Antenna Sharing for Multiple Wireless Communication Technologies

Abstract

Different operations of a wireless communication device benefit from different antenna configurations, such as for positioning where closely spaced antennas are desirable, and for data communications where antenna diversity is desirable. The device is configured to receive a request to determine a location of a user equipment (UE), select one of a first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas for determining the location of the UE, receive wireless signals using the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas, and determine the location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17 / 699,918, entitled "ANTENNA SHARING FOR MULTIPLE WIRELESS COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES," filed Mar. 21, 2022, the entire contents of which are expressly incorporated by reference into this specification. [Background technology]

[0002] Field

[0002] The subject matter disclosed herein relates to wireless location determination of user equipment, and more particularly, to wireless location determination of user equipment configured to receive wireless signals according to multiple wireless communication technologies.

[0003] information

[0003] The location of a user equipment (UE), such as a mobile phone, may be useful or essential for many applications, including emergency calls, navigation, wayfinding, asset tracking, and Internet services. The location of the UE may be estimated based on information collected from various systems. In a cellular network implemented according to 4G (also called fourth generation) Long Term Evolution (LTE) radio access or 5G (also called fifth generation) "New Radio" (NR), for example, a base station may transmit a downlink reference signal or a UE may transmit an uplink reference signal used for positioning. For example, to perform positioning, the UE may transmit a sounding reference signal (SRS) that is received by the base station. The base station can measure the angle of arrival (AoA) of the SRS to identify the direction of the UE from the base station, can measure the zenith of arrival (ZoA) of the SRS to identify the elevation angle of the UE relative to the base station, and can measure the time of arrival (TOA) of the SRS used to identify the distance of the UE from the base station. Similarly, the base station can transmit a positioning reference signal (PRS) that is received by the UE, and the UE can measure the AoA, ZoA, and TOA of the PRS to identify the position of the UE relative to the base station. Summary of the Invention

[0004]

[0004] The location of a user equipment (UE) can be determined based on signals transmitted and received via one of a first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas. The antennas of the first plurality of antennas may be closely spaced, such as when adjacent antennas of the first plurality of antennas are located within half a wavelength of the received signal. In contrast, the antennas of the second plurality of antennas may be spaced further apart, for example, one or more pairs of adjacent antennas of the second plurality of antennas may be separated by more than half a wavelength of the received signal. This can allow the first plurality of antennas to be configured to accurately determine the angle of arrival (AoA) of the received signal, while the second plurality of antennas can be configured to have sufficient diversity for ranging and data communication operations.

[0005]

[0005] In one implementation, a method for supporting positioning of a UE in a wireless network includes receiving a request to determine a position of the UE, selecting one of a first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas coupled to the UE, receiving wireless signals using the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas, and determining a position of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals.

[0006] In some aspects, each antenna of the first plurality of antennas is located within a threshold distance of each other antenna of the first plurality of antennas, and each antenna of the second plurality of antennas is located beyond a threshold distance from each other antenna of the second plurality of antennas. In some aspects, the threshold distance corresponds to half a wavelength of the received wireless signal. In some aspects, the first plurality of antennas is selected, and determining the location of the UE in block 808 includes determining the location of the UE based at least in part on an angle of arrival (AoA) of the received wireless signal.

[0007] In some aspects, selecting one of the first or second plurality of antennas is based on a wireless communication technology selected to determine a position of the UE. In some aspects, the wireless communication technology is selected from two or more wireless communication technologies. In some aspects, selecting one of the first or second plurality of antennas includes coupling the selected first or second plurality of antennas to a wireless receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology. In some aspects, the two or more wireless communication technologies include one or more of an ultrawideband (UWB) wireless communication technology, a Wi-Fi wireless communication technology, and a 5G New Radio (NR) wireless communication technology. In some aspects, selecting the wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a positioning accuracy associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. In some aspects, selecting the wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a power consumption associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. In some aspects, selecting the wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a maximum range associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies.

[0008]

[0008] In some aspects, the received request includes a requested wireless communication technology for determining the position of the UE, and the method further includes coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the requested wireless communication technology.

[0009]

[0009] In some aspects, the method further includes identifying a wireless communication technology associated with the received request, determining that two or more wireless communication technologies have simultaneously requested use of the selected first or second plurality of antennas, selecting one wireless communication technology for use of the selected first or second plurality of antennas, and coupling the selected first or second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology. In some aspects, the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective priority associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies. In some aspects, the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective duty cycle associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies.

[0010] In one implementation, a device configured to support location of a user equipment (UE) in a wireless network includes an antenna system including at least a first plurality of antennas and a second plurality of antennas, at least one transceiver coupled to the antenna system, at least one memory, and at least one processor coupled to the at least one transceiver and the at least one memory. The at least one processor is configured to: cause the device to receive a request to determine a location of the UE, select one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to determine the location of the UE, receive wireless signals using the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas, and determine the location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals.

[0011] In one implementation, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a device configured to support locating user equipment (UE) in a wireless network. Execution of the instructions causes the UE to perform operations including receiving a request to determine a location of the UE, selecting one of a first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas coupled to the UE, receiving wireless signals using the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas, and determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals.

[0012]

[0012] 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]

[0013]

[0013] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in the explanation of various aspects of the present disclosure and are provided only to illustrate the aspects and not to limit the aspects. [Figure 1]

[0014] 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system. [Diagram 2]

[0015] 2 shows a block diagram of a design of a base station and a user equipment (UE), which may be one of the base stations and one of the UE in FIG. 1. [Diagram 3]

[0016] 1 illustrates a UE capable of supporting UE location in a wireless network. [Figure 4]

[0017] 1 illustrates an example wireless communication system that employs DL AoA techniques to perform UE location. [Diagram 5]

[0018] 1 illustrates an example antenna configuration for a UE, according to some implementations. [Figure 6A]

[0019] 1 illustrates a circuit incorporating a feed-forward path for coupling an antenna to each of multiple receivers, according to some implementations. [Figure 6B]

[0020] 1 illustrates a circuit incorporating external switching for coupling an antenna to each of multiple receivers, according to some implementations. [Figure 7]

[0021] 1 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for coupling an antenna of a UE to a receiver circuit associated with one of two or more wireless communication technologies, according to some implementations. [Figure 8]

[0022] 1 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for supporting location determination of a UE in a wireless network, according to some implementations. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0014]

[0023] Aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and associated drawings, directed to various examples 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 will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the present disclosure.

[0015]

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

[0016]

[0025] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the information and signals described below may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be 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, desired design, corresponding technology, etc.

[0017]

[0026] 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 various activities described herein may be performed by specific circuitry (e.g., application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. In addition, the sequence or sequences of actions described herein may be considered to be fully embodied in any form of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a corresponding set of computer instructions that, when executed, cause or instruct an associated processor of a device to perform the functions described herein. Thus, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in a number of different forms, all of which are contemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, 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.

[0018]

[0027] As used herein, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" (BS) are not intended to be specific or otherwise limited to any particular Radio Access Technology (RAT) unless otherwise stated. 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 stationary (e.g., at a particular time) and may communicate with a Radio Access Network (RAN). The term "UE" as used herein may be referred to interchangeably as an "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber device", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or "UT", "mobile terminal", "mobile station", "mobile device", or variations thereof. In general, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, through which the UE may be connected to external networks, such as the Internet, and to other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms 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 the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, etc.).

[0019]

[0028] Depending on the network in which it is deployed, the base station may operate according to one of several RATs in communication with the UEs and may alternatively be referred to as an access point (AP), network node, NodeB, evolved NodeB (eNB), New Radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as gNodeB or gNB), etc. Additionally, in some systems, the base station may simply provide edge node signaling functionality, while in other systems, the base station may provide additional control and / or network management functionality. A communication link through which a UE can transmit signals to a base station is referred to as an uplink (UL) channel or a reverse link channel (e.g., reverse traffic channel, reverse control channel, access channel, etc.). A communication link through which a base station can transmit signals to a UE is referred to as a downlink (DL) or a forward link channel (e.g., paging channel, control channel, broadcast channel, forward traffic channel, etc.). A communication link through which UEs can transmit signals between each other is referred to as a sidelink (SL). As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) may refer to either a UL / reverse traffic channel or a DL / forward traffic channel.

[0020]

[0029] The term "base station" may refer to a single physical transmission-reception point (TRP) or multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be collocated. For example, when the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station corresponding to a cell of the base station. When 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 the case of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or when the base station employs beamforming). When the term "base station" refers to multiple non-collocated physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transport medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). In some implementations, the TRP may be a UE.

[0021]

[0030] To support UE positioning, two broad classifications of positioning strategies are defined: control plane based and user plane based. In the context of control plane (CP) positioning, signaling related to positioning and support of positioning may be carried over existing network (and UE) interfaces and using existing protocols dedicated to signaling transfer. In the context of user plane (UP) positioning, signaling related to positioning and support of positioning may be carried as part of other data using protocols such as Internet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). As used herein, "positioning" may also be referred to as "locationing", "position locationing", "wireless location", "UE location", etc.

[0022]

[0031] The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has defined control plane positioning strategies for UEs using radio access according to Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) (2G), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) (3G), LTE (4G), and New Radio (NR) for fifth generation (5G). These strategies are defined in 3GPP Technical specifications (TSs) 23.271 and 23.273 (common part), 43.059 (GSM access), 25.305 (UMTS access), 36.305 (LTE access), and 38.305 (NR access). For UP positioning, release 16 of the 3GPP standard for NR defines the multi-cell round trip time (RTT), DL angle of departure (AoD), and UL angle of arrival (AoA) with respect to zenith and azimuth angles. In some aspects, AoA may also be referred to as direction of arrival (DoA). Release 16 also defines UE-based positioning associated with DL-TDOA and DL-AOD, DL-positioning reference signal (PRS) and sounding reference signal (SRS) for positioning. Release 16 also defines beam-specific (PRS) operation for mm-Wave and broadcast of assistance data for positioning. Release 17 of the 3GPP standard for NR may define UE-initiated on-demand transmission of DL-PRS, network-initiated on-demand transmission of DL-PRS, Radio Resource Control (RRC) inactive DL-only, UL-only, or DL+UL based positioning, access point (AP) DL-PRS transmission, and / or aggregation of DL-PRS across multiple frequencies.Release 17 of the 3GPP standard for NR can also device transmission of a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) from the UE to the base station on the uplink. The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) has similarly defined a UP positioning strategy known as Secure User Plane Location (SUPL), which can be used to locate a UE accessing any of several air interfaces that support IP packet access, such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) with GSM, GPRS with UMTS, or IP access with LTE or NR.

