information at a requested periodicity of one of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic. For example, in stage 930, the location information sharing unit 770 of the receiving UE 901 sends a sharing request 939 to the donor UE 902 indicating a periodicity for sharing the location information to the receiving UE 901. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the antenna 246 and the wireless transmitter 242), may comprise means for transmitting the request to the second UE. In another example implementation, the requested periodicity is based on a reporting periodicity of the first UE for the second location information. For example, the location information sharing unit 770 of the receiving UE 901 may configure the sharing request 939 with a required periodicity based on the reporting periodicity indicated by the location information reporting unit 760 of the receiving UE 901.

[0111]

[0133] Also or alternatively, implementations of the method 1000 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the method 1000 comprises indicating, by a first UE, to a second UE, a TRP, or a TRP and a PRS resource set, or a TRP and a PRS resource set and a PRS resource, or a UE-ID, or a UE-ID and a sidelink-PRS resource association ID, for a first PRS measurement. For example, the sharing request 939 may give specific information regarding the PRS to be measured in order to report corresponding location information. For example, in case of Uu-PRS (PRS between TRP and UE), the sharing request 939 may indicate a TRP, a TRP+PRS resource set, or a TRP+PRS resource set+PRS resource. As another example, in case of SL-PRS, the sharing request 939 may indicate a UE-ID, or a UE-ID+SL-PRSID, e.g., a SL-PRS resource set ID and / or a SL-PRS resource ID. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the antenna 246 and the wireless transmitter 242), may comprise means for indicating such information about the first PRS measurement. In another example implementation, the method 1000 comprises verifying the first PRS measurement indicated in the first location information by comparing the first PRS measurement with a similar measurement made by a device other than the second UE. For example, in stage 970, the cross-validation unit 780 of the receiving UE 901 may cross-validate the measurement by the PRS measurement unit 750 of the donor UE 902 with another similar measurement (e.g., of the same PRS resource, or from the same PRS resource set, or from the same TRP, or from the same site, etc.) made by the receiving UE 901 or another UE. The device making the similar measurement may be the first UE (e.g., the receiving UE 901), or another device (e.g., another UE) separate from both the first UE and the second UE.The cross-validation unit 780 of the recipient UE 901 may cross-validate the measurements made by the PRS measurement unit 750 of the donor UE 902 (and received from the donor UE 902 by the location information sharing unit 770 of the recipient UE 901) with another similar measurement made by the recipient UE 901 and / or with another UE in acceptably close proximity to the recipient UE 901. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, may comprise means for validating the first PRS measurement. In another example implementation, the method 1000 includes measuring, by the first UE, PRS resources to determine a second PRS measurement and transmitting, from the first UE to a network entity, second location information based on the second PRS measurement. For example, in sub-stage 951, the receiving UE 902 (e.g., PRS measurement unit 750 of the receiving UE 901) measures a subset of the PRSs 941 received in stage 940 and transmits location information (e.g., measurements, processed measurements, location estimates) in a measurement report 971 based on the measurements of the PRSs 941 in stage 970. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., wireless receiver 244 and antenna 246), may comprise means for measuring PRS resources. In another example implementation, the method 1000 comprises transmitting the first location information to a network entity along with a group indication indicating a group including the first UE and the second UE. For example, the location information reporting unit 760 of the receiving UE 901 may include a group ID of a virtual UE associated with the first location information (e.g., so that the server 400 can combine the first location information with other appropriate information and / or transmit location information derived using the first location information to one or more appropriate devices, e.g., UEs, and / or take other appropriate action). The group ID may be obtained by the receiving UE 901 by being received from another UE or from the server 400, or by being generated by the receiving UE 901 (acting as a positioning entity / virtual UE controller).The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (eg, the antenna 246 and the wireless transmitter 242), may comprise means for transmitting the first location information along with the group indication.

[0112]

[0134] 1-9, a location information sharing method 1100 includes the steps shown. However, the method 1100 is by way of example and not by way of limitation. The method 1100 may be altered, for example, by having steps added, removed, reordered, combined, performed simultaneously, and / or by splitting a single step into multiple steps.

[0113]

[0135] At stage 1110, the method 1100 includes transmitting a location information sharing capability of the first UE from the first UE to the second UE via sidelink communication. For example, the location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE 902 transmits a capability report 935 to the recipient UE 901 indicating one or more location information sharing capabilities, e.g., capability to share location information, processing capability, bandwidth, scheduled PRS resources that the donor UE 902 may measure, etc. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for transmitting the location information sharing capability.

[0114]

[0136] At stage 1120, the method 1100 includes receiving a request for the first location information from the second UE via sidelink communication at the first UE. For example, the donor UE 902 receives a sharing request 939 from the recipient UE 901. The request may be a request for aperiodic, periodic, or semi-persistent sharing of the location information by the donor UE 902 with the recipient UE 901. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for receiving the request.

[0115]

[0137] At stage 1130, the method 1100 includes, at the first UE, measuring PRS resources received from the network entity to determine a PRS measurement. For example, at sub-stage 952, the PRS measurement unit 750 of the donor UE 902 measures on one PRS resource of the PRS 942 received at stage 940. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for measuring the PRS resources.

[0116]

[0138] At stage 1140, the method 1100 includes transmitting the first location information based on the PRS measurements from the first UE to the second UE via sidelink communication. For example, at stage 960, the location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE 902 transmits the location information 961 to the recipient UE 901. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for transmitting the first location information.

[0117]

[0139] Implementations of the method 1100 may include one or more of the following features: In an example implementation, transmitting the first location information comprises transmitting the first location information only if the first UE measures the PRS resources independent of a request for the first location information. For example, the location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE 902 may use a best-effort sharing behavior and share the location information that the donor UE 902 measures / determines for the donor UE 902 and not measure / determine the location information due only to receiving a request, e.g., the request 937 or the sharing request 939. In another example implementation, measuring the PRS resources comprises measuring the PRS resources in response to receiving the request, such that the PRS measurement is an additional measurement in addition to one or more other PRS measurements that the first UE makes absent receipt of the request. For example, in response to receiving the request 937 or the sharing request 939, the PRS measurement unit 750 of the donor UE 902 may measure one or more PRS resources that the donor UE 902 would not measure without receiving the request 937, 939.

[0118]

[0140] Also or alternatively, implementations of the method 1100 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the PRS resource is a first PRS resource, the PRS measurement is a first PRS measurement, and the method further comprises measuring, by the first UE, the second PRS resource to determine a second PRS measurement, and refraining from transmitting the second PRS measurement from the first UE to the second UE. For example, the donor UE 902 may transmit a subset of location information (e.g., a subset of measurements) that the donor UE 902 is available for sharing and not transmit another subset of location information to the recipient UE 901. The donor UE 902 may share, for example, one or more representative measurements per TRP, per TRP resource set, or per site (PRS source site). The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, may comprise means for refraining from transmitting the second PRS measurement. In another example implementation, the first UE refrains from transmitting the second PRS measurement to the second UE based on the first PRS measurement being an earlier arrival time than the second PRS measurement. For example, the location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE 902 may determine which PRS measurements, e.g., timing measurements, should not be shared with the recipient UE 901 based on the arrival time of the measurements, e.g., share measurements of PRS resources (having an earlier ToA as opposed to an earlier PRS instance) that arrived earlier than another PRS resource, and not share measurements of other PRS resources (that arrived later). In another example implementation, the first UE refrains from transmitting the second PRS measurement to the second UE based on the first PRS resource being received with stronger power than the second PRS resource. For example, the location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE 902 may determine, based on an indication of received signal power (e.g., RSSI, RSRP), which PRS measurements, e.g., power measurements, not to share with the recipient UE 901, e.g., to share measurements of PRS resources that arrived with greater power than another PRS resource and not to share measurements of other PRS resources (arriving with less power).In another example implementation, the first UE refrains from transmitting the second PRS measurement to the second UE based on both the first PRS resource and the second PRS resource being at least one of associated with a single transmission / reception point, associated with a single PRS resource set, or associated with a single PRS source site. For example, if the donor UE 902 has measurements for multiple PRS resources, the location information sharing unit 770 of the donor UE 902 may choose to transmit one of the measurements and not transmit another measurement if both measurements correspond to the same TRP, or the same TRP resource set, or the same PRS source site, e.g., if the multiple measurements are redundant.

[0119]

[0141] Group Benefit Mode

[0142] With further reference to FIG. 5-8, and also with reference to FIG. 12, in group benefit mode, multiple UEs, here UEs 511-513, act together as a single virtual UE 1210 for at least some positioning tasks (e.g., position information determination (e.g., PRS measurements, processed measurement calculations, location estimate calculations) position information sharing). The illustrated virtual UE 1210 is an example, and countless other virtual UEs are possible (e.g., a virtual UE including multiple vehicular UEs). Similar to the individual benefit mode, in group benefit mode, one or more tasks, e.g., PRS measurements and / or position information calculations, may be offloaded from one UE to another UE. Implementation of group benefit mode may involve modifications to legacy LPP and SL protocols. In group benefit mode, UEs may act as location information receivers and / or location information donors that exchange UE-neutral location information (location information in a UE-neutral format). All members of the virtual UE 1210 are in close proximity to each other (e.g., such that location information measured / determined by one of the virtual UE members can be used as location information for another of the virtual UE members while maintaining a desired positioning accuracy). The positioning entity 800 is configured to manage the virtual UE 1210, e.g., add members to the virtual UE 1210, remove members from the virtual UE 1210, distribute measurement tasks among the members, determine one or more representatives for the virtual UE 1210, etc. Measurement reports provided from the virtual UEs to the server 400 may indicate that the reported location information relates to the virtual UE 1210 (and thus all members of the virtual UE 1210), e.g., by including a group ID corresponding to the virtual UE 1210.

[0120]

[0143] The positioning entity 800 is configured to manage the virtual UEs (e.g., the virtual UE 1210), e.g., to control the inclusion of membership and possibly control positioning task execution by the members. The positioning entity 800 may be a separate entity as shown, or may be integrated with an entity (e.g., the server 400, the TRP 300 (e.g., in the base station 520), or a UE, such as any of the UEs 511-513). The positioning entity 800 may directly and / or indirectly communicate with the UEs in the virtual UE 1210 and with the UEs that are candidates for the virtual UE 1210. The virtual UE management unit 850 is configured to control membership in the virtual UEs, in this example the virtual UE 1210. The virtual UE management unit 850 may control the membership to ensure that each member is in close proximity to all other members, e.g., based on a coarse estimate of the member location (e.g., using E-CID, previously determined location, and / or dead reckoning location estimate, etc.).

[0121]

[0144] The virtual UE management unit 850 may send a virtual UE request to each of one or more UEs that are candidate virtual UE members, for example, based on the location of the candidate member UE. If the positioning entity is not a UE or part of the UE (i.e., part of the server, part of the TRP, or independent), the virtual UE management unit 850 may send a virtual UE request to each of two or more candidate virtual UE members. The virtual UE request may include an inquiry as to whether the UE supports location information sharing over sidelink with other UEs. The virtual UE request may include a virtual UE-ID that may be included with the reported location information to associate the location information with the virtual UE 1210. The virtual UE request may include the UE-ID of the virtual UE member (e.g., IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity), IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity), etc.) to help the virtual UE members establish SL connections between each other. If the positioning entity is part of a UE, the request may include (1) an inquiry as to whether the receiving UE supports location information sharing over sidelink, (2) the UE-ID of the positioning entity, (3) a virtual UE-ID, and (4) other UE IDs (if the request is sent to more than one UE).

[0122]

[0145] The virtual UE management unit 850 may establish and manage (e.g., grow, reduce, terminate) virtual UEs. For example, the virtual UE management unit 850 may determine a virtual UE-ID, determine one or more initial members, possibly determine proximity requirements for a virtual UE, add one or more UEs to an existing virtual UE, remove one or more members from an existing virtual UE, or terminate an existing virtual UE.

[0123]

[0146] The UE 700 (e.g., location information sharing unit 770) may be configured to send a request for the UE 700 to be added to a virtual UE, for the UE 700 to be removed from a virtual UE, or for the positioning entity 800 to form a virtual UE, and the positioning entity 800 may be configured to receive the request. For example, the UE 700 may send a request to the positioning entity 800 to join a virtual UE or to have the positioning entity 800 form a virtual UE in response to SL discovery / connection to another UE. The UE 700 may request to join a particular virtual UE (e.g., by including a virtual UE-ID in the request) in response to SL discovery of the virtual UE, e.g., obtaining a virtual UE-ID from a UE that the UE 700 discovers using SL. The request to join a virtual UE may be sent to the positioning entity 800 individually by each UE requesting entry into the virtual UE and / or may be sent to the positioning entity 800 by a representative of the virtual UE on behalf of the UE requesting membership in the virtual UE. A virtual UE may include one or more representatives that may send requests on behalf of other members or candidate members of the virtual UE and / or may send location information collected from one or more other members of the existing virtual UE. A request to join an existing virtual UE may include a virtual UE-ID and / or may include a UE-ID of one or more UEs of the existing virtual UE. A request to form a virtual UE may include a UE-ID of one or more UEs requested to be in the new virtual UE with the requester. A request to form a virtual UE may include a proposed virtual UE-ID. To leave a virtual UE, a member of the virtual UE may send a request to the positioning entity 800 directly (especially if the positioning entity 800 is part of the UE of the virtual UE) and / or via a representative of the virtual UE.

