Distributed Device Management for Positioning

Abstract

The positioning method includes establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices including a first positioning device and a second positioning device, obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight status (LOS / NLOS status) for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each being a pair of a plurality of positioning devices, and sending an invalidation message to the first positioning device based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being non-line-of-sight for at least a subset of the plurality of positioning devices, wherein the invalidation message indicates invalidating at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17 / 477,838, entitled "DISTRIBUTED DEVICE MANAGEMENT FOR POSITIONING," filed Sep. 17, 2021, which is assigned to the assignee of this application and the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this specification 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 interim 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third generation (3G) high speed data, Internet-enabled wireless service, and fourth generation (4G) service (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax), fifth generation (5G) service, etc. Currently, many different types of wireless communication systems are in use, including cellular systems and Personal Communications Service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the Cellular Analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), 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. According to the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance, the 5G standard is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to tens of thousands of users, providing 1 gigabit per second to a few dozen workers on an office floor. To support large-scale deployment of sensors, hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections must be supported. Therefore, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobile communications should be significantly increased compared to the current 4G standard. Furthermore, signaling efficiency should be increased and latency should be significantly reduced compared to the current standard.

[0004]

[0004] Various techniques using 5G technology can be employed to determine the location of a mobile device. For example, 5G technology can be employed to determine location with double-digit or even single-digit meter-level accuracy. Summary of the Invention

[0005]

[0005] In one embodiment, a positioning method includes establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices including a first positioning device and a second positioning device, obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight status (LOS / non-line-of-sight, NLOS status) for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each being a pair of a plurality of positioning devices, and sending an invalidation message to the first positioning device based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being non-line-of-sight for at least a subset of the plurality of positioning devices, wherein the invalidation message indicates to invalidate at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

[0006]

[0006] In another embodiment, an apparatus includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the processor is configured to establish a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices including a first positioning device and a second positioning device, obtain line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight status (LOS / NLOS status) for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each being a pair of a plurality of positioning devices, and send an invalidation message to the first positioning device based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being non-line-of-sight for at least a subset of the plurality of positioning devices, wherein the invalidation message indicates to invalidate at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

[0007]

[0007] In another embodiment, an apparatus comprises means for establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices including a first positioning device and a second positioning device, means for obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight status (LOS / NLOS status) for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each being a pair of a plurality of positioning devices, and means for sending an invalidation message to the first positioning device based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being non-line-of-sight for at least a subset of the plurality of positioning devices, wherein the invalidation message indicates invalidation of at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

[0008]

[0008] In another embodiment, a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium includes processor-readable instructions that cause a processor of the apparatus to perform the following operations: establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices including a first positioning device and a second positioning device; obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight status (LOS / NLOS status) for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each being a pair of a plurality of positioning devices; and sending an invalidation message to the first positioning device based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being non-line-of-sight for at least a subset of the plurality of positioning devices, wherein the invalidation message indicates invalidating at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a simplified diagram of an example 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] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of components of an example transmission point. [Figure 4]

[0012] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of components of an exemplary server in which various embodiments are illustrated in FIG. [Diagram 5]

[0013] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example positioning environment. [Figure 6]

[0014] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary positioning device. [Figure 7]

[0015] 1 illustrates a signaling and process flow for managing positioning session participants and determining location information. [Figure 8]

[0016] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight table. [Figure 9]

[0017] FIG. 2 is a block flow diagram of a positioning method. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010]

[0018] Techniques for managing distributed device positioning are described herein. Members of a positioning session, transmission of positioning reference signals, and / or measurements of positioning reference signals may be managed. For example, line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight status between each member of a positioning session may be obtained and used to manage the positioning. Positioning session members that are non-line-of-sight to a threshold amount of other members and / or are non-line-of-sight to a threshold amount (e.g., percentage of samples) may be disabled from participating in the positioning session. For example, members may be instructed to stop transmitting positioning reference signals (PRS) for the positioning session and / or PRS transmitted by members may not be measured. Disabled positioning session members may be instructed to form another positioning session, for example, if the members are in line-of-sight to each other. These are examples, and other examples may be implemented.

[0011]

[0019] Items and / or techniques described herein may provide one or more of the following capabilities, as well as other capabilities not mentioned. For example, positioning accuracy, latency, clock drift, and / or power consumption can be improved by removing devices from a positioning session that do not improve positioning accuracy. Positioning accuracy for dynamic environments can be improved by adjusting thresholds for determining whether to retain or disable members of a positioning session. Other capabilities may be provided, and not every implementation according to the present disclosure must provide any, much less all, of the described capabilities.

[0012]

[0020] 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. It is expected that standardization for 5G wireless networks will include support for various positioning methods, which may utilize reference signals transmitted by base stations in a manner similar to how LTE wireless networks currently utilize positioning reference signals (PRSs) and / or cell-specific reference signals (CRSs) for position determination.

[0013]

[0021] Descriptions herein may, for example, refer to sequences of actions that are performed by elements of a computing device. 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. A sequence of actions described herein may be embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon 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 several different forms, all of which are within the scope of this disclosure, including the claimed subject matter.

[0014]

[0022] 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 stationary (e.g., at a particular time) 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 to external networks such as the Internet and to other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms are possible for a UE to connect to the core network and / or the Internet, 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]

[0023] 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 general Node B (gNode B, gNB). Additionally, in some systems, the base station may provide purely edge node signaling functionality, while in other systems the base station may provide additional control and / or network management functionality.

[0016]

[0024] 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 wired phone, a smart phone, a tablet, a consumer asset tracking device, an asset tag, etc. A communication link through which a UE may transmit 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 channel or a 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]

[0025] 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., over a carrier) and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., physical cell identifier (PCID), virtual cell identifier (VCID)) to distinguish adjacent 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), or others) 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 the logical entity operates.

[0018]

[0026] 1, an example of a communication system 100 includes a UE 105, a UE 106, a radio access network (RAN), here a fifth generation (5G) Next Generation (NG) RAN (NG-RAN) 135, 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 device. 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 (NG Core, NGC). Standardization of the NG-RAN and 5GC is underway in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP®). As such, the NG-RAN 135 and 5GC 140 may conform to current and future standards for 5G support from 3GPP. The NG-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, this discussion focuses on the UE 105 for brevity.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., Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)), such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), Galileo, or Beidou, or some other local or regional SPS, such as Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS), European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), or Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). Additional components of the communication system 100 are described below. The communication system 100 may include additional or alternative components.

[0019]

[0027] 1, the NG-RAN 135 includes NR Node Bs (gNBs) 110a, 110b, and a next generation eNodeB (ng-eNB) 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 one another and each configured to wirelessly communicate bidirectionally with the UE 105, and each communicatively coupled to the AMF 115 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 an 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 a short range technology, such as WiFi, WiFi-Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy (BLE), Zigbee, etc.). One or more base stations, such as 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 ng-eNB 114 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic region, e.g., a cell. Each cell may be partitioned into multiple sectors according to the base station antennas.

[0020]

[0028] FIG. 1 provides a generalized view of the various components, and any or all of the components may be utilized as appropriate, and each of the components may be duplicated or omitted as desired. Specifically, while 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 more (or fewer) SVs (i.e., more or fewer 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]

[0029] 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 directionally transmitted 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 each be replaced by or include various other location server functions and / or base station functions in various embodiments.

[0022]

[0030] 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, such as 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, whether currently existing or developed in the future, may be used. 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]

[0031] The UE 105 or other devices may operate in various networks and / or for various purposes and / or using various technologies (e.g., 5G, Wi-Fi 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.). , and can be configured to communicate. The V2X communications can be cellular (Cellular V2X (C-V2X)) and / or WiFi (e.g., DSRC (dedicated short-range connection)). The system 100 can support operation on multiple carriers (waveform signals at different frequencies). A multi-carrier transmitter can transmit modulated signals on multiple carriers simultaneously. Each modulated signal can 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 (Single-Carrier The modulated signals may be, for example, a SC-FDMA (Single-Coupled Frequency Division Multiple Access) signal, etc. Each modulated signal may be transmitted on a different carrier and may carry pilot, overhead information, data, etc. The UEs 105, 106 may communicate with each other via UE-to-UE sidelink (SL) communication by transmitting on 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]

[0032] The UE 105 may include 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 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]

[0033] The UE 105 may comprise a single entity or may comprise multiple entities, such as in a personal area network in which 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 provides location coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude) of the UE 105 that may or may not include an altitude component (e.g., elevation, height or depth above ground, floor, or basement). Alternatively, the location of the UE 105 may be represented as a civic location (e.g., as a postal address, or a destination or small area designation of some point in a building such as a particular room or floor). The location of the UE 105 may be represented as an area or volume (defined either geographically or in a civic 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, including, for example, distance and 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 in a known location, which may be defined, for example, geographically, in terms of cities, 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 include any of these variations unless otherwise indicated. When calculating the location of a UE, it is common to determine 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]

[0034] 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 using any suitable D2D radio access technology (RAT), such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, etc. One or more of a group 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 D2D communication. In other cases, D2D communication may be performed 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. The TRP may facilitate scheduling of resources for D2D communication. In other cases, D2D communication may be performed between UEs without the involvement of a TRP.

[0027]

[0035] 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, which may provide wireless communication access to the 5G C 140 on behalf of the UE 105 using 5G. In FIG. 1, the serving gNB for the UE 105 is assumed to be gNB 110a, although another gNB (e.g., gNB 110b) may act as the 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]

[0036] 1 may include the ng-eNB 114, also referred to as a 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 a position of the UE 105, but may not receive signals from the UE 105 or from other UEs.

[0029]

[0037] 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 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., a terminal for a user in a home).

[0030]

[0038] As mentioned, FIG. 1 illustrates nodes configured to communicate according to a 5G communication protocol, however, nodes configured to communicate according to other communication protocols, such as, for example, LTE or IEEE 802.11x protocols, may be used. For example, in an Evolved Packet System (EPS) providing LTE wireless access to the UE 105, the RAN may include an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) that may include base stations including evolved Node Bs (eNBs). The core network for the EPS may comprise an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The EPS may include the E-UTRAN plus the EPC, where in FIG. 1, the E-UTRAN corresponds to the NG-RAN 135 and the EPC corresponds to the 5GC 140.

