Sounding reference signal (SRS) resource and resource set configuration for positioning

Abstract

To use sounding reference signals (SRS) for positioning.SOLUTION: In a wireless communication system, a UE receives an SRS configuration. The SRS configuration defines one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set includes one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource includes one or more SRS ports, and at least one SRS port is usable by the UE for at least positioning. The UE also transmits a positioning SRS using one or more positioning SRS ports, staggers, in frequency, SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped across N consecutive symbols where N is 2 or more, and transmits the positioning SRS in a positioning SRS pattern using each of the N consecutive symbols.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 11

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001]

[0001] This patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Greek Patent Application No. 20190100070, filed February 8, 2019, entitled "SOUNDING REFERENCE SIGNAL (SRS) RESOURCES AND RESOURCE SET CONFIGURATIONS FOR POSITIONING," and U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application No. 16 / 783,129, filed February 5, 2020, entitled "SOUNDING REFERENCE SIGNAL (SRS) RESOURCES AND RESOURCE SET CONFIGURATIONS FOR POSITIONING," both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present application and are expressly incorporated by reference in their entireties herein. [Technical field]

[0002]

[0002] Various aspects described herein relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to sounding reference signal (SRS) and resource set configuration for positioning.

[0003]

[0003] 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). Currently, many different types of wireless communication systems are in use, including cellular and personal communications services (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the Cellular Analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and Global System for Mobile Access (GSM), which uses code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), and variations of TDMA.

[0004]

[0004] The fifth generation (5G) mobile standard, referred to as New Radio (NR), requires higher data rates, more connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. The 5G standard is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to each of tens of thousands of users, up to one gigabit per second for a few dozen workers on an office floor, according to the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance. To support large-scale sensor deployments, hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported. As a result, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobile communications should be significantly improved compared to the current 4G standard. Furthermore, signaling efficiency should be improved and latency should be substantially reduced compared to the current standard.

[0005]

[0005] Some wireless communication networks, such as 5G, support operation in very high and even extremely high frequency (EHF) bands, such as the millimeter wave (mmW) frequency band (typically 1 mm to 10 mm wavelength, i.e. 30 GHz to 300 GHz). These extremely high frequencies may support very high throughput, such as up to 6 Gigabits per second (Gbps).

[0006]

[0006] To support position estimation in terrestrial wireless networks, a mobile device can be configured to measure and report the observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) or reference signal timing difference (RSTD) between reference radio frequency (RF) signals received from two or more network nodes (e.g., different base stations or different transmission points (e.g., antennas) belonging to the same base station). The mobile device can also be configured to report the time of arrival (ToA) of the RF signals.

[0007]

[0007] In OTDOA, when a mobile device reports the Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) between RF signals from two network nodes, the location of the mobile device is known to lie on a hyperbola whose foci are the locations of the two network nodes. Measuring the TDOA between multiple pairs of network nodes allows the position of the mobile device to be solved as the intersection of the hyperbola.

[0008]

[0008] Round Trip Time (RTT) is another technique for determining the position of a mobile device. RTT is a two-way messaging technique (from the network node to the mobile device and from the mobile device to the network node) in which both the mobile device and the network node report their receive transmission time difference (RTT) to a positioning entity such as a location server or location management function (LMF), which calculates the position of the mobile device. x -T x), which allows the round trip flight time between the mobile device and the network node to be calculated. The location of the mobile device is then known to lie on a circle whose center is at the position of the network node. Reporting RTTs with multiple network nodes allows a positioning entity to solve the mobile device's position as an intersection of circles. Overview

[0009]

[0009] This summary identifies features of some example aspects and is not an exclusive or exhaustive description of the disclosed subject matter. The inclusion or exclusion of features or aspects from this summary is not intended as an indication of the relative importance of such features. Additional features and aspects have been described and will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the following detailed description and viewing the drawings that form a part hereof.

[0010]

[0010] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes a memory, at least one processor, and at least one transceiver, the at least one transceiver receiving a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) configuration from a cell, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, and at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration being transmitted to the UE for at least positioning purposes. In order to make the positioning SRS more available, the positioning SRS is transmitted as an uplink positioning signal using one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being configured to be an SRS port of an SRS resource of an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration, and the positioning SRS is transmitted in a positioning SRS pattern such that the SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and each of the N consecutive symbols is used.

[0011]

[0011] In one aspect, a base station includes a memory, at least one processor, and at least one transceiver, the at least one transceiver configured to send an SRS configuration to a UE, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, receive a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal using one or more positioning SRS ports such that at least one SRS port of the at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration is usable by the UE for at least positioning, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource of the SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration, and the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater. A positioning SRS is received in a positioning SRS pattern such that the REs are staggered in frequency and use each of N consecutive symbols.

[0012]

[0012] In one aspect, a method performed by a UE includes receiving an SRS configuration from a cell, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, at least one SRS port of the at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration being usable by the UE for at least positioning purposes; and transmitting a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal utilizing one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource of the SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration, wherein the positioning SRS is transmitted in a positioning SRS pattern such that SRS REs to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and each of the N consecutive symbols is used.

[0013]

[0013] In one aspect, a method performed by a base station cell includes sending an SRS configuration to a UE, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, at least one SRS port of the at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration being usable by the UE for at least positioning; receiving a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal utilizing one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource of the SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration, wherein the positioning SRS is received in a positioning SRS pattern such that SRS REs to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or more, and use each of the N consecutive symbols.

[0014]

[0014] In one aspect, the present invention includes a means for a UE to receive an SRS configuration from a cell, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, at least one SRS port of the at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration being usable by the UE for at least positioning; and means for transmitting a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal utilizing one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource of the SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration, wherein the positioning SRS is transmitted in a positioning SRS pattern such that SRS REs to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and each of the N consecutive symbols is used.

[0015]

[0015] In one aspect, the base station includes means for sending an SRS configuration to the UE, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, at least one SRS port of the at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration being usable by the UE for at least positioning; and means for receiving a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal utilizing one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource of the SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration, wherein the positioning SRS is received in a positioning SRS pattern such that SRS REs to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or more, and use each of the N consecutive symbols.

[0016]

[0016] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon includes the computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions including one or more instructions to instruct a UE to receive an SRS configuration from a cell, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, at least one SRS port of the at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration being usable by the UE for at least positioning; and one or more instructions to instruct the UE to transmit a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal utilizing one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource of the SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration, the SRS to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater. The positioning SRS is transmitted in a positioning SRS pattern such that the REs are staggered in frequency and use each of N consecutive symbols.

[0017]

[0017] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon includes the computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions including one or more instructions to instruct a base station to send an SRS configuration to a UE, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, at least one SRS port of the at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration being usable by the UE for at least positioning; and one or more instructions to instruct the base station to receive a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal utilizing one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource of the SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration, the SRS to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater. A positioning SRS is received in a positioning SRS pattern such that the REs are staggered in frequency and use each of N consecutive symbols.

[0018]

[0018] Other objects and advantages associated with the embodiments disclosed herein will become apparent to those skilled in the art based on the accompanying drawings and detailed description. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0019]

[0019] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in the explanation of examples of one or more aspects of the disclosed subject matter and are provided by way of illustration only and not limitation of the examples. [Figure 1]

[0020] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communication system in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 2A]

[0021] FIG. 2A illustrates an example wireless network structure in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 2B] FIG. 2B illustrates an example wireless network structure in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 3A]

[0022] FIG. 3A is a simplified block diagram of several sample aspects of components that may be employed in a wireless communication node and configured to support communication in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 3B] FIG. 3B is a simplified block diagram of several sample aspects of components that may be employed in a wireless communication node and configured to support communication in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 3C] FIG. 3C is a simplified block diagram of several sample aspects of components that may be employed in a wireless communication node and configured to support communication in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 4]

[0023] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example frame structure, in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Diagram 5]

[0024] FIG. 5 illustrates a scenario for determining a position of a UE through a multi-RTT procedure in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 6]

[0025] FIG. 6 illustrates an example timing diagram for determining an RTT between a cell and a UE, in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 7]

[0026] FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a conventional SRS resource pattern. [Figure 8]

[0027] FIG. 8 illustrates an example SRS resource pattern in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 9]

[0028] FIG. 9 illustrates another example SRS resource pattern in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 10]

[0029] FIG. 10 illustrates an example method performed by a UE and a cell to calculate an RTT using a positioning SRS, in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 11]

[0030] FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary method according to one or more aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 12] FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary method according to one or more aspects of the present disclosure. Detailed Description

[0020]

[0031] Aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and associated drawings, which are directed to various examples that are provided for illustrative purposes. Alternative aspects may be devised without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Additionally, well-known elements of the present disclosure have not been described in detail or have been omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the present disclosure.

[0021]

[0032] The words "exemplary" and / or "example" are used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" and / or "example" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Similarly, the term "aspects of the present disclosure" does not require that all aspects of the present disclosure include the described feature, advantage or mode of operation.

[0022]

[0033] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the information and signals described below may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols and chips that may be referenced throughout the following description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof, depending in part on the particular application, in part on the desired design, in part on the corresponding technology, etc.

[0023]

[0034] Further, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will be appreciated that the various actions described herein can be performed by specific circuitry (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. In addition, the sequences of actions described herein can be considered to be fully embodied within any form of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a corresponding set of computer instructions that, when executed, cause or instruct an associated processor of a device to perform the functions described herein. Thus, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in many different forms, all of which are contemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Moreover, for each of the aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect may be described herein, for example, as "logic configured to" perform the described actions.

[0024]

[0035] As used herein, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" are not intended to be specific or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT) unless otherwise specified. In general, a UE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a tracking device, a wearable (e.g., a smart watch, glasses, augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) headset, etc.), a vehicle (e.g., a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, etc.), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network. A UE may be mobile or may be stationary (e.g., at a given time) and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" 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", or variations thereof. In general, a UE can communicate with a core network via a RAN, through which the UE can connect to external networks, such as the Internet, and to other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are also possible for a UE, such as via a wired access network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on IEEE 802.11, etc.), etc.

[0025]

[0036] A base station may operate according to one of several RATs to communicate with UEs depending on the network in which it is deployed, and may alternatively be referred to as an access point (AP), network node, Node B, evolved Node B (eNB), new radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as gNB or gNode B). In addition, in some systems, a base station may provide purely edge node signaling functions, while in other systems it may provide additional control and / or network management functions. A communication link through which a UE can send signals to a base station is called an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., reverse traffic channel, reverse control channel, access channel, etc.). A communication link through which a base station can send signals to a UE is called a downlink (DL) channel or forward link channel (e.g., paging channel, control channel, broadcast channel, forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) may refer to either a UL / reverse or DL / forward traffic channel.