[0124]

[0147] Each UE in the virtual UE 1210 may be responsible for a portion of the PRS measurements to be made by the virtual UE 1210, as coordinated by the positioning entity 800. For example, the virtual UE location information management unit 860 may coordinate (e.g., assign) location information (e.g., PRS measurements to be made) to be determined by each of the members of the virtual UE 1210. The virtual UE location information management unit 860 may be configured to aggregate PRS configurations across the members of the virtual UE, e.g., provide a mapping of UE-specific PRS configurations to UE-neutral PRS configurations. For example, the UE 511 may make one or more measurements of a PRS from one TRP (TRP1, not shown in FIG. 12), the UE 512 may make one or more measurements of a PRS from another TRP (TRP2, not shown in FIG. 12), and the UE 513 may make measurements of a PRS from a set of TRPs (TRP3, TRP4, TRP5, not shown in FIG. 12). If a UE does not share location information determined by it but receives location information from another UE in the virtual UE 1210, the UE works like an individual benefit (hitchhiking) mode, but in this case, the reception of the shared location information is visible to the server 400, and the determined location can still be used for and thus benefit the group of UEs in the virtual UE 1210. The positioning entity 800 may be responsible for distributing (including redistributing, if necessary) the location information determination task (including the measurement task) among the UEs in the virtual UE 1210. The positioning entity 800 may divide the measurement task at the TRP level, or at the PRS resource set level (within the TRP), or at the PRS resource level (within the TRP). To divide the measurement task at the PRS resource set level or the PRS resource level, detailed configuration information of the PRS resource set or the PRS resource is given during negotiation between the positioning entity 800 and the UEs in the virtual UE 1210 and during location information sharing, respectively. Shared measurements can be identified at the level of measurement division depending on the use of the measurement.For example, in the case of AoD determination, measurements may be identified at the PRS resource level even if the division is at the TRP level, to provide sufficient AoD resolution.

[0125]

[0148] Communication between members of virtual UE 1210 and positioning entity 800, including reporting location information, may occur in a variety of ways. For example, each member of virtual UE 1210 may communicate with positioning entity 800 without the communication passing through another member of virtual UE 1210 (although the communication may pass through one or more other entities, such as a TRP). As another example, a member of virtual UE 1210 may act as a representative for communication with server 400, or multiple members of virtual UE 1210 may act as representatives. As another example of communication between virtual UE 1210 and server 400, hybrid communication may be used, where one or more non-representative members of virtual UE 1210 may communicate with server 400 (e.g., to report location information) without the communication passing through a representative, and one or more representative members of virtual UE 1210 may collect and send location information to server 400.

[0126]

[0149] For communication between the virtual UE 1210 and the server 400 using one or more representatives, the representative may collect location information from one or more other members of the virtual UE 1210 and transmit the location information to the server 400. In the example shown in FIG. 12, the UE 511 is acting as a representative that collects location information 542, 543 from the UEs 512, 513 and provides a report 1220 that may include at least some of the location information 542, 543 and / or may include location information determined by the UE 511. The report 1220 is transmitted to the server 400 by the UE 511 during a single LPP session. The report 1220 may include a group ID of the virtual UE 1210 and / or may include IDs of one or more of the members of the virtual UE 1210 that the server 400 may associate with the virtual UE 1210. If the virtual UE 1210 includes multiple representatives, some location information may be collected and reported to the server 400 by more than one representative, for example, to help ensure delivery of the location information to the server 400. However, the positioning entity 800 may coordinate the determination and / or collection and / or reporting of the location information to avoid sending the same location information multiple times from one virtual UE to the server 400, e.g., to limit communication overhead between the virtual UE 1210 and the server 400. The location estimate of the virtual UE 1210 determined by the server 400 may be transmitted by the server 400 via LPP to the representative and from the representative via sidelink to other members of the virtual UE 1210.

[0127]

[0150] For communications between the virtual UE 1210 and the server 400 from one or more members of the virtual UE 1210 that do not go through a representative, each of the one or more non-representative members of the virtual UE 1210 maintains a respective reporting session (e.g., using LPP) with the server 400. The location information sent from each non-representative member (which may be all of the members) of the virtual UE 1210 is associated with the group ID of the virtual UE 1210 (e.g., the group ID is included in the report along with the location information). The server 400 collects location information for the virtual UE 1210 from the multiple members of the virtual UE 1210 (non-representative members and representative members, if any) to determine a location estimate for the virtual UE 1210. The server 400 may be able to use a combination of location information reported by multiple UEs to determine a location estimate, for example, when a location estimate (meeting at least a desired accuracy) is not determinable based on location information (e.g., measurements) from a single one of the UEs. The server 400 transmits the location estimate to the non-representative members of the virtual UE 1210 via LPP, and to any representative members.

[0128]

[0151] Similar to the individual benefit mode, cross-validation may be performed in the group benefit mode. Cross-validation of location information, e.g., measurements, may be performed in one or more of the UEs in the virtual UE 1210. Suitable member UEs may discard or otherwise refrain from reporting unreliable location information to the server 400 by using the unreliable information to determine a location estimate, avoiding the communication overhead of transmitting the information, avoiding processing of the information by the server 400, and avoiding negative consequences, if any, to the location estimate. Cross-validation is described in more detail below.

[0129]

[0152] With reference to Figure 13 and with further reference to Figures 1-9 and 12, a signaling and process flow 1300 for establishing and managing, and possibly terminating, a virtual UE includes the stages shown. The flow 1300 is an example, as stages may be added, reordered, and / or removed. Signals may be exchanged directly between the UEs 1301, 1302, 1303 and the server 400 during the flow 1300 and / or may be exchanged via the TRP 300.

[0130]

[0153] At step 1310, a location session begins between the server 400 and each of the UE 1301, the UE 902, and the donor UE 903. Step 1310 is similar to step 920 described above with respect to the flow 900.

[0131]

[0154] In step 1320, one or more of the UEs 1301-1303 determine their proximity to the other UEs 1301-1303 and request the formation of or inclusion in a virtual UE 1305. Although the VUE 1305 is shown with three members, namely, the UEs 1301-1303, one or more of these UEs 1301-1303 may be removed from the VUE 1305 and one or more other UEs may be members of the VUE 1305. Ranging / SL discovery signals 1321, 1322, 1323 may be exchanged between each pair of the UEs 1301-1303 to determine that the UEs 1301-1303 are within an acceptable proximity of each other, similar to the description of the ranging signals 931, 932 in the flow 900. The location information sharing capabilities of the UEs 1301-1302 may also be exchanged in step 1320. Based on the proximity determination, and possibly based on the shared capability information, one or more requests to form or join a virtual UE may be sent directly or indirectly to the positioning entity 800. In this example, the UE 1302 sends a virtual UE request 1324 to the UE 1301 and / or sends a virtual UE request 1325 to the positioning entity 800. The request 1324 and / or the request 1325 may request to form a virtual UE with the UE 1301 or to join a virtual UE that includes the UE 1301. The UE 1301 may send a virtual UE request 1326 to the positioning entity 800 (e.g., if the request 1325 is not sent and / or in response to receiving the request 1324 with the UE 1301 acting as the representative UE) requesting the formation of a virtual UE that includes the UEs 1301, 1302 or adding the UE 1302 to the virtual UE that includes the UE 1301. The request 1325 and / or the request 1326 may include a virtual UE ID of a virtual UE to be formed or to be joined by the UE 1302 (e.g., if the UE 1302 obtained a virtual UE ID, e.g., from the UE 1301).The virtual UE management unit 850 of the positioning entity 800 determines whether to form a requested UE or add the UE 1302 to a virtual UE as requested based on, for example, the indicated proximity of the UEs 1301, 1302, the processing capabilities of one or both of the UEs 1301, 1302, the requested processing limitations of the UEs 1301, 1302, the reporting capabilities of one or both of the UEs 1301, 1302, and / or the requested positioning accuracy, etc. For example, the virtual UE management unit 850 may determine whether forming a virtual UE or adding the UE 1302 to an existing virtual UE may improve the positioning accuracy and / or help reduce power consumption to meet one or more power consumption limitations of one or both of the UEs 1301, 1302. The virtual UE management unit 850 of the positioning entity 800 transmits an accept / reject message 1327 indicating whether the formation or modification of the requested virtual UE has been accepted (approved) or rejected. If the UE 1301 is a representative UE, the UE 1301 sends an accept / reject message 1328 to the UE 1302. The virtual UE management unit 850 of the positioning entity 800 may send an accept / reject message 1329 to the UE 1302 if the UE 1301 is not acting as a representative UE, and may send the accept / reject message 1329 to the UE 1302 even if the UE 1301 is acting as a representative UE. For example, if the UE 1301 is acting as a representative, the positioning entity 800 may send a report end message to the UE 1302 to explicitly terminate the ongoing LPP session between the UE 1302 and the server 400. As another example, the LPP session between the UE 1302 and the server 400 may be implicitly terminated by the UE 1302 responding to the UE 1302's acceptance to the VUE 1305, and the UE 1301 is designated as the representative by automatically terminating the LPP session between the UE 1302 and the server 400. Messages 1327-1329 may include a virtual UE ID and / or a list of members of VUE 1305 (eg, if a virtual UE is being created or to confirm the creation or acceptance into a virtual UE).

[0132]

[0155] In addition to or instead of step 1320, in step 1330, the positioning entity 800 determines the proximity of the UEs 1301-1303 to each other. For example, in substep 1331, the virtual UE management unit 850 may use one or more ranging measurements and / or other information from one or more of the UEs 1301-1303 to determine UEs that are within acceptable proximity to act as virtual UEs, e.g., coarse location estimates of the UEs 1301-1303. The virtual UE management unit 850 transmits a VUE request 1332 (virtual UE request) to the UE 1301, in this example, to request the formation of a virtual UE including the UEs 1301, 1302 or the addition of the UE 1302 to a virtual UE that already includes the UE 1301. The UE 1301 transmits a VUE request 1333 to the UE 1302 based on the VUE request 1332 if the UE 1301 is acting as a representative. The virtual UE management unit 850 may send a VUE request 1333 to the UE 1302 if the UE 1301 is not acting as a representative, and may send a VUE request 1333 to the UE 1302 if the UE 1301 is acting as a representative. The UE 1302 may send an accept / reject message 1335 to the UE 1301 to accept or reject the VUE request 1333 if the UE 1301 is acting as a representative. The UE 1301 may send an accept / reject message 1336 to the positioning entity 800 to accept or reject the VUE request 1332, for example, based on the accept / reject message 1335. The UE 1302 may send an accept / reject message 1337 to the positioning entity 800 to accept or reject the VUE request 1334 if the UE 1301 is not acting as a representative, and may send a message 1337 to accept or reject the VUE request 1333 if the UE 1301 is acting as a representative. The VUE requests 1332-1334 may include a virtual UE ID and / or a list of members of the VUE 1305 (eg, if a virtual UE is being created or to confirm the creation or acceptance into a virtual UE).

[0133]

[0156] In step 1340, the UE 1303 transmits a VUE membership request message 1341 to the positioning entity 800. The message 1341 may be sent directly to the positioning entity 800 as shown. Also or alternatively, if the UE 1301 is acting as a representative, the UE 1303 may send a VUE membership request to the UE 1301, which may respond by sending a VUE membership request to the positioning entity (similar to the description of requests 1324, 1326 in step 1320 for the UE 1302 requesting virtual UE membership). The positioning entity 800 determines whether to accept or reject the UE 1303's membership in the virtual UE and transmits an accept / reject message 1342 to the UE 1303 accordingly. Also or alternatively, if UE1301 is acting as a representative, positioning entity 800 may send an accept / reject message to UE1301, and UE1301 may respond by sending a corresponding accept / reject message to UE1303 (similar to the description of messages 1327, 1328 of stage 1320 regarding positioning entity 800 accepting / rejecting membership of UE1302 in a virtual UE).

[0134]

[0157] In step 1350, one or more UEs may be removed from the virtual UE or the virtual UE may be terminated. In the illustrated example, the virtual UE management unit 850 of the positioning entity 800 transmits a VUE membership termination message 1351 indicating to the UE 1302 that the membership of the UE 1302 in the indicated virtual UE, here VUE 1305, is terminated. The UE 1302 will not be assigned to share location information, and the location information of the indicated VUE will no longer be given to the UE 1302. The UE 1303 may request removal from the VUE 1305, for example, because the UE 1303 is low on power or is busy with operations unrelated to operations for the VUE 1305, or does not want to use power for operations for the VUE 1305. Also as illustrated, the UE 1303 transmits a VUE membership termination request 1352 to the positioning entity 800 requesting removal of the UE 1303 from the virtual UE 1305. The virtual UE management unit 850 of the positioning entity 800 transmits an ACK message 1353 (acknowledgement) acknowledging the removal of the UE 1303 from the VUE 1305. If the UE 1301 is acting as a representative, the VUE termination indication, VUE termination request, and / or VUE termination ACK message may be sent via the UE 1301, similar to the description above. Thus, for example, if the UE 1301 is acting as a representative for the VUE 1305, a termination request for VUE membership for any member of the VUE 1305 (or at least any UE of the VUE 1305 for which the UE 1301 is acting as a representative) may be transmitted by and received from the UE 1301. If the positioning entity 800 is part of a UE that is part of the VUE 1305, the VUE management unit 850 may terminate the UE from membership in the VUE 1305 in response to the positioning entity 800 losing the SL connection with that UE.

[0135]

[0158] In stage 1360, one or more group change (GC) messages 1361, 1362, 1363 may be sent. GC messages 1361-1363 indicate a change in the VUE 1305, e.g., a change in membership (indicating one or more UEs that are no longer part of the VUE and / or one or more new members that are now part of the VUE). For example, GC message 1361 may be sent without sending GC messages 1362, 1363 if UE 1301 is acting as a representative for VUE 1305, in which case UE 1301 may send GC messages (not shown) to UEs 1302, 1303, respectively.

[0136]

[0159] 14, and with further reference to FIGS. 1-9, 12, and 13, a signaling and process flow 1400 for sharing location information among a virtual UE 1305 with a representative and determining a location estimate for the virtual UE 1305 includes the steps shown. The flow 1400 is an example, as steps may be added, reordered, and / or deleted. Signals may be exchanged directly between the UEs 1301, 1302, 1303 and the server 400 during the flow 1400 and / or may be exchanged via the TRP 300.

[0137]

[0160] In stage 1410, the VUE 1305 is established and managed in an ongoing manner. For example, the VUE 1305 is established as described with respect to flow 1300. The VUE 1305 is managed, for example, as described with respect to flow 1300, which may include the addition of members not shown and / or the removal of one or more of the members shown (i.e., UEs 1301-1303). In this example, the UE 1301 is acting as a representative for the VUE 1305, here the only representative for the VUE 1305. If the only representative in the VUE is removed from the VUE, a new representative may be designated or the VUE may operate without a representative (e.g., as described below with respect to FIG. 15).