[0023]

[0032] Both CP-based positioning (also called location or position determination) and UP-based positioning approaches can utilize a location server to support positioning of the UE. The location server may be part of or accessible from a serving or home network for the UE, or may simply be accessible via the Internet or via a local intranet. When positioning of the UE is required, the location server can initiate a session with the UE (e.g., a location session or a SUPL session) and coordinate the UE's position measurements to determine an estimated location of the UE. During the location session, the location server may request the positioning capabilities of the UE or base station (or the UE or base station may provide them without a request) and may request UE position estimates or measurements for various positioning technologies, e.g., Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA), Angle of Departure (AoD), Round Trip Time (RTT) or Multi-RTT, and / or Enhanced Cell ID (ECID) positioning methods.

[0024]

[0033] A type of positioning technique (which may be defined in the 3GPP set of standards) is the Angle of Arrival (AoA) technique, which involves measuring the AoA (and possibly the Arrival Zenith (ZoA) if not included in the AoA) of a reference signal received at the device. The AoA technique may be performed at a base station to measure a received Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmitted by the UE, or may be performed at the UE to measure a received Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) transmitted by the base station. The AoA indicates the direction of the UE from the base station, and the ZoA indicates the elevation angle of the UE relative to the base station. Note that the AoA may include the ZoA such that the AoA is in three-dimensional space. The UE or base station may also measure the TOA, which may be used to determine the distance of the UE from the base station.

[0025]

[0034] For 3GPP CP location, the location server may be an enhanced serving mobile location center (E-SMLC) in case of LTE access, a standalone SMLC (SAS) in case of UMTS access, a serving mobile location center (SMLC) in case of GSM access, or a Location Management Function (LMF) in case of 5G NR access. For OMA SUPL location, the location server may be: (i) a home SLP (H-SLP) if it is in or associated with the UE's home network or provides the UE with a persistent subscription for location services; (ii) a discovered SLP (D-SLP) if it is in or associated with some other (non-home) network or is not associated with any network; (iii) an emergency SLP (E-SLP) if it supports location for emergency calls initiated by the UE. The SUPL Location Platform (SLP) may act as either a SUPL Location Platform (SLP), an E-SLP (E-SLP), or (iv) a visited SLP (V-SLP) if it is in or associated with the serving network or current local area for the UE.

[0026]

[0035] During a positioning session, the location server, the base station, and / or the UE may exchange messages defined according to a positioning protocol in order to coordinate the determination of the estimated position. Possible positioning protocols may include, for example, the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) defined by 3GPP in 3GPP TS 36.355, and the LPP Extensions (LPPe) protocol defined by OMA in OMA TSs OMA-TS-LPPe-V1_0, OMA-TS-LPPe-V1_1, and OMA-TS-LPPe-V2_0. The LPP and LPPe protocols may be used in combination such that an LPP message contains one embedded LPPe message. The combined LPP and LPPe protocols may be referred to as LPP / LPPe. LPP and LPP / LPPe may be used to help support 3GPP control plane solutions for LTE or NR access, in which case LPP or LPP / LPPe messages may be exchanged between the UE and the E-SMLC or between the UE and the LMF. LPP or LPPe messages may be exchanged between the UE and the E-SMLC via a serving mobility management entity (MME) and a serving eNodeB for the UE. LPP or LPPe messages may also be exchanged between the UE and the LMF via a serving Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) and a serving NR Node B or gNodeB (gNB) for the UE.LPP and LPP / LPPe can also be used to help support the OMA SUPL approach for many types of wireless access that support IP messaging (such as LTE, NR, and WiFi), where LPP or LPP / LPPe messages are exchanged between a SUPL Enabled Terminal (SET), the term used for a UE that uses SUPL, and an SLP, and can be transported within a SUPL message, such as a SUPL POS or SUPL POS INIT message.

[0027]

[0036] The location server and the base station (e.g., eNodeB for LTE access or gNB for NR access) may exchange LPP or NR positioning protocol (NRPP) messages to enable the base station to perform one or more measurements for location determination or to configure the location server and the base station to obtain location measurements for a particular UE from the base station by the location server. In the case of LTE access, the LPP A (LPPa) protocol may be used to transfer such messages between the base station which is an eNodeB (eNB) and the location server which is an E-SMLC. In the case of NR access, the NRPP A protocol may be used to transfer such messages between the base station which is a gNodeB (gNB) and the location server which is an LMF. It should be noted that the terms "parameter" and "information element" (IE) are synonymous and are used interchangeably herein.

[0028]

[0037] During positioning using signaling in LTE and 5G NR, the UE can acquire dedicated positioning signals, e.g., Positioning Reference Signals (PRS), transmitted by base stations that are used to generate desired measurements, e.g., AoA, ZoA, and / or TOA, for supported positioning technologies. PRS are defined for 5G NR positioning to enable the UE to detect and measure neighboring base stations or transmission / reception points (TRPs). Downlink (DL) PRS are received by the UE from a reference base station and / or one or more neighboring stations and can be used to generate desired measurements, e.g., AoA, ZoA, and / or TOA, for supported positioning technologies. Based on the TOAs of the PRSs from the reference base station and neighboring base stations, the UE can generate a DL Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) for DL ​​TDOA positioning, sometimes referred to as an Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA). In a similar process, the UE can transmit uplink (UL) reference signals for positioning, called Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) for positioning, to the reference base station and neighboring base stations. The base station can receive the SRS and generate desired measurements for supported positioning technology, such as AoA, ZoA, and / or TOA. The TOA of the SRS at the reference and neighboring stations can be used to generate the UL RSTD for UL TDOA positioning, sometimes called the UL Time Difference of Arrival (UTDOA). The UE positioning measurements can be provided to a location server to determine the position of the UE in the wireless network or to perform other operations of the wireless network, such as cell selection, navigation, or other operations.

[0029]

[0038] The UE includes an antenna system including multiple antenna components. When determining the AoA of a transmitting device, such as a base station, based on a wireless signal received from the transmitting device, it may be advantageous for the receiving antennas to be closely spaced. For example, it may be advantageous for adjacent antennas to be spaced within half the wavelength of the signal received from the transmitting device. However, in other operating conditions, it may be more advantageous for the antennas to be spaced further apart. For example, in the case of antenna diversity, which may be important for data communication and ranging applications, it may be advantageous for the antennas to be spaced much further apart than may be convenient for determining the AoA. In conventional wireless transceivers, various wireless communication technologies and protocols may be associated with either closely spaced or more spaced antennas. For example, ultra-wideband (UWB) technology may be used for AoA determination and therefore may be associated with closely spaced antennas. Such UWB transceivers may not be well configured for data communication and ranging applications because such antennas are too closely spaced apart to achieve sufficient diversity, such as achieving sufficient combining gain using techniques such as maximal ratio combining (MRC). This may be problematic because UWB may also be commonly used for ranging applications. Other technologies, such as WLAN and 5G NR technologies, may typically be used primarily for data communication. Such WLAN and 5G NR transceivers may typically include antennas that are further apart. As a result, such conventional WLAN and 5G NR transceivers may not be well configured for determining AoA, even though WLAN and 5G NR may be used to determine AoA. It is therefore desirable to improve the data communication capabilities of UWB transceivers and improve the AoA capabilities of WLAN and 5G NR transceivers.

[0030]

[0039] In certain embodiments described herein, the UE may include antennas configured for accurate determination of the AoA of a received wireless signal in addition to antennas configured to provide sufficient diversity for data communications. More specifically, the antennas may include a first plurality of closely spaced antennas for AoA determination in addition to a second plurality of antennas spaced farther apart to provide better combined gain and diversity. For example, adjacent antennas of the first plurality of antennas may be located within half a wavelength of the wireless signal used for the AoA determination operation, while adjacent antennas of the second plurality of antennas may be spaced farther apart, e.g., as far apart as practicable given the size of the UE. For example, at least one pair of antennas of the second plurality of antennas may be separated by more than half a wavelength. Each of these multiple antennas may then be selectably coupled to appropriate radio and modem circuitry to support AoA, ranging, and data communications applications.

[0031]

[0040] An exemplary UE may be configured to operate according to multiple wireless communication technologies. Such technologies may have similar wavelengths, so that a first plurality of antennas and a second plurality of antennas may each be used to transmit and receive wireless signals associated with each supported communication technology. For example, UWB, 6 GHz WLAN, and 5G NR have similar wavelengths, and thus transceiver circuits associated with UWB, 6 GHz WLAN, and 5G NR may each be configured to receive signals via each of the first plurality of antennas and the second plurality of antennas. More specifically, the closely spaced first plurality of antennas may be used to transmit and receive wireless signals used for AoA determination, and the second plurality of antennas may be used to transmit and receive signals used for ranging or data communication. In some aspects, each of the multiple antennas may be selectably coupled to a respective receiver circuit using external switching. In some other aspects, an internal switching or feed-forward path may be used to selectably couple each of the multiple antennas to the appropriate transceiver circuit. In some aspects, the external switching or internal switching or feed-forward path may be controlled by an antenna management unit, or AMU. Alternatively, rather than selectively coupling the first and second multiple antennas to the appropriate transceiver circuitry, a splitter may be provided that couples each of the first and second multiple antennas to two or more transceiver circuits. Such a configuration may be simpler than the use of external switching or feed-forward paths, but it may also be associated with degradation of signal power. For example, when the first and second multiple antennas are each coupled to two transceiver circuits via such a splitter, there may be a resulting loss of power in the signal received in such a configuration, such as a 3 dB loss of signal power.