[0031]

[0039] The gNBs 110a, 110b, and ng-eNB 114 may communicate with the AMF 115, which in turn 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 be responsible for 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 may communicate 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 location procedures / methods such as Assisted 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), Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID), angle of arrival (AoA), angle of departure (AoD), and / or other positioning methods. The LMF 120 may process location service requests for the UE 105, for example, received from the AMF 115 or from the GMLC 125. The LMF 120 may be connected to the AMF 115 and / or to the GMLC 125. The LMF 120 may be referred to by other names, such as a Location Manager (LM), a Location Function (LF), a commercial LMF (CLMF), or a 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 functions (including derivation of the location of the UE 105) may be performed in the UE 105 (e.g., using signal measurements obtained by the UE 105 for signals transmitted by wireless nodes such as the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114, and / or assistance data provided to the UE 105, e.g., by the LMF 120). 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 the mobility of the UE 105, including cell changes and handovers, and may participate in supporting signaling connections to the UE 105.

[0032]

[0040] The GMLC 125 may support location requests for the UE 105 received from the 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 request directly to the LMF 120. A location response (e.g., including a location estimate for the UE 105) from the LMF 120 may be returned to the GMLC 125 either directly or via the AMF 115, which may then return a location response (e.g., including the 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 it may not be connected to the AMF 115 or the LMF 120.

[0033]

[0041] 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 Positioning Protocol A (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), which may be 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 the LPP, where the LPP and / or NPP messages may be transferred between the UE 105 and the LMF 120 via the serving gNB 110a, 110b or the serving ng-eNB 114 for the AMF 115 and 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 may be transferred 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 positioning 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 positioning 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 or PRS transmissions from the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114. The LMF 120 may be co-located or integrated with the gNBs or TRPs, or may be located remotely from the gNBs and / or TRPs, and may be configured to communicate directly or indirectly with the gNBs and / or TRPs.

[0034]

[0042] With the UE-assisted positioning method, the UE 105 can 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-eNBs 114, and / or the WLAN APs. The location measurements may also or instead include measurements of GNSS pseudoranges, code phases, and / or carrier phases for the SVs 190-193.

[0035]

[0043] Using the UE-based positioning method, the UE 105 can obtain location measurements (which may, for example, be the same as or similar to the location measurements of the UE-assisted positioning method) and can calculate the location of the UE 105 (e.g., using assistance data received from a location server such as the LMF 120 or broadcast by the gNB 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, or other base station or AP).

[0036]

[0044] In a network-based positioning 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]

[0045] The information provided to the LMF 120 by the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114 using the NRPPa may include timing and configuration information for directional SS or PRS transmissions, as well as 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]

[0046] An LPP or NPP message sent from the LMF 120 to the UE 105 can 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 obtain measurements for GNSS (or A-GNSS), WLAN, E-CID, and / or OTDOA (or some other positioning method). In the case of E-CID, the LPP or NPP message can instruct the UE 105 to obtain 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., inside a 5G NAS message) via the serving gNB 110a (or serving ng-eNB 114) and the AMF 115.

[0039]

[0047] As mentioned, the communication system 100 is described with respect to 5G technology, however, the communication system 100 may be implemented to support other communication technologies, such as GSM, WCDMA, LTE, etc., 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 with one or more other RANs and one or more other core networks. For example, in an EPS, the NG-RAN 135 may be replaced with an E-UTRAN including eNBs, and the 5GC 140 may be replaced with 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 and receive location information to and from the 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 5G networks, with the difference being 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]

[0048] 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 (e.g., UE 105 of FIG. 1) whose position is to be determined. 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]

[0049] 2, UE 200 may be an example of one of UEs 105, 106 and may comprise 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. 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 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, etc.) may be omitted from the UE 200. The processor 210 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a central processing unit (CPU), 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 a processor, such as for RF (radio frequency) sensing (using one or more (cellular) wireless signals transmitted and reflections used to identify, map, and / or track objects), 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 Identification Module) may be used by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and another SIM may be used by an end user of UE 200 for connectivity. Memory 211 may be a non-transitory storage medium that may include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, disk memory, and / or read-only memory (ROM), etc. Memory 211 may store software 212, which may be processor-readable processor-executable software code including instructions that, when executed, may be configured to cause processor 210 to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, software 212 may not be directly executable by processor 210, but may be configured, for example, when compiled and executed, to cause processor 210 to perform functions. Although the description herein may refer to processor 210 performing functions, this includes other implementations, such as when processor 210 executes software and / or firmware. The description herein may refer to the processor 210 performing a function as shorthand for one or more of the processors 230-234 performing the function. The description herein may refer to the UE 200 performing a function as shorthand for one or more suitable components of the UE 200 performing the function. The processor 210 may include memory having stored instructions in addition to and / or in place of the memory 211. The functionality of the processor 210 is discussed more fully below.

[0042]

[0050] The configuration of UE 200 shown in FIG. 2 is an example of the present disclosure, including the claims, and is not limiting, and other configurations may be used. For example, an exemplary configuration of a UE may include one or more of processors 230-234 of processor 210, memory 211, and wireless transceiver 240. Other exemplary configurations may include one or more of processors 230-234 of processor 210, memory 211, a wireless transceiver, and one or more of sensor 213, user interface 216, SPS receiver 217, camera 218, PD 219, and / or a wired transceiver.

[0043]

[0051] The UE 200 may include 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. Additionally 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]

[0052] 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 light sensors, one or more weight sensors, and / or one or more radio frequency (RF) sensors. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) may include, 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 orientation (e.g., relative to magnetic north and / or true north), which may be used for any of a variety of purposes, such as, for example, to support one or more compass applications. The environmental sensors may include, 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, and indications of the signals may be stored in memory 211 and processed by DSP 231 and / or general purpose / application processor 230 in support of one or more applications, such as applications directed to positioning and / or navigation operations.

[0045]

[0053] 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, autonomous navigation, sensor-based location determination, and / or sensor-assisted location determination. The sensors 213 may be useful in determining whether the UE 200 is fixed (stationary) or mobile, and / or whether certain useful information regarding the mobility of the UE 200 should be reported 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 movement or that the UE 200 has moved, and may report a relative displacement / distance (e.g., via autonomous navigation or sensor-based location determination or sensor-assisted location determination enabled by the sensors 213). In another example, for relative positioning information, the sensors / IMU may be used to determine the angle and / or orientation of other devices relative to the UE 200, etc.

[0046]

[0054] The IMU may be configured to provide measurements of the direction of motion and / or the 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 measurements of the linear acceleration and rotational velocity of the UE 200 may be integrated over time to determine the instantaneous direction of motion and 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 a certain instant, e.g., using the SPS receiver 217 (and / or by some other means), and measurements from the accelerometers and gyroscopes obtained after this instant may be used in autonomous navigation to determine the current location of the UE 200 based on the motion (direction and distance) of the UE 200 compared to the reference location.

[0047]

[0055] The magnetometer may determine magnetic field strength in different directions, which may be used to determine an orientation of the UE 200. For example, the orientation may be used to provide the UE 200 with a digital compass. The magnetometer may include a two-dimensional magnetometer configured to detect and provide an indication of magnetic field strength in two orthogonal dimensions. The magnetometer may include a three-dimensional magnetometer configured to detect and provide an indication of 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]

[0056] The transceiver 215 may include a wireless transceiver 240 and a wired transceiver 250 configured to communicate with other devices over 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), Global System for Mobiles (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), 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 mm-wave 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]

[0057] 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 any 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 indications 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 indications 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, a speaker, a microphone, digital-to-analog circuitry, analog-to-digital circuitry, amplifiers, and / or gain control circuits (including any two or more of these devices). Other configurations of audio I / O devices may be used. Additionally or alternatively, user interface 216 may include one or more touch sensors that respond to contact and / or pressure, for example, on a keyboard and / or touch screen of user interface 216 .

[0050]

[0058] 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 the acquired SPS signals 260, in whole or in part, 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 in conjunction with the SPS receiver 217 to process the acquired SPS signals, in whole or in part, and / or to calculate the estimated location of the UE 200. Memory 211 may store indications (e.g., measurements) of SPS signals 260 and / or other signals (e.g., signals obtained from wireless transceiver 240) for use in performing positioning operations. General purpose / application processor 230, DSP 231, and / or one or more special purpose processors, and / or memory 211 may provide or support a location engine for use in processing the measurements to estimate the location of UE 200.

[0051]

[0059] 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 a general-purpose / application processor 230 and / or a 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 decode / decompress stored image data, for example, for presentation on a display device (not shown) of the user interface 216.

[0052]

[0060] 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 a portion 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, although the description herein may refer to the PD 219 being configured to perform or performing according to a positioning method. 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 wireless 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 another technique, such as a serving base station cell (e.g., cell center) and / or E-CID. The PD 219 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 200 using 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, roads, etc.). The PD 219 may be configured to use one or more other techniques to determine the location of the UE 200 (e.g., relying on the UE's self-reported location (e.g., as part of the UE's location beacon)) 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., gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, etc.) that may sense and provide an indication of the orientation and / or movement of the UE 200, and the processor 210 (e.g., general purpose / application processor 230 and / or DSP 231) may be configured to use the indication to determine the movement (e.g., velocity vector and / or acceleration vector) of the UE 200. The PD 219 may be configured to provide an indication of uncertainty and / or error in the determined position and / or movement.The functionality of PD219 may be provided in various manners and / or configurations, for example, by general purpose / application processor 230, transceiver 215, SPS receiver 217, and / or other components of UE200, and may be provided by hardware, software, firmware, or various combinations thereof.

[0053]

[0061] 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 (e.g., which may be configured for optical and / or electrical communication). One or more of the depicted devices (e.g., a wireless transceiver) may be omitted from the TRP 300. The processor 310 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 310 may comprise multiple processors (e.g., including 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 311 may be a non-transitory storage medium, which may include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, disk memory, and / or read only memory (ROM), etc. The memory 311 may store software 312, which may be processor-readable processor-executable software code including instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause the processor 310 to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 312 may not be directly executable by the processor 310, but may be configured, for example, when compiled and executed, to cause the processor 310 to perform functions.