[0138]

[0161] In step 1420, the UEs 1301-1303 in the VUE 1305 request and receive assistance data. The UEs 1301-1303 send requests for assistance data to the server 400 (e.g., via the TRP 300). The TRP 300 and the server 400 coordinate the schedules of the PRS. The server 400 and / or the TRP 300 provide the UEs 1301-1303 with assistance data including the schedules of their respective PRSs (e.g., each with a new PS schedule or a reconfigured PRS schedule).

[0139]

[0162] In step 1430, the positioning entity assigns responsibility of positioning information for the VUE 1305. For example, the VUE position information management unit 860 of the positioning entity 800 transmits a position information responsibility (PIR) message 1431 to the UE 1301 acting as the sole representative for the VUE 1305. The UE 1301, for example, the position information sharing unit 770 of the UE 1301, responds to receiving the message 1431 by sending position information responsibility messages 1432, 1433 to the UEs 1302, 1303, respectively. The messages 1431-1433 assign respective responsibilities of the UEs 1301-1303 for determining respective position information (e.g., performing respective PRS measurements, possibly determining one or more processed PRS measurements and / or possibly determining one or more location estimates). Message 1432 may indicate responsibility for only UE 1302, message 1433 may indicate responsibility for only UE 1303, or messages 1432, 1433 may indicate responsibility for other UEs as well. One or more sets of UEs (with at least two UEs per set) of VUE 1305 may negotiate with each other regarding what positioning responsibilities to implement (e.g., what measurements to make, what processing measurements to determine) via sidelink communications, for example. For example, UEs 1301, 1302 may negotiate via SL communications 1434, UEs 1302, 1303 may negotiate via SL communications 1435, and / or UEs 1301, 1303 may negotiate via SL communications 1436. The negotiation may replace one or more responsibilities indicated by PIR messages 1431-1433. The UEs 1301-1303 may negotiate, for example, similar to the description above with respect to stage 930, with capabilities being exchanged and requests being determined based on the capabilities and sent to one or more other UEs until an agreement is reached regarding the distribution of responsibility. The allocation / determination of responsibility may indicate what PRS resources to measure and may indicate what measurements or other location information to share.The allocation / determination of responsibility may help load balance PRS measurements, help conserve power used by power-limited UEs, and / or help improve accuracy (e.g., by having UEs with higher processing capabilities make appropriate measurements or by having each UE measure the PRS resources it is best able to measure or that it can measure better than other UEs in VUE 1305), and / or may provide one or more other advantages. The information in one or more of PIR messages 1431-1433 may also or alternatively be provided in one or more measurement request messages and / or in the PRS configurations exchanged in stage 1420.

[0140]

[0163] In step 1440, the TRP 300 sends the PRSs 1441, 1442, and 1443 to the UEs 1301, 1302, and 1303, respectively. For example, the TRP 300 sends the PRSs 1441, 1442, and 1443 according to the PRS schedule indicated in the AD in step 1420. In this example, the DL-PRS is sent by the TRP 300, but other PRSs (e.g., SL-PRSs) may also or alternatively be transmitted in step 1440 to the UEs 1301-1303.

[0141]

[0164] In stage 1450, the UEs 1301-1303 measure their respective PRS resources. The UEs 1301-1303 may measure their respective PRS resources (which may overlap (i.e., multiple UEs may measure the same or similar PRS resources (e.g., from the same TRP or from the same PRS resource set)). One or more of the UEs 1301-1303 may not measure any PRS resources (at least for a short time). One or more of the UEs 1301-1303 may obtain one or more shared measurements from one or more UEs in close proximity (e.g., within and / or outside of the VUE 1305). For example, UE 1301 may obtain PRS measurements from UE 1302 and / or UE 1303 (and / or UEs outside VUE 1305 but in close proximity to UE 1301), UE 1302 may obtain PRS measurements from UE 1301 and / or UE 1303 (and / or another UE), and / or UE 1303 may obtain PRS measurements from UE 1301 and / or UE 1302 (and / or another UE). Any UE receiving a shared measurement as well as a measurement made by the UE (or received from another UE) may cross-validate the measurement to determine if any measurement is unreliable. A UE that determines a measurement is unreliable may refrain from further processing and / or sharing the measurement, which may reduce signaling overhead, avoid using power for further processing of the measurement by the UE, reduce processing by the server 400, and / or improve positioning accuracy and / or latency.

[0142]

[0165] In step 1460, the non-representative UEs, here UEs 1302, 1303, share their respective location information 1461, 1462 with the representative UE, here UE 1301. The shared location information may be all or part of the location information determined by the respective UE (or obtained, for example, from another closely proximate UE). In substep 1463, UE 1301 may use the location information 1461, 1462 to perform cross-validation on one or more measurements (e.g., made by either UEs 1301-1303 or other closely proximate UEs from which UE 1301 obtained one or more measurements) to determine whether the measurement is unreliable. If UE 1301 determines that the measurement is unreliable, UE 1301 may refrain from further processing and / or sharing the measurement. UE 1301 transmits location information 1464 to server 400. The location information 1464 may include some or all of the location information determined by the UE 1301, some or all of the location information 1461, 1462 received from the UE 1302, 1303, and / or location information from one or more other closely proximate UEs (not in the VUE 1305) that shared location information with the UE 1301. In a UE-based positioning mode, the location information 1464 will include a location estimate. If the UE 1301 is a client, or one of the donor UEs 1302, 1303 is a client and the UE 1301 shares the location information 1464 with a client, the server 400 may or may not transmit the location information 1464 to the client. If the UE 1301 is not a client or does not provide location information to a client, the server 400 may provide a location estimate to the client (e.g., one of the UEs 1302, 1303 or another UE or another entity).

[0143]

[0166] At stage 1470, for UE-assisted positioning, the server 400 processes the location information received at stage 1460 and provides a location estimate for the VUE 1305. The processor 410 may use some or all of the location information 1464 to determine a location estimate 1471 for the VUE 1305 and transmit the location estimate 1471 to a representative UE of the VUE 1305, here the UE 1301, if any of the UEs 1301-1303 are location clients. The UE 1301 may respond to receiving the location estimate 1471 by transmitting a location estimation message 1472, 1473 to one or both of the UEs 1302, 1303, respectively, indicating the location estimate 1471 based on which of the UEs 1301-1303 are location clients. The location estimate 1471 may include a virtual UE-ID (VUE-ID) of the VUE 1305. The UE 1301 may use the VUE-ID to determine which UE should send the location estimate 1471.

[0144]

[0167] 15, and with further reference to FIGS. 1-9 and 12-14, a signaling and process flow 1500 for sharing location information among a virtual UE 1305 without a representative and determining a location estimate for the virtual UE 1305 includes the steps shown. The flow 1500 is an example, as steps may be added, reordered, and / or deleted. Signals may be exchanged directly between the UEs 1301, 1302, 1303 and the server 400 during the flow 1500 and / or may be exchanged via the TRP 300.

[0145]

[0168] Stages 1510, 1520, 1540, and 1550 are the same as or similar to stages 1410, 1420, 1440, and 1450. In stages 1510, 1520, the VUE 1305 is established and managed, and the AD is requested and sent. In stage 1540, the PRSs 1541, 1542, and 1543 are delivered by the TRP 300 to the UEs 1301-1303. In stage 1550, the PRSs are measured, and cross-validation can be performed by any of the UEs 1301-1303.

[0146]

[0169] At stage 1530, responsibility for location information is assigned. In this example, without representation, the positioning entity 800 sends PIR messages 1531, 1532, 1533 to the UEs 1301-1303, respectively. The PIR messages 1531-1533 indicate the respective responsibilities of the UEs 1301-1303 as to what location information to obtain and, in some cases, what location information to report to the server 400. Similar to the description with respect to stage 1430, two or more of the UEs 1301-1303 (in one or more UE sets) may exchange SL communications 1534, 1535, 1536 to negotiate responsibility for location information.

[0147]

[0170] In step 1560, the UEs 1301-1303 transmit their respective location information 1561, 1562, 1563. The UEs 1301-1303 transmit their location information 1561-1563 to the server 400 (possibly via the TRP 300) without being sent to a representative (as in step 1460).

[0148]

[0171] At stage 1570, the server 400 determines a location estimate for the VUE 1305 and distributes the location estimate to the UEs 1301-1303. The server 400 may transmit the location estimate in one or more location estimation messages 1571, 1572, 1573 to the UEs 1301, 1302, 1303, respectively, instead of sending the location estimate to the representative UE as in stage 1470. The server 400 may send one or more of the messages 1571-1573 based on which, if any, of the UEs 1301-1303 are location clients.

[0149]

[0172] 1-15, a method 1600 for managing a UE group includes the steps shown. However, the method 1600 is by way of example and not by way of limitation. The method 1600 may be altered, for example, by having steps added, removed, reordered, combined, performed simultaneously, and / or a single step split into multiple steps.

[0150]

[0173] At stage 1610, the method 1600 includes determining a plurality of UEs of the UE group based on a proximity of each of the plurality of UEs to at least one other UE of the plurality of UEs. For example, the positioning entity 800 determines the UEs of the VUE based on the proximity of the UEs, e.g., the proximity of the UEs 1301, 1302, 1303 for the VUE 1305. The positioning entity 800 may determine the proximity based on information from the server 400 and / or the UEs 1301-1303. The processor 810, possibly in combination with the memory 830, possibly in combination with the transceiver 820 (e.g., an antenna and a wireless transmitter and / or a wireless receiver, and / or a wired receiver and / or a wired transmitter), may comprise means for determining a plurality of UEs of the UE group.

[0151]

[0174] At stage 1620, the method 1600 includes transmitting an indication of the UE group from the communication device to at least one of the plurality of UEs of the UE group. For example, the positioning entity 800 sends one or more of the VUE requests 1332-1334 (e.g., VUE request 1332 (and possibly VUE request 1334) if the UE 1301 is a representative for the VUE 1305, or VUE requests 1332, 1334 if there is no representative for the VUE 1305). As another example, the positioning entity sends a VUE membership request message 1341 to the UE 1303. As another example, the positioning entity sends one or more of the accept / reject messages 1327, 1328, 1342. The processor 810, in some cases in combination with the memory 830, may comprise means for transmitting an indication of the UE group in combination with the transceiver 820 (e.g., an antenna (e.g., antenna 246, 346, or 446)) and a wireless transmitter (e.g., wireless transmitters 242, 342, 442, respectively) and / or a wired transmitter (e.g., wired transmitter 252, 352, 452).

[0152]

[0175] Implementations of the method 1600 may include one or more of the following features: In an example implementation, the indication of the UE group includes group identification information. For example, the group indication may include a VUE-ID that identifies the group (and possibly the group members). An explicit or implicit instruction may be included to instruct the network entity that the VUE-ID is included with the location information directly (without going through a group representative). In another example implementation, the method 1600 comprises transmitting a positioning request to a selected UE of a plurality of UEs of a UE group for a UE selected to provide the requested location information. For example, the VUE location information management unit 860 of the positioning entity 800 transmits a PIR message 1431 or a PIR message 1531-1533 indicating the positioning information that the respective UE 1301-1303 will provide. The positioning information may be one or more measurements, one or more processed measurements, and / or one or more location estimates. The processor 810, possibly in combination with the memory 830, and possibly in combination with the transceiver 820 (e.g., an antenna and a wireless transmitter and / or a wired transmitter), may comprise means for transmitting a positioning request. In another example implementation, the method 1600 comprises transmitting a sharing request to a selected UE of a plurality of UEs of a UE group for a UE selected to share requested location information with a designated UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group. The sharing request may be transmitted indirectly to the selected UE. For example, the portion of the PIR message 1431 intended for the UE 1302, 1303 may indicate that the UE 1302, 1303 will share location information with the UE 1301 acting as a representative for the VUE 1305. The positioning information may be one or more measurements, one or more processed measurements, and / or one or more location estimates. The processor 810, possibly in combination with the memory 830, and possibly in combination with the transceiver 820 (e.g., an antenna and a wireless transmitter and / or a wired transmitter), may comprise means for transmitting the sharing request.

[0153]

[0176] Also or alternatively, implementations of the method 1600 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the method 1600 includes determining a plurality of UEs of the UE group based on the proximity of all of the plurality of UEs of the UE group. For example, the virtual UE management unit 850 uses the proximity of each expected UE to all other expected VUE group members (e.g., not just the proximity of the UE to the nearest UE) to determine the members of the VUE. This helps prevent any pair of UEs that are very close to each other but are not close to each other but still included in the same VUE (e.g., to help ensure positioning accuracy, feasibility of one location estimate per member of the VUE, etc.). The processor 810, possibly in combination with the memory 830, possibly in combination with a transceiver (e.g., an antenna and a wireless receiver and / or a wireless transmitter, and / or a wired receiver and / or a wired transmitter), may comprise means for determining a plurality of UEs of the UE group. In another example implementation, the method 1600 includes receiving a joining request indicating a prospective UE group member and determining whether to include the prospective UE group member in a plurality of UEs of the UE group in response to receiving the joining request. For example, the VUE management unit 850 of the positioning entity receives one or more of the VUE requests 1325, 1326, 1341 (from a representative of the prospective members and / or VUEs) and determines whether to form a VUE to include the requesting UE or to add the requesting UE to the VUE. The positioning entity may receive the request from the requester directly or via a representative for the VUE. The processor 810, possibly in combination with the memory 830 and a transceiver (e.g., an antenna and a wireless receiver and / or a wired receiver), may comprise means for receiving a sharing request, and the processor 810, possibly in combination with the memory 830, may comprise means for determining whether to include the prospective UE in the UE group.In another example implementation, the method 1600 includes detecting a new sidelink connection to a prospective UE group member and determining whether to include the prospective UE group member in a plurality of UEs of the UE group in response to detecting the new sidelink connection to the prospective UE group member. For example, one or more of the VUE requests 1325, 1326, 1341 may be an indication of a new SL connection with an existing member of the VUE. As another example, the positioning entity may receive from the server 400 an indication of a new SL connection involving a current member of the VUE and a UE that is not currently a member of the VUE. The VUE management unit 850 may respond to the indication of the new SL connection by determining whether to include (e.g., invite) the prospective UE in the VUE (e.g., based on the proximity of the prospective UE to all members of the VUE, the processing capabilities of the prospective UE, etc.). The processor 810, possibly in combination with the memory 830 and a transceiver (e.g., an antenna and a wireless and / or wired receiver), may comprise means for detecting a new sidelink connection, and the processor 810, possibly in combination with the memory 830, may comprise means for determining whether to include a prospective UE in a UE group. In another example implementation, the method 1600 comprises collecting respective location information from one or more UEs of a plurality of UEs of the UE group and transmitting a representative indication to a selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group indicating that the selected UE serves as a representative of the UE group by transmitting the respective location information to a network entity. For example, the accept / reject message 1327 and / or the VUE request 1332 may include an indication (e.g., a request or instruction) that the UE 1301 serves as a representative for the VUE 1305. The indication may include from which UE the representative will obtain location information that it will send to the server 400 and to which UE the representative will provide location information, e.g., a location estimate from the server 400.The VUE management unit 850 may determine these sets of UEs (which may be the same or different) based on, for example, the proximity of the representative UE and other UEs, processing capabilities, etc. The processor 810, possibly in combination with the memory 830 and a transceiver (e.g., an antenna and a wireless transmitter and / or a wired transmitter), may comprise means for transmitting a representative indication.