[0032]

[0041] Because transceiver circuitry associated with multiple wireless communication technologies may be coupled to each of the first and second multiple antennas, care must be taken to share access to the antennas. For example, different wireless communication technologies may have different priorities and duty cycles within the UE, and different wireless communication technologies may perform ranging with different accuracy, power consumption, and with different ranges. According to some implementations, the selectable coupling of the first and second multiple antennas to the transceiver circuitry of the UE may be based on their priorities, duty cycles, accuracy, range, and power consumption.

[0033]

[0042] 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system 100. The wireless communication system 100 (which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN) or a wireless network (e.g., a cellular network)) may include various base stations 102 and various UEs 104, where one or more of the base stations 102 and / or UEs 104 may also be referred to herein as TRPs 102 or 104. The base stations 102 may include macrocell base stations (high-power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low-power cellular base stations). In an aspect, the macrocell base stations may include eNBs, where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network, or gNBs, where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to a 5G network, or a combination of both, and the small cell base stations may include femtocells, picocells, microcells, etc.

[0034]

[0043] The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and may interface with a core network 170 (e.g., Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or Next Generation Core (NGC)) through the backhaul links 122 and with a location server 172, which may include one or more location servers, through the core network 170. 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, non-access stratum (NAS) message delivery, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracing, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and alert message delivery. The base stations 102 may communicate with one another directly or indirectly (eg, through EPC / NGC) over backhaul links 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0035]

[0044] 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 an aspect, one or more cells may be supported by the base stations 102 in each coverage area 110. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used for communication with the base stations (e.g., over some frequency resources called carrier frequencies, component carriers, carriers, bands, etc.) and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., physical cell identifier (PCID), virtual cell identifier (VCID)) to distinguish cells operating over the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine-type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or others) that may provide access for different types of UEs. In some cases, the term "cell" may 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 a portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0036]

[0045] The geographic coverage areas 110 of neighboring macrocell base stations 102 may overlap partially (e.g., in handover regions) and 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' may have a coverage area 110' that significantly overlaps with the 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), which may serve closed groups known as closed subscriber groups (CSGs).

[0037]

[0046] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include UL (also called reverse link) transmissions from the UE 104 to the base station 102, and / or downlink (DL) (also called forward link) transmissions 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 for DL ​​and UL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated for DL ​​than for UL).

[0038]

[0047] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 in communication with WLAN stations (STAs) 152 over a communication link 154 in an unlicensed frequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in the unlicensed frequency spectrum, the WLAN STAs 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) before communicating to determine if a channel is available.

[0039]

[0048] 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 employ LTE or 5G technology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum used by the WLAN AP 150. A small cell base station 102' employing LTE / 5G in the unlicensed frequency spectrum may extend coverage to and / or increase capacity of the access network. LTE in the unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-unlicensed (LTE-U), licensed assisted access (LAA), or MulteFire.

[0040]

[0049] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a mmW base station 180 that may operate in millimeter wave (mmW) and / or sub-mmW frequencies in communication with the UE 182. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is a portion of RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength of 1 millimeter to 10 millimeters. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Sub-mmW may go down to a frequency of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100 millimeters. The super high frequency (SHF) band ranges from 3 GHz to 30 GHz and is also referred to as centimeter wave. Communications using the mmW / sub-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) over the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely large path loss and short distances. It will be further understood that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 may also transmit using mmW or quasi-mmW and beamforming. Thus, it will be understood that the above illustrations are merely examples and should not be construed as limiting various aspects disclosed herein.

[0041]

[0050] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in a particular direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts it in all directions (omnidirectionally). With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and launches a stronger downlink RF signal in that particular direction, thereby providing a faster and more powerful RF signal (in terms of data rate) to the receiving device(s). To vary the directionality of the RF signal when transmitting, the network node can control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of the one or more transmitters broadcasting the RF signal. For example, the network node can use an array of antennas (also called a "phased array" or "antenna array") that creates beams of RF waves that can be "steered" to point in different directions without actually moving the antennas. Specifically, RF currents from a transmitter are supplied to the individual antennas with the proper phase relationship so that the radio waves from the separate antennas are combined together to enhance radiation in desired directions while suppressing and canceling radiation in undesirable directions.

[0042]

[0051] In receive beamforming, a receiver uses receive beams to amplify RF signals detected on a given channel. For example, the receiver can increase the gain setting and / or adjust the phase setting of an array of antennas in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., increase the gain level) RF signals received from that direction. Thus, when a receiver is said to beamform in some direction, it means that the beam gain in that direction is higher than 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), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), etc.) of RF signals received from that direction.

[0043]

[0052] In the case of receive beamforming being performed to receive a reference signal for UE position location (e.g., SRS transmitted by the UE or PRS transmitted by the base station), each subarray of the antenna array is associated with an error in generating a UE position location measurement (such as AoA or ZoA). In some aspects, a subset of the subarrays may be determined to be used for UE position location based on the error. Although the embodiments are described with reference to a subset of subarrays, any suitable subset of antenna components (such as a subset of antennas from a plurality of antennas) may be determined to be used for UE position location.

[0044]

[0053] In 5G, the frequency spectrum in which wireless nodes (e.g., base station 102 / 180, UE 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 called the "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell", and the remaining carrier frequencies are called the "secondary carrier" or "secondary serving cell" or "SCell". In carrier aggregation, the primary carrier is the carrier that operates on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by the UE 104 / 182 and on the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 either performs an initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific control channels. The secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2) that may be configured once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier and may be used to provide additional radio resources. Since both the primary uplink carrier and the primary downlink carrier are typically UE-specific, the secondary carrier may contain only the necessary signaling information and signals, e.g., signaling information and signals that are UE-specific may not be present in the secondary carrier. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same applies to the uplink primary carrier. The network may change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. This is done, for example, to distribute the load on different carriers.Since a "serving cell" (whether a PCell or an SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier over which several base stations are communicating, terms such as "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. may be used interchangeably.

[0045]

[0054] For example, still referring to FIG. 1, one of the frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 may be a primary carrier (or “PCell”), and the other frequency utilized by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 may be a secondary carrier (“SCell”). The 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 carriers aggregated in a multi-carrier system would theoretically provide a two-fold increase in data rate (i.e., 40 MHz) compared to the data rate achieved by a single 20 MHz carrier. Transmission of reference signals, AEG reports, requests for AEG reports, configuration information for setting up a positioning session, or other communications that may take place between the base station and the UE may be performed using any suitable carrier.

[0046]

[0055] The wireless communication system 100 may further include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, that indirectly connect to one or more communication networks via one or more side links (SL), such as 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 one embodiment, the D2D P2P links 192 and 194 may be supported using any well-known D2D RAT, such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), Wi-Fi Direct (Wi-Fi-D), Bluetooth, UWB, etc. In this embodiment, the UE 190 may be a relay UE between the UE 152 and the base station 102. One or more UEs may be relay UEs between the device and the base station. In some aspects, one or more UEs may be coupled to an AP and a BS. For example, the UE 152 is shown coupled to each of the AP 150 and the BS 102.

[0047]

[0056] The wireless communications system 100 may further include a UE 164, which may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 via communications link 120 and / or with the mmW base station 180 via an mmW communications link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell 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.

[0048]

[0057] A target UE 104 for positioning may be within wireless range of one or more base stations 102 (which may be TRPs 102 for positioning of the target UE 104). For UE location, a base station may transmit a PRS on DL to one or more target UEs, or a target UE may transmit a SRS on UL to one or more base stations.

[0049]

[0058] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a design 200 of a base station 102 and a UE 104, which may be one of the base stations and one of the UEs of FIG. 1. The base station 102 may be equipped with T antennas 234a-t, and the UE 104 may be equipped with R antennas 252a-r, where in general T≧1 and R≧1. In some implementations, the T antennas 234a-t or the R antennas 252a-r may be part of an antenna array (which may be configured to operate as a phased array). For example, each antenna 234a-t may represent a subarray of the antenna array, where the subarray includes multiple antennas. In implementation considerations, the antenna array may have multiple antennas configured together (multiple antennas constitute a subarray). Thus, the power and frequency used to control the antennas of the subarray are the same, allowing fewer oscillators and power supplies to be required than if each antenna were configured independently in the antenna array. In another embodiment, each of the antennas 234a-234t or antennas 252a-252r may be a single antenna.

[0050]

[0059] At the base station 102, the transmit processor 220 may receive data for one or more UEs from a data source 212, select one or more modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) for each UE based at least in part on channel quality indicators (CQIs) received from the UE, process (e.g., code and modulate) the data for each UE based at least in part on the MCS(es) selected for the UE, and provide data symbols to all UEs. The transmit processor 220 may also process system information (e.g., for semi-static resource partitioning information (SRPI), etc.) and control information (e.g., CQI requests, grants, higher layer signaling, etc.) and provide overhead symbols and control symbols. The transmit processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for a reference signal (e.g., a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) or PRS). A transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on ​​the data symbols, control symbols, overhead symbols, and / or reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide T output symbol streams to T modulators (MODs) 232a through 232t. Each modulator 232 may process a corresponding output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator 232 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. The T downlink signals from modulators 232a through 232t may be transmitted via T antennas 234a through 234t, respectively.According to various aspects described in more detail below, the T antennas 234a through 234t may also receive one or more SRSs from the UE 104 or transmit one or more PRSs to the UE 104.

[0051]

[0060] At the UE 104, antennas 252a-252r may receive downlink signals from the base station 102 and / or other base stations and may provide received signals to demodulators (DEMODs) 254a-254r, respectively. Each demodulator 254 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) the received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator 254 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all R demodulators 254a-254r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 104 to a data sink 260, and provide decoded control and system information to the controller / processor 280. A channel processor (such as the receive processor 258 or the controller / processor 280) may determine a reference signal received power (RSRP), a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a channel quality indicator (CQI), etc. In some implementations, the controller / processor 280 may measure the AoA, ZoA, TOA, and / or other measurements of the PRS received by the antennas 252a-252r. In some aspects, one or more components of the UE 104 may be included in a housing.