[0054]

[0062] The description herein may refer to the processor 310 performing a function, which includes other implementations, such as when the processor 310 executes software and / or firmware. The description herein may refer to the processor 310 performing a function as shorthand for one or more of the processors included in the processor 310 performing the function. The description herein may refer to the TRP 300 performing a function as shorthand for one or more suitable components (e.g., the processor 310 and the memory 311) of the TRP 300 (and thus one of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114) performing the function. The processor 310 may include a memory having instructions stored therein in addition to and / or instead of the memory 311. The functionality of the processor 310 is discussed more fully below.

[0055]

[0063] 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 to transmit (e.g., on one or more uplink channels and / or one or more downlink channels) and / or receive (e.g., on one or more downlink channels and / or one or more uplink channels) wireless signals 348 and convert 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 or combined / integrated components, and / or the wireless receiver 344 may include multiple receivers, which may be separate 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 a variety of radio access technologies (RATs), such as 5G New Radio (NR), Global System for Mobiles (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), 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 NG-RAN 135 to transmit and receive communications, e.g., to the LMF 120, and / or 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]

[0064] 3 is an example of the present disclosure, including the claims, and is not limiting, and other configurations may be used. For example, the description herein discusses that the TRP 300 can be configured to perform or performs 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]

[0065] 4, the server 400, of which the LMF 120 may be an example, may comprise 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., a wireless transceiver) may be omitted from the server 400. The processor 410 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as 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 may be a non-transitory storage medium, which may include a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a disk memory, and / or a read only memory (ROM), etc. The memory 411 may store software 412, which may be processor-readable, processor-executable software code including 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 herein may refer to the processor 410 performing a function, which includes other implementations, such as when the processor 410 executes software and / or firmware. The description herein may refer to the processor 410 performing a function as shorthand for one or more of the processors included in the processor 410 performing the function. The description herein may refer to the server 400 performing a function as shorthand for one or more suitable components of the server 400 performing the function.The processor 410 may include memory having stored instructions in addition to and / or in place of the memory 411. The functionality of the processor 410 is discussed more fully below.

[0058]

[0066] 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 to transmit (e.g., on one or more downlink channels) and / or receive (e.g., on one or more uplink channels) wireless signals 448 and convert 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 a variety of radio access technologies (RATs), such as 5G New Radio (NR), Global System for Mobiles (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), 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 network interface that may be utilized to communicate with the NG-RAN 135 to transmit and receive communications, e.g., to the TRP 300, and / or 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]

[0067] The description herein may refer to the processor 410 performing a function, but includes other implementations, such as the processor 410 executing software (stored in memory 411) and / or firmware. The description herein may refer to the server 400 performing a function as shorthand for one or more of the suitable components of the server 400 (e.g., the processor 410 and the memory 411) performing the function.

[0060]

[0068] The configuration of the server 400 shown in FIG. 4 is an example of the present disclosure, including the claims, and is not limiting, and other configurations may be used. For example, the wireless transceiver 440 may be omitted. Also or alternatively, although the description herein describes the server 400 being configured to perform or performing certain functions, 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]

[0069] Positioning technology

[0070] For terrestrial positioning of UEs in cellular networks, techniques such as Advanced Forward Link Trilateration (AFLT) and Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) often operate in a "UE-assisted" mode, in which measurements of reference signals (e.g., PRS, CRS, etc.) transmitted by base stations are taken 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 typically rely on satellite-based positioning.

[0062]

[0071] UEs may use Satellite Positioning Systems (SPS) (Global Navigation Satellite Systems (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-based stations. LTE Release 15 allows data to be encrypted such that UEs that have subscribed to the service can read the information exclusively. Such assistance data changes over time. Thus, UEs that have subscribed to the service cannot easily "break the encryption" for other UEs by passing the data to other UEs that have not paid for the subscription. This passing would need to be repeated every time the assistance data changes.

[0063]

[0072] 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 includes the geographic cell location but may also include other data. An identifier for a "record" among 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]

[0073] 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 improves latency and scalability. The UE uses relevant BSA record information from the network (e.g., the location of the gNB (or 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 (compared to PPP or RTK information) to make the BSA information available to UEs that have not subscribed and paid to obtain a decryption key. The transmission of reference signals by the gNBs makes the BSA information potentially accessible for crowdsourcing or wardriving, essentially allowing the BSA information to be generated based on local and / or over-the-top observations.

[0065]

[0074] 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 the 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 location-related data becoming available is called the update rate, i.e., the rate at which location-related data is generated after the first fix. Latency may depend, for example, on the processing capability of the UE. For example, the UE may report the processing capability of the UE as the duration of DL PRS symbols in time units (e.g., milliseconds) that the UE can process per amount of time T (e.g., T ms) assuming a 272 PRB (Physical Resource Block) allocation. Other examples of capabilities that may affect latency are the number of TRPs from which the UE can process PRSs, the number of PRSs the UE can process, and the bandwidth of the UE.

[0066]

[0075] One or more of many 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 it takes a signal to travel from one entity to another and back to determine the distance between the two entities. That distance, plus 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 location of the other entity may be used to determine the location of the one entity. In TDOA technology, the difference in time of flight between one entity and the other entity may be used to determine the relative distance from the other entity, and the relative distance combined with the known location of the other entity may be used to determine the location of the one entity. The angle of arrival and / or the angle of departure may be used to help determine the location of the entities. For example, the angle of arrival or the angle of departure of a signal (determined using the signal, e.g., the time of flight of the signal, the received power of the signal, etc.) combined with the distance between the devices and the known location of one of the devices may be used to determine the location of the other device. The angle of arrival or the angle of departure may be an azimuth angle relative to a reference direction such as due north. The angle of arrival or the angle of departure may be a zenith angle directly upward from the entity (i.e., radiating outward from the center of the earth).E-CID uses the serving cell's identity, timing advance (i.e., the difference between receive time and transmit time at the UE), estimated timing and power of detected neighbor cell signals, and possibly the angle of arrival (e.g., of a signal from a base station to the UE 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, together with the known locations of the sources and the known offsets in the transmit times from the sources, are used to determine the location of the receiving device.

[0067]

[0076] 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 typically the serving base station, since 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 base stations 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) common or individual RTT response messages (e.g., SRS (Sounding Reference Signal) 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. Tx→Rx (i.e., UE T Rx-Tx or UE Rx-TxThe RTT response message may 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, from which 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]

[0077] UE-centric RTT estimation is similar to the network-based method, except that the UE transmits (e.g., when commanded by the serving base station) 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]

[0078] For both network-centric and UE-centric procedures, the party performing the RTT calculation (network or UE) typically (but not always) sends a first 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 first message or signal and the transmission time of the RTT response message or signal.

[0070]

[0079] Multi-RTT techniques may be used to determine 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 the multiple second entities. The first entity (or another entity such as an LMF) may use the responses from the second entities to determine a distance to the second entity, and may use the multiple distances and the known location of the second entities to determine the location of the first entity by trilateration.

[0071]

[0080] 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), which 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]

[0081] For positioning techniques using PRS (positioning reference signal) signals (e.g., TDOA and RTT), PRS signals sent by multiple TRPs were measured, and the arrival time of the signal, the known time of transmission, and the known location of the TRPs were used to determine the distance from the UE to the TRP. For example, RSTD (reference signal time difference) 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 typically sent using the same power, and PRS signals with the same signal characteristics (e.g., the same frequency shift) may interfere with each other, such that a PRS signal from a more distant TRP may be overwhelmed by a PRS signal from a closer TRP, such that the signal from the more distant TRP cannot 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 zero, and thus not transmitting the PRS signal). In this way, weaker PRS signals (at the UE) may be more easily detected by the UE without the stronger PRS signals interfering with the weaker PRS signals. The term RS and its variants (e.g., PRS, SRS, CSI-RS (Channel State Information-Reference Signal)) may refer to one reference signal or multiple reference signals.

[0073]

[0082] Positioning reference signals (PRS) include downlink PRS (DL PRS, often simply referred to as PRS) and uplink PRS (UL PRS), which may be referred to as SRS (Sounding Reference Signal) for positioning. The PRS may include a PN code (pseudorandom code) or may be generated using the PN code (e.g., by modulating a carrier signal with the PN code) so that the source of the PRS acts as a pseudolite. The PN code may be unique for the PRS source (at least within a designated area such that identical 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 resources 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 resource set in the frequency layer and a DL PRS subcarrier spacing (SCS) for the DL PRS resources. Each frequency layer has a DL PRS resource set in the frequency layer and a DL PRS cyclic prefix (CP) for the DL PRS resources. 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 part (BWP) is a set of consecutive common resource blocks, which may include all common resource blocks in the channel bandwidth or a subset of common resource blocks. 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., for comb N, the frequency of PRS resource elements per symbol, such that every Nth resource element is a PRS resource element). 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 with a single beam (and / or beam ID) transmitted from a single base station (a base station may transmit one or more 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 on whether the base station and the beam on which the PRS is transmitted are known to the UE.

[0074]

[0083] A TRP may be configured to send a DL PRS per schedule, e.g., 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, e.g., periodically at consistent intervals from an initial transmission. A 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 periodicity, common muting pattern configuration (if any), and the same repetition factor across a slot. Each PRS resource set includes multiple PRS resources, and each PRS resource includes 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. A PRS resource (or a reference signal (RS) resource in general) may be referred to as an OFDM PRS resource (or an OFDM RS resource). An RB is a collection of REs spanning one or more consecutive symbols in the time domain and consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain (12 for 5G RBs). Each PRS resource is configured with an RE offset, a slot offset, a symbol offset within the slot, and a number of consecutive symbols that the PRS resource may occupy within the slot. The RE offset specifies 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 specified based on the initial offset. The slot offset is the starting slot of the DL PRS resource relative 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 be repeated across the slot, and each transmission is called a repetition such that there may be multiple repetitions within the 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 more beams).

[0075]

[0084] The PRS resources may also be defined by quasi-co-location and starting PRB parameters. The quasi-co-location (QCL) parameter may define any quasi-co-location information of 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 starting PRB parameter defines the starting PRB index of the DL PRS resources with respect to reference point A. The starting PRB index has a granularity of one PRB and may have a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 2176 PRBs.

[0076]

[0085] A PRS resource set is a collection of PRS resources with the same periodicity, the same muting pattern configuration (if present), and the same repetition factor across slots. Every time that 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 "occasion." To facilitate (and even enable) a UE to measure DL PRS, a DL PRS configuration including a DL PRS transmission schedule may be provided to the UE.