[0154]

[0177] Also or alternatively, implementations of the method 1600 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the method 1600 includes transmitting a group change indication indicating a new member of the UE group, removal of a previous member of the UE group, or a combination thereof. For example, the VUE management unit 850 may send one or more of the GC messages 1361-1363 to indicate one or more changes to the VUE 1305, e.g., one or more changes in membership of the VUE 1305. A group ID may be provided with the group change indication, for example, to remove ambiguity between multiple groups (e.g., having one or more members in common). The processor 810 may comprise means for transmitting the group change indication, possibly in combination with the memory 830 and a transceiver (e.g., an antenna and a wireless transmitter and / or a wired transmitter). In another example implementation, the group change indication indicates removal of a previous member of the UE group in response to at least one of receiving a request for removal of the previous member of the UE group or loss of a sidelink connection between the communication device and the previous member of the UE group. For example, the VUE management unit 850 may determine that the UE is to be removed from the VUE in response to receiving a request for removal, e.g., a VUE membership termination request 1352, and / or in response to determining that an SL connection has been lost between the positioning entity 800 and another member of the VUE 1305 while the positioning entity 800 is part of the UE of the VUE 1305.

[0155]

[0178] 1-15, a method 1700 of providing location information from a first UE includes the steps shown. However, the method 1700 is by way of example and not by way of limitation. The method 1700 may be altered, for example, by having steps added, removed, reordered, combined, performed simultaneously, and / or a single step split into multiple steps.

[0156]

[0179] At stage 1710, the method 1700 includes receiving, at the first UE, a UE group indication indicating a group of UEs including the first UE and the second UE. For example, the UE 1301 receives the VUE-ID at stage 1510, for example, via the accept / reject message 1327 or the VUE request 1332. As another example, the UE 1302 receives the VUE-ID at stage 1510, for example, via the accept / reject message 1328 and / or the accept / reject message 1329, or the VUE request 1333 and / or the VUE request 1334. The processor 710 (e.g., the location information sharing unit 770), possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the antenna 246 and the wireless receiver 244), may comprise means for receiving the UE group indication.

[0157]

[0180] At stage 1720, the method 1700 includes communicating, by the first UE using sidelink communication, with the second UE to identify first location information to be determined by the first UE, or second location information to be determined by the second UE, or a combination thereof. For example, one or more sets of UEs 1301-1303 may exchange SL communications 1434-1436, 1534-1536 to negotiate responsibility for location information based on, for example, UE capabilities and / or available UE processing resources. The processor 710 (e.g., the location information sharing unit 770), possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242, the wireless receiver 244, and the antenna 246), may comprise means for communicating with the second UE to determine the first location information to be determined by the first UE and the second location information to be determined by the second UE.

[0158]

[0181] Implementations of the method 1700 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the method 1700 includes determining first location information at a first UE and transmitting the first location information and UE group identification information associated with the first location information from the first UE to a network entity. For example, the PRS measurement unit 750 of the UE 1301 measures at least some of PRS 1441 or PRS 1541, or the PRS measurement unit 750 of the UE 1302 measures at least some of PRS 1442 or PRS 1542. The processor 710 (e.g., the PRS measurement unit 750), possibly in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for determining the first location information. Also, UE 1301 may transmit at least a portion of location information 1464 to server 400 or at least a portion of location information 1561 to server 400, or UE 1302 may transmit at least a portion of location information 1461 to UE 1301 (acting as a representative) or at least a portion of location information 1562 to server 400. UEs 1301, 1302 may transmit, for example, a VUE-ID of VUE 1305 associated with location information 1461, 1464, 1561, 1562 (in the same or different message) to facilitate determination of a location estimate for VUE 1305 and / or for use in associating a location estimate with VUE 1305 (and its members). The processor 710 (e.g., location information sharing unit 770), optionally in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for transmitting the first location information and the group identification information.In another example implementation, the method 1700 includes determining first location information at a UE, receiving a representative indication at the first UE that a third UE, distinct from the first UE and the second UE, is a representative of the UE group, and transmitting the first location information and UE group identification information associated with the first location information from the first UE to the third UE based on receiving the representative indication. For example, the first and second UEs may be UEs 1302, 1303, and the accept / reject message 1342 transmitted to UE 1303 may include an indication that UE 1301 is a representative (for VUE 1305), and UE 1303 may transmit location information 1462 to UE 1301 based on receiving the indication that UE 1301 is a representative. The processor 710 (e.g., location information sharing unit 770), optionally in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for receiving the representative indication, and the processor 710 (e.g., location information sharing unit 770), optionally in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for transmitting the first location information and the group identification information to the third UE based on receiving the representative indication.

[0159]

[0182] Also or alternatively, implementations of the method 1700 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the method 1700 includes determining first location information at a first UE, receiving a representative indication at the first UE that a second UE is a representative of a UE group, and transmitting the first location information from the first UE to the second UE based on receiving the representative indication. For example, the first and second UEs may be UEs 1302, 1301, and the accept / reject message 1328 and / or the accept / reject message 1329 indicate that the UE 1301 is the representative, and the UE 1302 transmits the location information 1461 to the UE 1301 based on receiving the indication that the UE 1301 is the representative. The processor 710 (e.g., the location information sharing unit 770), optionally in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for receiving the representative indication, and the processor 710 (e.g., the PRS information sharing unit 770), optionally in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for transmitting the first location information to the second UE based on receiving the representative indication. In another example implementation, the method 1700 includes measuring PRS resources to determine a first PRS resource measurement at a first UE, receiving a second PRS resource measurement at the first UE, comparing the first PRS resource measurement with the second PRS resource measurement at the first UE, and transmitting first location information based on the first PRS resource measurement from the first UE without transmitting third location information based on the second PRS resource measurement from the first UE based on the second PRS resource measurement that is unacceptably different from the first PRS resource measurement. For example, the PRS measurement unit 750 of the UE 1301 measures at least some of PRS1441 or PRS1541, or the PRS measurement unit 750 of the UE 1302 measures at least some of PRS1442 or PRS1542.The processor 710 (e.g., PRS measurement unit 750), possibly in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., wireless receiver 244 and antenna 246), may comprise means for measuring PRS resources. Also, cross-validation may be performed in stage 1450 and / or substage 1463, or stage 1550, and unreliable location information may be withheld from being transmitted as one or more parts of the location information 1461, 1462, 1464, 1561-1563. A measurement may be deemed unacceptably different if it differs from another similar measurement by more than a threshold, e.g., more likely than other measurements to be from a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) path as determined by the unacceptably different measurement being from a PRS resource that arrived at the UE later. The processor 710 (e.g., the location information sharing unit 770), optionally in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for receiving a second PRS resource measurement, the processor 710, optionally in combination with the memory 730, may comprise means for comparing the first and second PRS resource measurements, and the processor 710 (e.g., the location information sharing unit 770), optionally in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for transmitting the first location information without transmitting the third location information.

[0160]

[0183] Cross-validation

[0184] Cross-validation of measurements may be used to identify unreliable measurements from measurements made by separate UEs in close proximity. Notification of unreliable measurements may be given to the UE that made the unreliable measurements. Unreliable measurements may be discarded and / or not used or transmitted, thus avoiding transmission and / or processing overhead of unreliable measurements and potential negative impacts of use of unreliable measurements on the location estimate of the target UE. A UE that identifies a measurement from a neighbor UE as unreliable may suggest one or more measurements for the neighbor UE to be acquired, e.g., suggest one or more PRS beams for the neighbor UE to measure. For a target UE with high positioning accuracy requirements (e.g., IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things) requirements), the UE may not directly use measurements from the neighbor UE, but may use measurements from the neighbor for cross-validation to determine whether measurements made by the target UE are reliable. Measurements may be shared between neighbor UEs in a unified or UE-generic format (e.g., identifying PRS in a UE-generic format that each UE can map to a UE-specific format as appropriate (e.g., if desired).

[0161]

[0185] 18, a method 1800 of identifying unreliable PRS measurements includes the steps shown. However, the method 1800 is by way of example and not limitation. The method 1800 may be altered, for example, by having steps added, removed, reordered, combined, performed simultaneously, and / or a single step being split into multiple steps.

[0162]

[0186] In step 1810, and referring to FIG. 19, two UEs 1910, 1920, labeled UE1 and UE2, negotiate sharing of PRS measurements. Each of the UEs 1910, 1920 is an example of a UE 700. In this example, UE1 is a receiving UE that will receive one or more measurements from UE2, which is a donor UE. The location information sharing unit 770 of each of the UEs communicates regarding processing capabilities and measurement sharing capabilities, and may negotiate measurement sharing (for individual benefit sharing or group benefit sharing) to ensure that UE1 will have one or more similar measurements, e.g., PRS resources from the same TRP, such as the same PRS resources made by UE1 and received from UE2, or PRS resources in the same TRP resource set. The UEs may also negotiate what PRS measurements each UE will make. The negotiation may use a UE-general identification, e.g., a UE-general PRS-ID. Measurements made on the same PRS resource or PRS resource set or the same TRP may be cross-validated. For example, timing measurements of the same PRS resource from TRPs made by UE1 and UE2 may be cross-validated, but a timing measurement of a PRS resource from one TRP, e.g., TRP1930, may not be reliably cross-validated with a timing measurement of another PRS resource from another TRP, e.g., TRP1940, where the two TRPs 1930, 1940 are not co-located.

[0163]

[0187] In step 1820, the receiving UE, in this example UE1, measures at least one first PRS resource to obtain at least one first PRS measurement. The PRS measurement unit 750 of UE1 measures one or more PRS resources corresponding to the similar PRS measurement negotiated in step 1810 and may perform one or more other measurements (e.g., different from the measurement to be received from UE2). In the example shown in FIG. 19, UE1 measures PRS resource 1 from TRP 1930.

[0164]

[0188] In step 1830, UE1 receives a second PRS measurement from UE2 based on a measurement of a second PRS resource. For simplicity of explanation, the description of method 1800 assumes that only one PRS measurement is shared, but two or more measurements may be made, shared, and cross-validated. The recipient UE sends a request for sharing periodic / semi-persistent / aperiodic (P / AP / SP) PRS measurements to the donor UE. The donor UE sends the second PRS measurement to the recipient UE. The donor UE may make and / or share the second PRS measurement independent of a sharing request from the recipient UE. For example, as shown in FIG. 19, UE2 measures PRS resource 2 from the TRP 1930 and provides the measurement of PRS resource 2 to UE1 via a sidelink connection 1950.

[0165]

[0189] At stage 1840, an inquiry is made as to whether UE1 and UE2 are within an acceptable proximity to each other for cross-validation (e.g., to use measurements made by UE2 as if the measurements were made by UE1). For example, UE1 may determine whether UE2 is within a threshold distance using one or more of a variety of techniques, for example, as described with respect to stage 930 (e.g., comparing locations, determining RTT, making a communication connection, detecting signal strength, etc.). The inquiry at stage 1840 may be made at a different time, for example, before stage 1810. If no UE is within an acceptable proximity to use those measurements for cross-validation, at stage 1880, method 1800 ends without attempting to cross-validate the first and second PRS measurements. If the UEs are within an acceptable proximity, method 1800 proceeds to stage 1850.

[0166]

[0190] At stage 1850, an inquiry is made as to whether the first and second PRS measurements are substantially similar. For example, the cross-validation unit 780 of the UE 1910 may determine whether the first and second measurements differ significantly, e.g., by more than a threshold amount. For example, the cross-validation unit 780 may determine whether a magnitude difference between the measurements exceeds a threshold or whether a ratio of the measurements exceeds a threshold. The cross-validation unit 780 may, for example, determine whether:

[0167]

number

[0168] where M1 is the time measurement of the first PRS resource measured by UE1, M2 is the time measurement of the second PRS resource measured by UE2, and T is a threshold. The first PRS resource is the same or similar as the second PRS resource, e.g., from the same TRP (depending on what the measurement is for, thus whether it is from the same PRS resource set or from the same TRP is sufficient) or from the same PRS resource set. If the measurements are within the threshold similarity, the two measurements can both be good / reliable measurements (from PRS resources that have traveled a LOS path, e.g., paths 1911, 1912, from the TRP to the UE) or both be bad / unreliable measurements (from PRS resources that have traveled a NLOS path from the TRP to the UE). Either way, the method 1800 ends at stage 1880, and one or more of the measurements can be used or ignored, or another technique can be used to try to identify whether the measurements are reliable or unreliable. If the measurements differ by more than a threshold similarity, then one of the measurements is an unreliable measurement (e.g., from a PRS resource that traveled along an NLOS path such as path 1913) and the other measurement is possibly a reliable measurement, and method 1800 proceeds to stage 1860 for identification of the unreliable measurement.