[0052]

[0061] On the uplink, at the UE 104, a transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from a data source 262 and control information from a controller / processor 280 (e.g., for reports including RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, etc.). The transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for one or more reference signals (e.g., SRS). The symbols from the transmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266 if applicable, further processed by modulators 254a-254r (e.g., for DFT-s-OFDM, CP-OFDM, etc.), and transmitted to the base station 102. At the base station 102, uplink signals from the UE 104 and other UEs may be received by antennas 234, processed by a demodulator, detected by a MIMO detector 236 if applicable, and further processed by a receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information sent by the UE 104. The receive processor 238 may provide the decoded data to a data sink 239 and the decoded control information to the controller / processor 240. In some implementations, the controller / processor 240 may measure the AoA, ZoA, TOA, and / or other measurements of the SRS received by the antennas 234a-t. The base station 102 may include a communication unit 244 and may communicate to a network controller 289 via the communication unit 244. The network controller 289 may include a communication unit 294, a controller / processor 290, and a memory 292. The network controller 289 may be a location server 172 that may be coupled to the base station 102 via the core network 170.

[0053]

[0062] The controller / processor 240 of the base station 102, the controller / processor 280 of the UE 104, the controller 290 of the network controller 289, which may be the location server 172, and / or any other component(s) of FIG. 2 may perform one or more techniques associated with supporting location services for the UE, as described in more detail elsewhere herein. For example, the controller / processor 240 of the base station 102, the controller 290 of the network controller 289, the controller / processor 280 of the UE 104, and / or any other component of FIG. 2 may perform or direct operations, for example, for the processes illustrated in the figures and described herein. The memories 242, 282, and 292 may store data and program codes for the base station 102, the UE 104, and the network controller 289, respectively. In some aspects, the memory 242 and / or the memory 282 and / or the memory 292 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores one or more instructions for wireless communication. For example, the one or more instructions, when executed by one or more processors at the base station 102, the network controller 289, and / or the UE 104, may perform or direct the operation of a process described herein. The scheduler 246 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and / or uplink.

[0054]

[0063] The location server 172 (which may include a network controller 289) may be configured to select or indicate which antenna components should be used to receive reference signals for UE positioning, to determine a configuration of one or more reference signals for UE positioning, to determine a position of one or more UEs in the wireless network, to store positioning information of one or more UEs, or to perform other operations associated with positioning one or more UEs in the wireless network. The positioning information may be used for various operations, such as cell selection, handover, navigation, beamforming, or other aspects of the wireless network 100.

[0055]

[0064] As noted above, Figure 2 is provided as one example embodiment. Other embodiments may differ from those described with respect to Figure 2. For example, while Figure 2 shows communication between a base station 102 and a UE 104, communication may occur between multiple base stations 102 and / or multiple UEs 104.

[0056]

[0065] A base station may broadcast, unicast, or groupcast one or more PRSs in a wireless network (such as in a cellular network including LTE and / or 5G technologies). In the frequency domain, the available bandwidth may be divided into evenly spaced orthogonal subcarriers (also called "tones" or "bins"). For example, for a regular length cyclic prefix (CP) using 15 kHz spacing, the subcarriers may be grouped into groups of 12 subcarriers. A resource of one OFDM symbol length in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain may be referred to as a resource element (RE). In this example, each grouping of 12 subcarriers and 14 OFDM symbols is referred to as a resource block (RB), and in the above example, the number of subcarriers in a resource block is:

[0057]

number

[0058] For a given channel bandwidth, the number of available resource blocks on each channel, also called the transmission bandwidth configuration, can be written as

[0059]

number

[0060] For example, for a 3 MHz channel bandwidth in the above example, the number of available resource blocks on each channel is

[0061]

number

[0062] It should be noted that a frequency component of a resource block (e.g., 12 subcarriers) is called a physical resource block (PRB).

[0063]

[0066] The base station may transmit radio frames, or other physical layer signaling sequences, supporting PRS signals (i.e., downlink (DL) PRS) according to a frame configuration similar to the above embodiment, which may be measured and used for target UE location estimation. Other types of wireless nodes in a wireless network (e.g., distributed antenna systems (DAS), remote radio heads (RRH), APs, etc.) may also be configured to transmit PRSs configured in a similar (or the same) manner as described above.

[0064]

[0067] A collection of resource elements used for the transmission of PRS signals is called a "PRS resource". The collection of resource elements may span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and N (e.g., one or more) consecutive symbol(s) in a slot in the time domain. A "PRS resource set" is a set of PRS resources used for the transmission of PRS signals, where each PRS resource has a PRS resource identifier (ID). In addition, PRS resources in a PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP. A PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam transmitted from a single TRP (a TRP may transmit one or multiple beams). Note that this does not imply anything about whether the TRPs and beams from which signals are transmitted are known to the UE.

[0065]

[0068] The PRS may be transmitted in special positioning subframes that are grouped into positioning occasions. A PRS occasion is one instance of a periodically repeating time window (e.g., consecutive slots) during which a PRS is expected to be transmitted. Each periodically repeating time window may include a group of one or more consecutive PRS opportunities. Each PRS opportunity may be N PRS A PRS positioning opportunity may include consecutive positioning subframes. PRS positioning opportunities for a cell supported by a base station or UE may occur periodically at intervals. Multiple PRS opportunities may be associated with the same PRS resource configuration, in which case each such opportunity may be referred to as a "PRS resource opportunity," etc.

[0066]

[0069] The PRS may be transmitted at a constant power. The PRS may also be transmitted with zero power (i.e., muted). Muting, which turns off periodically scheduled PRS transmissions, may be useful when PRS signals between different cells overlap by occurring at or near the same time. In this case, PRS signals from some cells may be muted while PRS signals from other cells are transmitted (e.g., at a constant power). Muting may aid the UE in signal acquisition and time of arrival (TOA) and reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurements of unmuted PRS signals (by eliminating interference from muted PRS signals). Muting may be viewed as non-transmission of the PRS for a given positioning occasion for a particular cell. The muting pattern (also called a muting sequence) may be signaled to the UE using a bit string (e.g., using the LTE positioning protocol (LPP)). For example, if a bit in position j is set to '0' in a bit string signaled to indicate a muting pattern, the UE may infer that the PRS is muted for the jth positioning occasion.

[0067]

[0070] To further improve the audibility of the PRS, the positioning subframes may be low-interference subframes transmitted without a user data channel. As a result, in an ideally synchronized network, the PRS may be interfered with by PRSs of other cells with the same PRS pattern index (i.e., same frequency shift), but not data transmission. The frequency shift is a function of the PRS ID for the cell or other transmission point (TP) (

[0068]

number

[0069] ) or, if no PRS ID is assigned, as a function of the physical cell identifier (PCI) (

[0070]

number

[0071] , which results in an effective frequency reuse factor of six.

[0072]

[0071] Also to enhance PRS audibility (e.g., when the PRS bandwidth is limited, e.g., there are only six resource blocks corresponding to a 1.4 MHz bandwidth), the frequency band for successive PRS positioning occasions (or successive PRS subframes) may be changed in a known and predictable manner via frequency hopping. In addition, a cell supported by a base station or UE may support more than one PRS configuration, where each PRS configuration may support a different frequency offset (vshift), a different carrier frequency, a different bandwidth, a different code sequence, and / or a certain number of subframes (N subframes) per positioning occasion. PRS ) and a specific period (T PRS In some implementations, one or more of the PRS configurations supported in a cell may be for directional PRS and may then have different additional characteristics, such as different transmission directions, different horizontal angular ranges, and / or different vertical angular ranges.

[0073]

[0072] As described above, the PRS configuration including the PRS transmission / muting schedule is signaled to the UE to enable the UE to perform PRS positioning measurements (also referred to herein as UE location measurements). In this manner, the UE may not be expected to blindly perform detection of the PRS configuration. Similar to the above-described operation for transmitting DL PRS by the base station, the target UE may transmit UL SRS for positioning, which is received by the base station to enable the base station to perform SRS positioning measurements (also referred to herein as UE location measurements). The SRS configuration may be similar to the PRS configuration used by the UE to configure the signal resources transmitted for SRS (which may include one or more resource blocks referred to as SRS resources). As described herein, receiving a reference signal may refer to receiving one or more resources (such as one or more PRS resources or one or more SRS resources) of the reference signal.

[0074] 3 illustrates a UE 300 capable of supporting location services for the UE 300 in a wireless network (such as the wireless network 100), which is one embodiment of a UE 104. The UE 300 includes a computing platform including at least one processor 310, a memory 311 including software (SW) 312, one or more sensors 313, a transceiver interface 314 for a transceiver 315, a user interface 316, a satellite positioning system (SPS) receiver 317, a camera 318, and a position device (PD) 319. The processor 310, the memory 311, the sensor(s) 313, the transceiver interface 314, the user interface 316, the SPS receiver 317, the camera 318, and the position device 319 can be communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 320 (which can be configured for optical and / or electrical communication, for example). One or more of the depicted devices (e.g., one or more of the camera 318, the SPS receiver 317, and / or the sensors 313) may be omitted from the UE 300. The processor 310 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 310 may include multiple processors, including an application processor 330, a digital signal processor (DSP) 331, a modem processor 332, a video processor 333, and / or a sensor processor 334. One or more of the processors 330-334 may comprise multiple devices (e.g., multiple processors). For example, the sensor processor 334 may include a processor for, for example, radar, ultrasonic, and / or lidar, etc. The modem processor 332 may support dual SIM / dual connectivity (or even more SIMs).For example, a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module or Subscriber Identification Module) may be used by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and another SIM may be used by an end user of the UE 300 for connectivity. The memory 311 is a non-transitory storage medium that may include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, disk memory, and / or read-only memory (ROM), etc. The memory 311 stores software 312, which may be processor-readable processor-executable software code including instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause the processor 310 to operate as a special-purpose computer programmed to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 312 may not be directly executable by the processor 310, but may be configured, for example, when compiled and executed, to cause the processor 310 to operate as a special-purpose computer for performing various functions described herein. The description may refer only to the processor 310 performing a function, which includes other implementations, such as the processor 310 executing software and / or firmware. The description may refer to the processor 310 performing a function as shorthand for one or more of the processors 330-334 performing the function. The description may refer to the UE 300 performing a function as shorthand for one or more suitable components of the UE 300 performing the function. The processor 310 may include a memory having instructions stored therein in addition to and / or in place of the memory 311.