[0077]

[0086] Multiple frequency layers of a PRS may be aggregated to provide a larger effective bandwidth than any of the layer bandwidths individually. Multiple frequency layers that meet criteria such as constituent carriers (which may be contiguous and / or distinct) and quasi-colocated (QCL) and have the same antenna ports may be stitched together to provide a larger effective PRS bandwidth (for DL ​​and UL PRS), improving time-of-arrival measurement accuracy. Stitching involves combining PRS measurements across individual bandwidth fragments into an integrated one, such that the stitched PRS can be treated as if taken from a single measurement. When QCL'd, the different frequency layers behave similarly, allowing stitching of PRSs to provide a larger effective bandwidth. The larger effective bandwidth may be referred to as the bandwidth of the aggregated PRS or the frequency bandwidth of the aggregated PRS, and 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]

[0087] 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. Sounding reference signals are sometimes called SRS or SRS signals. In 5G multi-RTT, cooperative positioning can be used with the UE sending a single UL-SRS for positioning that is received by multiple TRPs, rather than sending separate UL-SRS for positioning for each TRP. A TRP participating in multi-RTT typically searches for UEs currently camped on that TRP (UEs served when the TRP is the serving TRP) and UEs also camped on neighboring TRPs (neighboring UEs). The neighboring TRPs may be the TRPs of a single BTS (base transceiver station) (e.g., gNB), or may be the TRPs of one BTS and the TRPs of a separate BTS. For RTT positioning, including multi-RTT positioning, the DL-PRS and UL-SRS signals in a positioning PRS / SRS signal pair used to determine the RTT (and thus the range between the UE and the TRP) may occur close in time to each other such 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 positioning PRS / SRS signal pair may be transmitted within about 10 ms of each other from the TRP and the UE, respectively. It has been found that when the positioning related SRS is transmitted by the UE and the positioning related PRS and SRS are carried close in time to each other, this can result in radio frequency (RF) signal congestion (e.g., causing excessive noise, etc.) especially when multiple UEs are attempting to position simultaneously, and / or computational congestion in the TRP attempting to measure multiple UEs simultaneously.

[0079]

[0088] RTT positioning may be UE-based or UE-assisted. In UE-based RTT, the UE 200 determines the RTT and 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 may be determined by the TRPs 300 receiving signals from the UE 200, by one or more other devices, e.g., by the TRPs 300 in combination with 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]

[0089] Various positioning techniques are supported in 5G NR. NR-specific 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]

[0090] A position estimate (e.g., for a UE) may be referred to by other names, such as a location estimate, location, position, position fix, fix, etc. The position estimate may be geodetic and may comprise coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude), or may be city-related and may comprise a street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of the location. The position estimate may also be specified relative to some other known location, or may be specified in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). The position estimate may include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume within which the location is expected to fall with some specified or default confidence level).

[0082]

[0091] The configuration of the server 400 shown in FIG. 4 is an example of the present disclosure, including the claims, and is not limiting, and other configurations may be used. For example, the wireless transceiver 440 may be omitted. Also or alternatively, although the description herein describes the server 400 being configured to perform or performing certain functions, 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).

[0083]

[0092] Distributed Positioning Session Management

[0093] 5, the environment 500 includes positioning devices 510, 511, 512, 513, 514, 515 and objects 531, 532, e.g., buildings. The positioning devices 510-515 provide a distributed system for determining the position of one or more of the positioning devices 510-515. The positioning devices 510-515 are configured to forward (send and / or receive) PRS, measure, and possibly report PRS measurements, and possibly report line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight status (LOS / NLOS status) of one or more of the other positioning devices 510-515 to the reporting positioning device. Each of the positioning devices 510-515 can be any of a variety of devices, e.g., an RSU (roadside unit) (e.g., the positioning device 515), a UE such as a vehicle UE (e.g., the positioning device 514), a pedestrian UE such as a smartphone (e.g., the positioning devices 510-513), etc. The RSU may be a UE type RSU or a TRP type RSU. A UE type RSU has the same stack as a UE and uses a sidelink to communicate with the UE, and a TRP type RSU may be a reduced functionality TRP (e.g., a stripped down gNB) that uses DL and UL signaling to communicate with the UE. The positioning devices 510-515 may forward the PRS, measure the PRS, and report the PRS measurements to implement one or more positioning techniques, such as an RTT-based positioning procedure and / or one or more other positioning procedures. The location of one or more of the positioning devices 510-515, for example, the positioning device 510, may be determined based on the measured PRS, which is the LOS between the positioning device 510 and the positioning devices 511-515 to which the positioning device 510 forwards the PRS.

[0084]

[0094] The positioning devices 510-515 may forward pre-PRS, PRS, and post-PRS signaling. The pre-PRS signals provide information about the PRS transmitted by the positioning devices 510-515, respectively. The pre-PRS signals may establish a positioning session with the positioning devices 510-515, for example, using signaling from an initiating device inquiring about available positioning devices and indicating the positioning device 510-515 selected to be in a positioning session, and signaling from a receiving device indicating availability and acknowledging acceptance into the positioning session. The pre-PRS for each of the positioning devices 510-515 may indicate a PRS ID associated with the PRS transmitted by each of the positioning devices 510-515. The PRS ID may be a temporary ID for the PRS associated (at least temporarily) with the positioning device, such that a recipient of the PRS may identify the source of the PRS. The pre-PRS signal may indicate the time and / or frequency characteristics of the transmitted PRS (e.g., frequency layer, time offset, frequency offset, etc.). The transmitted PRS will conform to the PRS characteristics and PRS ID indicated in the pre-PRS signaling. The post-PRS signaling may include information about the transmitted and / or received PRS. For example, the post-PRS signaling may indicate the time of departure of the PRS (time of transmission), and / or the time of arrival of the received and measured PRS, and / or the angle of arrival of the PRS, etc. The post-PRS signaling may include an indication of whether another of the positioning devices 510-515 is LOS or NLOS with respect to the positioning device 510-515 transmitting the post-PRS signaling. The positioning devices 510-515 may be enabled to broadcast the PRS and post-PRS signaling by the pre-PRS signaling received from the device initiating the positioning session. The initiating device may be one of the positioning devices 510-515 or another device. There may be more than one initiating or managing device within a group of positioning devices of a positioning session.

[0085]

[0095] The positioning devices 510-515 that are part of a positioning session may be managed. The positioning devices may be enabled or disabled to participate in the positioning session. For example, a positioning device that responds to an availability inquiry may be instructed to broadcast a PRS and measure the PRS from other participants in the positioning session. If a positioning device 510-515 that receives pre-PRS signaling is NLOS for more than a threshold number of positioning devices 510-515 in the positioning session and / or more frequent than a threshold NLOS frequency, that positioning device 510-515 may be disabled, e.g., instructed not to transmit a PRS, and / or the PRS transmitted from that positioning device 510-515 may not be measured by other ones of the positioning devices 510-515. This can help reduce latency and / or power consumption by reducing the number of PRS transmitted, measured, and processed, can reduce collisions between PRS from different sources, and / or can improve positioning accuracy by, for example, reducing multipath PRS measured and used to determine position. If the PRS is transmitted on an unlicensed channel, reducing the number of PRS transmitted can reduce latency due to time to compete for channel access. A positioning device can receive a pre-PRS but be NLOS at the time of PRS transmission, for example, because the positioning device was NLOS at the time of the pre-PRS transmission or due to movement of the positioning device relative to another positioning device by the time of the PRS transmission. In the environment 500, the positioning device 514 is NLOS with respect to each of the positioning devices 510-513 and is LOS with respect to the positioning device 515, which is LOS with respect to the positioning devices 510, 514, and is NLOS with respect to the positioning devices 511-513.In this example, PRS transmission by the positioning devices 514, 515 and attempted measurement of the PRS from the positioning devices 514, 515 may be undesirable, for example, due to power consumption with no significant improvement in positioning accuracy or any improvement at all, or even degradation of positioning accuracy, if a multipath PRS is measured from either of the positioning units 514, 515 and used to determine the position of the positioning device 510.

[0086]

[0096] Referring also to FIG. 6, the positioning device 600 includes a processor 610, a transceiver 620, and a memory 630 communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 640. The positioning device 600 may include the components shown in FIG. 6. The positioning device 600 may include one or more other components, such as any of those shown in FIG. 2, such that the UE 200 may be an example of the positioning device 600. For example, the processor 610 may include one or more of the components of the processor 210. The transceiver 620 may include one or more of the components of the transceiver 215, such as the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246, or the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246, or the wireless transmitter 242, the wireless receiver 244, and the antenna 246. Also or alternatively, the transceiver 620 may include the wired transmitter 252 and / or the wired receiver 254. Memory 630 may be configured similarly to memory 211, including, for example, software having processor-readable instructions configured to cause processor 610 to perform functions.

[0087]

[0097] The description herein may refer to the processor 610 performing functions, but includes other implementations, such as the processor 610 executing software (stored in memory 630) and / or firmware. The description herein may refer to the positioning device 600 performing functions as shorthand for one or more suitable components of the positioning device 600 performing the functions (e.g., the processor 610 and the memory 630). The processor 610 (possibly together with the memory 630, and optionally the transceiver 620) may include a positioning session management unit 650, a PRS measurement unit 660, a LOS / NLOS determination unit 670, and a post-PRS reporting unit 680. The positioning session management unit 650, the PRS measurement unit 660, the LOS / NLOS determination unit 670, and the post-PRS reporting unit 680 are further described below, and the description may refer generally to the processor 610, or generally to the positioning device 600, as performing any of the functions of the positioning session management unit 650, the PRS measurement unit 660, the LOS / NLOS determination unit 670, and / or the post-PRS reporting unit 680, which the positioning device 600 is configured to perform. Any of the positioning devices 510-515 may be an example of the positioning device 600. In an example of the positioning device 600, one or more of the units 650, 660, 670, 680 may be omitted. For example, a positioning device may not be configured to control membership in a positioning session and may therefore omit the positioning session management unit 650 or may have reduced functionality of the positioning session management unit 650 (e.g., to acknowledge requests to join a positioning session).