[0169]

[0191] The threshold used in stage 1850 affects whether a measurement is determined to be unreliable or possibly reliable / unreliable and may be based on one or more of a variety of factors. For example, the threshold may be based on the separation distance between the UEs 1910, 1920, the measurement uncertainty, and / or the measurement resolution. The separation distance may be determined based on one or more factors such as one or more ranging measurements using SL-RTT, estimated RSSI, and / or estimated RSRP, transmit power and path loss, time of flight (TOF), and / or one or more sensor (e.g., radar, LIDAR) measurements. The transmit power and path loss may provide a maximum separation of the UEs based on a known maximum distance for receiving a signal sent at a known transmit power. The measurement uncertainty for any particular measurement may be a range of values, or a measurement boundary, or a level indicator. Different factors may affect the measurement resolution or different measurements. For example, in the case of an angle measurement, the beam width may be considered in determining the threshold, with a smaller beam width providing a finer angular resolution so that the threshold may be smaller. As another example, for spatial measurements, the number of antennas may be considered in determining the threshold, with more antennas giving finer spatial resolution so that the threshold may be smaller. As another example, for timing measurements, the available bandwidth may be considered, with larger bandwidth generally meaning finer timing resolution so that the threshold may be smaller (resolution is roughly proportional to the inverse of the bandwidth). A combination of factors may be considered when determining the value of the similarity threshold, e.g., ranges or uncertainties combined to determine the threshold time or time range. The factors and / or threshold may be provided to the UE in the assistance data.

[0170]

[0192] At stage 1860, one of the PRS measurements may be identified as unreliable based on the timing of the PRS resources corresponding to the first and second PRS measurements. How timing is used to determine an unreliable PRS measurement may depend on the type of PRS measurement involved, e.g., whether the PRS measurement is a timing measurement (and what type of timing measurement it is) or an angle measurement.

[0171]

[0193] In the case of timing measurements, the arrival time (and possibly power level) may be used to identify unreliable and possibly reliable measurements. In the case of RTT measurements, the cross-validation unit 780 may identify PRS measurements corresponding to earlier arriving PRS resources as possibly reliable measurements and PRS measurements corresponding to later arriving PRS resources as unreliable measurements. The PRS measurements may correspond to the same site (e.g., the same TRP or different but co-located TRPs), or the same TRP or the same PRS resource set (for the same TRP), or the same PRS resource (for the same TRP and resource set). In the case of RSTD measurements, the cross-validation unit 780 may identify PRS measurements corresponding to a smaller RSTD as possibly reliable measurements and PRS measurements corresponding to a larger RSTD as unreliable measurements, where the first and second PRS measurements are determined for the same PRS resource or different PRS resources of the same cell. In the case of the first and second PRS measurements being PDP (Power Delay Profile) measurements, the cross-validation unit 780 may be configured to use a function of the RSRP and the corresponding timestamps of each of the first and second PRS measurements to determine the difference between the first and second PRS measurements to identify unreliable measurements. The cross-validation unit 780 may determine a norm, F-norm (Frobenius norm), or L1 / L2 norm, for example, using the timestamps and the RSPR to define the difference between the first and second PRS measurements. The cross-validation unit 780 may identify a PDP that contains the earliest timestamp as a possibly reliable measurement or has a smaller sum of timestamps of the N strongest peaks of the PDP. In the case of a PDP with a later timestamp or a larger sum of timestamps, the cross-validation unit 780 may identify the PDP as possibly reliable if the norm of the difference between the two PDPs is within a threshold, and may identify the PDP as possibly unreliable if the norm of the difference exceeds a threshold.

[0172]

[0194] For angle measurements, the cross-validation unit 780 may use the arrival time to distinguish between unreliable and possibly reliable measurements. For example, an angle measurement corresponding to an earlier arriving PRS resource may be identified as a possibly reliable measurement, and an angle measurement corresponding to a later arriving PRS resource may be identified as an unreliable measurement. The downlink AoD may be measured using the RSRP of the PRS resource, with the earlier arriving PRS resource corresponding to the possibly reliable measurement, and the later arriving PRS resource corresponding to the unreliable measurement. The possibly reliable measurement may be provided by the UE 1910 (e.g., the location information reporting unit 760) using a local coordinate system (LCS) (of the UE 1910) or using a global coordinate system (GCS) (e.g., relative to the Earth). If the reported angle measurement is provided with respect to the LCS, the UE 1910 must also provide an orientation of the UE 1910 along with the reported angle.

[0173]

[0195] The cross-validation unit 780 may attempt to cross-validate the measurements using the power values ​​without the timing values. For example, measurements with higher RSRP may possibly be identified as reliable measurements, and measurements with lower RSRP may be identified as unreliable measurements. However, these identifications may be given with caution, since later arriving PRS resources may have higher RSRP than earlier arriving PRS resources. As another example, a difference between RSRP values ​​that exceeds a threshold may be an indication that the channel varies significantly between UEs and that at least one of the measurements may be unreliable.

[0174]

[0196] Although the illustration of Figure 18 assumes that only two measurements are considered, three or more measurements may be cross-validated as long as at least two of the measurements differ by more than a threshold similarity. In the case of three or more measurements, the measurement corresponding to the earliest arriving PRS resource may potentially be identified as the reliable measurement, and all other measurements may be identified as unreliable.

[0175]

[0197] One or more other factors may be analyzed in determining the reliability of a measurement, and therefore whether the measurement should be used for positioning and / or reported. For example, a measurement may be determined to be unreliable if a quality metric of the measurement falls below a quality threshold and / or if interference present during the measurement exceeds an interference threshold.

[0176]

[0198] In stage 1870, the UE 1910, e.g., the cross-validation unit 780, may notify the manufacturer of the unreliable measurement of the measurement unreliability and discard or refrain from using or transmitting the unreliable measurement to determine a location estimate for the UE 1910. For example, if a first PRS measurement (made by the UE 1910) is identified as unreliable, the cross-validation unit 780 may notify the location information reporting unit 760, which may respond to the notification by refraining from reporting the unreliable measurement for UE-assisted positioning. The processor 710 of the UE 1910 may refrain from using the unreliable measurement for a location estimate for UE-based positioning. As another example, the cross-validation unit 780 may notify the location information sharing unit 770 that the first PRS measurement is unreliable in response to the location information sharing unit 770 refraining from sharing the unreliable measurement. As another example, if the second PRS measurement (made by the UE 1920) is identified as unreliable, the cross-validation unit 780 may notify the UE 1920, which may respond to the notification by refraining from measuring the corresponding PRS and / or sharing the unreliable measurement and / or using the unreliable measurement for UE-based positioning and / or reporting the unreliable measurement for UE-assisted positioning. If the UE 1910 is aware that the UE 1910 shared the first PRS measurement and that the UE 1920 will cross-validate the first and second PRS measurements, the UE 1910 may refrain from notifying the UE 1920 that the second PRS measurement is unreliable.

[0177]

[0199] Further, in stage 1870, the UE 1910 may perform beam management based on the possible reliability and unreliability of the PRS measurements. This may improve positioning performance and / or reduce the overhead of PRS beam management. For example, if a first PRS measurement (made by the UE 1910) is unreliable, the UE 1910 may use one or more recommended PRS beams for future measurements instead of the PRS resource corresponding to the unreliable PRS measurement (e.g., may measure PRS resource 2 instead of PRS resource 1 shown in FIG. 19). The recommended PRS beam may be the beam with the strongest RSRP or the earliest ToA. For example, if a second PRS measurement is provided from the UE 1920 to the UE 1910 with a detailed PRS-ID (identifying a TRP, a PRS resource set, and a PRS resource) of the second PRS resource, and the first PRS measurement is identified as unreliable and the second PRS measurement is identified as possibly reliable, the PRS measurement unit 750 of the UE 1910 may measure the second PRS resource going forward (e.g., at least the next PRS session / instance) instead of the first PRS resource. If a detailed PRS-ID was not provided for the second PRS resource, the location information sharing unit 770 of the UE 1910 may request the detailed PRS-ID from the UE 1920 and then measure the second PRS resource in response to receiving the detailed PRS-ID of the second PRS resource.

[0178]

[0200] With reference to Figure 20 and with further reference to Figures 1-19, a method 2000 of cross-validating PRS includes the stages shown. However, method 2000 is by way of example and not limitation. Method 2000 may be altered, for example, by having stages added, removed, reordered, combined, performed simultaneously, and / or a single stage split into multiple stages.

[0179]

[0201] At stage 2010, the method 2000 includes measuring, at the first UE, a first PRS resource to determine a first PRS measurement. For example, the PRS measurement unit 750 of the UE 1910 measures a PRS resource (e.g., PRS resource 1) to determine a PRS measurement (e.g., ToA, RSRP, etc.). The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for measuring the PRS resource.

[0180]

[0202] At stage 2020, the method 2000 includes receiving a second PRS measurement of a second PRS resource from a second UE via sidelink communication. For example, the UE 1910 receives the PRS measurement from the UE 1920 via a sidelink connection 1950. The second PRS measurement may be, for example, of PRS resource 2 as shown in FIG. 19, or of PRS resource 1, or of another PRS resource (from a different TRP (e.g., TRP 1940) that may or may not be collocated with the TRP 1930). The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for receiving the second PRS measurement.

[0181]

[0203] At stage 2030, the method 2000 includes determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on a relationship of the first PRS measurement to the second PRS measurement. For example, the cross-validation unit 780 of the UE 1910 compares the first and second PRS measurements to determine whether at least one of the measurements is unreliable, for example, as described herein. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable.

[0182]

[0204] Implementations of the method 2000 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable comprises determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable only if the second UE is within a threshold proximity of the first UE. For example, the UE 1910 may determine in stage 1840 whether the UEs 1910, 1920 are close enough to each other that a PRS measurement of the UE 1920 may be used as a PRS measurement for the UE 1910 while providing an acceptable positioning accuracy and determining the reliability of the at least one of the PRS measurements only if the UEs 1910, 1920 are acceptably close to each other.

[0183]

[0205] Also or alternatively, implementations of the method 2000 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable comprises determining that at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on the first PRS measurement differing from the second PRS measurement by more than a threshold. For example, the cross-validation unit 780 of the UE 1910 may determine whether a magnitude difference (e.g., as shown in Equation (1)) of the first and second PRS measurements exceeds a threshold or whether a ratio of the first and second PRS measurements exceeds a threshold to determine that at least one of the first and second PRS measurements is unreliable. In another example implementation, the method 2000 includes identifying the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement as an unreliable measurement based on a timing of the first PRS resource relative to the second PRS resource. For example, the cross-validation unit 780 of the UE 1910 may determine which of the first and second PRS resources arrived later at the UE 1910, 1920, respectively (and thus have a later ToA PRS measurement) and identify the corresponding PRS measurement as unreliable. As another example, the cross-validation unit 780 of the UE 1910 may determine the unreliable PRS measurement based on a function of time and power of the PRS resource (e.g., norm, F-norm, L1 / L2-norm) relative to a threshold. As another example, the cross-validation unit 780 of the UE 1910 may determine the unreliable PRS measurement based on which of the PRS resources does not include the oldest timestamp of the PDP or which of the PRS resources has a larger sum of timestamps of the N strongest PDP peaks. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, may comprise means for identifying one or the second PRS measurement as an unreliable measurement. In another example implementation, the method 2000 includes transmitting an indication to the second UE that the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on the second PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.For example, at stage 1870, the cross validation unit 780 of the UE 1910 may inform the UE 1920 of the unreliable measurement. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for transmitting an indication that the second PRS measurement is unreliable. In another example implementation, the method 2000 further comprises refraining from using the unreliable measurement to determine a position estimate for the first UE. For example, at stage 1870, the processor 710 of the UE 1910 may discard or not use the unreliable measurement to determine position information (e.g., a location estimate). The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, may comprise means for refraining from using the unreliable measurement to determine a position estimate. In another example implementation, the method 2000 includes refraining from transmitting the unreliable measurement to a network entity. For example, in stage 1870, the location information sharing unit 770 of the UE 1910 may not transmit an unreliable measurement (e.g., the first PRS measurement) to another UE as shared location information, and / or the location information reporting unit 760 may not transmit the unreliable measurement to the server 400 as reported location information. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, may comprise means for refraining from transmitting the unreliable measurement. In another example implementation, the method 2000 includes transmitting to the second UE a request for a PRS-ID of the second PRS resource based on the first PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement. For example, if the first PRS measurement is unreliable and the UE 1920 did not provide PRS resource level details of the second PRS resource for the second PRS resource measurement, in stage 1870, the location information sharing unit 770 of the UE 1910 may request a detailed PRS-ID from the UE 1920.The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for transmitting a request for a PRS-ID. In another example implementation, the method 2000 includes measuring a next instance of a second PRS resource based on the first PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement. For example, the PRS measurement unit 750 of the UE 1910 may measure at least a next instance of a second PRS resource (e.g., instead of or in addition to measuring the first PRS resource) in response to the first PRS measurement being determined to be unreliable, for example, to save processing power. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730 and in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for measuring a next instance of a second PRS resource. In another example implementation, the method 2000 includes determining the threshold based on a distance between the first UE and the second UE, or a measurement uncertainty, or a measurement resolution, or any combination thereof. The processor 710, possibly in combination with the memory 730, possibly in combination with the transceiver 720 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246), may comprise means for determining the threshold. The transceiver 720 may be used to obtain information for use in determining the threshold.

[0184]

[0206] Example implementation

[0207] First implementation example

[0208] Implementation examples are provided in the following numbered clauses.

[0185]

[0209] 1. A first UE (user equipment), A transceiver; Memory, a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory; The processor includes: communicating, via the transceiver, with a second UE to identify a first PRS measurement (measurement of a positioning reference signal) to be made by the second UE; receiving, via the transceiver from a second UE via sidelink communication, first location information based on the first PRS measurement; transmitting the first location information via the transceiver to a network entity; A first UE configured to:

[0186]

[0210] 2. The first UE of clause 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a proximity of the second UE to the first UE and transmit first location information to a network entity based on the proximity of the second UE to the first UE being acceptably close.

[0187]

[0211] 3. The processor identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on processing capabilities of the plurality of candidate UEs; The first UE of clause 1, further configured to:

[0188]

[0212] 4. The processor identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on an overlap between a first PRS configuration associated with the first UE and a second PRS configuration respectively associated with each of the plurality of candidate UEs; The first UE of clause 1, further configured to:

[0189]

[0213] 5. The processor identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on the second UE being closest to the first UE among the plurality of candidate UEs; The first UE of clause 1, further configured to:

[0190]

[0214] 6. The first UE of clause 1, wherein the processor is further configured to send a request to the second UE requesting the second UE to transmit the first location information at a requested periodicity, the periodicity being one of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic.