[0026]

[0037] The term "base station" may refer to a single physical transmission / reception point (TRP) or may refer to multiple physical TRPs, either collocated or non-collocated. For example, if the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station corresponding to the base station's cell. If the term "base station" refers to multiple collocated physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be an array of antennas of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or if the base station uses beamforming). If the term "base station" refers to multiple non-collocated physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transmission medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, a non-collocated physical TRP may be a serving base station that receives measurement reports from the UE and from neighboring base stations whose reference RF signals the UE is measuring. A TRP is a point at which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals and therefore, as used herein, references to transmission from or reception at a base station should be understood as referring to the particular TRP of the base station.

[0027]

[0038] An "RF signal" comprises an electromagnetic wave of a given frequency that carries information through the space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, the receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" each corresponding to a transmitted RF signal due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through a multipath channel. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between the transmitter and receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal.

[0028]

[0039] According to various aspects, FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system 100. The wireless communication system 100 (sometimes referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 (labeled "BS") and various UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macrocell base stations (high-power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low-power cellular base stations). In one aspect, the macrocell base stations 102 may include eNBs where the wireless communication system 100 supports an LTE network, or gNBs where the wireless communication system 100 supports an NR network, or a combination of both, and the small cell base stations 102' may include femtocells, picocells, microcells, etc.

[0029]

[0040] The base stations 102 collectively form a RAN and may interface with a core network 170 (e.g., Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or Next Generation Core (NGC)) through backhaul links 122, and through the core network 170 to one or more location servers 172. In addition to other functions, the base stations 102 may perform functions related to one or more of forwarding user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection setup and release, load balancing, distribution for non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracking, RAN Information Management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of alert messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through EPC / NGC) via backhaul links 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0030]

[0041] The base stations 102 may wirelessly communicate with the UEs 104. Each of the base stations 102 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic coverage area 110. In one aspect, one or more cells may be supported by the base stations 102 in each geographic coverage area 110. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used for communication with a base station (e.g., on any frequency resource referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, band, or the like) and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., physical cell identifier (PCI), virtual cell identifier (VCI), etc.) to distinguish cells operating over the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile wideband (eMBB), or others) that may provide access for different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a particular base station, the term "cell" may refer to either the logical communication entity, the base station that supports it, or both, depending on the context. In some cases, the term "cell" may also refer to the geographic coverage area (e.g., a sector) of a base station, so long as the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within some portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0031]

[0042] While the geographic coverage areas 110 of neighboring macrocell base stations 102 may overlap partially (e.g., in handover regions), some of the geographic coverage areas 110 may be substantially overlapped by larger geographic coverage areas 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' (labeled "SC" for "small cell") may have a geographic coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the geographic coverage area 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macrocell base stations may be known as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include Home eNBs (HeNBs) that may serve limited groups known as Closed Subscriber Groups (CSGs).

[0032]

[0043] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include UL transmissions (also referred to as reverse link) from the UE 104 to the base station 102, and / or downlink (DL) transmissions (also referred to as forward link) from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna techniques, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 may be through one or more carrier frequencies. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to DL and UL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated for DL ​​than for UL).

[0033]

[0044] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 in communication with a WLAN station (STA) 152 via a communication link 154 in an unlicensed frequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in the unlicensed frequency spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure prior to communicating to determine if a channel is available.

[0034]

[0045] The small cell base station 102' may operate in licensed and / or unlicensed frequency spectrum. When operating in the unlicensed frequency spectrum, the small cell base station 102' may use LTE or NR technology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102' using LTE / 5G in the unlicensed frequency spectrum may boost the coverage and / or increase the capacity of the access network. NR in the unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as NR-U. LTE in the unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-U, Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), or MulteFire.

[0035]

[0046] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a mmW base station 180 that may operate at millimeter wave (mmW) and / or near-mmW frequencies in communication with the UE 182. Extremely High Frequency (EHF) is a portion of RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and has a wavelength between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near-mmW may extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100 millimeters. The Super High Frequency (SHF) band has a range of 3 GHz to 30 GHz and is also referred to as centimeter waves. Communications using the mmW / near-mmW radio frequency bands have high path loss and relatively short distances. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmit and / or receive) on the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short distances. Additionally, it will be appreciated that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 may also transmit using mmW or near-mmW and beamforming. Therefore, it will be understood that the above illustrations are merely illustrative and should not be construed as limiting the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0036]

[0047] Transmit beamforming is a technique that focuses an RF signal in a particular direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, the network node broadcasts the signal in all directions (omnidirectionally). With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., UE) is located (with respect to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that particular direction, thereby providing a faster and stronger RF signal (in terms of data rate) to the receiving device. To change the directionality of the RF signal when transmitting, the network node can control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of one or more transmitters broadcasting the RF signal. For example, the network node may use an array of antennas (referred to as a "phased array" or "antenna array") that creates beams of RF waves that can be "steered" to point in different directions without actually moving the antennas. Specifically, RF currents from the transmitters are fed to the individual antennas in the correct phase relationship, so that the radio waves from the separate antennas add up to each other, increasing radiation in the desired direction, while canceling each other out to suppress radiation in undesired directions.

[0037]

[0048] A transmit beam may be quasi-colocated, meaning that the transmit beam appears to a receiver (e.g., UE) to have the same parameters, regardless of whether the network node's own transmit antenna is physically colocated or not. In NR, there are four types of quasi-colocated (QCL) relationships. Specifically, a given type of QCL relationship means that certain parameters for a second reference RF signal on a second beam can be derived from information about a source reference RF signal on a source beam. Thus, if the source reference RF signal is QCL type A, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay and delay spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type B, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type C, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type D, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate spatial reception parameters of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0038]

[0049] In receive beamforming, a receiver uses receive beams to amplify RF signals detected in a given channel. For example, the gain setting of an antenna array in a particular direction can be increased and / or the phase setting can be adjusted to amplify (e.g., increase the gain level) RF signals received from that direction. Thus, when a receiver is said to be beamformed in a certain direction, it means that the beam gain in that direction is higher relative to the beam gains along other directions, or that the beam gain in that direction is the highest compared to the beam gains in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), Signal-to-Interference-Plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), etc.) of RF signals received from that direction.

[0039]

[0050] The receive beams may be spatially related, meaning that the parameters of the transmit beam for a second reference signal can be derived from information about the receive beam for a first reference signal. For example, a UE may use a particular receive beam to receive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., a synchronization signal block (SSB)) from a base station. The UE can then form a transmit beam based on the parameters of that receive beam to transmit an uplink reference signal (e.g., a sounding reference signal (SRS)) to that base station.

[0040]

[0051] A "downlink" beam may be either a transmit beam or a receive beam depending on the entity that forms it. For example, if the base station forms a downlink beam to transmit a reference signal to the UE, then the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if the UE forms a downlink beam, then it is a receive beam for receiving the downlink reference signal. Similarly, an "uplink" beam may be either a transmit beam or a receive beam depending on the entity that forms it. For example, if the base station forms an uplink beam, then it is an uplink receive beam, and if the UE forms an uplink beam, then it is an uplink transmit beam.

[0041]

[0052] In 5G, the frequency spectrum in which wireless nodes (e.g., base stations 102 / 180, UEs 104 / 182) operate is divided into multiple frequency ranges: FR1 (450 MHz to 6000 MHz), FR2 (24250 MHz to 52600 MHz), FR3 (above 52600 MHz), and FR4 (between FR1 and FR2). In a multi-carrier system such as 5G, one of the carrier frequencies is referred to as the "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "P-cell," and the remaining carrier frequencies are referred to as the "secondary carrier" or "secondary serving cell" or "S-cell." In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is a carrier operating on a primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by the UE 104 / 182 and by the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 performs an initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific control channels and may (but is not necessarily) be a carrier in a licensed frequency. The secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., RF2) that is configured once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier and is used to provide additional radio resources. In some cases, the secondary carrier may be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier may contain only the necessary signaling information and signals, e.g., UE-specific may not be present in the secondary carrier. This is because both the primary uplink and downlink carriers are typically UE-specific. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same applies for the uplink primary carrier. The network can change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance the load on different carriers.Since a "serving cell" (either a P-cell or an S-cell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier over which several base stations are communicating, the terms "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency" and the like can be used interchangeably.

[0042]

[0053] For example, still referring to FIG. 1, one of the frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or "P-cell"), and the other frequency utilized by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 may be a secondary carrier ("S-cell"). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers allows the UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rate. For example, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically provide a two-fold increase in data rate (i.e., 40 MHz) compared to that achieved with a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0043]

[0054] The wireless communication system 100 may further include one or more UEs, such as a UE 190, that indirectly connect with one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links. In the example of FIG. 1, the UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of the UEs 104 connected to one of the base stations 102 (e.g., through which the UE 190 may indirectly obtain cellular connectivity) and a D2D P2P link 194 with a WLAN STA 152 connected to a WLAN AP 150 (through which the UE 190 may indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity). In an example, the D2D P2P links 192 and 194 may be supported by any well-known D2D RAT, such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, etc.

[0044]

[0055] The wireless communications system 100 may further include a UE 164, which may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 over communications link 120 and / or with an mmW base station 180 over an mmW communications link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a P-cell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0045]

[0056] According to various aspects, FIG. 2A illustrates an example wireless network structure 200. For example, the NGC 210 (also referred to as "5GC") can be viewed functionally as a control plane function (C-plane) 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and a user plane function (U-plane) 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data network, IP routing, etc.), which operate in conjunction to form a core network. A user plane interface (NG-U) 213 and a control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 to the NGC 210, specifically to the user plane function 212 and the control plane function 214, respectively. In additional configurations, the eNB 224 may also be connected to the NGC 210 via the NG-C 215 to the control plane 214 and the NG-U 213 to the user plane function 212. Additionally, the eNB 224 may communicate directly with the gNB 222 via a backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the new RAN 220 may have only one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations may include one or more of both the eNBs 224 and the gNBs 222. Either the gNBs 222 or the eNBs 224 may communicate with the UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs shown in FIG. 1). Another optional aspect may include a location server 230, which may communicate with the NGC 210 to provide location assistance for the UEs 204. The location servers 230 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or may alternatively each correspond to a single server. The location servers 230 may be configured to support one or more location services for the UEs 204, which may connect to the location server 230 via the core network, the NGC 210, and / or via the Internet (not shown).Furthermore, the location server 230 may be integrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively, may be external to the core network.