[0088]

[0098] Referring to FIG. 7 with further reference to FIGS. 1-6, a signaling and process flow 700 for managing positioning session participants and determining location information includes the steps shown. In the flow 700, a managed positioning device 705 manages the participation of a first positioning device 701 and a second positioning device 702 in a positioning session. In this example, the managed positioning device 705 is a target device for which a location estimate is determined. Although referred to as a managed positioning device, the managed positioning device 705 may be a positioning device or another (non-positioning) device. For example, the positioning device 510 and / or the positioning device 600 may be examples of a managed positioning device 705 and will be so assumed in this description, and thus the positioning device 510 and the positioning device 600 may be interchangeably referred to as a managed positioning device 705. Also, the first and second positioning devices 701, 702 are examples of positioning devices 600, possibly without, for example, a positioning session management unit 650. In this example, three positioning devices 701, 702, 705 are shown for simplicity, but more than three positioning devices 701, 702, 705 may be used. For example, for the exemplary environment 500, six positioning devices may be used, namely, positioning devices 510-515. The flow 700 is an example, and stages may be added, rearranged, and / or removed, for example.

[0089]

[0099] In step 710, the devices 701, 702, 705 forward pre-PRS signaling to establish a positioning session. The managing positioning device 705, e.g., the positioning session management unit 650, broadcasts an availability request 711 that is received by the first positioning device 701 and the second positioning device 702. Similarly or alternatively, one or more availability requests may be multicast and / or one or more unicast availability requests may be transmitted. The availability request 711 inquires whether any positioning device that receives the availability request 711 is available and willing to participate in the positioning session. Each of the first positioning device 701 and the second positioning device 702 that receives the availability request 711 transmits (e.g., broadcasts) an availability response 712, 713, respectively. The availability response 712, 713 either refuses to participate in the positioning session (e.g., indicates unavailability) or accepts to participate in the positioning session. The availability responses 712, 713 may be sent to the managing positioning device 705 as unicast messages, as shown, or may be multicast or broadcast.

[0090]

[0100] The managed positioning device 705, e.g., the positioning session management unit 650, may respond to the availability response 712, 713 by sending (e.g., broadcasting) a positioning session and PRS information message 714. The message 714 may indicate which positioning devices are included in the positioning session, or whether a particular positioning device is included in the positioning session. The unicast message may indicate whether the destination positioning device is accepted into the positioning session. The message 714 may indicate one or more PRS characteristics of the PRS transmitted by the managed positioning device 705. For example, the message 714 may include a PRS ID, one or more frequency characteristics (e.g., frequency layer, frequency offset), one or more timing characteristics (e.g., offset, periodicity, etc.), etc. The PRS ID may be a temporary ID to associate the PRS with a source, here the managed positioning device 705, and may not be the ID of the PRS source (here the managed positioning device 705). The PRS information of message 714 may be combined with the availability request 711, for example, provided therein.

[0091]

[0101] Each of the first positioning device 701 and the second positioning device 702 selected for the positioning session transmits (e.g., broadcasts) a PRS information message. The first positioning device 701 transmits a PRS information message 715 indicating the characteristics of the PRS transmitted by the first positioning device 701, including a PRS ID. The message 715 may be combined with the availability response 712. For example, the message 715 may include a PRS ID and a positioning session ID corresponding to the positioning session and serving as an acknowledgment that the positioning device is participating in the positioning session. The second positioning device 702 transmits (e.g., broadcasts) a PRS information message 716 indicating the characteristics of the PRS transmitted by the second positioning device 702, including a PRS ID. The message 716 may be combined with the availability response 713, for example, in the same way that the message 715 is combined with the availability response 712. The messages 715 and / or 716 may be multicast or unicast instead of broadcast.

[0092]

[0102] In step 720, the positioning devices 701, 702, 705 transfer PRSs, for example SL PRSs. The managing positioning device 705 broadcasts PRS 721 according to the positioning session and PRS characteristics indicated in the PRS information message 714. The first positioning device 701 broadcasts PRS 722 according to the PRS characteristics indicated in the PRS information message 715. The second positioning device 702 broadcasts PRS 723 according to the PRS characteristics indicated in the PRS information message 716.

[0093]

[0103] In step 730, the positioning devices 701, 702, 705 measure the received PRSs 721-723 and determine whether each of the other positioning devices 701, 702, 705 in the positioning session is LOS or NLOS. For example, in sub-step 731, the managed positioning device 705, e.g., the PRS measurement unit 660, measures any of the PRSs 722, 723 received by the managed positioning device 705 to determine location information (e.g., one or more PRS measurements such as ToA, AoA, etc.). Also in sub-step 731, the managed positioning device 705, e.g., the LOS / NLOS determination unit 670, determines whether each of the positioning devices 701, 702 in the positioning session is LOS or NLOS with respect to the managed positioning device 705. Similarly, in sub-steps 732, 733, each of the first positioning device 701 and the second positioning device 702 (e.g., the PRS measurement unit 660 and the LOS / NLOS determination unit 670 of each of the positioning devices 701, 702) measures the received PRS and determines whether the management positioning device 705 and each of the other positioning devices in the positioning session are LOS or NLOS with respect to the respective positioning device 701, 702.

[0094]

[0104] The LOS / NLOS status of one positioning device relative to another positioning device may be determined by the LOS / NLOS determination unit 670 in one or more of a variety of manners. For example, a PRS source positioning device (i.e., a positioning device that is a source of a PRS) may be determined to be LOS if a PRS is received from the PRS source positioning device at a PRS receiving positioning device and the PRS source positioning device is not determined to be NLOS. A device may be determined to be NLOS based on a pre-PRS being received from the device but a PRS not being received from the device. As another example, a PRS source positioning device may be determined to be NLOS if the change in range between a current range from a PRS receiving positioning device (i.e., a device receiving a PRS from a PRS source) to the PRS source positioning device and a previous range to the PRS source positioning device differs by more than a threshold amount. The threshold amount may depend on the time between a time corresponding to the previous range and the current time, and / or the expected relative motion (e.g., by device type and / or measured speed) between the PRS source positioning device and the PRS receiving positioning device. As another example, if a position based on the distance to a first PRS source positioning device and the location of the first PRS source positioning device is an outlier compared to a location based on the distance to another second PRS source positioning device and the location of the second PRS source positioning device, the first PRS source positioning device may be determined to be NLOS with respect to the PRS receiving positioning device.

[0095]

[0105] In step 740, the positioning devices 701, 702, 705 transmit post-PRS messages, and the management positioning device 705 compiles a combined LOS / NLOS status of the pair of devices in the positioning session. For example, the post-PRS reporting units 680 of each of the management positioning device 705, the first positioning device 701, and the second positioning device 702 broadcast respective PRS measurements and LOS / NLOS messages 741, 742, 743. The messages 741-743 provide PRS measurements and an indication of which other devices in the positioning session are LOS to the reporting positioning device and which other devices in the positioning session are NLOS to the reporting positioning device. These indications can be combined into a combined LOS / NLOS status of each positioning device in the positioning session for each other positioning device in the positioning session.

[0096]

[0106] In sub-step 744, also referring to Fig. 8, the management positioning device 705 can aggregate the LOS / NLOS information to determine a combined LOS / NLOS status for each combination of devices in the positioning session. In this example, the management positioning device 705 compiles this information, but any device (positioning device or otherwise) that obtains the content of the messages 741-743 (e.g., by receiving messages 741-743 or by a combination of generating one of the messages 741-743 and receiving the other messages 741-743) can compile this information to determine the LOS / NLOS status of the positioning session devices relative to each other. For example, the table 800 includes a set of row indicators 810, each indicating a respective positioning device of the positioning session, and a set of column indicators 820, each indicating a respective positioning device of the positioning session. In this example corresponding to the environment 500, the set of row indicators 810 and the set of column indicators 820 indicate the positioning devices 510-515. The row and column indicators may be omitted from table 800, with the respective devices being implicit, e.g., known, by the device storing table 800. The contents of table 800 indicate whether each corresponding pair of positioning devices 510-515 (i.e., the devices in each row and column) is LOS or NLOS with respect to each other. Thus, for example, table 800 indicates that positioning device 510 is LOS with respect to positioning devices 511-513 and 515, and is NLOS with respect to positioning device 514, and that positioning device 514 is NLOS with respect to positioning devices 510-513, and is LOS with respect to positioning device 515. Other LOS / NLOS relationships are indicated as shown.

[0097]

[0107] The LOS / NLOS status for each pair of devices may be determined from one LOS / NLOS decision for that pair, or a combination of multiple LOS / NLOS decisions for that pair. For example, the LOS / NLOS decision unit 670 may compile N decisions of LOS / NLOS status and determine whether the devices meet a threshold level of LOS decision before being labeled as LOS. For example, the LOS / NLOS decision unit 670 may time-average the LOS / NLOS decisions (e.g., assign a value of 1 to LOS and a value of 0 to NLOS, sum up the N values, and divide by N), and if the average exceeds a threshold, e.g., 0.6, label the device combination as LOS, otherwise label the device combination as NLOS. The value of N may be set to various values ​​and may be set to different values ​​over time. For example, the value of N may be set to a relatively high value in response to the positioning session being relatively static (positioning devices 701, 702, 705 move little relative to one another) and may be set to a relatively low value in response to the positioning session being relatively dynamic (positioning devices 701, 702, 705 move significantly relative to one another). As another example, a combination of positioning devices may be labeled as NLOS based on a threshold number of consecutive instances determined to be NLOS, or based on a threshold number of instances determined to be NLOS within a threshold amount of time, for example, regardless of the frequency of the determination. Still other examples of techniques based on which a combination of devices may be labeled as NLOS may be used.