[0191]

[0215] 7. The first UE as recited in clause 6, wherein the requested periodicity is based on a reporting periodicity of the first UE for the first location information.

[0192]

[0216] 8. The first UE of clause 1, further configured to: indicate, for the first PRS measurement, a transmission / reception point (TRP), or a TRP and a PRS resource set, or a TRP and a PRS resource set and a PRS resource, or a UE-ID (UE identification information), or a UE-ID and a sidelink-PRS resource association ID to the second UE.

[0193]

[0217] 9. The first UE of clause 1, wherein the processor is further configured to verify the first PRS measurement indicated in the first location information by comparing the first PRS measurement with a similar measurement made by a device other than the second UE.

[0194]

[0218] 10. The processor: measuring a PRS resource to determine a second PRS measurement; transmitting, via the transceiver to the network entity, second location information based on the second PRS measurement; The first UE of clause 1, further configured to:

[0195]

[0219] 11. The first UE of clause 1, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit, to the network entity, the first location information having a group indication indicating a group including the first UE and the second UE.

[0196]

[0220] 12. A location information reporting method, comprising: communicating by a first UE (User Equipment) with a second UE to identify a first PRS measurement (measurement of a positioning reference signal) to be made by the second UE; receiving, by the first UE from the second UE via sidelink communication, first location information based on the first PRS measurement; sending first location information from the first UE to a network entity; A method comprising:

[0197]

[0221] 13. The method of clause 12, further comprising: determining a proximity of the second UE to the first UE, wherein transmitting the first location information to the network entity comprises transmitting the first location information to the network entity based on the proximity of the second UE to the first UE being acceptably close.

[0198]

[0222] 14. identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on processing capabilities of the plurality of candidate UEs; 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

[0199]

[0223] 15. identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on an overlap between a first PRS configuration associated with the first UE and a second PRS configuration respectively associated with each of the plurality of candidate UEs; 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

[0200]

[0224] 16. identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on the second UE being closest to the first UE among the plurality of candidate UEs; 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

[0201]

[0225] 17. The method of clause 12, further comprising: sending a request to the second UE to request the second UE to transmit the first location information at a requested periodicity, the periodicity being one of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic.

[0202]

[0226] 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the requested periodicity is based on a reporting periodicity of the first UE for the first location information.

[0203]

[0227] 19. The method of clause 12, further comprising indicating, by the first UE to the second UE, for the first PRS measurement, a transmission / reception point (TRP), or a TRP and a PRS resource set, or a TRP and a PRS resource set and a PRS resource, or a UE-ID (UE identity), or a UE-ID and a sidelink-PRS resource association ID.

[0204]

[0228] 20. The method of clause 12, further comprising verifying the first PRS measurement indicated in the first location information by comparing the first PRS measurement with a similar measurement made by a device other than the second UE.

[0205]

[0229] twenty one. measuring, by the first UE, a PRS resource to determine a second PRS measurement; transmitting, from the first UE to a network entity, second location information based on the second PRS measurement; 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

[0206]

[0230] 22. The method of clause 12, further comprising: transmitting, to a network entity, the first location information with a group indication indicating a group including the first UE and the second UE.

[0207]

[0231] 23. A first UE (user equipment), means for communicating with a second UE to identify a first PRS measurement (measurement of a positioning reference signal) to be performed by the second UE; means for receiving, from a second UE via sidelink communication, first location information based on the first PRS measurement; means for transmitting the first location information to a network entity; A first UE comprising:

[0208]

[0232] 24. The first UE of clause 23, further comprising: means for determining a proximity of the second UE to the first UE, wherein the means for transmitting the first location information to the network entity comprises means for transmitting the first location information to the network entity based on the proximity of the second UE to the first UE being acceptably close.

[0209]

[0233] twenty five. means for identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; means for selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on processing capabilities of the plurality of candidate UEs; The first UE of clause 23, further comprising:

[0210]

[0234] 26. means for identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; means for selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on an overlap between a first PRS configuration associated with the first UE and a second PRS configuration respectively associated with each of the plurality of candidate UEs; The first UE of clause 23, further comprising:

[0211]

[0235] 27. means for identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; means for the second UE to select a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs based on being closest to the first UE among the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor; The first UE of clause 23, further comprising:

[0212]

[0236] 28. The first UE of clause 21, further comprising means for transmitting a request to the second UE requesting the second UE to transmit the first location information at a requested periodicity, the periodicity being one of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic.

[0213]

[0237] 29. The first UE as recited in clause 27, wherein the requested periodicity is based on a reporting periodicity of the first UE for the first location information.

[0214]

[0238] 30. The first UE as described in clause 23, further comprising means for indicating a transmission / reception point (TRP), or a TRP and a PRS resource set, or a TRP and a PRS resource set and a PRS resource, or a UE-ID (UE identity), or a UE-ID and a sidelink-PRS resource association ID to a second UE for a first PRS measurement.

[0215]

[0239] 31. The first UE of clause 23, further comprising means for verifying a first PRS measurement indicated in the first location information by comparing the first PRS measurement with a similar measurement made by a device other than the second UE.

[0216]

[0240] 32. means for measuring a PRS resource to determine a second PRS measurement; means for transmitting, to the network entity, second location information based on the second PRS measurement; The first UE of clause 23, further comprising:

[0217]

[0241] 33. The first UE of clause 23, further comprising means for transmitting, to a network entity, the first location information having a group indication indicating a group including the first UE and the second UE.

[0218]

[0242] 34. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium, comprising: communicating with a second UE to identify a first PRS measurement (measurement of a positioning reference signal) to be made by the second UE; receiving, from a second UE via sidelink communication, first location information based on the first PRS measurement; transmitting the first location information to a network entity; A storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a

[0219]

[0243] 35. The storage medium of clause 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to determine a proximity of a second UE to a first UE, wherein the processor-readable instructions that cause the processor to transmit the first location information to a network entity comprise processor-readable instructions that cause the processor to transmit the first location information to a network entity based on the proximity of the second UE to the first UE being acceptably close.

[0220]

[0244] 36. The processor: identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on processing capabilities of the plurality of candidate UEs; 35. The storage medium of claim 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to:

[0221]

[0245] 37. The processor: identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on an overlap between a first PRS configuration associated with the first UE and a second PRS configuration respectively associated with each of the plurality of candidate UEs; 35. The storage medium of claim 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to:

[0222]

[0246] 38. The processor: identifying a plurality of candidate UEs within an acceptable proximity of a first UE; selecting a second UE from the plurality of candidate UEs to act as a location information donor based on the second UE being closest to the first UE among the plurality of candidate UEs; 35. The storage medium of claim 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to:

[0223]

[0247] 39. The storage medium of clause 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to transmit a request to the second UE requesting the second UE to transmit the first location information at a requested periodicity, the periodicity being one of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic.

[0224]

[0248] 40. The storage medium of clause 39, wherein the requested periodicity is based on a reporting periodicity of the first UE for the first location information.

[0225]

[0249] 41. The storage medium of clause 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause a processor to indicate to a second UE, for a first PRS measurement, a transmission / reception point (TRP), or a TRP and a PRS resource set, or a TRP and a PRS resource set and a PRS resource, or a UE-ID (UE identification information), or a UE-ID and a sidelink-PRS resource association ID.

[0226]

[0250] 42. The storage medium of clause 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to verify a first PRS measurement indicated in the first location information by comparing the first PRS measurement with a similar measurement made by a device other than the second UE.

[0227]

[0251] 43. The processor: measuring a PRS resource to determine a second PRS measurement; transmitting, to the network entity, second location information based on the second PRS measurement; 35. The storage medium of claim 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to:

[0228]

[0252] 44. The storage medium of clause 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to transmit, to a network entity, the first location information having a group indication indicating a group including the first UE and the second UE.

[0229]

[0253] 45. A first UE (user equipment), A transceiver; Memory, a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory; The processor includes: transmitting, via the transceiver, a location information sharing capability of the first UE to a second UE via sidelink communication; receiving a request for first location information via the transceiver from a second UE via sidelink communication; measuring PRS resources (Positioning Reference Signal Resources) received from a network entity to determine PRS measurements; transmitting, via the transceiver, the first location information based on the PRS measurements to a second UE via sidelink communication; A first UE configured to:

[0230]

[0254] 46. ​​The first UE of clause 45, wherein the processor is configured to transmit the first location information only if the processor measures PRS resources independent of a request for the first location information.

[0231]

[0255] 47. The first UE of clause 45, wherein the processor is configured to measure PRS resources in response to receiving a request such that the PRS measurement is an additional measurement in addition to one or more other PRS measurements that the processor would make in response to unsuccessful receipt of the request.

[0232]

[0256] 48. The PRS resource is a first PRS resource and the PRS measurement is a first PRS measurement, wherein the processor: measuring a second PRS resource to determine a second PRS measurement; refraining from transmitting a second PRS measurement to a second UE; The first UE as recited in clause 45, further configured to:

[0233]

[0257] 49. The first UE of clause 48, wherein the processor is further configured to refrain from transmitting the second PRS measurement to the second UE based on the first PRS measurement having an earlier arrival time than the second PRS measurement.

[0234]

[0258] 50. The first UE of clause 48, wherein the processor is further configured to refrain from transmitting a second PRS measurement to the second UE based on the first PRS resource being received with stronger power than the second PRS resource.

[0235]

[0259] 51. The first UE of clause 48, wherein the processor is further configured to refrain from transmitting a second PRS measurement to the second UE based on both the first PRS resource and the second PRS resource being associated with at least one of a single transmit / receive point, or a single PRS resource set, or a single PRS source site.

[0236]

[0260] 52. A location information sharing method, comprising: transmitting, from a first UE (User Equipment) to a second UE via sidelink communication, a location information sharing capability of the first UE; receiving, at the first UE from the second UE via sidelink communication, a request for first location information; Measuring, at the first UE, a PRS resource (positioning reference signal resource) received from a network entity to determine a PRS measurement; transmitting first location information based on the PRS measurements from the first UE to the second UE via sidelink communication; A method comprising:

[0237]

[0261] 53. The method of clause 52, wherein transmitting the first location information comprises transmitting the first location information only if the first UE measures PRS resources independent of a request for the first location information.

[0238]

[0262] 54. The method of clause 52, wherein measuring the PRS resource comprises measuring the PRS resource in response to receiving a request, the PRS measurement being an additional measurement in addition to one or more other PRS measurements that result in the first UE missing receipt of the request.

[0239]

[0263] 55. The PRS resource is a first PRS resource, the PRS measurement is a first PRS measurement, and the method further comprises: measuring, by the first UE, a second PRS resource to determine a second PRS measurement; refraining from transmitting a second PRS measurement from the first UE to the second UE; 53. The method of claim 52, further comprising:

[0240]

[0264] 56. The method of clause 55, wherein the first UE refrains from transmitting a second PRS measurement to the second UE based on the first PRS measurement having an earlier arrival time than the second PRS measurement.

[0241]

[0265] 57. The method of clause 55, wherein the first UE refrains from transmitting a second PRS measurement to the second UE based on the first PRS resource being received with stronger power than the second PRS resource.

[0242]

[0266] 58. The method of clause 55, wherein the first UE refrains from transmitting the second PRS measurement to the second UE based on both the first PRS resource and the second PRS resource being associated with at least one of a single transmit / receive point, or a single PRS resource set, or a single PRS source site.

[0243]

[0267] 59. A first UE (user equipment), means for transmitting a location information sharing capability of the first UE to a second UE via sidelink communication; means for receiving a request for the first location information from a second UE via sidelink communication; means for measuring PRS resources (Positioning Reference Signal Resources) received from a network entity to determine PRS measurements; means for transmitting the first location information based on the PRS measurements to a second UE via sidelink communication; A first UE comprising:

[0244]

[0268] 60. The first UE as described in clause 59, wherein the means for transmitting the first location information comprises means for transmitting the first location information only if the first UE measures PRS resources independent of a request for the first location information.

[0245]

[0269] 61. The first UE as described in clause 59, wherein the means for measuring PRS resources comprises means for measuring PRS resources in response to receiving a request such that the PRS measurement is an additional measurement in addition to one or more other PRS measurements for which the first UE misses receiving the request.

[0246]

[0270] 62. The PRS resource is a first PRS resource, the PRS measurement is a first PRS measurement, and the first UE means for measuring, by the first UE, a second PRS resource to determine a second PRS measurement; means for refraining from transmitting a second PRS measurement from the first UE to the second UE; The first UE as recited in clause 59, further comprising:

[0247]

[0271] 63. The first UE of clause 62, wherein the means for refraining from transmitting the second PRS measurement comprises means for refraining from transmitting the second PRS measurement to the second UE based on the first PRS measurement having an earlier arrival time than the second PRS measurement.

[0248]

[0272] 64. The first UE of clause 62, wherein the means for refraining from transmitting the second PRS measurement comprises means for refraining from transmitting the second PRS measurement to the second UE based on the first PRS resource being received with stronger power than the second PRS resource.

[0249]

[0273] 65. The first UE of clause 62, wherein the means for refraining from transmitting the second PRS measurement comprises means for refraining from transmitting the second PRS measurement to the second UE based on both the first PRS resource and the second PRS resource being associated with at least one of a single transmit / receive point, or a single PRS resource set, or a single PRS source site.

[0250]

[0274] 66. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium, comprising: transmitting a location information sharing capability of the first UE to a second UE via sidelink communication; receiving a request for the first location information from a second UE via sidelink communication; measuring PRS resources (Positioning Reference Signal Resources) received from a network entity to determine PRS measurements; transmitting the first location information based on the PRS measurements to a second UE via sidelink communication; A storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a

[0251]

[0275] 67. A processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to transmit first location information, comprising: a processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to transmit the first location information only if the first UE measures PRS resources independent of a request for the first location information, the storage medium according to clause 66.

[0252]

[0276] 68. A processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to measure PRS resources, the storage medium according to clause 66 comprising a processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to measure PRS resources in response to receiving a request such that the PRS measurement is an additional measurement in addition to one or more other PRS measurements that result in the first UE missing receipt of the request.