[0046]

[0057] According to various aspects, FIG. 2B illustrates another exemplary wireless network structure 250. For example, the NGC 260 (also referred to as "5GC") can be viewed functionally as a control plane function provided by an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) / User Plane Function (UPF) 264 and a user plane function provided by a Session Management Function (SMF) 262, which work together to form a core network (i.e., the NGC 260). A user plane interface 263 and a control plane interface 265 connect the eNB 224 to the NGC 260, specifically to the SMF 262 and the AMF / UPF 264, respectively. In an additional configuration, the gNB 222 may also be connected to the NGC 260 via a control plane interface 265 to the AMF / UPF 264 and a user plane interface 263 to the SMF 262. Additionally, eNB 224 may communicate directly with gNB 222 via backhaul connection 223, whether gNB 222 has direct connectivity to NGC 260 or not. In some configurations, new RAN 220 may have only one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of both eNB 224 and gNB 222. Either gNB 222 or eNB 224 may communicate with UE 204 (e.g., any of the UEs shown in FIG. 1). The base stations of new RAN 220 communicate with the AMF side of AMF / UPF 264 over the N2 interface and with the UPF side of AMF / UPF 264 over the N3 interface.

[0047]

[0058] The functions of the AMF include registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, transport for session management (SM) messages between the UE 204 and the SMF 262, transparent proxy service for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transport for short message service (SMS) messages between the UE 204 and a short message service function (SMSF) (not shown), and security anchor functionality (SEAF). The AMF also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and the UE 204, and receives intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In case of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) based authentication, the AMF retrieves security material from the AUSF. The functions of the AMF also include security context management (SCM). The SCM receives keys from the SEAF that it uses to derive access network specific keys. The functionality of the AMF also includes location service management for barred services, transport for location service messages between the UE 204 and the Location Management Function (LMF) 270 as well as between the new RAN 220 and the LMF 270, Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer identifier allocation for interworking with the EPS, and UE 204 mobility event notification. Additionally, the AMF also supports functionality for non-3GPP access networks.

[0048]

[0059] The functions of the UPF include acting as an anchor point for intra / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an external protocol data unit (PDU) session point for interconnection to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usage reporting, Quality of Service (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g., UL / DL rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in the DL), UL traffic validation (Service Data Flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the UL and DL, DL packet buffering and DL data notification triggering, and sending and forwarding one or more "end markers" to the source RAN node.

[0049]

[0060] The functions of the SMF 262 include session management, UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, configuration of traffic steering in the UPF to route traffic to the appropriate destination, policy enforcement and part of the control of QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface through which the SMF 262 communicates with the AMF side of the AMF / UPF 264 is referred to as the N11 interface.

[0050]

[0061] Another optional aspect may include the LMF 270, which may communicate with the NGC 260 to provide location assistance for the UE 204. The LMF 270 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.) or, alternatively, each may correspond to a single server. The LMF 270 may be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204 that may connect to the LMF 270 via a core network, the NGC 260, and / or via the Internet (not shown).

[0051]

[0062] 3A, 3B, and 3C illustrate several example components (represented by corresponding blocks) that may be incorporated in a UE 302 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein), a base station 304 (which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein), and a network entity 306 (which may correspond to or embody any of the network functions described herein, including the location server 230 and the LMF 270) to support file transmission operations as taught herein. It will be understood that these components may be realized in different types of devices in different implementations (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system on a chip (SoC), etc.). The illustrated components may also be incorporated in other devices in a communication system. For example, other devices in the system may include similar components to those described to provide similar functionality. Also, a given device may include one or more of the components. For example, a device may include multiple transceiver components that enable the device to operate on multiple carriers and / or communicate via different technologies.

[0052]

[0063] The UE 302 and base station 304 each include a wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver 310 and 350, respectively, configured to communicate over one or more wireless communications networks (not shown), such as an NR network, an LTE network, a GSM network, and / or the like. The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc., over at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) over a wireless communications medium of interest (e.g., some set of time / frequency resources in a particular frequency spectrum). The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be variously configured to encode and transmit signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.), respectively, and conversely, receive and decode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.), respectively, in accordance with a specified RAT. Specifically, the transceivers 310 and 350 include one or more transmitters 314 and 354 for encoding and transmitting signals 318 and 358, respectively, and one or more receivers 312 and 352 for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively.

[0053]

[0064] The UE 302 and base station 304 also, in at least some cases, include wireless local area network (WLAN) transceivers 320 and 360, respectively. The WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 may be connected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc., via at least one designated RAT (e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, Bluetooth, etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest. The WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 may be variously configured to encode and transmit signals 328 and 368, respectively (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.), and conversely, to receive and decode signals 328 and 368, respectively (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.), in accordance with the designated RAT. Specifically, the transceivers 320 and 360 include one or more transmitters 324 and 364 for encoding and transmitting signals 328 and 368, respectively, and one or more receivers 322 and 362 for receiving and decoding the signals 328 and 368, respectively.

[0054]

[0065] The transceiver circuitry including at least one transmitter and at least one receiver may in some implementations include an integrated device (e.g., embodied as transmitter and receiver circuits in a single communications device), in some implementations may include separate transmitter and receiver devices, or in other implementations may be embodied in other ways. In one aspect, the transmitter may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) such as an antenna array that allows each device to perform transmit "beamforming" as described herein. Similarly, the receiver may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) such as an antenna array that allows each device to perform receive beamforming as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitters and receivers may share the same multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) so that each device can only receive or transmit at a given time, but not both at the same time. The wireless communications devices of the UE 302 and / or base station 304 (e.g., one or both of the transceivers 310 and 320 and / or 350 and 360) may also include a network listen module (NLM) or the like to perform various measurements.

[0055]

[0066] The UE 302 and base station 304 also, in at least some cases, include satellite positioning system (SPS) receivers 330 and 370. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 may be connected to one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, for receiving SPS signals 338 and 378, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, Baidu signals, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 may include any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing the SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 request information and actions as necessary from other systems and perform the necessary calculations to determine the position of the UE 302 and base station 304 using the measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithms.

[0056]

[0067] The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include at least one network interface 380 and 390, respectively, for communicating with other network entities. For example, the network interfaces 380 and 390 (e.g., one or more network access ports) may be configured to communicate with one or more network entities via a wire-based or wireless backhaul connection. In some aspects, the network interfaces 380 and 390 may be implemented as transceivers configured to support wire-based or wireless signal communication. This communication may involve, for example, sending and receiving messages, parameters, and / or other types of information.

[0057]

[0068] The UE 302, base station 304 and network entity 306 also include other components that may be used in conjunction with the operations disclosed herein. The UE 302 includes processor circuitry implementing a processing system 332 that provides functionality related to, for example, sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission as disclosed herein and provides other processing functionality. The base station 304 includes a processing system 384 that provides functionality related to, for example, SRS configuration and reception as disclosed herein and provides other processing functionality. The network entity 306 includes a processing system 394 that provides functionality related to, for example, SRS configuration as disclosed herein and provides other processing functionality. In one aspect, the processing systems 332, 384 and 394 may include, for example, one or more general purpose processors, multi-core processors, ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices or processing circuits.

[0058]

[0069] The UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 include memory circuitry implementing memory components 340, 386, and 396, respectively (e.g., each including a memory device) to maintain information (e.g., information indicative of reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). In some cases, the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may include RTT measurement components 342, 388, and 398, respectively. The RTT measurement components 342, 388, and 398 may be hardware circuitry that is part of or coupled to processing systems 332, 384, and 394, respectively, that, when executed, causes the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. Alternatively, the RTT measurement components 342, 388 and 398 may be memory modules stored in the memory components 340, 386 and 396, respectively (shown in Figures 3A-3C), which when executed by the processing systems 332, 384 and 394 cause the UE 302, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein.

[0059]

[0070] The UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to the processing system 332 via a data bus 334 to provide motion and / or orientation information that is independent of motion data derived from signals received by the WWAN transceiver 310, the WLAN transceiver 320, and / or the SPS receiver 330. By way of example, the sensors 344 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric altimeter), and / or some other type of motion detection sensor. Additionally, the sensors 344 may include multiple different types of devices and combine their outputs to provide motion information. For example, the sensors 344 may provide the ability to calculate a position in a 2D and / or 3D coordinate system using a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and an orientation sensor.

[0060]

[0071] Additionally, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346 to provide indications to a user (e.g., audible and / or visual indications) and / or receive user input (e.g., upon user activation of a sensing device such as a keypad, touch screen, microphone, etc.). Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 may also include user interfaces.

[0061]

[0072] Turning more particularly to the processing system 384, in the downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the processing system 384. The processing system 384 may implement functionality for an RRC layer, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. The processing system 384 may provide RRC layer functionality related to broadcast of system information (e.g., Master Information Block (MIB), System Information Block (SIB)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality related to header compression / decompression, security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality related to transfer of upper layer packet data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ), concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs), resegmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality related to mapping between logical channels and transport channels, scheduling of information reports, error correction, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0062]

[0073] The transmitter 354 and receiver 352 may implement Layer 1 functionality related to various signal processing functions. Layer 1, which includes the physical (PHY) layer, may include error detection on the transport channel, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of the transport channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto the physical channel, modulation / demodulation of the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 354 handles mapping onto signal constellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), M-phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time and / or frequency domain, and then combined with each other using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to generate a physical channel carrying a time-domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol stream may be spatially precoded to generate multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator may be used to determine the coding and modulation scheme as well as for spatial processing. The channel estimates may be derived from a reference signal and / or channel condition feedback transmitted by the UE 302. Each spatial stream may then be provided to one or more different antennas 356. The transmitter 354 may modulate an RF carrier with each spatial stream for transmission.

[0063]

[0074] At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives the signal through its respective antenna 316. The receiver 312 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to the processing system 332. The transmitter 314 and the receiver 312 provide layer 1 functionality related to various signal processing functions. The receiver 312 performs spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for the UE 302. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE 302, they may be combined by the receiver 312 into a single OFDM symbol stream. The receiver 312 then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time domain to the frequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal includes a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier, as well as the reference signal, are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the base station 304. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates calculated by a channel estimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals originally transmitted on the physical channel by the base station 304. The data and control signals are then provided to a processing system 332, which implements Layer 3 and Layer 2 functionality.

[0064]

[0075] In the UL, the processing system 332 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header recovery, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. The processing system 332 is also responsible for error detection.

[0065]

[0076] Similar to the functionality described in connection with DL transmissions by the base station 304, the processing system 332 also includes RRC layer functionality related to system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality related to header compression / decompression and security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality related to the transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction via ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs, resegmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs) and MAC SDUs from the TBs. It provides MAC layer functionality relating to demultiplexing of SDUs, scheduling of reporting information, error correction through Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0066]

[0077] Channel estimates derived by a channel estimator from a reference signal or feedback transmitted by the base station 304 may be used by the transmitter 314 to select an appropriate coding and modulation scheme to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter 314 may be provided to different antennas 316. The transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with each spatial stream for transmission.

[0067]

[0078] The UL transmission is processed at the base station 304 in a manner similar to that described with respect to the receiver function at the UE 302. The receiver 352 receives the signal through its respective antenna 356. The receiver 352 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to a processing system 384.