[0075]

[0074] The configuration of the UE 300 shown in Fig. 3 is an example of the present disclosure including the claims, and is not limited thereto, and other configurations may be used. For example, an exemplary configuration of the UE includes one or more of the processors 330-334 of the processor 310, the memory 311, and the wireless transceiver 340. Another exemplary configuration includes one or more of the processors 330-334 of the processor 310, the memory 311, the wireless transceiver 340, and one or more antennas 346.

[0076] The UE 300 may include a modem processor 332 that may be capable of performing baseband processing of signals received and downconverted by the transceiver 315 and / or the SPS receiver 317. The modem processor 332 may perform baseband processing of signals to be upconverted for transmission by the transceiver 315. Additionally or alternatively, the baseband processing may be performed by the processor 330 and / or the DSP 331. However, other configurations may be used to perform the baseband processing.

[0077] The UE 300 may include sensor(s) 313, which may include one or more of various types of sensors, such as, for example, one or more inertial sensors, one or more barometric pressure sensors, one or more magnetometers, one or more environmental sensors, one or more light sensors, one or more weight sensors, and / or one or more radio frequency (RF) sensors. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) may include, for example, one or more accelerometers (e.g., collectively responsive to acceleration of the UE 300 in three dimensions) and / or one or more gyroscopes capable of detecting motion, including rotation, of the UE 300. The sensors 313 may include one or more magnetometers for determining orientation (e.g., relative to magnetic north and / or true north), which may be used for any of a variety of purposes, for example, to support one or more compass applications. The environmental sensor(s) may include, for example, one or more temperature sensors, one or more barometric pressure sensors, one or more ambient light sensors, one or more camera imagers, and / or one or more microphones, etc. The sensor(s) 313 may generate analog and / or digital signals, indications of which may be stored in memory 311 and processed by DSP 331 and / or processor 330 in supporting one or more applications, such as, for example, applications directed to positioning and / or navigation operations.

[0078]

[0077] The sensor(s) 313 may be used in relative position measurement, relative position determination, motion determination, etc. Information detected by the sensor(s) 313 may be used for motion detection, relative displacement, dead reckoning, sensor-based position determination, and / or sensor-assisted position determination. The sensor(s) 313 may be useful for calibration of a positioning session.

[0079]

[0078] The transceiver 315 may include a wireless transceiver 340 configured to communicate with other devices via a wireless connection. For example, the wireless transceiver 340 may include a transmitter 342 and a receiver 344 coupled to one or more antennas 346 for transmitting (e.g., on one or more uplink channels and / or one or more sidelink channels) and / or receiving (e.g., on one or more downlink channels and / or one or more sidelink channels) wireless signals 348. Thus, the transmitter 342 may include multiple transmitters, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components, and / or the receiver 344 may include multiple receivers, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components. The wireless transceiver 340 can be configured to communicate signals (e.g., with the TRP and / or one or more other devices) according to various radio access technologies (RATs), such as 5G New Radio (NR), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Direct (LTE-D), 6GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE 802.11 (including IEEE 802.11p), WiFi, WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc. The New Radio can use mm-wave and / or sub-6 GHz frequencies. Although not shown for simplicity, the UE 300 may optionally include a wired transceiver including a transmitter and a receiver configured for wired communication.A wired transmitter may include multiple transmitters, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components, and / or a wired receiver may include multiple receivers, which may be separate components or combined / integrated components. A wired transceiver may be configured for optical and / or electrical communication, for example. The transceiver 315 may be communicatively coupled to the transceiver interface 314, for example, by optical and / or electrical connections. The transceiver interface 314 may be at least partially integrated with the transceiver 315.

[0080]

[0079] The transceiver 315 may also optionally include an antenna management unit (AMU) 350 configured to selectively couple antennas of the antennas 346 to a radio of the transceiver 315. For example, the AMU 350 may selectively couple signals received from at least the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to one or more of a UWB radio or a WLAN radio, as described further below with respect to FIG. 6B. In some other aspects, the AMU 350 may control one or more feedforward paths for routing signals received from the first plurality of antennas and the second plurality of antennas to a radio of the transceiver 315, as described further below with respect to FIG. 6A.

[0081]

[0080] The antenna 346 may include an antenna array. The antenna array may be capable of transmit beamforming or receive beamforming, for example, by increasing the gain setting and / or adjusting the phase setting of the array of antennas in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., increase the gain level) the RF signal received from that direction. The antenna 346 may further include multiple antenna panels, each capable of beamforming. The antenna 346 may be capable of adapting, e.g., selecting, one or more antennas to control the reception of a beam transmitted from a base station. For example, to reduce power consumption, for example, fewer beams or a single beam may be selected for reception of a wide beam, while a larger number of antennas in the antenna array may be selected when the transmit beam is relatively narrow. Instead of individually controlling each antenna of the antenna array, the antenna array may include multiple subarrays, each of which may be independently controlled. For example, the antenna may include a first plurality of antennas closely spaced for more accurate AoA determination and a second plurality of antennas much further apart from each other to achieve better diversity. Alternatively, the antenna 346 may include multiple independently controlled antennas that can perform the same function as multiple sub-arrays. As used herein with respect to the UE 300, an antenna system including multiple antenna components may include one or more of the antennas 346, one or more components of the receiver 344, other components of the wireless transceiver 340 not shown (such as power supplies or rails).

[0082]

[0081] The user interface 316 may comprise one or more of several devices, such as, for example, a speaker, a microphone, a display device, a vibrating device, a keyboard, a touch screen, etc. The user interface 316 may include two or more of any of these devices. The user interface 316 may be configured to allow a user to interact with one or more applications hosted by the UE 300. For example, the user interface 316 may store in the memory 311 an indication of analog and / or digital signals to be processed by the DSP 331 and / or the processor 330 in response to an action from the user. Similarly, the applications hosted on the UE 300 may store in the memory 311 an indication of analog and / or digital signals to present output signals to the user. The user interface 316 may include audio input / output (I / O) devices, such as, for example, a speaker, a microphone, digital-to-analog circuitry, analog-to-digital circuitry, amplifiers, and / or gain control circuits (including two or more of any of these devices). Other configurations of audio I / O devices may be used. Additionally, or alternatively, user interface 316 may include one or more touch sensors that respond to contact and / or pressure, for example, on a keyboard and / or touch screen of user interface 316.

[0083]

[0082] The SPS receiver 317 (e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver) may be capable of receiving and acquiring the SPS signals 360 via the SPS antenna 362. The antenna 362 is configured to convert the wireless signals 360 into wired signals, e.g., electrical or optical signals, and may be integrated with the antenna 346. The SPS receiver 317 may be configured to process the acquired SPS signals 360, in whole or in part, to estimate the position of the UE 300. For example, the SPS receiver 317 may be configured to determine the position of the UE 300 by trilateration / multilateration using the SPS signals 360. The processor 330, the memory 311, the DSP 331, the PD 319, and / or one or more additional specialized processors (not shown) may be utilized in conjunction with the SPS receiver 317, in whole or in part, to process the acquired SPS signals and / or to calculate the estimated position of the UE 300. Memory 311 may store indications (e.g., measurements) of SPS signals 360 and / or other signals (e.g., signals obtained from wireless transceiver 340) for use in performing positioning operations. General purpose processor 330, DSP 331, PD 319, and / or one or more additional specialized processors and / or memory 311 may provide or support a location engine for use in processing the measurements to estimate the location of UE 300.

[0084]

[0083] The UE 300 may include a camera 318 for capturing still or video images. The camera 318 may comprise, for example, an imaging sensor (e.g., a charge-coupled device or CMOS imager), a lens, analog-to-digital circuitry, a frame buffer, etc. Additional processing, conditioning, encoding, and / or compression of signals representing the captured images may be performed by the general-purpose processor 330 and / or the DSP 331. Additionally or alternatively, a video processor 333 may perform conditioning, encoding, compression, and / or manipulation of signals representing the captured images. The video processor 333 may decode / decompress stored image data, for example, for presentation on a display device (not shown) of the user interface 316.

[0085]

[0084] The position device (PD) 319 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 300, the movement of the UE 300, and / or the relative location of the UE 300, and / or time. For example, the PD 319 may be in communication with and / or include some or all of the SPS receiver 317 and the wireless transceiver 340. The PD 319 may operate in conjunction with the processor 310 and memory 311 as necessary to perform at least a portion of one or more positioning methods, but the description herein may only refer to the PD 319 of the processor 310 being configured to perform or performing according to a positioning method. The PD 319 may also, or alternatively, be configured to determine the location of the UE 300 using terrestrial-based signals (e.g., at least some of the signals 348), to assist in obtaining and using the SPS signals 360 for trilateration / multilateration, or both. The PD 319 may be configured to use one or more other techniques to determine the position of the UE 300 (e.g., relying on the UE's self-reported position (e.g., as part of the UE's location beacon)) and may use a combination of techniques (e.g., SPS and terrestrial positioning signals) to determine the position of the UE 300. The PD 319 may include one or more of sensors 313 (e.g., gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, etc.) that may sense the orientation and / or movement of the UE 300 and provide indications of the orientation and / or movement that the processor 310 (e.g., processor 330 and / or DSP 331) may be configured to use to determine the movement (e.g., velocity vector and / or acceleration vector) of the UE 300.

[0086]

[0085] The memory 311 may store software 312, including executable program code or software instructions that, when executed by the processor 310, may cause the processor 310 to operate as a special-purpose computer programmed to perform the functions disclosed herein. As shown, the memory 311 may include one or more components or modules that may be implemented by the processor 310 to perform the functions disclosed. Although the components or modules are shown as software 312 in the memory 311 executable by the processor 310, it should be understood that the components or modules may be stored in another computer-readable medium or may be dedicated hardware either in the processor 310 or outside the processor. Several software modules and data tables may reside in the memory 311 and may be utilized by the processor 310 to manage both the communications and the functions described herein. It should be understood that the organization of the contents of the memory 311 as shown is only an example, and thus the functionality of the modules and / or data structures may be combined, separated, and / or structured in different ways depending on the implementation.