[0253]

[0277] 69. The PRS resource is a first PRS resource, the PRS measurement is a first PRS measurement, and the storage medium is configured to provide the processor with: measuring a second PRS resource to determine a second PRS measurement; refraining from transmitting a second PRS measurement from the first UE to the second UE; 67. The storage medium of clause 66, further comprising a processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to perform the steps of:

[0254]

[0278] 70. A processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to refrain from transmitting a second PRS measurement, comprising: a processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to refrain from transmitting a second PRS measurement to a second UE based on the first PRS measurement having an earlier arrival time than the second PRS measurement, the storage medium of clause 69.

[0255]

[0279] 71. A processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to refrain from transmitting a second PRS measurement, comprising: a processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to refrain from transmitting a second PRS measurement to a second UE based on the first PRS resource being received with stronger power than the second PRS resource, the storage medium of clause 69.

[0256]

[0280] 72. A processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to refrain from transmitting a second PRS measurement, the storage medium comprising the processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to refrain from transmitting a second PRS measurement to a second UE based on both the first PRS resource and the second PRS resource being associated with at least one of a single transmit / receive point, or a single PRS resource set, or a single PRS source site, as described in clause 69.

[0257]

[0281] Second implementation example

[0282] Further implementation examples are provided in the following numbered clauses.

[0258]

[0283] 1. A communications device for managing a UE group (user equipment group), comprising: A transceiver; Memory, a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory; The processor includes: determining a plurality of UEs of a UE group based on a proximity of each of the plurality of UEs to at least one other UE of the plurality of UEs; transmitting, via the transceiver, an indication of the UE group to at least one of the plurality of UEs of the UE group; A communication device configured to:

[0259]

[0284] 2. The communications device of clause 1, wherein the indication of the UE group includes group identification information.

[0260]

[0285] 3. The communications device of clause 1, wherein the processor is further configured to send, via the transceiver, a positioning request to a selected UE of a plurality of UEs of a UE group for the selected UE to provide the requested location information.

[0261]

[0286] 4. The communications device of clause 3, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit, via the transceiver, a sharing request to a selected UE of the multiple UEs of the UE group for the selected UE to share the requested location information with a specified UE of the multiple UEs of the UE group.

[0262]

[0287] 5. The communications device of clause 1, wherein the processor is configured to determine the plurality of UEs of the UE group based on all of the proximity of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

[0263]

[0288] 6. The processor receiving, via a transceiver, a join request indicating a prospective UE group member; determining whether to include the prospective UE group member among the plurality of UEs of the UE group in response to receiving the join request; 2. The communications device of claim 1, further configured to:

[0264]

[0289] 7. The processor Detecting a new sidelink connection to a prospective UE group member; and determining whether to include the expected UE group member among a plurality of UEs in the UE group in response to detecting a new sidelink connection to the expected UE group member; 2. The communications device of claim 1, further configured to:

[0265]

[0290] 8. The communications device of clause 1, wherein the processor is further configured to collect respective location information from one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs of the UE group, and to transmit a representative indication to a selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group, indicating that the selected UE serves as a representative of the UE group by transmitting the respective location information to a network entity.

[0266]

[0291] 9. The communications device of clause 1, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit, via the transceiver, a group change indication indicating a new member of the UE group, removal of a previous member of the UE group, or a combination thereof.

[0267]

[0292] 10. The communications device of clause 9, wherein the processor is configured to send a group change indication indicating removal of the previous member of the UE group in response to at least one of receiving a request for removal of the previous member of the UE group or a loss of a sidelink connection between the communications device and the previous member of the UE group.

[0268]

[0293] 11. A communications device for managing a UE group (user equipment group), comprising: means for determining a plurality of UEs of a UE group based on a proximity of each of the plurality of UEs to at least one other UE of the plurality of UEs; means for transmitting an indication of the UE group to at least one of a plurality of UEs of the UE group; A communication device comprising:

[0269]

[0294] 12. A communications device as described in clause 11, wherein the indication of a UE group includes group identification information.

[0270]

[0295] 13. The communications device of claim 11, further comprising means for transmitting a positioning request to a selected UE of a plurality of UEs of a UE group for the selected UE to provide the requested location information.

[0271]

[0296] 14. The communications device of clause 13, further comprising means for transmitting a sharing request to a selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group for a UE selected to share the requested location information with a specified UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

[0272]

[0297] 15. The communications device of clause 11, further comprising means for determining a plurality of UEs of the UE group based on all proximity of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

[0273]

[0298] 16. means for receiving a join request indicating a prospective UE group member; means for determining whether to include a prospective UE group member among a plurality of UEs in the UE group in response to receiving the join request; 12. The communication device of claim 11, further comprising:

[0274]

[0299] 17. means for detecting a new sidelink connection to a prospective UE group member; means for determining whether to include the prospective UE group member among a plurality of UEs in the UE group in response to detecting a new sidelink connection to the prospective UE group member; 12. The communication device of claim 11, further comprising:

[0275]

[0300] 18. The communications device of clause 11, further comprising means for collecting respective location information from one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs of the UE group, and transmitting a representative indication to a selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group, indicating that the selected UE serves as a representative of the UE group by transmitting the respective location information to a network entity.

[0276]

[0301] 19. The communications device of clause 11, further comprising means for transmitting a group change indication indicating a new member of the UE group, removal of a previous member of the UE group, or a combination thereof.

[0277]

[0302] 20. The communications device of clause 19, wherein the means for transmitting a group change indication comprises means for transmitting a group change indication indicating removal of a previous member of the UE group in response to at least one of receiving a request for removal of the previous member of the UE group or a loss of sidelink connectivity between the communications device and the previous member of the UE group.

[0278]

[0303] 21. A method for managing a UE group (user equipment group), comprising: determining a plurality of UEs of a UE group based on a proximity of each of the plurality of UEs to at least one other UE of the plurality of UEs; transmitting, from the communication device, an indication of the UE group to at least one of the plurality of UEs of the UE group; A method for providing the above.

[0279]

[0304] 22. The method of clause 21, wherein the indication of the UE group includes group identification information.

[0280]

[0305] 23. The method of clause 21, further comprising: sending a positioning request to a selected UE of a plurality of UEs of a UE group for the selected UE to provide the requested location information.

[0281]

[0306] 24. The method of clause 23, further comprising: sending a sharing request to a selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group for a UE selected to share the requested location information with a specified UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

[0282]

[0307] 25. The method of clause 21, further comprising determining the plurality of UEs of the UE group based on all of the proximity of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

[0283]

[0308] 26. receiving a join request indicating a prospective UE group member; determining whether to include the prospective UE group member among the plurality of UEs of the UE group in response to receiving the join request; 22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

[0284]

[0309] 27. Detecting a new sidelink connection to a prospective UE group member; and determining whether to include the expected UE group member among a plurality of UEs in the UE group in response to detecting a new sidelink connection to the expected UE group member; 22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

[0285]

[0310] 28. The method of clause 21, further comprising collecting respective location information from one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs of the UE group, and transmitting the respective location information to a network entity to a selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group, indicating that the selected UE serves as a representative of the UE group.

[0286]

[0311] 29. The method of clause 21, further comprising sending a group change indication indicating a new member of the UE group, removal of a previous member of the UE group, or a combination thereof.

[0287]

[0312] 30. The method of clause 29, wherein the group change indication indicates removal of a previous member of the UE group in response to at least one of receiving a request for removal of the previous member of the UE group or a loss of sidelink connectivity between the communication device and the previous member of the UE group.

[0288]

[0313] 31. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium, comprising: a processor of a communications device for managing a UE group (user equipment group), determining a plurality of UEs of a UE group based on a proximity of each of the plurality of UEs to at least one other UE of the plurality of UEs; sending an indication of the UE group to at least one of the plurality of UEs of the UE group; A storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a

[0289]

[0314] 32. The storage medium of clause 31, wherein the representation of the UE group includes group identification information.

[0290]

[0315] 33. The storage medium of clause 31, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to transmit a positioning request to a selected UE of a plurality of UEs of a UE group for the selected UE to provide the requested location information.

[0291]

[0316] 34. The storage medium of clause 33, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to transmit a sharing request to a selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group for the selected UE to share the requested location information with a specified UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

[0292]

[0317] 35. The storage medium of clause 31, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to determine a plurality of UEs of the UE group based on a proximity of all of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

[0293]

[0318] 36. The processor: receiving a join request indicating a prospective UE group member; determining whether to include the prospective UE group member among the plurality of UEs of the UE group in response to receiving the join request; 32. The storage medium of claim 31, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to:

[0294]

[0319] 37. The processor: Detecting a new sidelink connection to a prospective UE group member; and determining whether to include the expected UE group member among a plurality of UEs in the UE group in response to detecting a new sidelink connection to the expected UE group member; 32. The storage medium of claim 31, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to:

[0295]

[0320] 38. The storage medium of clause 31, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to collect respective location information from one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs of the UE group, and transmit a representative indication to a selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group, indicating that the selected UE serves as a representative of the UE group by transmitting the respective location information to a network entity.

[0296]

[0321] 39. The storage medium of clause 31, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to transmit a group change indication indicating a new member of the UE group, removal of a previous member of the UE group, or a combination thereof.

[0297]

[0322] 40. The storage medium of clause 39, wherein the processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to send a group change indication comprise processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to send a group change indication indicating removal of a previous member of the UE group in response to at least one of receiving a request for removal of the previous member of the UE group or a loss of sidelink connectivity between the communication device and the previous member of the UE group.

[0298]

[0323] 41. A first UE (user equipment), A transceiver; Memory, a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory; The processor includes: receiving, via the transceiver, a UE group indication indicating a group of UEs including the first UE and the second UE; communicating via the transceiver using sidelink communication with the second UE to identify first location information to be determined by the first UE, or second location information to be determined by the second UE, or a combination thereof; A first UE configured to:

[0299]

[0324] 42. The processor shall: Determining first location information; sending, to a network entity, the first location information and a UE group identity associated with the first location information; The first UE as recited in clause 41, further configured to:

[0300]

[0325] 43. The processor shall: Determining first location information; receiving a representative indication that a third UE, distinct from the first UE and the second UE, is a representative of a group of UEs; transmitting, to a third UE based on receiving the representative indication, the first location information and UE group identification information associated with the first location information; The first UE as recited in clause 41, further configured to:

[0301]

[0326] 44. The processor shall: Determining first location information; receiving a representative indication that the second UE is a representative of a group of UEs; transmitting the first location information to the second UE based on receiving the representative indication; The first UE as recited in clause 41, further configured to:

[0302]

[0327] 45. The processor shall: Measuring a PRS resource (positioning reference signal resource) to determine a first PRS resource measurement; receiving a second PRS resource measurement; comparing the first PRS resource measurement to the second PRS resource measurement; transmitting first location information based on the first PRS resource measurement without transmitting third location information based on the second PRS resource measurement based on a second PRS resource measurement that is unacceptably different from the first PRS resource measurement; The first UE as recited in clause 41, further configured to:

[0303]

[0328] 46. ​​A first UE (user equipment), means for receiving a UE group indication indicating a group of UEs including the first UE and the second UE; means for communicating, using sidelink communications, with a second UE to identify first location information to be determined by the first UE, or second location information to be determined by the second UE, or a combination thereof; A first UE comprising:

[0304]

[0329] 47. means for determining first location information; means for transmitting, to a network entity, the first location information and a UE group identity associated with the first location information; The first UE as recited in clause 46, further comprising:

[0305]

[0330] 48. means for determining first location information; means for receiving a representative indication that a third UE, distinct from the first UE and the second UE, is a representative of a group of UEs; means for transmitting, to a third UE based on receiving the representative indication, the first location information and UE group identification information associated with the first location information; The first UE as recited in clause 46, further comprising:

[0306]

[0331] 49. means for determining first location information; means for receiving a representative indication that the second UE is a representative of a group of UEs; means for transmitting the first location information to the second UE based on receiving the representative indication; The first UE as recited in clause 46, further comprising:

[0307]

[0332] 50. means for measuring a PRS resource (positioning reference signal resource) to determine a first PRS resource measurement; means for receiving a second PRS resource measurement; means for comparing the first PRS resource measurement to the second PRS resource measurement; means for transmitting first location information based on the first PRS resource measurement without transmitting third location information based on the second PRS resource measurement, the second PRS resource measurement being unacceptably different from the first PRS resource measurement; The first UE as recited in clause 46, further comprising:

[0308]

[0333] 51. A method of providing location information from a first UE (user equipment), comprising: receiving, at the first UE, a UE group indication indicating a group of UEs including the first UE and the second UE; communicating, by the first UE using sidelink communication, with the second UE to identify first location information to be determined by the first UE, or second location information to be determined by the second UE, or a combination thereof; A method for providing the above.