[0068]

[0079] In the UL, the processing system 384 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header recovery, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the UE 302. The IP packets from the processing system 384 may be provided to the core network. The processing system 384 is also responsible for error detection.

[0069]

[0080] For convenience, the UE 302, the base station 304, and / or the network entity 306 are illustrated in Figures 3A-3C as including various components that may be configured in accordance with various examples described herein, however, it will be understood that the illustrated blocks may have different functionality in different designs.

[0070]

[0081] The various components of the UE 302, base station 304 and network entity 306 may communicate with each other over data buses 334, 382 and 392, respectively. The components of Figures 3A-3C may be implemented in various ways. In some implementations, they may be implemented in one or more circuits, such as, for example, one or more processors and / or one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors), where each circuit may use and / or incorporate at least one memory component that stores information or executable code used by the circuit to provide its functionality. For example, the processor and memory components of the UE 302 may implement some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 310-346 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). Similarly, the processor and memory components of the base station 304 may implement some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 350-388 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). Also, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390-398 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of the network entity 306 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). For simplicity, various operations, acts and / or functions are described herein as being performed "by the UE," "by the base station," "by the positioning entity," etc. However, it will be understood that various operations, acts and / or functions may actually be performed by a particular component or combination of components of the UE, base station, positioning entity, etc., such as the processing systems 332, 384, 394, the transceivers 310, 320, 350, 360, the memory components 340, 386, 396, the RTT measurement components 342, 388, 398, etc.

[0071]

[0082] Various frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (e.g., base stations and UEs). FIG. 4 is a diagram 400 illustrating an example of an uplink frame structure according to an embodiment of the disclosure. LTE and, in some cases, NR utilize OFDM on the downlink and single carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. However, unlike LTE, NR has the option of using OFDM on the uplink as well. OFDM and SC-FDM partition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarrier is modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of subcarriers may be 15 kHz and the minimum resource allocation (resource block) may be 12 subcarriers (or 180 kHz). As a result, the nominal FFT size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024 or 2048 for a system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks) and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 subbands for a system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 MHz, respectively.

[0072]

[0083] LTE supports a single numerology (subcarrier spacing, symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR may support multiple numerologies, e.g., subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, 120 kHz, and 204 kHz or greater may be available. Table 1 provided below lists some of the various parameters for the different NR numerologies.

[0073] [Table 1]

[0074]

[0084] In the example of Figure 4, a numerology of 15 kHz is used. Thus, in the time domain, a frame (e.g., 10 ms) is divided into 10 equally sized subframes of 1 ms each, with each subframe containing one time slot. In Figure 4, time is represented horizontally (e.g., on the X-axis) with time increasing from left to right, and frequency is represented vertically (e.g., on the Y-axis) with frequency increasing (or decreasing) from bottom to top.

[0075]

[0085] A resource grid may be used to represent a time slot, with each time slot including one or more time-simultaneous resource blocks (RBs) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) in the frequency domain. The resource grid is further divided into a number of resource elements (REs). An RE may correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain. In the numerology of FIG. 4, for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB may include 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 7 consecutive symbols in the time domain (OFDM symbols for DL, SC-FDMA symbols for UL) for a total of 84 REs. For an extended cyclic prefix, an RB may include 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 6 consecutive symbols in the time domain for a total of 72 REs. The number of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0076]

[0086] As shown in FIG. 4, some of the REs carry demodulation reference signals (DMRS) for channel estimation at the base station. The UE may additionally transmit a sounding reference signal (SRS), for example, in the last symbol of a subframe. The SRS may have a comb structure, and the UE may transmit the SRS on one of the combs. The comb structure (also referred to as comb size) indicates the number of subcarriers carrying a reference signal (here, SRS) in each symbol period. For example, a comb size of comb 4 means that every fourth subcarrier of a given symbol carries a reference signal, and a comb size of comb 2 means that every second subcarrier of a given symbol carries a reference signal. In the example of FIG. 4, both SRSs shown are comb 2. The SRS may be used by the base station to obtain channel state information (CSI) for each UE. The CSI describes how the RF signal propagates from the UE to the base station, and represents the combined effects of scattering, fading, and power attenuation due to distance. The system uses SRS for resource scheduling, link adaptation, massive MIMO, beam management, etc.

[0077]

[0087] A collection of resource elements used for transmission of an SRS is referred to as an "SRS resource." A collection of resource elements may span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and may span N (e.g., one or more) consecutive symbols within a slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol, the SRS resources occupy consecutive PRBs. An "SRS resource set" is a set of SRS resources used for transmission of an SRS signal.

[0078]

[0088] Several enhancements over the previous definition of SRS are proposed for SRS for positioning, such as new staggering patterns in SRS resources (except single symbol / comb 2), new comb types for SRS, new sequences for SRS, more SRS resource sets per component carrier, and more SRS resources per component carrier. In addition, the parameters "spatial related information" and "path loss criteria" will be configured based on downlink reference signals or SSBs from neighboring TRPs. Furthermore, one SRS resource may be transmitted outside the active bandwidth portion (BWP), and one SRS resource may span across multiple component carriers. Also, SRS may be configured in the RRC connected state and transmitted only within the active BWP. Furthermore, there may be no frequency hopping, no repetition factor, a single antenna port, and new lengths (e.g., 8 and 12 symbols) for SRS. There may also be open loop power control, no closed loop power control, and may use Comb 8 (i.e., SRS transmitted on every 8th subcarrier in the same symbol). Finally, for UL-AoA, the UE may transmit from multiple SRS resources through the same transmission beam, all of which are features added to the current SRS framework, configured through RRC higher layer signaling (and potentially triggered or activated through MAC Control Element (CE) or Downlink Control Information (DCI)).

[0079]

[0089] Traditionally, an SRS resource set could be tagged with one of the following use cases: codebook (CB)-based, non-codebook (NCB)-based, antenna switching (AntSw), or uplink beam management (ULBM). The CB and NCB use cases are for uplink traffic, the AntSw use case is for facilitating downlink traffic, and the ULBM use case allows the UE to find the correct uplink beam to transmit data. In other words, the existing use cases are for communication, i.e., to enhance communication between the UE and the serving base station (or serving cell). For example, the UE may transmit an SRS, and the base station may use the received SRS to determine the quality of the communication channel between the base station and the UE (e.g., for scheduling and link adaptation).

[0080]

[0090] Each SRS resource set can have multiple SRS resources. A codebook-based set can have up to two SRS resources, a non-codebook-based set can have up to four SRS resources, an uplink beam management set can have up to 16 SRS resources, and an antenna switching set can have up to four SRS resources. An SRS resource can include one, two, or four antenna ports with a Com2 or Com4 pattern and can span a specific symbol and physical resource block (PRB) in the frequency domain. Every antenna port (or simply "port") on an SRS resource has an assigned comb offset, and frequency staggering of resource elements (REs) within an SRS resource is not allowed. The comb offset is the difference between the first subcarrier of the comb pattern and a reference subcarrier (e.g., the first subcarrier of a resource block). For example, in FIG. 4, "SRS#0" has a comb offset of 0 (there is no subcarrier between the first subcarrier of "SRS#0" and subcarrier 0), and "SRS#1" has a comb offset of 1 (there is one subcarrier between the first subcarrier of "SRS#1" and subcarrier 0).

[0081]

[0091] Conventional SRS configurations also include time-domain constraints. For example, the SRS resource is limited to N s The UE may be configured by higher layer parameters, resource mapping, in the SRS resource such that the SRS occupies ∈{1,2,4} adjacent symbols and all antenna ports of the SRS resource are mapped to each symbol of the resource. When a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and an SRS are transmitted in the same slot, the UE may be configured to only transmit the SRS after the PUSCH and the corresponding DMRS are transmitted. In other words, the SRS is transmitted last in the slot, as shown in FIG. 4.

[0082]

[0092] FIG. 5 illustrates an example wireless communication system 500 according to an aspect of the disclosure. In the example of FIG. 5, a UE 504 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein) is attempting to calculate an estimate of its position or assist another entity (e.g., a base station or core network component, another UE, a location server, a third party application, etc.) in calculating an estimate of its position. The UE 504 may wirelessly communicate with multiple base stations 502-1, 502-2, and 502-3 (collectively base stations 502, which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein) using RF signals and standardized protocols for modulation of the RF signals and exchange of information packets. By extracting different types of information from the exchanged RF signals and utilizing the layout of the wireless communication system 500 (i.e., base station locations, geometry, etc.), the UE 504 may determine, or assist in determining, its position in a predefined reference coordinate system. In one aspect, the UE 504 may determine its position using a two-dimensional coordinate system, although the aspects disclosed herein are not so limited and may be applied to determining position using a three-dimensional coordinate system if an extra dimension is desired. Additionally, while FIG. 5 illustrates one UE 504 and three base stations 502, it will be appreciated that there may be more UEs 504 and more base stations 502.

[0083]

[0093] To support position estimation, the base stations 502 may be configured to broadcast reference RF signals (e.g., positioning reference signal (PRS), navigation reference signal (NRS), cell-specific reference signal (CRS), tracking reference signal (TRS), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), primary synchronization signal (PSS), or secondary synchronization signal (SSS), etc.) to the UEs 504 in their coverage areas to allow the UEs 504 to measure characteristics of such reference RF signals. For example, the UE 504 may have measured the times of arrival (ToAs) of particular reference RF signals (e.g., PRS, NRS, CRS, CSI-RS, etc.) transmitted by at least three different base stations 502-1, 502-2, and 502-3 and may report these ToAs (and additional information) back to the serving base station 502 or another positioning entity (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270) using an RTT positioning method.

[0084]

[0094] Although in one aspect, the UE 504 is described as measuring a reference RF signal from a base station 502, the UE 504 may measure a reference RF signal from one of multiple cells supported by the base station 502. If the UE 504 measures a reference RF signal transmitted by a cell supported by the base station 502, at least two other reference RF signals measured by the UE 504 to perform the RTT procedure are from cells supported by base stations 502 different from the first base station 502 and may have good or poor signal strength at the UE 504.

[0085]

[0095] To determine the position (x,y) of the UE 504, the entity determining the position of the UE 504 needs to know the locations of the base stations 502, which may be expressed as (xk,yk) in a reference coordinate system, where in the example of FIG. 5, k=1,2,3. In case one of the base stations 502 (e.g., the serving base station) or the UE 504 determines the position of the UE 504, the location of the involved base station 502 may be provided to the serving base station 502 or UE 504 by a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270) with knowledge of the network geometry. Alternatively, the location server may determine the position of the UE 504 using the known network geometry.