[0087] For example, the memory 311 may include a positioning session module 372 that, when implemented by the one or more processors 310, configures the one or more processors 310 to participate in a session to be used to determine a location of a UE using signals received from a selected one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas, as described herein. The positioning session module 372 may also be used to selectively couple either the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to the wireless transceiver 340 to receive wireless signals, such as one or more reference signals, to determine a location of the UE. Although the positioning session module 372 is shown as being software contained in the memory 311, the positioning session module 372 may be a hardware module, a software module, or a combination of hardware and software. For example, the module may include one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), executable code, or a combination of both.

[0088]

[0087] As mentioned above, in the case of AoA-based UE positioning, one or more PRSs can be transmitted from the base station to the UE, or one or more SRSs can be transmitted from the UE to the base station (AoA and / or ZoA are measured on the received reference signals to indicate the direction of the UE from the base station). The distance between the base station and the UE can be based on the TOA, which can be used to determine the OTDOA, RTT, RSTD, or any other suitable measurement used to determine the distance of the UE from the base station for positioning. In some implementations, a specific resource of the reference signal (such as a PRS or SRS) can be used to determine the TOA, or can be used to measure the distance between the UE and the base station in another way. The specific resource of the reference signal can also be used to calculate an angle measurement to indicate the direction of the UE from the base station. The position of the UE relative to the base station can be determined based on the direction of the UE from the base station and the distance of the UE from the base station.

[0089] FIG. 4 illustrates an example wireless communication system 400 that implements UE position location using DL AoA techniques. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the UE 104 may generate angle measurements 608 that are used in determining an estimate of the position of the UE 104 relative to the base station 102. The UE 104 and base station 102 may correspond to any combination of the UE 104 and base station 102 of FIG. 1 and may communicate wirelessly using RF signals and standardized protocols for the exchange of RF signal modulation and information packets. By extracting different types of information from the exchanged RF signals and utilizing the layout of the wireless communication system 600 (i.e., base station positions, geometric arrangement, etc.), the UE 104 may determine the position of the base station 102 in a predefined reference coordinate system. In one aspect, the position may be specified with reference to angle measurements in a two-dimensional coordinate space (such as latitude and longitude). However, aspects disclosed herein are not so limited and may also be applicable to determining angle measurements using a three-dimensional coordinate system (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) if additional dimensions are desired. In addition, while FIG. 4 shows one UE 104 and one base station 102, it will be understood that there may be more UEs 104 and more or fewer base stations 102.

[0090]

[0089] For DL ​​AoA-based UE location, the base station 102 transmits the PRS 606 to the UE 104. The UE 104 receives the PRS 606 and generates an angle measurement 608. For example, the UE 104 can use an antenna array to determine the direction in which the PRS 606 is received. For example, the UE 104 can receive the PRS 606 using a first set of closely spaced antennas. To calculate the angle measurement 608, a reference axis 610 (which may be any suitable direction, such as true north for a two-dimensional angle, or perpendicular to the azimuth for a three-dimensional angle) can be compared to the direction in which the PRS 606 is received. The angle measurement 608 may be one or both of the AoA or ZoA of the PRS 606. Due to potential tolerances in antenna components for receiving PRS 606, PRS 606 (measured as being received along the solid line for PRS 606) may be received slightly at an angle from the measured direction (such as within the cone between the dashed lines from base station 102 to UE 104).

[0091]

[0090] Operations for determining the position of a UE using UL AoA-based UE positioning are similar to those described above with reference to DL AoA-based UE positioning, except that the base station 102 receives an SRS from one or more UEs and determines (or assists in determining) one or more angle measurements from the SRS.

[0092]

[0091] As mentioned above, closely spaced antennas, for example where adjacent antennas are positioned within half the wavelength of a received wireless signal, may be well configured for determining the angle of arrival of a wireless signal, while antennas spaced further apart may provide better antenna diversity and combining gain and may be better configured for ranging and data communication applications.

[0093]

[0092] As described herein, a UE may include a closely spaced first plurality of antennas for AoA operations in addition to a more widely spaced second plurality of antennas for ranging and data communication operations. FIG. 5 illustrates an example antenna configuration 500 for a UE 104 according to some implementations. Antenna configuration 500 includes antennas 510a-510d (collectively antennas 510) and antennas 520a-520f (collectively antennas 520). Antennas 510 are shown closely spaced with each antenna of antennas 510 located within a threshold distance of each adjacent antenna of antennas 510. For example, this threshold distance may correspond to half the wavelength of the wireless signal used for AoA determination. Additionally, antennas 520 are much more widely spaced with each antenna located at a distance exceeding the threshold distance. Antennas 510 may be an example of a first plurality of antennas, and antennas 520 may be an example of a second plurality of antennas. It should be noted that although antennas 510 and 520 are shown to include four and six antennas, respectively, antennas 510 and 520 may include any number of antennas. Additionally, the particular configuration shown in FIG. 5 is merely one exemplary configuration of antennas 510, and any other configurations thereof may be acceptable, so long as each antenna of antennas 510 is located within a threshold distance of each adjacent antenna of antennas 510. Similarly, any other configurations of antennas 520 are acceptable, provided that each antenna of antennas 520 is located more than a threshold distance from each adjacent antenna of antennas 520.

[0094]

[0093] As described above, the first and second antennas may each be coupled to a transceiver circuit, such as a radio and modem, associated with each of several wireless communication technologies supported by the UE. For example, the UE may be capable of operating according to a UWB wireless communication technology, according to a WLAN wireless communication technology, according to a 5G NR wireless communication technology, etc. External switching circuits or internal switching, such as one or more feedforward paths, may be used to selectively couple the first and second antennas to receiver circuits associated with each wireless communication technology.

[0095]

[0094] Figure 6A illustrates a circuit 600A incorporating a feed-forward path for coupling an antenna to each of a plurality of receivers according to some implementations. The circuit 600A is illustrated to include a WLAN receiver circuit in addition to a UWB receiver circuit. More specifically, the WLAN receiver circuit and the UWB receiver circuit may both be included in a common chip coupled to each of the first and second plurality of antennas 510 and 520. The UWB receiver circuit may include a UWB radio 610 and a UWB modem 620, and the WLAN receiver circuit may include a WLAN radio 630 and a WLAN modem 640. Each of the UWB radio 610 and the WLAN radio 630 may include components such as a low noise amplifier, a transconductance amplifier, a filter such as a low pass filter, an analog to digital converter, and the like. A feedforward path 650 may connect the UWB radio 610 and the WLAN radio 630 to couple the first plurality of antennas 510 to the WLAN radio 630 when needed, and to couple the second plurality of antennas 520 to the UWB radio when needed. For example, the feedforward path 650 may be controlled by an antenna management unit 660, which may be one embodiment of the AMU 350 of FIG. 3. It should be noted that the internal switching or feedforward path shown in FIG. 6A is only one embodiment of such internal switching that may be used in accordance with an exemplary implementation, and that the internal switching may take any other suitable form for coupling each of the first plurality of antennas 510 and the second plurality of antennas 520 to a respective receiver circuit. It should also be noted that while FIG. 6A shows receiver circuits for two wireless communication technologies, the internal switching may couple antennas to respective receiver circuits for any number of wireless communication technologies.

[0096] FIG. 6B illustrates a circuit 600B incorporating external switching for coupling an antenna to each of a plurality of receivers according to some implementations. As described above with respect to FIG. 3, in some aspects, the external switching 670 can selectively couple each of the first and second plurality of antennas to each of the plurality of receiver circuits. For example, the external switching 670 can be controlled by an antenna management unit 660, which may be an embodiment of the AMU 350 of FIG. 3. FIG. 6B illustrates a circuit 600B including an antenna management unit 660 for selectively coupling each of the first and second plurality of antennas 510 and 520 to each of the UWB radio 610 / UWB modem 620 and the WLAN radio 630 / WLAN modem 640. Also, it should be noted that while FIG. 6B illustrates receiver circuits for two wireless communication technologies, the external switching can couple an antenna to each receiver circuit of any number of wireless communication technologies.

[0097]

[0096] As described above, an exemplary implementation may selectably couple a first plurality of antennas and a second plurality of antennas to receiver circuits associated with each of two or more wireless communication technologies. Considering that applications associated with two or more receivers may simultaneously request access to the antennas, it is desirable to fairly allocate access to one of the requests. Furthermore, in some aspects, a request for positioning may be received from an application that may use any available wireless communication technology. In some aspects, this may be referred to as a request for "cooperative positioning". In response to such a request, a wireless communication technology may be selected to perform positioning according to one or more metrics, such as accuracy, power consumption, effective range, availability of the wireless communication technology due to various regulatory requirements, etc.

[0098]

[0097] Figure 7 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 700 of coupling an antenna of a UE to a receiver circuit associated with one of two or more wireless communication technologies according to some implementations. The method 700 may be performed by any suitable device of a wireless network, such as the UE 104 of Figure 1, in a manner consistent with the disclosed implementations. The method 700 may be performed by any suitable device of a wireless network, such as the UE 104 of Figure 1, in a manner consistent with the disclosed implementations. A device capable of performing one or more operations of the method 700 may include an antenna system including multiple antenna components, at least one transceiver (such as one or more wireless transceivers and / or one or more wired transceivers), at least one memory, and at least one processor coupled to the at least one transceiver and the at least one memory. The antenna system may include an antenna 346 and / or other suitable components, the at least one transceiver may include transceiver 315 or wireless transceiver 340, the at least one memory may include memory 311, and the at least one processor may include one or more of processors 310, one or more of processors 330-334, or position device 319.

[0099]

[0098] In block 710, the device receives a request for antenna access. The request for antenna access may be a request for device positioning, a request for data communication, a request for ranging, etc. In block 720, the device determines whether the received request is a request for cooperative positioning.

[0100]

[0099] If the request is not a request for cooperative positioning, in block 730, the device determines whether a request for simultaneous access by two or more wireless communication technologies has been received. If only a single wireless communication technology has requested access to the antenna, in block 740, the requested antenna is coupled to a receiver circuit for the wireless communication technology associated with the received request. For example, such a receiver circuit may be included in a transceiver circuit configured to transmit and receive wireless communication signals.

