Carrier aggregation to improve positioning accuracy

Abstract

[0003] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a device, method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium for improving positioning measurement accuracy with carrier aggregation. A first device in a communication network may be configured to receive a first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and a second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier from a second device in the communication network, and to jointly process the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal to generate positioning measurements in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is applied to the positioning reference signal.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] Various exemplary embodiments described herein relate generally to communications technologies, and more particularly to devices, methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media for improving positioning measurement accuracy with carrier aggregation. [Background technology]

[0002] Certain abbreviations that may appear in the description and / or figures are defined herein as follows: CA Carrier Aggregation CC Component Carrier gNB Next Generation Node B IFFT Inverse Fast Fourier Transform LMC Location Management Component LMF location management function LTE Long Term Evolution LPP LTE Positioning Protocol Multi-RTT Multi-cell Round Trip Time NR new radio NRPPa NR Positioning Protocol A OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing PRS Positioning Reference Signal RRC Radio Resource Control SRS Sounding Reference Signal TRP sending and receiving point UE User Equipment

[0003] Terrestrial network-based positioning methods can be broadly categorized into timing-based methods, angle-based methods, and hybrid timing-angle-based methods. Timing-based methods rely on the propagation delay of radio frequency (RF) carriers to estimate the distance between a user equipment (UE) and multiple base stations or transmit / receive points (TRPs) and utilize the principle of triangulation to determine the UE's location. Similarly, angle-based methods also apply the principle of triangulation by utilizing beamforming of transmitted signals and / or knowledge of the phase difference across receive antenna elements to determine the azimuth and zenith angles between a transmitter and receiver pair. Summary of the Invention

[0004] A brief summary of example embodiments is provided below in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of various embodiments. Note that this summary is not intended to identify key features or to delineate the scope of the embodiments; its sole purpose is to introduce some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description presented below.

[0005] In a first aspect, an exemplary embodiment of a first device in a communication network is provided. The first device may include at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, may cause the first device to at least receive a first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and a second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier from a second device in the communication network, and, in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is applied to the positioning reference signal, jointly process the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal to generate positioning measurements.

[0006] In a second aspect, an exemplary embodiment of a second device in a communication network is provided. The second device may include at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions. When executed by the at least one processor, the instructions may cause the second device to at least oversample a first positioning reference signal and a second positioning reference signal in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is applied to the positioning reference signals, and to transmit the first device in the communication network the first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and the second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier.

[0007] In a third aspect, an exemplary embodiment of a location server in a communication network is provided. The location server may include at least one processor and at least one memory that stores instructions. When executed by the at least one processor, the instructions may cause the location server to at least transmit an oversampling indication to at least one network device or terminal device in the communication network, the oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is applied to a positioning reference signal.

[0008] Exemplary embodiments of a method, an apparatus, and a computer-readable medium are also provided, which generally correspond to the exemplary embodiments of the above aspects, and a repetitive description thereof will be omitted here for convenience.

[0009] Other features and advantages of the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of specific embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0010] Some illustrative embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example wireless communication network in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. [Figure 2A] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating transmission architecture options for carrier aggregation. [Figure 2B] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating transmission architecture options for carrier aggregation. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a message flow diagram illustrating a positioning procedure according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating oversampling of a positioning reference signal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 5] FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram illustrating a method for jointly processing positioning reference signals, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary frequency shifting process, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 7] FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram illustrating a method for phase offset compensation, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 8] FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram illustrating a method for carrier phase estimation, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 9] FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram illustrating a method for carrier phase estimation, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 10] FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram illustrating a method for determining a phase compensation coefficient according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 11] FIG. 10 is a message flow diagram illustrating a positioning procedure according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 12] 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 13] 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 14] 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 15] 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0012] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements, and repeated descriptions of the same elements will be omitted.

[0013] In the following, several exemplary embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known circuits, techniques, and components are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the described concepts and features.

[0014] As used herein, the term "terminal device" may refer to any entity or device that can communicate wirelessly with network devices or with each other. Examples of terminal devices may include a mobile phone, a mobile terminal (MT), a mobile station (MS), a subscriber station (SS), a portable subscriber station (PSS), an access terminal (AT), a computer, a wearable device, an in-vehicle communication device, a machine-type communication (MTC) device, a device-to-device (D2D) communication device, a vehicle-to-exchange (V2X) communication device, a sensor, etc. The term "terminal device" may be used interchangeably with user equipment (UE), user terminal, mobile terminal, mobile station, or wireless device.

[0015] As used herein, the term "network device" may refer to any appropriate entity or device capable of providing a cell or coverage through which a terminal device can access a network and receive services. A network device may generally be referred to as a base station. The term "base station" as used herein may refer to a Node B (Node B or NB), an evolved Node B (eNode B or eNB), or a gNB. A base station may be embodied as a macro base station, a relay node, or a low-power node such as a pico base station or a femto base station. A base station may be composed of several distributed network units, such as a central unit (CU), one or more distributed units (DUs), one or more remote radio heads (RRHs) or remote radio units (RRUs). The number and functionality of these distributed units depends on the selected split RAN architecture.

[0016] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary communication network 100 in which exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the communication network 100 may include multiple base stations (BSs) 120 (three base stations 120a, 120b, and 120c are shown as examples), which may form a so-called radio access network (RAN) and provide network access to multiple user equipments (UEs) 110. FIG. 1 illustrates one UE 110, which may connect to any one of the multiple base stations 120. In one example, the UE 110 may camp within a cell supported by base station 120a and establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection with base station 120a. Base station 120a may also be referred to as a serving base station for the UE 110, and base stations 120b and 120c may also be referred to as neighboring base stations.