[0098]

[0108] In step 750, positioning session management information is determined and disseminated to the positioning devices 701, 702 in the positioning session. For example, in sub-step 751, the positioning session management unit 650 of the managing positioning device 705 may analyze the LOS / NLOS status for one or more, e.g. all combinations, of the positioning devices 701, 702, 705 in the positioning session to determine whether any PRS transmissions and / or measurements should be disabled, e.g. whether any changes should be made to the membership of the positioning session. For example, the positioning session management unit 650 may decide to disable PRS transmissions and / or measurements corresponding to any positioning device determined to be NLOS with respect to a threshold amount of other positioning devices 701, 702, 705 of the positioning session. For example, the threshold amount may be 1, and thus the positioning session management unit 650 of the managing positioning device 705 may decide to disable PRS transmission by and / or PRS reception from the second positioning device 702 based on the second positioning device 702 being determined to be NLOS with respect to another positioning device 701, 705 in the positioning session. As another example, the threshold number may be two or more, or may be a percentage of the total number of positioning devices 701, 702, 705 in the positioning session, or some other threshold. The threshold may be such that the second positioning device 702 is disabled based on the second positioning device 702 providing fewer LOS PRS measurements than desired, for example, to justify the processing time and / or power to attempt to measure PRS and / or measure NLOS PRS from the second positioning device 702. As another example, the threshold for disabling PRS transmissions and / or measurements may be that the second positioning device 702 is NLOS for more positioning devices in the positioning session than the second positioning device 702 is LOS.As another example, the threshold for disabling PRS transmissions and / or measurements may be a ratio of the amount of devices for which the second positioning device 702 is NLOS to the amount of devices for which the second positioning device 702 is LOS above a threshold (a threshold of 1.0 corresponds to the second positioning device 702 being NLOS to the majority of devices to trigger disabling). Other examples may be used. For example, an example described considers the number of devices for which the second positioning device 702 is NLOS relative to the number of total devices in a positioning session for which the second positioning device 702 may be useful to be a target device (for which a location is to be determined) or an anchor device (for which a location is known and used to help determine the location of one or more target devices). Another example may consider the number of devices for which the second positioning device 702 is NLOS relative to the number of total target devices (i.e., devices for which a location is to be determined) in a positioning session. Still other examples may be used.

[0099]

[0109] The managed positioning device 705, for example the positioning session management unit 650 of the managed positioning device 705, can send a positioning session management information message 752 to the first positioning device 701 and / or a positioning session management information message 753 to the second positioning device 702 to disable the PRS transmission and / or measurement determined in sub-step 751. The managed positioning device 705 can send messages 752, 753 separately, or can send one or more multicast messages, or can send a broadcast message to control the PRS transmission and / or measurement. For example, based on the first positioning device 701 being determined to be NLOS with at least a threshold amount of other positioning devices 702, 705, the message 752 can disable the PRS transmission by the first positioning device 701. The message 752 can instruct (explicitly or implicitly) the first positioning device 701 not to transmit the PRS for the positioning session. The message 752 may implicitly instruct the first positioning device 701 not to transmit PRS for the positioning session by including PRS information for the management positioning device 705 without including a trigger for the first positioning device 701 to transmit PRS. Thus, the message 752 may be a new PRS information message. As another example, based on the second positioning device 702 being determined to be NLOS with at least a threshold amount of other positioning devices 701, 705, the message 752 may disable PRS measurement by the first positioning device 701 of PRS from the second positioning device 702. The message 752 may, for example, instruct the first positioning device 701 (explicitly or implicitly) not to measure PRS from the second positioning device 702 for the positioning session. Message 752 may disable the PRS for the positioning device 702 by instructing the positioning device 702 to leave the positioning session (e.g., not transmit PRS 721 and not measure PRS 722, 723). Message 753 may disable the PRS for the second positioning device 702 by instructing the second positioning device 702 to leave the positioning session.The broadcast message may indicate to all positioning devices 701, 702 (and other positioning devices, if any) in the positioning session which positioning device has been disabled, e.g., removed from the positioning session.

[0100]

[0110] The messages 752, 753 may instruct one or more of the positioning devices 701, 702 to start another positioning session. For example, if the positioning device 514 is NLOS with respect to the positioning devices 510-513, the positioning device 515 is NLOS with respect to the positioning devices 511-513, and the positioning devices 514, 515 are LOS with respect to each other, the positioning devices 514, 515 may be instructed to form a positioning session including the positioning devices 514, 515 (and possibly other devices, whether or not shown on the positioning devices 514, 515). The positioning devices 514, 515 may also be instructed to leave the positioning session with the positioning devices 510-513. In other examples, the positioning devices may be instructed to form another positioning session without being disabled from or instructed to leave the current positioning session.

[0101]

[0111] In stage 760, the managed positioning device 705, e.g., the processor 610, may determine location information. For example, the processor 610 may use one or more measurements (e.g., ToD, ToA, AoA, etc.) of the PRSs 721-723 to determine location information (e.g., one or more distances to one or more of the positioning devices 701, 702, one or more location estimates for the managed positioning device 705, etc.). The managed positioning device 705 may transmit one or more indications of the location information to one or more entities, e.g., a server such as an LMF, as appropriate, for transmission to the location client.

[0102]

[0112] 9 with further reference to FIGS. 1-8, a positioning method 900 includes the steps shown. However, method 900 is by way of example and not limitation. Method 900 may be modified, for example, by adding, removing, reordering, combining, performing steps simultaneously, and / or dividing a single step into multiple steps.

[0103]

[0113] In step 910, the method 900 includes establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices, including a first positioning device and a second positioning device. For example, the managing positioning device 705 (or a managing device that may not be a positioning device, e.g., the server 400 or the TRP 300) establishes a positioning session with the positioning devices 701, 702 by forwarding an availability request 711 and an availability response 712, 713, and at least a positioning session information portion of a positioning session and PRS information message 714. The processor 610 in combination with the transceiver 620 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242, the wireless receiver 244, and the antenna 246), possibly in combination with the memory 630, may comprise means for establishing a positioning session. As another example, the processor 310 in combination with the transceiver 315 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 342, the wireless receiver 344, and the antenna 346), possibly in combination with the memory 311, may comprise means for establishing a positioning session.

[0104]

[0114] In step 920, the method 900 includes obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight status (LOS / NLOS status) for a plurality of pairs of a plurality of positioning devices. For example, the management positioning device 705 determines the LOS / NLOS status for the positioning devices 701, 702 in sub-step 731 and receives a LOS / NLOS indication from the positioning devices 701, 702 in messages 742, 743 indicating the LOS / NLOS status and / or the LOS / NLOS status of the positioning devices 701, 702 relative to other positioning devices in the positioning session, from which the management positioning device 705 can determine. The processor 610 in combination with the transceiver 620 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 242, the wireless receiver 244, and the antenna 246), possibly in combination with the memory 630, may comprise means for obtaining the LOS / NLOS status. As another example, the processor 310 in combination with the transceiver 315 (e.g., the wireless transmitter 342, the wireless receiver 344, and the antenna 346), possibly in combination with the memory 311, may comprise means for obtaining the LOS / NLOS status.

[0105]

[0115] In step 930, the method 900 includes transmitting an invalidation message to the first positioning device based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being NLOS for at least a subset of the multiple positioning devices, the invalidation message indicating to disable at least one of the transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or the measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device. For example, the management positioning device 705 transmits a positioning session management information message 752 to the first positioning device 701 to prohibit the transmission by the first positioning device 701 of a PRS (e.g., a PRS 723 to be transmitted in the future) and / or to prohibit the measurement by the first positioning device 701 of a PRS from the second positioning device 702, e.g., a PRS 722 to be transmitted in the future. The disable message may be transmitted using an appropriate communication technique, e.g., sidelink or downlink communication (depending on the type of device transmitting and receiving the disable message). The processor 610 in combination with the transceiver 620 (e.g., wireless transmitter 242 and antenna 246), possibly in combination with the memory 630, may comprise means for transmitting the disable message. As another example, the processor 310 in combination with the transceiver 315 (e.g., wireless transmitter 342 and antenna 346), possibly in combination with the memory 311, may comprise means for transmitting the disable message. Disabling PRS transmission and / or PRS reception based on LOS / NLOS status may help improve positioning accuracy by eliminating PRS measurements for NLOS PRS that may provide inaccurate ranges to the anchor device. Disabling PRS transmission and / or PRS reception based on LOS / NLOS status can help reduce positioning latency by eliminating time spent measuring an NLOS PRS and determining that the PRS is from an NLOS source, and / or by eliminating time spent attempting to measure an NLOS PRS in order to ignore the measurements.Disabling PRS transmission and / or PRS reception based on LOS / NLOS status may help reduce power consumption by eliminating the power used to attempt to measure an NLOS PRS, the power used to measure an NLOS PRS, and / or the power used to determine that a measured PRS is NLOS, and deciding to ignore the measurements.

[0106]

[0116] Implementations of the method 900 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the sending of the invalid message includes sending the invalid message based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being NLOS for at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices. For example, the management positioning device 705 may send the message 752 based on the first positioning device 701 and / or the second positioning device 702 being NLOS for a threshold amount (e.g., amount, percentage, etc.) of the positioning devices in the positioning session (e.g., all positioning devices in the positioning session or all target devices of the positioning devices in the positioning session). In another example implementation, the sending of the invalid message includes sending the invalid message to the first positioning device to prohibit the first PRS from being transmitted by the first positioning device based on the first positioning device being NLOS for at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices. For example, the message 752 may indicate (explicitly or implicitly) that the first positioning device 701 will not transmit a PRS (e.g., PRS 722) in the future for the positioning session in response to the first positioning device determining that it is NLOS for a threshold amount of positioning devices in the positioning session (e.g., all positioning devices or target positioning devices or other set of positioning devices). Thus, for example, if transmitting a PRS from the first positioning device 701 would bring more cost than benefit to the positioning session, the first positioning device 701 may be prohibited from transmitting a PRS. In another example implementation, transmitting the invalidation message includes transmitting an invalidation message to the first positioning device to prohibit the first positioning device from measuring the second PRS based on the second positioning device being NLOS for at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices.For example, the message 752 may indicate (explicitly or implicitly) that the first positioning device 701 will not measure a PRS (e.g., PRS 723) in the future for the positioning session in response to determining that the second positioning device is NLOS for a threshold amount of positioning devices in the positioning session (e.g., all positioning devices or target positioning devices or other set of positioning devices). Thus, for example, the first positioning device 701 may be prohibited from measuring a PRS from the second positioning device 702 if measuring a PRS from the second positioning device 702 would bring more cost than benefit to the positioning session.