[0086]

[0096] Either the UE 504 or the respective base station 502 measures the distance 510 (d k , k=1,2,3). In particular, the distance 504-1 between the UE 504 and the base station 502-1 is d1, the distance 510-2 between the UE 504 and the base station 502-2 is d2, and the distance 510-3 between the UE 504 and the base station 502-3 is d3. In one aspect, the RTT of signals exchanged between the UE 504 and any base station 502 may be determined to determine the distance 510 (d k ) As described further below, RTT techniques can measure the time between sending a signaling message (e.g., a reference RF signal) and receiving a response. These methods may utilize calibration to remove any processing delay. In some environments, it may be assumed that the processing delays for the UE 504 and the base station 502 are the same. However, such an assumption may not be true in practice.

[0087]

[0097] Once each distance 510 is determined, the UE 504, base station 502 or location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270) can solve for the position (x,y) of the UE 504 by using various known geometric techniques, such as, for example, trilateration. From FIG. 5, it can be seen that the position of the UE 504 is ideally at the common intersection of three semicircles, each of which has a radius d k and center(x k ,y k ) where k=1,2,3.

[0088]

[0098] In some cases, additional information may be obtained in the form of a linear direction (e.g., which may be in the horizontal plane or in three dimensions) or possibly an angle of arrival (AoA) or angle of departure (AoD) that defines a range of directions (e.g., relative to the UE 504 from the location of the base station 502). The intersection of the two directions at or near a point (x,y) can provide another estimate of the location for the UE 504.

[0089]

[0099] A position estimate (e.g., for a UE 504) may be referred to by other names, such as a location estimate, location, position, position fix, fix, or the like. A position estimate may be geodetic and include coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude) or urban and include a street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of the location. A 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). A position estimate may include an expected error or uncertainty (by including an area or volume that the location is expected to contain, with some specified or default level of confidence).

[0090]

[0100] 6 is an example diagram 600 illustrating example timing of RTT measurement signals exchanged between a base station 602 (e.g., any of the base stations described herein) and a UE 604 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein) in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure. In the example of FIG. 6, the base station 602 sends an RTT measurement signal 610 (e.g., PRS, NRS, CRS, CSI-RS, etc.) to the UE 604 at time T1. The RTT measurement signal 610 undergoes some propagation delay T prop At time T2 (ToA of the RTT measurement signal 610 at the UE 604), the UE 604 receives / measures the RTT measurement signal 610. After some UE processing time, the UE 604 transmits an RTT response signal 620 (e.g., SRS, UL-PRS) at time T3. The propagation delay T prop Thereafter, the base station 602 receives / measures an RTT measurement signal 620 from the UE 604 at time T4 (the ToA of the RTT response signal 620 at the base station 602).

[0091]

[0101] To identify the ToA (e.g., T2) of an RF signal (e.g., RTT measurement signal 610) transmitted by a given network node, the receiver (e.g., UE 604) first processes all resource elements (REs) on the channel on which the transmitter (e.g., base station 602) is transmitting the RF signal together and performs an inverse Fourier transform to convert the received RF signal to the time domain. The transformation of the received RF signal to the time domain is called an estimate of the channel energy response (CER). The CER indicates the peaks on the channel over time, and therefore the earliest "significant" peak should correspond to the ToA of the RF signal. Typically, the receiver uses a noise-related quality threshold to filter out spurious local peaks, thereby correctly identifying the likely significant peaks on the channel. For example, the UE 604 may choose a ToA estimate that is the earliest local maximum of the CER that is at least X decibels (dB) higher than the median CER and up to Y dB lower than the dominant peak on the channel. The receiver determines the CER for each RF signal from each transmitter in order to determine the ToA for each RF signal from different transmitters.

[0092]

[0102] The RTT response signal 620 is the difference between time T3 and time T2 (i.e., T Rx→Tx ) or alternatively, it may be derived from the Timing Advance (TA), i.e., the relative UL / DL frame timing and the specific location of the UL reference signal (note that TA is typically the RTT between the base station 602 and the UE 604, or twice the propagation time in one direction). This measurement and the difference between time T4 and time T1 (i.e., T Tx→Rx ), the base station 602 can calculate the distance to the UE 604 as follows:

[0093]

number

[0094]

[0103] It should be noted that the UE 604 may perform an RTT procedure with multiple base stations 602. However, the RTT procedure does not require synchronization between these base stations 602.

[0095]

[0104] As mentioned above, conventionally, SRS is used for communication purposes. In one or more aspects, it is proposed to utilize SRS for positioning purposes as well, i.e., as an uplink positioning reference signal (UL-PRS). In one aspect, SRS may be used only for positioning purposes, or may be used for positioning and other purposes (e.g., communication purposes), or may be used for non-positioning purposes (e.g., communication purposes only).

[0096]

[0105] In one aspect, the cell (or TRP) and the UE may signal each other to determine which SRS is to be used for positioning purposes. Different signaling options are available to determine the SRS for positioning. In one option, the SRS may be used for positioning and for other purposes. That is, the SRS may be used for multiple purposes.

[0097]

[0106] It should be noted that: There may be a pool of SRS resources configured by the network (e.g., by the cell serving the UE) for use by the UE. The pool of SRS resources may be grouped into one or more SRS resource sets, with each set including one or more SRS resources of the pool. In one aspect, an SRS resource may be a member of one SRS resource set or may be a member of multiple SRS resource sets. Thus, SRS resources may be used for different purposes in different SRS resource sets. For example, an SRS resource may be used for positioning in one SRS resource set and for communication in another SRS resource set. Each SRS resource may include one or more SRS ports with a ComN (N is an integer) pattern and span a particular symbol and PRB.

[0098]

[0107] In one aspect, the SRS may be configured to be used for positioning purposes at an SRS resource set level, an SRS resource level, and / or an SRS port level. For example, at the SRS resource set level, an SRS resource set may be tagged for codebook (CB) and positioning, non-codebook (NCB) and positioning, antenna switching (AntSw) and positioning, or uplink beam management (ULBM) and positioning.

[0099]

[0108] Alternatively, the cell may configure one or more SRS resource sets for purposes not involving positioning. For example, the cell may configure an SRS resource set with SRS set ID "X" as a CB resource set (the cell may configure each SRS resource set with an SRS set ID). The UE may inform the cell that it will also use the SRS resource set identified by SRS set ID "X" for positioning purposes, and the cell may acknowledge the UE's indication.

[0100]

[0109] When an SRS resource set is configured by a cell to be used for positioning purposes, it may also be referred to as a configured positioning SRS resource set. When an SRS resource set is specified by a UE to be used for positioning purposes, it may also be referred to as a specified positioning SRS resource set. Both may be referred to broadly as a positioning SRS resource set.

[0101]

[0110] In other aspects, tagging for positioning purposes may occur at the SRS resource level. That is, even if an SRS resource set is not specifically tagged as being used for positioning purposes, one or more SRS resources of the SRS resource set may be tagged as, for example, CB and positioning, NCB and positioning, AntSw and positioning, and / or ULBM and positioning and configured or specified to be used for positioning purposes. In other words, a subset (some or all) of the SRS resources of an SRS resource set may be configured to be used for positioning purposes (as well as for other purposes). It should be noted that if all of the SRS resources of an SRS resource set are configured to be used for positioning purposes, this is effectively the same as configuring the SRS resource set itself.

[0102]

[0111] Alternatively, a cell may not configure an SRS resource set or one or more SRS resources of an SRS resource set for positioning purposes. For example, a cell may configure an SRS resource of an SRS resource set (e.g., an SRS resource with SRS resource ID "Y" of an SRS resource set with SRS set ID "X") for a purpose other than positioning. In this case, the UE may inform the cell to use SRS resource "Y" of SRS resource set "X" for positioning, and the cell may acknowledge the UE's notification.

[0103]

[0112] When an SRS resource is configured by a cell to be used for positioning purposes, it is also referred to as a configured positioning SRS resource, and when an SRS resource is designated by a UE to be used for positioning purposes, it is also referred to as a designated positioning SRS resource. Both are also referred to broadly as positioning SRS resources.

[0104]

[0113] In another aspect, tagging for positioning may occur at the antenna port (or simply "port") level. That is, one or more ports of an SRS resource may be configured for positioning purposes, e.g., as CB and positioning, NCB and positioning, AntSw and positioning, and / or ULBM and positioning, even if the SRS resource and its parent SRS resource set are not used for positioning purposes. In other words, a subset (some or all) of the ports of an SRS resource may be configured to be used for positioning purposes (as well as for other purposes). It should be noted that if all SRS ports of an SRS resource are configured to be used for positioning purposes, this is effectively the same as configuring the SRS resource itself.

[0105]

[0114] Alternatively, a cell may not configure a port, its parent SRS resource, and its grandparent SRS resource set for positioning purposes. For example, a cell may configure a port of an SRS resource of an SRS resource set (e.g., an SRS port with SRS port ID "Z" of an SRS resource with SRS resource ID "Y" of an SRS resource set with SRS set ID "X") for purposes other than positioning. In this case, the UE may inform the cell to use SRS port "Z" of SRS resource "Y" of SRS resource set "X" for positioning, and the cell may acknowledge the UE's notification.

[0106]

[0115] When a port of SRS resources is configured by the cell to be used for positioning purposes, it is sometimes referred to as a configured positioning SRS port, and when a port of SRS resources is designated by the UE to be used for positioning purposes, it is sometimes referred to as a designated positioning SRS port. Both are sometimes referred to generically as a positioning SRS port.

[0107]

[0116] Since each SRS resource set contains one or more SRS resources, and each SRS resource contains one or more ports, ultimately, regardless of the level of tagging (configured by the network and / or by the UE designating and signaling the network), one or more ports will be used for positioning. In other words, the ports used for positioning via SRS may be broadly defined at the SRS resource set level, may be defined at the SRS resource level, or may be narrowly defined at the port level. Thus, the scope or granularity may be as broad or detailed as desired.

[0108]

[0117] In one aspect, the SRS hierarchy may be such that a lower level inherits the tagging of a higher level. For example, tagging an SRS resource to be a positioning SRS resource (through configuration in the cell or specification in the UE) may implicitly tag all ports of the positioning SRS resource to be positioning SRS ports. As another example, tagging an SRS resource set to be a positioning SRS resource set may implicitly tag all SRS resource sets to be positioning SRS resources and those SRS ports of the positioning SRS resource set to be positioning SRS ports.

[0109]

[0118] FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary pattern of conventional SRS resources 700, i.e., a pattern of SRS resources that may not be used for positioning, but rather for communication. The illustrated SRS resources 700 span four consecutive symbols in the time domain (horizontal axis) and 12 subcarriers in the frequency domain (vertical axis), which is equivalent to one PRB for a 15 kHz numerology. Each block represents a resource element (RE) having a height of one subcarrier in the frequency domain and a length of one symbol in the time domain. The four symbols in the time domain are labeled with symbol offsets 0-3. The shaded boxes represent REs used to transmit SRS. For ease of reference, these will be referred to as SRS REs. The numbers within the SRS REs represent a mapping of REs to port IDs of ports used to transmit SRS. In a conventional SRS resource configuration, each port is mapped to a specific subcarrier. Thus, over a span of four symbols, port 1 is mapped to the same frequency (not staggered in frequency).