[0309]

[0334] 52. determining first location information at a first UE; transmitting, from the first UE to a network entity, the first location information and a UE group identity associated with the first location information; 52. The method of claim 51, further comprising:

[0310]

[0335] 53. determining first location information at a first UE; receiving, at the first UE, a representative indication that a third UE, distinct from the first UE and the second UE, is a representative of a group of UEs; transmitting, from the first UE to the third UE based on receiving the representative indication, the first location information and UE group identification information associated with the first location information; 52. The method of claim 51, further comprising:

[0311]

[0336] 54. determining first location information at a first UE; receiving, at the first UE, a representative indication that the second UE is a representative of a group of UEs; transmitting first location information from the first UE to the second UE based on receiving the representative indication; 52. The method of claim 51, further comprising:

[0312]

[0337] 55. Measuring a PRS resource (positioning reference signal resource) at a first UE to determine a first PRS resource measurement; receiving a second PRS resource measurement at the first UE; comparing, at the first UE, the first PRS resource measurement with the second PRS resource measurement; transmitting, from the first UE, first location information based on the first PRS resource measurement without transmitting, from the first UE, third location information based on the second PRS resource measurement, based on a second PRS resource measurement that is unacceptably different from the first PRS resource measurement; 52. The method of claim 51, further comprising:

[0313]

[0338] 56. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium, comprising: receiving a UE group indication indicating a group of UEs including the first UE and the second UE; communicating with the second UE using sidelink communication to identify first location information to be determined by the first UE, or second location information to be determined by the second UE, or a combination thereof; A storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a

[0314]

[0339] 57. The processor: Determining first location information; sending, to a network entity, the first location information and a UE group identity associated with the first location information; 57. The storage medium of clause 56, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to:

[0315]

[0340] 58. The processor: Determining first location information; receiving a representative indication that a third UE, distinct from the first UE and the second UE, is a representative of a group of UEs; transmitting, to a third UE based on receiving the representative indication, the first location information and UE group identification information associated with the first location information; 57. The storage medium of clause 56, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to:

[0316]

[0341] 59. The processor: Determining first location information; receiving a representative indication that the second UE is a representative of a group of UEs; transmitting the first location information to the second UE based on receiving the representative indication; 57. The storage medium of clause 56, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to:

[0317]

[0342] 60. The processor: Measuring a PRS resource (positioning reference signal resource) to determine a first PRS resource measurement; receiving a second PRS resource measurement; comparing the first PRS resource measurement to the second PRS resource measurement; transmitting first location information based on the first PRS resource measurement without transmitting third location information based on the second PRS resource measurement based on a second PRS resource measurement that is unacceptably different from the first PRS resource measurement; 57. The storage medium of clause 56, further comprising processor-readable instructions to cause the storage medium to:

[0318]

[0343] Third implementation example

[0344] Further implementation examples are provided in the following numbered clauses.

[0319]

[0345] 1. A first UE (user equipment), A transceiver; Memory, a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory; The processor includes: Measuring a first PRS resource (positioning reference signal resource) to determine a first PRS measurement; receiving, via the transceiver from a second UE via sidelink communication, a second PRS measurement of a second PRS resource; determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on a relationship of the first PRS measurement to the second PRS measurement; A first UE configured to:

[0320]

[0346] 2. The first UE of clause 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable only if the second UE is within a threshold proximity of the first UE.

[0321]

[0347] 3. The first UE of clause 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine that at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on the first PRS measurement differing from the second PRS measurement by more than a threshold.

[0322]

[0348] 4. The first UE of clause 3, wherein the processor is further configured to identify the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement as an unreliable measurement based on a timing of the first PRS resource relative to the second PRS resource.

[0323]

[0349] 5. The first UE of clause 4, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit, via the transceiver to the second UE, an indication that the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on the second PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0324]

[0350] 6. The first UE of clause 4, wherein the processor is further configured to refrain from using unreliable measurements to determine a position estimate for the first UE.

[0325]

[0351] 7. The first UE of clause 4, wherein the processor is further configured to refrain from transmitting unreliable measurements to the network entity via the transceiver.

[0326]

[0352] 8. The first UE of clause 4, wherein the processor is further configured to send, via the transceiver, to the second UE a request for a PRS-ID (RPS identification information) of the second PRS resource based on the first PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0327]

[0353] 9. The first UE of clause 4, wherein the processor is further configured to measure a next instance of the second PRS resource rather than a next instance of the first PRS resource based on the first PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0328]

[0354] 10. The first UE of clause 3, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the threshold based on a distance between the first UE and the second UE, or a measurement uncertainty, or a measurement resolution, or any combination thereof.

[0329]

[0355] 11. A first UE (user equipment), means for measuring a first PRS resource (positioning reference signal resource) to determine a first PRS measurement; means for receiving a second PRS measurement of a second PRS resource from a second UE via sidelink communication; means for determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on a relationship of the first PRS measurement to the second PRS measurement; A first UE comprising:

[0330]

[0356] 12. The first UE of clause 11, wherein the means for determining comprises means for determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable only if the second UE is within a threshold proximity of the first UE.

[0331]

[0357] 13. The first UE of clause 11, wherein the means for determining comprises means for determining that at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on the first PRS measurement differing from the second PRS measurement by more than a threshold.

[0332]

[0358] 14. The first UE of clause 13, further comprising means for identifying the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement as an unreliable measurement based on a timing of the first PRS resource relative to the second PRS resource.

[0333]

[0359] 15. The first UE of clause 14, further comprising means for transmitting an indication that the second PRS measurement is unreliable to the second UE based on the second PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0334]

[0360] 16. The first UE of clause 14, further comprising means for refraining from using unreliable measurements to determine a position estimate for the first UE.

[0335]

[0361] 17. The first UE of clause 14, further comprising means for refraining from transmitting unreliable measurements to a network entity.

[0336]

[0362] 18. The first UE of clause 14, further comprising means for sending to the second UE a request for a PRS-ID (RPS identification information) of a second PRS resource based on the first PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0337]

[0363] 19. The first UE of clause 14, further comprising means for measuring a next instance of a second PRS resource rather than a next instance of the first PRS resource based on the first PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0338]

[0364] 20. The first UE of clause 13, further comprising means for determining a threshold based on a distance between the first UE and the second UE, or a measurement uncertainty, or a measurement resolution, or any combination thereof.

[0339]

[0365] 21. A method of cross-validating a positioning reference signal (PRS), comprising: measuring a first PRS resource at a first UE (User Equipment) to determine a first PRS measurement; receiving a second PRS measurement of a second PRS resource from a second UE via sidelink communication; determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on a relationship of the first PRS measurement to the second PRS measurement; A method for providing the above.

[0340]

[0366] 22. The method of clause 21, wherein determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable comprises determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable only if the second UE is within a threshold proximity of the first UE.

[0341]

[0367] 23. The method of clause 21, wherein determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable comprises determining that at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on the first PRS measurement differing from the second PRS measurement by more than a threshold value.

[0342]

[0368] 24. The method of clause 23, further comprising identifying the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement as an unreliable measurement based on timing of the first PRS resource relative to the second PRS resource.

[0343]

[0369] 25. The method of clause 24, further comprising: transmitting, to the second UE, an indication that the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on the second PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0344]

[0370] 26. The method of clause 24, further comprising refraining from using unreliable measurements to determine a position estimate for the first UE.

[0345]

[0371] 27. The method of clause 24, further comprising refraining from transmitting unreliable measurements to the network entity.

[0346]

[0372] 28. The method of clause 24, further comprising: sending, to a second UE, a request for a PRS-ID (RPS identification information) of a second PRS resource based on the first PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0347]

[0373] 29. The method of clause 24, further comprising measuring a next instance of a second PRS resource rather than a next instance of the first PRS resource based on the first PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0348]

[0374] 30. The method of clause 23, further comprising determining the threshold based on a distance between the first UE and the second UE, or a measurement uncertainty, or a measurement resolution, or any combination thereof.

[0349]

[0375] 31. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium, comprising: Measuring a first PRS resource (positioning reference signal resource) to determine a first PRS measurement; receiving a second PRS measurement of a second PRS resource from a second UE via sidelink communication; determining whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on a relationship of the first PRS measurement to the second PRS measurement; A storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a

[0350]

[0376] 32. The storage medium of clause 31, wherein the processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to determine whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable comprise processor-readable instructions for causing the processor to determine whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable only if the second UE is within a threshold proximity of the first UE.

[0351]

[0377] 33. The storage medium of clause 31, wherein the processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to determine whether at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable comprise processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to determine that at least one of the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on the first PRS measurement differing from the second PRS measurement by more than a threshold value.

[0352]

[0378] 34. The storage medium of clause 33, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to identify the first PRS measurement or the second PRS measurement as an unreliable measurement based on timing of the first PRS resource relative to the second PRS resource.

[0353]

[0379] 35. The storage medium of clause 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause the processor to transmit, to the second UE, an indication that the second PRS measurement is unreliable based on the second PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0354]

[0380] 36. The storage medium of clause 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause the processor to refrain from using unreliable measurements to determine a position estimate for the first UE.

[0355]

[0381] 37. The storage medium of clause 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to refrain from transmitting unreliable measurements to a network entity.

[0356]

[0382] 38. The storage medium of clause 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to send, to a second UE, a request for a PRS-ID (RPS identification information) of a second PRS resource based on the first PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0357]

[0383] 39. The storage medium of clause 34, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to measure a next instance of a second PRS resource rather than a next instance of the first PRS resource based on the first PRS measurement being identified as an unreliable measurement.

[0358]

[0384] 40. The storage medium of clause 33, further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to determine the threshold value based on a distance between the first UE and the second UE, or a measurement uncertainty, or a measurement resolution, or any combination thereof.

[0359]

[0385] Other considerations

[0386] Other examples and implementations are within the scope of this disclosure and the scope of the appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software and computers, the functions described above may be implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwiring, or any combination of these. Features implementing the functions may also be physically located in various locations, including being distributed such that portions of the functions are implemented in different physical locations.

[0360]

[0387] As used herein, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include the plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. As used herein, the terms "comprises," "comprising," "includes," and / or "including" specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and / or components, but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and / or groups thereof.

[0361]

[0388] The term RS (reference signal) as used herein may refer to one or more reference signals and may apply to any form of the term RS, e.g., PRS, SRS, CSI-RS, etc., as appropriate.

[0362]

[0389] Unless otherwise specified, as used herein, a statement that a feature or action is "based on" an item or condition means that the feature or action is based on the stated item or condition, and may be based on one or more items and / or conditions in addition to the stated item or condition.

[0363]

[0390] Also, as used herein, "or" in a list of items (possibly ending with "at least one of" or "one or more of") indicates a disjunctive list, such as, for example, a list of "at least one of A, B, or C," or a list of "one or more of A, B, or C," or a list of "A, B, or C" means A or B or C, or AB (A and B), or AC (A and C), or BC (B and C), or ABC (i.e., A and B and C), or a combination of two or more features (e.g., AA, AAB, ABBC, etc.). Thus, a statement that an item, e.g., a processor, is configured to perform a function with respect to at least one of A or B, or that an item is configured to perform function A or function B, means that the item may be configured to perform the function with respect to A, or may be configured to perform the function with respect to B, or may be configured to perform the function with respect to A and B. For example, the phrases "a processor configured to measure at least one of A or B" or "a processor configured to measure A or measure B" mean that the processor may be configured to measure A (which may or may not be configured to measure B), or may be configured to measure B (which may or may not be configured to measure A), or may be configured to measure A and measure B (which may be configured to select whether A or B or both should be measured). Similarly, a recitation of a means for measuring at least one of A or B includes a means for measuring A (which may or may not be capable of measuring B), or a means for measuring B (and which may or may not be configured to measure A), or a means for measuring A and B (which may be capable of selecting whether A and B or both should be measured).As another example, a statement that an item, e.g., a processor, is configured to at least one of performing a function X or performing a function Y means that the item may be configured to perform function X, or may be configured to perform function Y, or may be configured to perform function X and function Y. For example, the phrase "a processor configured to at least one of measuring X or measuring Y" means that the processor may be configured to measure X (which may or may not be configured to measure Y), or may be configured to measure Y (which may or may not be configured to measure X), or...

Claims

1. A communications device for managing a group of user equipment (UE), comprising: A transceiver; Memory, a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory; wherein the processor: determining the UEs of the UE group based on a proximity of each of the UEs to at least one other UE of the UEs; transmitting, via the transceiver, to at least one of the plurality of UEs of the UE group, an indication of the UE group; transmitting, via the transceiver, a positioning request to the selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group for the selected UE to provide requested location information; transmitting, via the transceiver, a sharing request to the selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group for the selected UE to share the requested location information with a designated UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group; A communication device configured to:

2. The communications device of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the UE group includes group identification information.

3. The communications device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the plurality of UEs of the UE group based on a proximity of all of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

4. The processor, receiving, via said transceiver, a join request indicating prospective UE group members; determining whether to include the prospective UE group member among the plurality of UEs of the UE group in response to receiving the join request; The communication device of claim 1 , further configured to:

5. The processor, Detecting a new sidelink connection to a prospective UE group member; and determining whether to include the prospective UE group member among the plurality of UEs of the UE group in response to detecting the new sidelink connection to the prospective UE group member; The communication device of claim 1 , further configured to:

6. 2. The communications device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to collect respective location information from one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs of the UE group, and to transmit a representative indication to a selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group indicating that the selected UE acts as a representative of the UE group by transmitting the respective location information to a network entity.

7. 2. The communications device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit, via the transceiver, a group change indication indicating a new member of the UE group, a removal of a previous member of the UE group, or a combination thereof, and wherein the processor is optionally configured to transmit the group change indication indicating the removal of the previous member of the UE group in response to at least one of receiving a request for removal of the previous member of the UE group or a loss of sidelink connectivity between the communications device and the previous member of the UE group.

8. A method for managing a UE group (user equipment group), comprising: determining the UEs of the UE group based on a proximity of each of the UEs to at least one other UE of the UEs; transmitting, from a communications device, an indication of the UE group to at least one of the plurality of UEs of the UE group; transmitting, via a transceiver, a positioning request to the selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group for the selected UE to provide requested location information; transmitting, via the transceiver, a sharing request to the selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group for the selected UE to share the requested location information with a designated UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group; A method for providing the above.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the indication of the UE group includes group identification information.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the plurality of UEs of the UE group based on a proximity of all of the plurality of UEs of the UE group.

11. receiving a join request indicating prospective UE group members; determining whether to include the prospective UE group member among the plurality of UEs of the UE group in response to receiving the join request; The method of claim 8 further comprising:

12. Detecting a new sidelink connection to a prospective UE group member; and determining whether to include the prospective UE group member among the plurality of UEs of the UE group in response to detecting the new sidelink connection to the prospective UE group member; The method of claim 8 further comprising:

13. 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: collecting respective location information from one or more UEs of the plurality of UEs of the UE group; and transmitting a representative indication to a selected UE of the plurality of UEs of the UE group indicating that the selected UE acts as a representative of the UE group by transmitting the respective location information to a network entity.

14. 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: transmitting a group change indication indicating a new member of the UE group, a removal of a previous member of the UE group, or a combination thereof, optionally the group change indication indicating removal of the previous member of the UE group in response to at least one of receiving a request for removal of the previous member of the UE group or a loss of sidelink connectivity between the communications device and the previous member of the UE group.

15. 15. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a processor of a communications device to perform the method of any one of claims 8 to 14 for managing a UE group (user equipment group).

Images