[0107]

[0117] Also or alternatively, implementations of the method 900 may include one or more of the following features. In an exemplary implementation, obtaining LOS / NLOS status for a plurality of pairs of a plurality of positioning devices includes determining a combination of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications corresponding to different times for each of the plurality of pairs of a plurality of positioning devices. For example, the LOS / NLOS determination unit 670 of the management positioning device 705 may use two or more LOS / NLOS indications for a pair of positioning devices to determine a LOS / NLOS status of the pair, for example, to ensure that the LOS / NLOS determination is time-hardened to determine a LOS / NLOS status. The processor 610, possibly in combination with the memory 630, may comprise a means for determining a combination of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications. As another example, the processor 310, possibly in combination with the memory 311, may comprise a means for determining a combination of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications. In another exemplary implementation, determining a combination of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications includes determining an average of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications. For example, the LOS / NLOS determination unit 670 of the managed positioning device 705 may determine that a particular pair of positioning devices is LOS in 60% of the samples. The LOS / NLOS determination unit 670 of the managed positioning device 705 may, for example, average the indications by assigning numerical values ​​to the LOS and NLOS indications (e.g., assigning a value of 1 to LOS and a value of 0 to NLOS), summing the N values ​​(corresponding to the N LOS / NLOS indications), and dividing by N. In another example implementation, obtaining the LOS / NLOS status for the multiple pairs of the multiple positioning devices includes determining for each of the multiple pairs of the multiple positioning devices that the pair is NLOS based on a greater than a threshold percentage of the multiple LOS / NLOS indications for the pair indicating that the pair is NLOS.For example, the LOS / NLOS determination unit 670 of the management positioning device 705 may determine that the LOS / NLOS status of a pair of positioning devices is NLOS if the indications for the pair indicate NLOS greater than a threshold percentage for a given set of indications, and may determine that the LOS / NLOS status is LOS if not, or if the LOS / NLOS indications for the pair indicate LOS greater than a threshold percentage.

[0108]

[0118] Also or alternatively, implementations of the method 900 may include one or more of the following features: In an exemplary implementation, the invalidation message indicates removing the first positioning device from the positioning session. For example, the message 752 may instruct the first positioning device 701 to cease participating in the positioning session established in stage 710. The message 753 may indicate to the second positioning device 702 that the first positioning device 701 is being or has been removed from the positioning session. In another exemplary implementation, the positioning session is a first positioning session, and the invalidation message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session separate from the first positioning session. For example, the positioning devices of the current positioning session may be notified that they may benefit from being in a positioning session with each other. In another example implementation, the invalidation message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session based on the LOS / NLOS status of the first positioning device relative to the second positioning device being LOS. For example, if the devices of the current positioning session are LOS to each other frequently, e.g., more than a threshold percentage of determinations, the devices may be instructed to form a positioning session with each other. The devices may or may not be removed from the current positioning session. For example, one or more of the devices may be removed from the current positioning session if the devices are NLOS more than a threshold number of other devices in the current positioning session.

[0109]

[0119] Example implementation

[0120] Example implementations are given in the numbered clauses below.

[0110]

[0121] Article 1. Establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices, including a first positioning device and a second positioning device; obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight (LOS / NLOS) status for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each pair being a pair of a plurality of positioning devices; A positioning method comprising: transmitting an invalidation message to a first positioning device based on a LOS / NLOS status of at least one of a first positioning device or a second positioning device being out of line of sight to at least a subset of a plurality of positioning devices, wherein the invalidation message indicates invalidation of at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

[0111]

[0122] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein sending the invalid message includes sending the invalid message based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being out of line of sight for at least a threshold amount of the multiple positioning devices.

[0112]

[0123] Clause 3. The method of clause 2, wherein transmitting the disable message includes transmitting an disable message to the first positioning device to prohibit the first positioning device from transmitting one or more first positioning reference signals based on the first positioning device being out of line of sight to at least a threshold amount of the multiple positioning devices.

[0113]

[0124] Clause 4. The method of clause 2, wherein sending the invalidation message includes sending an invalidation message to the first positioning device to prohibit measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals by the first positioning device based on the second positioning device being out of line of sight to at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices.

[0114]

[0125] Clause 5. The method of clause 1, wherein obtaining LOS / NLOS status for a plurality of positioning device pairs includes determining, for each of a plurality of positioning device pairs, a combination of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications corresponding to different times.

[0115]

[0126] Clause 6. The method of clause 5, wherein determining a combination of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications includes determining an average of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications.

[0116]

[0127] Clause 7. The method of claim 5, wherein obtaining LOS / NLOS status for the plurality of positioning device pairs includes determining that an NLOS positioning device pair of the plurality of positioning device pairs is out of line of sight based on a greater than threshold percentage of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications for the NLOS positioning device pair indicating that the NLOS positioning device pair is out of line of sight.

[0117]

[0128] Clause 8. The method of clause 1, wherein the invalidation message indicates removal of the first positioning device from the positioning session.

[0118]

[0129] Clause 9. The method of clause 1, wherein the positioning session is a first positioning session, and the invalidation message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session separate from the first positioning session.

[0119]

[0130] Clause 10. The method of clause 9, wherein the invalid message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session based on the LOS / NLOS status of the first positioning device relative to the second positioning device being LOS.

[0120]

[0131] Article 11. A transceiver; Memory, a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory; 1. An apparatus comprising: Establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices including a first positioning device and a second positioning device; obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight (LOS / NLOS) status for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each pair being a pair of a plurality of positioning devices; An apparatus configured to send an invalidation message to a first positioning device based on a LOS / NLOS status of at least one of a first positioning device or a second positioning device being out of line of sight to at least a subset of a plurality of positioning devices, the invalidation message indicating invalidation of at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

[0121]

[0132] Clause 12. The apparatus of clause 11, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit an invalid message based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being out of line of sight for at least a threshold amount of the multiple positioning devices.

[0122]

[0133] Clause 13. The apparatus described in Clause 12, wherein the processor is further configured to send a disable message to the first positioning device to prohibit the first positioning device from transmitting one or more first positioning reference signals based on the first positioning device being out of line of sight to at least a threshold amount of the multiple positioning devices.

[0123]

[0134] Clause 14. The apparatus of clause 12, wherein the processor is further configured to send an invalidation message to the first positioning device to prohibit measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals by the first positioning device based on the second positioning device being out of line of sight for at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices.

[0124]

[0135] Clause 15. The apparatus of clause 11, wherein to obtain LOS / NLOS status for a plurality of positioning device pairs, the processor is configured to determine, for each of the plurality of positioning device pairs, a combination of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications corresponding to different times.

[0125]

[0136] Clause 16. The apparatus of clause 15, wherein to determine a combination of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications, the processor is configured to determine an average of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications.

[0126]

[0137] Clause 17. The apparatus of clause 15, wherein to obtain LOS / NLOS status for a plurality of positioning device pairs, the processor is configured to determine that an NLOS positioning device pair among the plurality of positioning device pairs is out of line of sight based on a greater than threshold percentage of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications for the NLOS positioning device pair indicating that the NLOS positioning device pair is out of line of sight.

[0127]

[0138] Clause 18. The apparatus of clause 11, wherein the invalidation message indicates removing the first positioning device from the positioning session.

[0128]

[0139] Clause 19. The apparatus of clause 11, wherein the positioning session is a first positioning session, and the invalidation message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session separate from the first positioning session.

[0129]

[0140] Clause 20. The apparatus of clause 19, wherein the invalid message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session based on the LOS / NLOS status of the first positioning device relative to the second positioning device being LOS.

[0130]

[0141] Article 21. means for establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices, including a first positioning device and a second positioning device; means for obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight (LOS / NLOS) status for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each pair being a pair of a plurality of positioning devices; means for transmitting an invalidation message to the first positioning device based on a LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being non-line-of-sight to at least a subset of the plurality of positioning devices; wherein the disable message indicates disabling at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from a first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from a second positioning device by the first positioning device.

[0131]

[0142] Clause 22. The apparatus of clause 21, wherein the means for transmitting the invalid message includes means for transmitting the invalid message based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being out of line of sight for at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices.

[0132]

[0143] Clause 23. The apparatus of clause 22, wherein the means for transmitting the invalidation message includes means for transmitting an invalidation message to the first positioning device to prohibit transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals by the first positioning device based on the first positioning device being out of line of sight to at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices.

[0133]

[0144] Clause 24. The apparatus of clause 22, wherein the means for transmitting the invalidation message includes means for transmitting an invalidation message to the first positioning device to prohibit measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals by the first positioning device based on the second positioning device being out of line of sight to at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices.

[0134]

[0145] Clause 25. The apparatus of clause 21, wherein the means for obtaining LOS / NLOS status for a plurality of positioning device pairs includes means for determining, for each of a plurality of positioning device pairs, a combination of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications corresponding to different times.

[0135]

[0146] Clause 26. The apparatus of clause 25, wherein the means for determining a combination of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications includes means for determining an average of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications.

[0136]

[0147] Clause 27. The apparatus of clause 25, wherein the means for obtaining LOS / NLOS status for a plurality of positioning device pairs includes means for determining that an NLOS positioning device pair of the plurality of positioning device pairs is out of line of sight based on a greater than threshold percentage of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications for the NLOS positioning device pair indicating that the NLOS positioning device pair is out of line of sight.

[0137]

[0148] Clause 28. The apparatus of clause 21, wherein the invalidation message indicates removing the first positioning device from the positioning session.

[0138]

[0149] Clause 29. The apparatus of clause 21, wherein the positioning session is a first positioning session, and the invalidation message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session separate from the first positioning session.

[0139]

[0150] Clause 30. The apparatus of clause 29, wherein the invalid message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session based on a LOS / NLOS status of the first positioning device relative to the second positioning device being LOS.

[0140]

[0151] Clause 31. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions, the processor-readable instructions being configured to cause a processor of a device to: Establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices including a first positioning device and a second positioning device; obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight (LOS / NLOS) status for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each pair being a plurality of positioning device pairs; A storage medium comprising: causing a first positioning device to transmit a disable message based on a LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being out of line of sight to at least a subset of the multiple positioning devices; the disable message indicating disablement of at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

[0141]

[0152] Clause 32. The storage medium of clause 31, wherein the processor-readable instructions for causing the processor to send an invalid message include processor-readable instructions for causing the processor to send an invalid message based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being out of line of sight for at least a threshold amount of the multiple positioning devices.