[0110]

[0119] However, for positioning purposes, we propose to stagger the SRS REs in frequency. In general, it may be said that for positioning, the UE expects a comb N pattern with repetition of N consecutive symbols and frequency domain staggering such that all comb offsets are used. Figure 8 illustrates an example pattern of SRS resources 800 used for positioning, also referred to as a positioning SRS pattern. In other words, the SRS transmitted from the UE and used for positioning, also referred to as a positioning SRS, may follow the illustrated positioning SRS pattern.

[0111]

[0120] In the example of FIG. 8, the positioning SRS resource 800 spans four consecutive symbols (e.g., N=4). Of course, N may be any number. Only one PRB (12 subcarriers for 15 kHz numerology) of the positioning SRS resource 800 is illustrated. In general, however, the positioning SRS resource may include any number of PRBs. The positioning SRS resource 800 may be configured by the cell (at the SRS resource set level, at the SRS resource level, or at the SRS port level), or the UE may decide to use an SRS resource that is not originally configured for positioning. Thus, the positioning SRS resource 800 may be for positioning purposes only, or for multiple purposes (e.g., communication and positioning).

[0112]

[0121] Regarding the SRS REs mapped to SRS port 0 in FIG. 8, it should be noted that: the pattern is such that the SRS REs are transmitted in each of four symbols (N consecutive symbols). Also, they use different subcarriers (staggered in frequency domain). Furthermore, the SRS REs in each subcarrier are mapped such that all four comb offsets (0,1,2,3) are used. That is, in each symbol, a comb size of comb 4 is used, and from one symbol to the next, the start of the SRS transmission starts one subcarrier from the previous symbol. Since each offset represents a different symbol, it can be said that the SRS REs are mapped such that all N consecutive symbols are used across N consecutive symbols. As can be seen, this positioning SRS pattern is significantly different from the conventional SRS pattern illustrated in FIG. 7. As can be seen, the frequency staggering of the positioning SRS in a pattern across N consecutive symbols can provide improved positioning performance, as described herein.

[0113]

[0122] In FIG. 8, a diagonal downward pattern is illustrated; that is, the sequence (0,0), (1,1), (2,2), (3,3) is illustrated, with the first and second elements of the ordered pairs representing the offset and subcarrier, respectively. However, the positioning SRS pattern is not so limited. For example, in one alternative, the pattern may be diagonal upward, e.g., (0,3), (1,2), (2,1), (3,0). In fact, the pattern need not be diagonal at all, but may be, e.g., (0,0), (1,2), (2,1), (3,0). It is only preferable that the frequency is staggered such that all comb offsets are used over a span of N consecutive symbols (N being 2 or more). More broadly, one may say that the frequency is staggered such that all N consecutive symbols are used.

[0114]

[0123] 8 also shows that the diagonal downward pattern for subcarriers SC0-3 may be repeated for subcarriers SC4-7 and subcarriers SC8-11, each of which may be mapped to a different port. However, this is not necessary. Each pattern may be configured independently of the other patterns.

[0115]

[0124] Furthermore, if an SRS resource set has multiple SRS resources, then "staggering and repetition" may only occur among a subset of the SRS resources of the SRS resource set. That is, a subset (e.g., less than all) of the SRS resources of the SRS resource set may be positioning SRS resources (e.g., used only for positioning purposes or used for positioning and some other purposes). The remaining non-positioning SRS resources of the SRS resource set (e.g., used only for communication purposes) may use a legacy pattern (e.g., FIG. 7) in which staggering does not occur.

[0116]

[0125] In FIG. 8, as mentioned above, the positioning SRS resource 800 spans multiple symbols. In general, if the positioning SRS resource includes or spans multiple symbols (N symbols, where N is 2 or more), the ports may be mapped to a frequency staggering pattern such that all comb offsets (e.g., Com 0 to Com (N-1)) are used. Since the positioning SRS resource 800 is one SRS resource, it can be assumed that the transmitted REs are coherent (i.e., the same antenna port is used). As such, the cell (or TRP) can easily measure them and determine the ToA for positioning purposes (e.g., T gNB,Rx =T4). In one embodiment, N can be 2, 4 or 6.

[0117]

[0126] FIG. 9 illustrates another example pattern for positioning SRS resources 900. FIG. 9 differs from FIG. 8 in that instead of one positioning SRS resource spanning four (generic, N) symbols, FIG. 9 has four (generic, N) consecutive positioning SRS resources spanning one symbol each. Thus, instead of one positioning SRS resource corresponding to N consecutive symbols as in FIG. 8, the N consecutive positioning SRS resources in FIG. 9 correspond to N consecutive symbols. In one aspect, this may be due to the positioning SRS resource set including N SRS resources. In another aspect, this may be due to the SRS resource set including N positioning SRS resources.

[0118]

[0127] In any case, each positioning SRS resource may include one or more SRS ports that are mapped to the SRS REs such that the resulting pattern of SRS REs across all N consecutive SRS resources is staggered in the frequency domain. Note that the SRS pattern in FIG. 9 is similar to the "staggered and repeating" pattern in FIG. 8, i.e., across N consecutive symbols, N subcarriers are used. In another perspective, the SRS REs (resource elements that are mapped to the SRS ports) may be such that across N consecutive symbols and N consecutive subcarriers, each symbol and each subcarrier is used once.

[0119]

[0128] In one aspect, the UE may be configured with the same port across N SRS resources. For example, port 00 (of resource 0), port 11 (of resource 1), port 22 (of resource 2), and port 33 (of resource 3) may all be configured to be the same port. In this situation, the cell may combine coherently across SRS resources for positioning purposes and use the SRS ToA (e.g., T gNB,Rx =T4) may be determined. In one aspect, the N SRS resources may be transmitted in the same slot in consecutive symbols to ensure coherency.

[0120]

[0129] In another aspect, the same port index of the positioning SRS resources of the SRS resource set may be quasi-colocated across the positioning SRS resources. In this case, the cell may measure non-coherently across the positioning SRS resources to determine the ToA (e.g., T gNB,Rx =T4) may be determined.

[0121]

[0130] Note that in both Figures 8 and 9, across N consecutive symbols on N consecutive subcarriers, the SRS REs (resource elements mapped to the positioning SRS ports) are such that each symbol is used once and each subcarrier is used once.

[0122]

[0131] In Figure 9, each of the N consecutive positioning SRS resources spans one symbol. Although not specifically shown, the concept illustrated in Figure 9 may be generalized such that each of the N positioning SRS resources spans M symbols (M is 1 or greater), such that the N consecutive positioning SRS resources correspond to N*M consecutive symbols. In this case, the positioning SRS ports of each positioning SRS resource may be mapped to SRS REs in M ​​symbols such that across the N consecutive positioning SRS resources, the mapped SRS REs are staggered in frequency. Within each of the M symbols of each positioning SRS resource, the SRS REs need not be staggered in frequency.

[0123]

[0132] 10 illustrates an example method 1000 performed by a UE and a cell to calculate RTT using a positioning SRS. At block 1005, the cell (e.g., a serving gNB) may send an SRS configuration to the UE, which is received at block 1010. As described, the SRS configuration may specify one or more SRS resources of one or more SRS resource sets for use by the UE, with each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports.

[0124]

[0133] At block 1015, the cell is gNB,Tx At block 1020, the UE may transmit a downlink positioning signal at a second time (e.g., T UE,Rx The downlink PRS may be received at time T1 = T2.

[0125]

[0134] Following receiving the downlink PRS, in block 1030, the UE may receive the downlink PRS at a third time (e.g., T UE,Tx At a fourth time (e.g., T = T3), the cell may transmit a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning reference signal. The positioning SRS may utilize one or more positioning SRS ports. Each positioning SRS port may be an SRS port of an SRS resource in an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration received from the cell. At block 1035, the cell may transmit a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning reference signal at a fourth time (e.g., T gNG,Rx At time T1=T4), the positioning SRS may be received.

[0126]

[0135] It should be noted that a UE may receive multiple downlink PRS from multiple cells / TRPs and may subsequently transmit multiple positioning SRS in response. In this manner, multiple RTTs may be measured to determine the positioning of the UE.

[0127]

[0136] At block 1040, the UE receives a UE delay parameter (e.g., T UE,Rx→Tx =T3-T2) to the cell. As mentioned above, this is the earliest ToA (e.g., the earliest T UE,Rx =T2) to the transmission time of the positioning SRS from the UE (for example, T UE,Tx =T3). In block 1045, the cell may receive the UE delay parameters. It should be noted that the positioning SRS and the corresponding UE delay parameters may be transmitted simultaneously or separately. In block 1055, the cell may calculate the RTT or may forward the information to a positioning entity (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270).

[0128]

[0137] In one aspect, there may be constraints on the time behavior of the positioning SRS. For example, if the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for positioning purposes and for another purpose such as communication (e.g., tagged as CB and positioning, NCB and positioning, AntSw and positioning, and / or ULBM and positioning), aperiodic SRS transmission (e.g., triggered by DCI) and / or semi-persistent SRS transmission (e.g., triggered by MAC CE) may not be allowed.

[0129]

[0138] Also, if the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for different purposes in different SRS resource sets and the different purposes collide, priority may be given depending on tagging. For example, one priority is as follows: an SRS for communication and positioning purposes may have a higher priority than an SRS only for communication purposes, which may have a higher priority than an SRS only for positioning purposes. That is, if in a first SRS resource set, an SRS resource is used for communication and positioning purposes, and in a second SRS resource set, the same SRS resource is used only for communication purposes, the SRS used for both communication and positioning purposes may be prioritized when the SRSs collide on the same symbol. Between an SRS used only for communication purposes and an SRS used only for positioning purposes, the SRS used only for communication purposes may be prioritized.

[0130]

[0139] In one aspect, the sequence used for the positioning SRS (e.g., Zadoff-Chu sequence), i.e., the sequence of the SRS resource used for positioning, whether or not it is also used for communication purposes, may be different from the sequence of the SRS resource used only for communication purposes. For example, the sequence initialization of the positioning SRS may depend on (i.e., be based on) a different sequence initialization number than that used for the SRS resource used only for communication purposes. As another example, the sequence used for the positioning SRS resource may be based on pi / 2-BPSK (binary phase shift keying) other than Zadoff-Chu based.

[0131]

[0140] As mentioned above, a conventional SRS resource may occupy only the last six symbols of a slot. However, in one aspect, the positioning SRS may span more than the last six symbols. For example, it may span any number of symbols in the slot, including all of them (e.g., 14 for a 15 kHz numerology). Also, the comb offset may vary from symbol to symbol slot, for example, in a round robin manner. That is, the comb offset may vary with each symbol of the SRS resource and then repeat (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, etc.). Additionally, the positioning SRS may appear before the PUSCH in the slot.