[0101]

[0100] If a request for simultaneous access by two or more wireless communication technologies is received, then in block 750, one of the two or more wireless communication technologies is selected for antenna access. This selection may be based on a priority assigned to each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. For example, three wireless communication technologies A, B, and C may request antenna access, where P(A), P(B), and P(C) represent the priority of the respective technologies. For example, technologies A, B, and C may represent UWB, WLAN, and 5G NR technologies. If a request for simultaneous antenna access associated with technologies A and B is received, an antenna may be assigned to technology A when P(A)-P(B)>P_TH, and assigned to technology B when P(B)-P(A)>P_TH, where P_TH is a threshold difference in priorities. For example, when P_TH is 0, the technology associated with the higher priority gains access to the antenna. In some aspects, P_TH may be greater than 0. When P_TH is greater than 0, the duty cycle associated with each technology can be used to ensure fairness. For example, let D(A), D(B), and D(C) be the duty cycles associated with technologies A, B, and C, respectively. When P_TH is greater than 0, none of the technologies can gain access to the antenna based on priority. If P(A) is greater than P(B), but less than or equal to P_TH greater than P(B), then technology B can gain access to the antenna if D(A)-D(B)>D_TH, where D_TH is the duty cycle threshold. That is, if the priority associated with technology A exceeds the priority associated with technology B, but the duty cycle associated with technology A is sufficiently greater than the duty cycle associated with technology B, then to ensure fairness of antenna access, B can still gain access to the antenna, and technology B remains able to gain access despite its lower duty cycle. At block 780, the antenna is coupled to a transceiver circuit associated with the selected wireless communication technology.

[0102]

[0101] When the received request is a request for cooperative positioning, at block 760, an available wireless communication technology is selected for cooperative positioning. For example, a regulatory body associated with the device's location may prohibit access to an otherwise available wireless communication technology, etc. After identifying the available wireless communication technologies, at block 770, an available wireless communication technology for performing cooperative positioning is selected based on one or more metrics. For example, such metrics may be based on criteria such as the positioning accuracy of each available wireless communication technology, the power consumption associated with positioning using each of the available wireless communication technologies, the effective range of positioning using each of the available wireless communication technologies, etc. In some aspects, to select a wireless communication technology for performing cooperative positioning, a score may be assigned to each available wireless communication technology based on one or more criteria, and an overall metric may be determined based on a combination of these scores, such as a linear combination of the scores. At block 780, an antenna is coupled to a transceiver circuit associated with the selected wireless communication technology.

[0103]

[0102] Figure 8 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 800 for supporting UE location in a wireless network according to some implementations. The example method 800 may be performed by any suitable device of a wireless network, such as the UE 104 or base station 102 shown in Figure 1, in a manner consistent with the disclosed implementations. A device capable of performing one or more operations of the method 800 may include an antenna system including multiple antenna components, at least one transceiver (such as one or more wireless transceivers and / or one or more wired transceivers), at least one memory, and at least one processor coupled to the at least one transceiver and the at least one memory. The antenna system may include an antenna 346 and / or other suitable components, the at least one transceiver may include transceiver 315 or wireless transceiver 340, the at least one memory may include memory 311, and the at least one processor may include one or more of processors 310, one or more of processors 330-334, or position device 319.

[0104] In block 802, the device receives a request to determine a position of a user equipment (UE). The means for receiving the request to determine the position of the UE may include one or more of the processor 310, the memory 311, the transceiver 315, the antenna 346, the first plurality of antennas 510, and the second plurality of antennas 520.

[0105] In block 804, the device selects one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to determine the position of the UE. The means for selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas may include one or more of the processor 310, the memory 311, the transceiver 315, the AMU 350, and the positioning session 372.

[0106] In block 806, the device receives wireless signals using the selected first or second plurality of antennas. The means for receiving wireless signals using the selected first or second plurality of antennas may include one or more of the processor 310, the memory 311, the transceiver 315, the AMU 350, the antenna 346, the first plurality of antennas 510, and the second plurality of antennas 520.

[0107]

[0106] In block 808, the device determines a location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals. Means for determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals may include one or more of the processor 310, the memory 311, and the positioning session 372.

[0108] In some aspects, each antenna of the first plurality of antennas is located within a threshold distance of each other antenna of the first plurality of antennas, and each antenna of the second plurality of antennas is located beyond a threshold distance from each other antenna of the second plurality of antennas. In some aspects, the threshold distance corresponds to half a wavelength of the received wireless signal. In some aspects, the first plurality of antennas is selected and determining the location of the UE in block 808 includes determining the location of the UE based at least in part on an angle of arrival (AoA) of the received wireless signal.

[0109] In some aspects, selecting one of the first or second multiple antennas in block 806 includes selecting one of the two or more wireless communication technologies to determine a position of the UE. In some aspects, selecting one of the first or second multiple antennas in block 806 includes coupling the selected first or second multiple antennas to a wireless receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology. In some aspects, the two or more wireless communication technologies include one or more of an ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communication technology, a Wi-Fi wireless communication technology, and a 5G new radio (NR) wireless communication technology. In some aspects, selecting the wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a positioning accuracy associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. In some aspects, selecting the wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a power consumption associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. In some aspects, selecting the wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a maximum range associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies.

[0110]

[0109] In some aspects, the request received in block 802 includes a requested wireless communication technology for determining the position of the UE, and the method 800 further includes coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the requested wireless communication technology.

[0111] In some aspects, the method 800 further includes identifying a wireless communication technology associated with the received request, determining that two or more wireless communication technologies have simultaneously requested use of the selected first or second multiple antennas, selecting one wireless communication technology for use of the selected first or second multiple antennas, and coupling the selected first or second multiple antennas to a receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology. In some aspects, the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective priority associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies. In some aspects, the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective duty cycle associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies. The means for identifying a wireless communication technology associated with the received request may include one or more of the processor 310, the memory 311, and the positioning session 372. Means for determining that two or more wireless communication technologies have simultaneously requested use of the selected first or second plurality of antennas may include one or more of the processor 310, the memory 311, and the positioning session 372. Means for selecting a wireless communication technology for use of the selected first or second plurality of antennas may include one or more of the processor 310, the memory 311, and the positioning session 372. Means for coupling the selected first or second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology may include one or more of the processor 310, the memory 311, the transceiver 315, the AMU 350, the feed forward path 650, the AMU 660, and the external switching 670.

[0112]

[0111] References throughout this specification to "one example," "an example," "particular example," or "exemplary implementation" mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in a feature and / or example may be included in at least one feature and / or example of the claimed subject matter. Thus, the appearances of the phrases "in one example," "an example," "particular example," or "in a particular implementation" or other similar phrases in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same features, examples, and / or limitations. Furthermore, particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in one or more examples and / or characteristics.

[0113]

[0112] Some parts of the detailed description contained herein are presented in terms of algorithms or symbolic representations of operations on binary digital signals stored in a memory of a specific apparatus or a dedicated computing device or platform. In the context of this particular specification, the term specific apparatus or the like includes a general purpose computer that, when programmed, performs specific operations according to instructions from the program software. Algorithmic descriptions or symbolic representations are examples of techniques used by those skilled in the signal processing or related arts to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm, as used herein, is generally considered to be a self-consistent sequence of operations or similar signal processing that produces a desired result. In this context, operations or processing involve physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, but not necessarily, such quantities may take the form of electrical or magnetic signals that can be stored, transferred, combined, compared, or otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, primarily for reasons of common usage, to refer to such signals as bits, data, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, numeric values, or the like. However, it should be understood that all of these or similar terms are merely convenient labels and must be associated with the appropriate physical quantities. Unless otherwise indicated, and as will be apparent from the discussion herein, it will be understood that throughout this specification, discussions utilizing terms such as "processing," "calculating," "computing," "determining," and the like refer to the actions or processes of a particular apparatus, such as a special purpose computer, a special purpose computing apparatus, or a similar special purpose electronic computing device. Thus, in the context of this specification, a special purpose computer or a similar special purpose electronic computing device is typically capable of manipulating or transforming signals that are represented as physical electronic or magnetic quantities within the memory, registers, or other information storage, transmission, or display devices of the special purpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device.

[0114]

[0113] In the above detailed description, numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the claimed subject matter. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the claimed subject matter can be practiced without these specific details. In other cases, methods and apparatuses that would be known by those skilled in the art have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the claimed subject matter.

[0115]

[0114] The terms "and", "or" and "and / or" as used herein may include various meanings that are also expected to depend at least in part on the context in which such terms are used. Typically, when "or" is used to link a list such as A, B or C, it is intended that it is used herein in the inclusive sense of A, B and C, and that it is used herein in the exclusive sense of A, B or C. In addition, the term "one or more" as used herein may be used to describe any feature, structure or characteristic in the singular, or may be used to describe a plurality of features, structures or characteristics, or any other combination of features, structures or characteristics. However, it should be noted that this is merely an example and that claimed subject matter is not limited to this example.

[0116]

[0115] While what are presently considered to be exemplary features have been illustrated and described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various other modifications can be made and equivalents substituted without departing from the claimed subject matter. Additionally, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation to the teachings of the claimed subject matter without departing from the central concept described herein.