[0142]

[0153] Clause 33. The storage medium of clause 32, wherein the processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to send an invalidation message include processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to send an invalidation message to a first positioning device to inhibit transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals by the first positioning device based on the first positioning device being out of line of sight to at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices.

[0143]

[0154] Clause 34. The storage medium of clause 32, wherein the processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to send an invalidation message include processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to send an invalidation message to a first positioning device to prohibit measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals by the first positioning device based on the second positioning device being out of line of sight to at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices.

[0144]

[0155] Clause 35. The storage medium of clause 31, wherein the processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to obtain LOS / NLOS status for a plurality of positioning device pairs include processor-readable instructions for causing the processor to determine, for each of a plurality of positioning device pairs, a combination of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications corresponding to different times.

[0145]

[0156] Clause 36. The storage medium of clause 35, wherein the processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to determine a combination of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications include processor-readable instructions for causing a processor to determine an average of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications.

[0146]

[0157] Clause 37. A storage medium as described in Clause 35, wherein the processor-readable instructions that cause a processor to obtain LOS / NLOS status for a plurality of positioning device pairs include processor-readable instructions that cause the processor to determine that an NLOS positioning device pair among the plurality of positioning device pairs is out of line of sight based on a greater than threshold percentage of a plurality of LOS / NLOS indications for the NLOS positioning device pair indicating that the NLOS positioning device pair is out of line of sight.

[0147]

[0158] Clause 38. The storage medium of clause 31, wherein the invalidation message indicates removing the first positioning device from the positioning session.

[0148]

[0159] Clause 39. The storage medium of clause 31, wherein the positioning session is a first positioning session and the invalidation message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session separate from the first positioning session.

[0149]

[0160] Clause 40. The storage medium of clause 39, wherein the invalidation message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session based on the LOS / NLOS status of the first positioning device relative to the second positioning device being LOS.

[0150]

[0161] Other considerations

[0162] Other examples and implementations are within the scope of this disclosure and 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 thereof. Functional units that implement 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.

[0151]

[0163] 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," "including," and / or "comprising" 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.

[0152]

[0164] Also, as used herein, "or" in a list of items (which may begin with "at least one of" or "one or more of") indicates a disjunctive list, such as 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 or B or C" meaning 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 for 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 for A, or may be configured to perform the function for B, or may be configured to perform the function for 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 (and may or may not be configured to measure B), or may be configured to measure B (and may or may not be configured to measure A), or may be configured to measure A and measure B (and may be configured to select whether to measure A or B, or to select to measure both A and B). Similarly, a reference to 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 (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 to measure A or B, or to select to measure both A and B).As another example, a statement that an item, e.g., a processor, is configured to at least one of perform a function X or perform 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 to perform 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 (and may or may not be configured to measure Y), or may be configured to measure Y (and may or may not be configured to measure X), or may be configured to measure X and measure Y (and may be configured to select whether to measure X or Y, or to select to measure both X and Y).

[0153]

[0165] As used in this specification, unless otherwise specified, a statement that a function or action is "based on" an item or condition means that the function 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.

[0154]

[0166] Substantial variations may be made according to specific requirements. For example, customized hardware may also be used and / or particular elements may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor (including portable software such as applets), or both. Additionally, connections to other computing devices, such as network input / output devices, may be employed. Functional or otherwise components shown in the figures and / or discussed herein as being connected to or in communication with each other are communicatively coupled unless otherwise noted. That is, components may be directly or indirectly connected to enable communication therebetween.

[0155]

[0167] The systems and devices described above are examples. Various configurations may omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components, as appropriate. For example, features described with respect to a particular configuration may be combined in various other configurations. Different aspects and elements of the configurations may be combined in a similar manner. Also, technology evolves, and thus many of the elements are examples and do not limit the scope of the disclosure or claims.

[0156]

[0168] A wireless communication system is a communication system in which communications are conveyed wirelessly, i.e., by electromagnetic and / or acoustic waves propagating through atmospheric space, rather than through wires or other physical connections, between wireless communication devices. A wireless communication system (also referred to as a wireless communication system, wireless communication network, or wireless communication network) is configured to have at least some communications transmitted wirelessly, although not all communications may be transmitted wirelessly. Furthermore, the term "wireless communication device" or similar terms does not require that the functionality of the device is exclusively, or even primarily, for communication, or that communications using a wireless communication device are exclusively, or even primarily, wireless, or that the device is a mobile device, but indicates that the device includes wireless communication capabilities (unidirectional or bidirectional), e.g., at least one radio for wireless communication (each radio being part of a transmitter, receiver, or transceiver).

[0157]

[0169] Specific details are given in the description herein to provide a thorough understanding of example configurations (including implementations). However, the configurations may be practiced without these specific details. For example, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures and techniques are shown without unnecessary detail to avoid obscuring the configurations. The description herein provides example configurations and does not limit the scope, applicability, or configurations of the claims. Rather, the foregoing description of the configurations provides a description for implementing the described techniques. Various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements.

[0158]

[0170] As used herein, the terms "processor-readable medium," "machine-readable medium," and "computer-readable medium" refer to any medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operate in a specific manner. When using a computing platform, various processor-readable media may be involved in providing instructions / code to a processor for execution and / or may be used to store and / or carry such instructions / code (e.g., signals). In many implementations, the processor-readable medium is a physical and / or tangible storage medium. Such media may take many forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile media include, for example, optical and / or magnetic disks. Volatile media include, but are not limited to, dynamic memory.

[0159]

[0171] Although several example configurations have been described, various modifications, alternative configurations, and equivalents may be used. For example, the above elements may be components of a larger system, where other rules may take precedence over or otherwise modify the application of the present disclosure. Also, some operations may be performed before, during, or after the above elements are considered. Thus, the above description does not limit the scope of the claims.

[0160]

[0172] Unless otherwise specified, "about" and / or "approximately" as used herein when referring to a measurable value such as an amount, duration, etc., encompasses a variation of ±20% or ±10%, ±5%, or ±0.1% from the specified value, when such variation is appropriate in the context of the systems, devices, circuits, methods, and other implementations described herein. Unless otherwise specified, "substantially" as used herein when referring to a measurable value such as an amount, duration, physical attribute (such as frequency), etc., also encompasses a variation of ±20% or ±10%, ±5%, or +0.1% from the specified value, when such variation is appropriate in the context of the systems, devices, circuits, methods, and other implementations described herein.

[0161]

[0173] A statement that a value exceeds (i.e., is greater than or exceeds) a first threshold is equivalent to a statement that the value meets or exceeds a second threshold that is slightly greater than the first threshold, e.g., the second threshold is a value higher than the first threshold at the resolution of the computing system. A statement that a value is less than (i.e., is within or below) a first threshold is equivalent to a statement that the value is less than or equal to a second threshold that is slightly lower than the first threshold, e.g., the second threshold is a value lower than the first threshold at the resolution of the computing system.

Claims

1. Establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices, including a first positioning device and a second positioning device, to determine a position of one or more positioning devices; Obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight (LOS / NLOS) status for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each pair being a pair of the plurality of positioning devices; sending an invalidation message to the first positioning device based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being out of line of sight for at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices; wherein the disable message indicates disabling at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the disable message includes transmitting the disable message to the first positioning device to prohibit the first positioning device from transmitting the one or more first positioning reference signals based on the first positioning device being out of line of sight for at least the threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices.

3. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the disable message includes transmitting the disable message to the first positioning device to prohibit the first positioning device from measuring the one or more second positioning reference signals based on the second positioning device being out of line of sight for at least the threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices.

4. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the LOS / NLOS status for the plurality of positioning device pairs includes determining, for each of the plurality of positioning device pairs, a combination of LOS / NLOS indications corresponding to different times.

5. The method of claim 5 , wherein determining the combination of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications comprises determining an average of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications.

6. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein obtaining the LOS / NLOS status for the plurality of positioning device pairs includes determining that the NLOS positioning device pair among the plurality of positioning device pairs is out of line of sight based on a greater than threshold percentage of the plurality of LOS / NLOS indications for the NLOS positioning device pair indicating that the NLOS positioning device pair is out of line of sight.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the invalidation message indicates removing the first positioning device from the positioning session.

8. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning session is a first positioning session, and the invalidation message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish a second positioning session separate from the first positioning session.

9. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the invalidation message indicates that the first positioning device and the second positioning device establish the second positioning session based on the LOS / NLOS status of the first positioning device relative to the second positioning device being LOS.

10. A method for establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices, including a first positioning device and a second positioning device, to determine a position of one or more positioning devices; means for obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight status (LOS / NLOS status) for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each pair being a pair of the plurality of positioning devices; means for transmitting an invalid message to the first positioning device based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being out of line of sight for at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices; wherein the disable message indicates disabling at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

11. The apparatus described in claim 10, wherein the apparatus is further configured to perform the steps described in any one of claims 2 to 9.

12. A transceiver; Memory and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory; and wherein the processor: establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices, including a first positioning device and a second positioning device, to determine a location of one or more of the positioning devices; obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight (LOS / NLOS) status for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each pair being a pair of the plurality of positioning devices; sending an invalidation message to the first positioning device based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being out of line of sight for at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices; 11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the disable message indicates disabling at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

13. The apparatus described in claim 12, wherein the apparatus is further configured to perform the steps described in any one of claims 2 to 9.

14. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium containing processor-readable instructions, the processor-readable instructions causing a processor of a device to: establishing a positioning session between a plurality of positioning devices, including a first positioning device and a second positioning device, to determine a location of one or more of the positioning devices; obtaining line-of-sight / non-line-of-sight status (LOS / NLOS status) for a plurality of positioning device pairs, each pair being a pair of the plurality of positioning devices; A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium that causes the first positioning device to send a disable message based on the LOS / NLOS status of at least one of the first positioning device or the second positioning device being out of line of sight for at least a threshold amount of the plurality of positioning devices, the disable message indicating disablement of at least one of transmission of one or more first positioning reference signals from the first positioning device or measurement of one or more second positioning reference signals from the second positioning device by the first positioning device.

15. The non-transitory processor-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the non-transitory processor-readable storage medium is further configured to execute a method according to any one of claims 2 to 9.

Images