[0132]

[0141] In one aspect, the positioning SRS may be configured for positioning and for another purpose. For example, the positioning SRS may be an SRS resource used for communication purposes in a first SRS resource set and for positioning purposes in a second SRS resource set. In one aspect, the positioning SRS may be a SRS resource used for transmission (T x) power parameters and power control parameters.

[0133]

[0142] On the other hand, if a positioning SRS is used only for positioning purposes, it is considered an independent T x The UE may have power parameters and power control parameters. In one option, only open loop power control may be supported. In another option, only closed loop power control may be supported. In yet another option, both may be supported. In yet another option, the UE may transmit the positioning SRS at a fixed power (e.g., maximum power). In one aspect, the UE may report its power capabilities to the cell.

[0134]

[0143] It should be noted that in open loop power control, there is no feedback from the UE to the cell or from the cell to the UE. The UE receives a pilot channel from the cell to estimate the signal strength. Based on this estimate, the UE adjusts its transmit power accordingly. During this open loop control, it is assumed that both the downlink and uplink are correlated. In closed loop power control, feedback from the receiver is used by the transmitter to adjust the transmit power level.

[0135]

[0144] Even if the UE is capable of responding to power control command updates, it may not respond to such commands between positioning SRS transmissions, i.e., the UE may not respond to any power control commands from the cell for a threshold time period from the start of the positioning SRS transmission. The threshold time period may represent a time period during which the network's cells are in the listening phase of the RTT procedure. The threshold period may be a number of slots, a number of slots within a frame, a number of frames, etc.

[0136]

[0145] 11 illustrates an example method 1100 in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. In one aspect, the method 1100 may be performed by a UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

[0137]

[0146] At 1110, the UE receives an SRS configuration from a cell (e.g., a cell / TRP of any of the base stations described herein), the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports. In one aspect, at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration is usable by the UE for at least positioning purposes. In one aspect, the operation 1110 may be performed by the receiver 312, the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory 340, and / or the RTT measurement component 342.

[0138]

[0147] At 1120, the UE transmits a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal using one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource of an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration. In one aspect, the positioning SRS is transmitted in a positioning SRS pattern such that the SRS REs to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or more, and use each of the N consecutive symbols. In one aspect, the operation 1120 may be performed by the transmitter 314, the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory 340, and / or the RTT measurement component 342.

[0139]

[0148] 12 illustrates an example method 1200 according to one or more aspects of the present disclosure. In one aspect, the method 1200 may be performed by a cell / TRP of a base station (e.g., any of the base stations described herein).

[0140]

[0149] At 1210, the cell sends an SRS configuration to the UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein), the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports. In one aspect, at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration is usable by the UE for at least positioning purposes. In one aspect, the operation 1210 may be performed by the transmitter 354, the WWAN transceiver 350, the processing system 384, the memory 386, and / or the RTT measurement component 388.

[0141]

[0150] At 1220, the cell receives a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal utilizing one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource of an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration. In one aspect, the positioning SRS is received in a positioning SRS pattern such that SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency across N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and use each of the N consecutive symbols. In one aspect, the operation 1220 may be performed by the receiver 352, the WWAN transceiver 350, the processing system 384, the memory 386, and / or the RTT measurement component 388.

[0142]

[0151] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0143]

[0152] Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, the various exemplary components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Those skilled in the art may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, and such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0144]

[0153] The various example logic blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed using a general purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA, or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0145]

[0154] The methods, sequences, and / or algorithms described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software module may reside in a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a read only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integrated into the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). Alternatively, the processor and the storage medium may reside in discrete components in a user terminal.

[0146]

[0155] In one or more exemplary aspects, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or code. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media, including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Moreover, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio and microwave are included within the definition of media. As used herein, disk and disc include CDs, laser discs, optical disks, digital versatile disks (DVDs), floppy disks, and Blu-ray disks, although typically disks reproduce data magnetically while discs reproduce data optically with a laser. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0147]

[0156] While the foregoing disclosure sets forth exemplary aspects of the disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications may be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and / or actions of the method claims in accordance with the aspects of the disclosure described herein do not have to be performed in any particular order. Further, although elements of the disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated.

Claims

1. In a user equipment (UE), Memory, At least one processor; at least one transceiver; The at least one transceiver includes: receiving a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) configuration from a cell, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, such that at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration is usable by the UE at least for positioning purposes; Using one or more positioning SRS ports to transmit a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal, each positioning SRS port is configured to be an SRS port of an SRS resource in an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration; A UE in which the positioning SRS is transmitted in a positioning SRS pattern in which SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and each of the N consecutive symbols is used.

2. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the SRS RE is such that it spans N consecutive symbols on N consecutive subcarriers, with each of the N consecutive symbols being used once and each of the N consecutive subcarriers being used once.

3. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more positioning SRS ports is a configured positioning SRS port or a designated positioning SRS port, the configured positioning SRS port being an SRS port configured to be used for positioning purposes in the SRS configuration, and the designated positioning SRS port being an SRS port designated to be used for positioning purposes by the UE.

4. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more SRS resource sets include at least one positioning SRS resource set that is an SRS resource set that is configured or designated to be used for positioning purposes at an SRS resource set level.

5. All SRS resources in the at least one positioning SRS resource set are automatically positioning SRS resources; The UE of claim 4 , wherein all SRS ports of all SRS resources of the at least one positioning SRS resource set are automatically positioning SRS ports.

6. 5. The UE of claim 4, wherein the at least one positioning SRS resource set is a configured positioning SRS resource set or a designated positioning SRS resource set, the configured positioning SRS resource set being an SRS resource set configured to be used for positioning purposes in the SRS configuration, and the designated positioning SRS resource set being an SRS resource set designated to be used for positioning purposes by the UE.

7. the one or more SRS resource sets include at least one non-positioning SRS resource set that is an SRS resource set that is not configured and not designated to be used for positioning purposes at the SRS resource set level; 5. The UE of claim 4, wherein the at least one non-positioning SRS resource set includes at least one positioning SRS resource that is an SRS resource configured or designated to be used for positioning purposes at an SRS resource level.

8. The UE of claim 7 , wherein all SRS ports of the at least one positioning SRS resource are automatically positioning SRS ports.

9. 8. The UE of claim 7, wherein the at least one positioning SRS resource is a configured positioning SRS resource or a designated positioning SRS resource, the configured positioning SRS resource being an SRS resource configured to be used for positioning purposes in the SRS configuration, and the designated positioning SRS resource being an SRS resource designated to be used for positioning purposes by the UE.

10. the at least one non-positioning SRS resource set includes at least one non-positioning SRS resource that is an SRS resource that is not configured and not designated to be used for positioning purposes at the SRS resource level; 8. The UE of claim 7, wherein the at least one non-positioning SRS resource includes at least one positioning SRS port that is an SRS port that is configured or designated to be used for positioning purposes at an SRS port level.

11. 11. The UE of claim 10, wherein the at least one positioning SRS port is a configured positioning SRS port or a designated positioning SRS port, the configured positioning SRS port being an SRS port configured to be used for positioning purposes in the SRS configuration, and the designated positioning SRS port being an SRS port designated to be used for positioning purposes by the UE.

12. At least one of the one or more SRS resource sets includes a positioning SRS resource spanning N consecutive symbols; The UE of claim 1 , wherein the positioning SRS ports of the positioning SRS resource are mapped to SRS REs of the N consecutive symbols such that all of the N comb offsets are used.

13. The positioning SRS port of the positioning SRS resource is the SRS port of the N consecutive symbols on the N consecutive subcarriers such that each of the N comb offsets is used once and each of the N consecutive subcarriers is used once. The UE of claim 12 , wherein the UE is mapped to an RE.

14. At least one of the one or more SRS resource sets includes N consecutive positioning SRS resources such that N consecutive positioning SRS resources correspond to N*M consecutive symbols, each positioning SRS resource being M symbols in duration, where M is 1 or more; 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein a positioning SRS port of each positioning SRS resource is mapped to an SRS RE in the M symbols such that across the N consecutive positioning SRS resources, the mapped SRS REs are staggered in frequency, and within the M symbols of each positioning SRS resource, the SRS REs are not staggered in frequency.

15. 15. The UE of claim 14, wherein the one or more positioning SRS ports of the uplink positioning signal are mapped to the SRS REs across the N consecutive positioning SRS resources on the N consecutive subcarriers such that each of the N consecutive symbols is used once and each of the N consecutive subcarriers is used once.

16. The UE of claim 14, wherein the UE is configured with the same port across the N consecutive positioning SRS resources.

17. The UE of claim 16, wherein the N consecutive positioning SRS resources are transmitted in a same slot.

18. The UE of claim 14 , wherein the same port index of the N consecutive positioning SRS resources is quasi-collocated across the N consecutive positioning SRS resources.

19. The UE of claim 1 , wherein if the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for positioning and communication purposes, aperiodic SRS transmission is not allowed for the positioning SRS.

20. The UE of claim 1 , wherein if the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for positioning and communication purposes, semi-persistent SRS is not allowed for the positioning SRS.

21. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein when the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for both communication and positioning purposes in a first SRS resource set and used only for communication purposes in a second SRS resource set, and when the SRSs collide on the same symbol, the SRS used for both communication and positioning purposes is prioritized over the SRS used only for communication purposes.

22. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein when the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for both communication and positioning purposes in a first SRS resource set and used only for positioning purposes in a second SRS resource set, and when the SRSs collide on the same symbol, the SRS used for both communication and positioning purposes is prioritized over the SRS used only for positioning purposes.

23. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein when the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used only for communication purposes in a first SRS resource set and used only for positioning purposes in a second SRS resource set, and when the SRSs collide on the same symbol, the SRS used only for communication purposes is prioritized over the SRS used only for positioning purposes.

24. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein a sequence used for transmission of SRS resources used for positioning purposes is different from a sequence used for transmission of SRS resources used only for communication purposes.

25. 25. The UE of claim 24, wherein the sequence used for the transmission of the SRS resources used for positioning purposes is pi / 2-BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying) based.

26. 25. The UE of claim 24, wherein an initialization of a sequence used for transmission of SRS resources used for positioning purposes is based on a different sequence initialization number than an initialization of a sequence used for transmission of SRS resources used only for communication purposes.

27. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the SRS resources used for positioning purposes span more than the last six symbols of a slot.

28. 28. The UE of claim 27, wherein the SRS resources used for positioning purposes span all symbols of the slot.

29. 30. The UE of claim 28, wherein the SRS resource used for positioning purposes is repeated for every symbol of the slot.

30. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the comb offset varies from symbol to symbol of a slot in a round robin fashion.

31. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein an SRS resource used for positioning purposes occurs before a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) in a slot.