[0117]

[0116] Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses. 1. A method for supporting user equipment (UE) location in a wireless network, comprising: Receiving a request to determine a location of the UE; selecting one of a first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas coupled to the UE; receiving wireless signals using a selected first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas; determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals; A method comprising: 2. The method of claim 1, wherein each antenna of the first plurality of antennas is located within a threshold distance of each other antenna of the first plurality of antennas, and each antenna of the second plurality of antennas is located beyond a threshold distance from each other antenna of the second plurality of antennas. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the threshold distance corresponds to half the wavelength of the received wireless signal. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein a first plurality of antennas is selected and the location of the UE is determined based at least in part on an angle of arrival (AoA) of the received wireless signal. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas is based on a selected wireless communication technology for determining the location of the UE. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected from two or more wireless communication technologies. 7. The method of clause 6, wherein selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas includes coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to a wireless receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology. 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the two or more wireless communication technologies include one or more of an ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communication technology, a Wi-Fi wireless communication technology, and a 5G New Radio (NR) wireless communication technology. 9. The method of clause 6, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a positioning accuracy associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 10. The method of clause 6, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on power consumption associated with determining the location of the UE using each of two or more wireless communication technologies. 11. The method of clause 6, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a maximum range associated with each of two or more wireless communication technologies. 12. The method of clause 1, wherein the received request includes a requested wireless communication technology for determining the location of the UE, and the method further includes coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the requested wireless communication technology. 13. identifying a wireless communication technology associated with the received request; determining that two or more wireless communication technologies have simultaneously requested use of the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas; selecting a wireless communication technology for use with the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas; coupling a selected first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with a selected wireless communication technology; 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: 14. The method of clause 13, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on respective priorities associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 15. The method of clause 13, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective duty cycle associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 16. A device configured to support user equipment (UE) location determination in a wireless network, comprising: an antenna system including at least a first plurality of antennas and a second plurality of antennas; at least one transceiver coupled to the antenna system; At least one memory; At least one processor coupled to the at least one transceiver and to the at least one memory, Receiving a request to determine a location of the UE; selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to determine a location of the UE; receiving wireless signals using a selected first plurality of antennas or a selected second plurality of antennas; determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals; At least one processor configured to: Including, the device. 17. The device described in clause 16, wherein each antenna of the first plurality of antennas is located within a threshold distance of each other antenna of the first plurality of antennas, and each antenna of the second plurality of antennas is located beyond a threshold distance from each other antenna of the second plurality of antennas. 18. A device as described in clause 17, wherein the threshold distance corresponds to half the wavelength of the received wireless signal. 19. The method of clause 18, wherein a first plurality of antennas is selected and the location of the UE is determined based at least in part on an angle of arrival (AoA) of the received wireless signal. 20. The device of clause 16, wherein selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas is based on a selected wireless communication technology for determining a location of the UE. 21. The device of clause 20, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected from two or more wireless communication technologies. 22. The device of clause 21, wherein selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas includes coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to a wireless receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology. 23. The device of clause 21, wherein a selected first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas is coupled to a wireless receiver associated with a selected wireless communication technology using one or more switches. 24. The device of clause 21, wherein the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas are coupled to a wireless receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology using an internal feedforward circuit. 25. The device of clause 21, wherein the two or more wireless communication technologies include one or more of an ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communication technology, a Wi-Fi wireless communication technology, and a 5G New Radio (NR) wireless communication technology. 26. The device of clause 21, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a positioning accuracy associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 27. The device of clause 21, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on power consumption associated with determining a location of the UE using each of two or more wireless communication technologies. 28. The device of clause 21, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a maximum range associated with each of two or more wireless communication technologies. 29. The device described in clause 16, wherein the received request includes a requested wireless communication technology for determining the location of the UE, and the method further includes coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the requested wireless communication technology. 30. At least one processor may include, in a device: Identifying a wireless communication technology associated with the received request; determining that two or more wireless communication technologies have simultaneously requested use of the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas; selecting a wireless communication technology for use with the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas; coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology; The method is further configured as follows: A device as described in clause 16. 31. The method of clause 30, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective priority associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 32. The method of clause 30, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective duty cycle associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 33. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by one or more processors of a device configured to support location determination of user equipment (UE) in a wireless network, the execution of the instructions causing the device to: Receiving a request to determine a location of the UE; selecting one of a first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas coupled to the UE; receiving wireless signals using a selected first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas; determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals; performing an operation including A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. 34. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 33, wherein each antenna of the first plurality of antennas is positioned within a threshold distance of each other antenna of the first plurality of antennas, and each antenna of the second plurality of antennas is positioned beyond a threshold distance from each other antenna of the second plurality of antennas. 35. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 34, wherein the threshold distance corresponds to half the wavelength of the received wireless signal. 36. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 35, wherein a first plurality of antennas is selected and a location of the UE is determined based at least in part on an angle of arrival (AoA) of the received wireless signal. 37. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 33, wherein selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas is based on a selected wireless communication technology for determining a location of the UE. 38. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 37, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected from two or more wireless communication technologies. 39. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 38, wherein selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas includes coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to a wireless receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology. 40. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 38, wherein the two or more wireless communication technologies include one or more of an ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communication technology, a Wi-Fi wireless communication technology, and a 5G New Radio (NR) wireless communication technology. 41. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 38, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a positioning accuracy associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 42. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 38, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on power consumption associated with determining a location of the UE using each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 43. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 38, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a maximum range associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 44. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 33, wherein the received request includes a requested wireless communication technology for determining a location of the UE, and the method further includes coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the requested wireless communication technology. 45. Execution of an instruction may be performed by a device. identifying a wireless communication technology associated with the received request; determining that two or more wireless communication technologies have simultaneously requested use of the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas; selecting a wireless communication technology for use with the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas; coupling a selected first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with a selected wireless communication technology; performing operations further including: 34. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as described in clause 33. 46. ​​The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 45, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective priority associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 47. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of clause 45, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective duty cycle associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 48. A device configured to support user equipment (UE) location determination in a wireless network, comprising: means for receiving a request to determine a location of the UE; means for selecting one of a first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas coupled to the UE; means for receiving wireless signals using a selected first or second of the plurality of antennas; means for determining a location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals; Including, the device. 49. The device of clause 48, wherein each antenna of the first plurality of antennas is located within a threshold distance of each other antenna of the first plurality of antennas, and each antenna of the second plurality of antennas is located beyond a threshold distance from each other antenna of the second plurality of antennas. 50. A device as described in clause 49, wherein the threshold distance corresponds to half the wavelength of the received wireless signal. 51. The device of clause 50, wherein a first plurality of antennas is selected and a location of the UE is determined based at least in part on an angle of arrival (AoA) of a received wireless signal. 52. The device of clause 48, wherein the means for selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas is based on a selected wireless communication technology for determining a location of the UE. 53. The device of clause 52, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected from two or more wireless communication technologies. 54. The device described in clause 53, wherein the means for selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas includes means for coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to a wireless receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology. 55. The device of clause 53, wherein the two or more wireless communication technologies include one or more of an ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communication technology, a Wi-Fi wireless communication technology, and a 5G New Radio (NR) wireless communication technology. 56. The device of clause 53, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a positioning accuracy associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 57. The device of clause 53, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on power consumption associated with determining a location of the UE using each of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 58. The device of clause 53, wherein selecting a wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a maximum range associated with each of two or more wireless communication technologies. 59. The device described in clause 48, wherein the received request includes a requested wireless communication technology for determining the location of the UE, and the method further includes means for coupling a selected first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the requested wireless communication technology. 60. means for identifying a wireless communication technology associated with the received request; means for determining when two or more wireless communication technologies have simultaneously requested use of a selected first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas; means for selecting a wireless communications technology for use with a selected first or second of the plurality of antennas; means for coupling a selected first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with a selected wireless communication technology; 49. The device of clause 48, further comprising: 61. The device of clause 60, wherein a wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective priority associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies. 62. The device of clause 60, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective duty cycle associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies.

[0118]

[0117] Accordingly, it is intended that the claimed subject matter not be limited to the particular examples disclosed, but that such claimed subject matter may include all aspects falling within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. 1. A method for supporting user equipment (UE) location in a wireless network, comprising: receiving a request to determine the location of the UE; selecting one of a first plurality of antennas or a second plurality of antennas coupled to the UE; receiving wireless signals using the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas; determining the location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals; wherein each antenna of the first plurality of antennas is located within a threshold distance of each other antenna of the first plurality of antennas, and each antenna of the second plurality of antennas is located beyond the threshold distance from each other antenna of the second plurality of antennas.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold distance corresponds to half a wavelength of the received wireless signal.

3. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first plurality of antennas is selected and the location of the UE is determined based at least in part on an angle of arrival (AoA) of the received wireless signals.

4. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas is based on a wireless communication technology selected to determine the location of the UE.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the wireless communication technology is selected from two or more wireless communication technologies.

6. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas comprises coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or second plurality of antennas to a wireless receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology.

7. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the two or more wireless communication technologies include one or more of an Ultra Wideband (UWB) wireless communication technology, a Wi-Fi wireless communication technology, and a 5G New Radio (NR) wireless communication technology.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein selecting the wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a positioning accuracy associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies.

9. selecting the wireless communication technology is based at least in part on power consumption associated with determining the location of the UE using each of the two or more wireless communication technologies; or 6. The method of claim 5, wherein selecting the wireless communication technology is based at least in part on a maximum range associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies.

10. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the received request includes a requested wireless communication technology for determining the location of the UE, the method further including coupling the selected first plurality of antennas or second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the requested wireless communication technology.

11. identifying a wireless communication technology associated with the received request; determining that two or more wireless communication technologies have simultaneously requested use of the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas; selecting a wireless communication technology for use with the selected first or second plurality of antennas; coupling the selected first or second plurality of antennas to a receiver associated with the selected wireless communication technology; The method of claim 1 further comprising:

12. the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective priority associated with each wireless communication technology of the two or more wireless communication technologies; or 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the wireless communication technology is selected based at least in part on a respective duty cycle associated with each of the two or more wireless communication technologies.

13. 1. A device configured to support location of a user equipment (UE) in a wireless network, comprising: an antenna system including at least a first plurality of antennas and a second plurality of antennas; at least one transceiver coupled to the antenna system; at least one memory; at least one processor coupled to the at least one transceiver and the at least one memory, the device including: receiving a request to determine the location of the UE; selecting one of the first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas to determine the location of the UE; receiving wireless signals using the selected first plurality of antennas or the second plurality of antennas; determining the location of the UE based at least in part on the received wireless signals; at least one processor configured to wherein each antenna of the first plurality of antennas is located within a threshold distance of each other antenna of the first plurality of antennas, and each antenna of the second plurality of antennas is located beyond the threshold distance from each other antenna of the second plurality of antennas.

14. The device of claim 13, further comprising means for performing a method according to any one of claims 2 to 12.

15. 13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by one or more processors of a device configured to support location determination of user equipment (UE) in a wireless network, wherein execution of the instructions causes the device to perform operations in accordance with the method of any one of claims 1 to 12.

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