32. When the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for communication purposes in a first SRS resource set and used for positioning purposes in a second SRS resource set, the positioning SRS is transmitted according to a power control loop of the first SRS resource set (T ｘ 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the power parameter and the power control parameter are transmitted.

33. 10. The UE of claim 1, wherein when the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used only for positioning purposes, the UE supports open loop power control and does not support closed loop power control.

34. 2. The UE of claim 1, wherein when the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for positioning purposes, the UE does not respond to any power control commands from the cell received within a threshold time period from the start of transmission of the positioning SRS.

35. 35. The UE of claim 34, wherein the threshold time period is a number of slots.

36. 35. The UE of claim 34, wherein the threshold time period is a number of slots in a frame.

37. 35. The UE of claim 34, wherein the threshold time period is a number of frames.

38. At the base station Memory, At least one processor; at least one transceiver; The at least one transceiver includes: sending a sounding reference signal (SRS) configuration to a user equipment (UE), the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, such that at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration is usable by the UE at least for positioning purposes; Receive a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal using one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being configured to be an SRS port of an SRS resource in an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration; A base station in which the positioning SRS is received in a positioning SRS pattern in which SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and each of the N consecutive symbols is used.

39. 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein the SRS RE is such that over N consecutive symbols on N consecutive subcarriers, each of the N consecutive symbols is used once and each of the N consecutive subcarriers is used once.

40. 39. The base station of claim 38, wherein each of the one or more positioning SRS ports is a configured positioning SRS port or a designated positioning SRS port, the configured positioning SRS port being an SRS port configured to be used for positioning purposes in the SRS configuration, and the designated positioning SRS port being an SRS port designated to be used for positioning purposes by the UE.

41. 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein the one or more SRS resource sets include at least one positioning SRS resource set that is an SRS resource set that is configured or designated to be used for positioning purposes at an SRS resource set level.

42. All SRS resources in the at least one positioning SRS resource set are automatically positioning SRS resources; The base station of claim 41, wherein all SRS ports of all SRS resources of the at least one positioning SRS resource set are automatically positioning SRS ports.

43. 42. The base station of claim 41 , wherein the at least one positioning SRS resource set is a configured positioning SRS resource set or a designated positioning SRS resource set, the configured positioning SRS resource set being an SRS resource set configured to be used for positioning purposes in the SRS configuration, and the designated positioning SRS resource set being an SRS resource set designated to be used for positioning purposes by the UE.

44. the one or more SRS resource sets include at least one non-positioning SRS resource set that is an SRS resource set that is not configured and not designated to be used for positioning purposes at the SRS resource set level; 42. The base station of claim 41, wherein the at least one non-positioning SRS resource set includes at least one positioning SRS resource that is an SRS resource configured or designated to be used for positioning purposes at an SRS resource level.

45. 45. The base station of claim 44, wherein all SRS ports of the at least one positioning SRS resource are automatically positioning SRS ports.

46. 45. The base station of claim 44, wherein the at least one positioning SRS resource is a configured positioning SRS resource or a designated positioning SRS resource, the configured positioning SRS resource being an SRS resource configured to be used for positioning purposes in the SRS configuration, and the designated positioning SRS resource being an SRS resource designated to be used for positioning purposes by the UE.

47. the at least one non-positioning SRS resource set includes at least one non-positioning SRS resource that is an SRS resource that is not configured and not designated to be used for positioning purposes at the SRS resource level; 45. The base station of claim 44, wherein the at least one non-positioning SRS resource includes at least one positioning SRS port that is an SRS port that is configured or designated to be used for positioning purposes at an SRS port level.

48. 48. The base station of claim 47, wherein the at least one positioning SRS port is a configured positioning SRS port or a designated positioning SRS port, the configured positioning SRS port being an SRS port configured to be used for positioning purposes in the SRS configuration, and the designated positioning SRS port being an SRS port designated to be used for positioning purposes by the UE.

49. At least one of the one or more SRS resource sets includes a positioning SRS resource spanning N consecutive symbols; 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein positioning SRS ports of the positioning SRS resource are mapped to SRS REs of the N consecutive symbols such that all of the N comb offsets are used.

50. The positioning SRS port of the positioning SRS resource is the SRS port of the N consecutive symbols on the N consecutive subcarriers such that each of the N comb offsets is used once and each of the N consecutive subcarriers is used once.

50. The base station of claim 49, wherein the base station is mapped to an RE.

51. At least one of the one or more SRS resource sets includes N consecutive positioning SRS resources such that N consecutive positioning SRS resources correspond to N*M consecutive symbols, each positioning SRS resource being M symbols in duration, where M is 1 or more; 39. The base station of claim 38, wherein a positioning SRS port of each positioning SRS resource is mapped to an SRS RE in the M symbols such that across the N consecutive positioning SRS resources, the mapped SRS REs are staggered in frequency and within the M symbols of each positioning SRS resource, the SRS REs are not staggered in frequency.

52. 52. The base station of claim 51 , wherein the one or more positioning SRS ports of the uplink positioning signal are mapped to the SRS REs across the N consecutive positioning SRS resources on the N consecutive subcarriers such that each of the N consecutive symbols is used once and each of the N consecutive subcarriers is used once.

53. 52. The base station of claim 51, wherein the UE is configured with the same port across the N consecutive positioning SRS resources.

54. 54. The base station of claim 53, wherein the N consecutive positioning SRS resources are transmitted in a same slot.

55. 52. The base station of claim 51, wherein the same port index of the N consecutive positioning SRS resources is quasi-colocated across the N consecutive positioning SRS resources.

56. The base station of claim 38, wherein if the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for positioning and communication purposes, aperiodic SRS transmission is not allowed for the positioning SRS.

57. 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein semi-persistent SRS is not allowed for the positioning SRS if the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for positioning and communication purposes.

58. 39. The base station of claim 38, wherein when the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for both communication and positioning purposes in a first SRS resource set and used only for communication purposes in a second SRS resource set, and when the SRS collide on the same symbol, the SRS used for both communication and positioning purposes is prioritized over the SRS used only for communication purposes.

59. 39. The base station of claim 38, wherein when the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for both communication and positioning purposes in a first SRS resource set and used only for positioning purposes in a second SRS resource set, and when the SRS collide on the same symbol, the SRS used for both communication and positioning purposes is prioritized over the SRS used only for positioning purposes.

60. 39. The base station of claim 38, wherein when the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used only for communication purposes in a first SRS resource set and used only for positioning purposes in a second SRS resource set, and when the SRS collide on the same symbol, the SRS used only for communication purposes is prioritized over the SRS used only for positioning purposes.

61. 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein a sequence used for transmission of SRS resources used for positioning purposes is different from a sequence used for transmission of SRS resources used only for communication purposes.

62. 62. The base station of claim 61, wherein the sequences used for the transmission of SRS resources used for positioning purposes are pi / 2-BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying) based.

63. 62. The base station of claim 61, wherein an initialization of a sequence used for transmission of SRS resources used for positioning purposes is based on a different sequence initialization number than an initialization of a sequence used for transmission of SRS resources used only for communication purposes.

64. 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein the SRS resources used for positioning purposes span more than the last six symbols of a slot.

65. 65. The base station of claim 64, wherein the SRS resources used for positioning purposes span all symbols of the slot.

66. 66. The base station of claim 65, wherein the SRS resources used for positioning purposes are repeated for every symbol of the slot.

67. 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein the comb offset varies from symbol to symbol of a slot in a round robin fashion.

68. 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein an SRS resource used for positioning purposes occurs before a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in a slot.

69. When the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for communication purposes in a first SRS resource set and used for positioning purposes in a second SRS resource set, the positioning SRS is transmitted according to a power control loop of the first SRS resource set (T ｘ 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein the power parameters and the power control parameters are transmitted using the power parameters.

70. 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein when the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used only for positioning purposes, the UE supports open loop power control and does not support closed loop power control.

71. 40. The base station of claim 38, wherein when the positioning SRS is an SRS resource used for positioning purposes, the UE does not respond to any power control commands from the base station received within a threshold time period from the start of transmission of the positioning SRS.

72. 72. The base station of claim 71, wherein the threshold time period is a number of slots.

73. 72. The base station of claim 71, wherein the threshold time period is a number of slots in a frame.

74. 72. The base station of claim 71, wherein the threshold time period is a number of frames.

75. A method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) configuration from a cell, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, and at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration is usable by the UE at least for positioning purposes; Using one or more positioning SRS ports to transmit a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource in an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration; A method in which the positioning SRS is transmitted in a positioning SRS pattern in which SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and each of the N consecutive symbols is used.

76. A method performed by a base station cell, comprising: sending a sounding reference signal (SRS) configuration to a user equipment (UE), the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, and at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration being usable by the UE at least for positioning purposes; Receive a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal using one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource in an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration; The method in which the positioning SRS is received in a positioning SRS pattern such that SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and a positioning SRS port is used for each of the N consecutive symbols.

77. In a user equipment (UE), means for receiving a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) configuration from a cell, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, and at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration is usable by the UE at least for positioning purposes; and means for transmitting a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal by using one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource in an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration; A UE in which the positioning SRS is transmitted in a positioning SRS pattern in which SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and each of the N consecutive symbols is used.

78. At the base station means for sending a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) configuration to a User Equipment (UE), the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, and at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration being usable by the UE at least for positioning purposes; and means for receiving a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal using one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource in an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration; A base station in which the positioning SRS is received in a positioning SRS pattern in which SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and each of the N consecutive symbols is used.

79. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, comprising: The computer executable instructions include: one or more instructions for instructing a user equipment (UE) to receive a sounding reference signal (SRS) configuration from a cell, the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, and at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration is usable by the UE at least for positioning purposes; and one or more instructions for instructing a UE to transmit a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal using one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource in an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration; A non-transitory computer-readable medium in which the positioning SRS is transmitted in a positioning SRS pattern such that SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and the positioning SRS uses each of the N consecutive symbols.

80. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, comprising: The computer executable instructions include: one or more instructions for instructing a base station to send a sounding reference signal (SRS) configuration to a user equipment (UE), the SRS configuration defining one or more SRS resource sets, each SRS resource set including one or more SRS resources, each SRS resource including one or more SRS ports, and at least one SRS port of at least one SRS resource of the at least one SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration is usable by the UE at least for positioning purposes; and one or more instructions for instructing a base station to receive a positioning SRS as an uplink positioning signal using one or more positioning SRS ports, each positioning SRS port being an SRS port of an SRS resource in an SRS resource set defined in the SRS configuration; A non-transitory computer-readable medium in which the positioning SRS is received in a positioning SRS pattern such that SRS resource elements (REs) to which the one or more positioning SRS ports are mapped are staggered in frequency over N consecutive symbols, where N is 2 or greater, and a positioning SRS port is used for each of the N consecutive symbols.

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