[0017] In some exemplary embodiments, communications network 100 may employ a multi-transmit / receive point (mTRP) architecture in which UE 110 may transmit data to and receive data from one or more transmit / receive points (TRPs). A TRP may be associated with one or more base stations 120 and / or one or more cells. The exemplary embodiments described herein are not limited to any particular deployment of TRPs or a particular relationship between TRPs and base stations / cells. It should be understood that throughout this disclosure, the term “base station” may also include a TRP, and operations performed at a base station may be performed, at least in part, at a TRP.

[0018] The communications network 100 may further include a location server 130 for managing positioning of UEs connected to the network 100. The location server 130 may be a physical or logical entity and may be implemented as a local location management component (LMC) in the RAN or as a location management function (LMF) in the core network. As described above, a timing-based positioning method, an angle-based positioning method, or a hybrid timing-angle-based positioning method may be performed in the communications network 100 to estimate the position of the UE 100. In these positioning methods, the UE 110 may transmit a positioning reference signal (PRS) to the base station 120 on the uplink (UL) and / or receive a positioning reference signal transmitted from the base station 120 on the downlink (DL). The base station 120 and the UE 110 may measure the UL PRS and DL PRS, respectively, to estimate the time of arrival or angle of arrival (TOA or AOA) of the received PRS and send a positioning measurement report including the TOA or AOA estimate to the location server 130. Location server 130 may estimate the location of UE 110 based on the received positioning measurement reports.

[0019] A continuing goal of positioning methods is to improve positioning measurement accuracy. Release 18 approved a positioning study item based on carrier aggregation (CA), also known as bandwidth aggregation, with the goal of improving positioning accuracy. In 5G New Radio (NR), CA can support up to 16 contiguous or non-contiguous component carriers (CCs), aggregating up to approximately 1 GHz of spectrum across the 5G band. Typically, CA is considered for data transmission, not for the transmission of reference signals such as PRS. In CA-based data transmission, data symbols are scheduled and processed independently on each CC, and aggregating each CC is sufficient to improve overall throughput. However, for CA-based reference signal (e.g., PRS) transmission, simply increasing the PRS symbol length by scheduling and processing PRS symbols independently on each CC (as in CA-based data transmission) is not sufficient because this strategy does not leverage the overall sequence length gain. When each CC is processed independently in the case of PRS, the gain may result from averaging rather than an increase in bandwidth. Furthermore, the diversity gain from multiple CCs may not be significant, especially for large frequency separations between two CCs. Therefore, joint processing of PRS sequences scheduled on different CCs is necessary to improve the accuracy of positioning measurements. LMF may configure two or more PRS resources across different CCs.

[0020] The joint processing of PRS sequences received on different CCs depends on the transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) architectures for CA and their associated error and noise sources. Figures 2A and 2B show two Tx architecture options for CA in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system, and similar architecture options are possible on the receiver side. Referring first to Figure 2A, the Tx architecture 200A may include two separate RF chains 210a, 210b to support two adjacent or non-adjacent CCs. The first RF chain 210a may include a first baseband (BB) 211a, a first inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) block 213a, a first digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 215a, a first mixer 217a, a first local oscillator 219a, a first RF power amplifier (PA) 221a, a first RF filter 223a, and a first antenna 229a. The first baseband 211a may provide a baseband signal. The baseband signal is a low-pass signal generated from an information source. The first IFFT block 213a may perform an IFFT transform on the baseband signal to convert it from the frequency domain to the time domain. The first DAC 215a may convert the baseband signal from the digital domain to the analog domain. The first mixer 217a, also referred to as a modulator, may modulate a carrier provided by a local oscillator 219a with the analog baseband signal and provide the modulated signal to the first RF power amplifier 221a. The first RF power amplifier 221a may amplify the modulated signal. The RF filter 223a may remove out-of-band components of the amplified modulated signal and generate a passband signal whose frequency spectrum is centered around the carrier frequency. The passband signal is then transmitted via the first antenna 219a.Similar to the first RF chain 210a, the second RF chain 210b may include a second baseband 211b, a second IFFT block 213b, a second DAC 215b, a second mixer 217b, a second local oscillator 219b, a second RF PA 221b, a second RF filter 223b, and a second antenna 229b, and may process a second baseband signal provided from the second baseband 211b in a manner similar to the first RF chain 210a.

[0021] 2B, in Tx architecture 200B, the output of the first RF filter 223a in the first RF chain 210a and the output of the second RF filter 223b in the second RF chain 210b may be combined in RF combiner 225 and filtered in combined filter 227. The combined signal may then be transmitted via shared antenna 219. Other aspects of Tx architecture 200B may be similar to Tx architecture 200A, and a description of each will be omitted here. It should be understood that other Tx / Rx architectures for CA are also possible, in which the RF chain for each CC includes one or more different hardware components.

[0022] Requiring or using different hardware components in the RF chain supporting different component carriers introduces various issues, such as timing error, phase coherence, and frequency error. While positioning reference signals (RPSs) transmitted on different CCs are jointly processed, timing / phase offsets between CCs lead to inter-CC symbol interference. If the timing / phase offsets between CCs are not compensated for or mitigated, simply jointly processing PRS sequences scheduled on different CCs will result in insufficient / inaccurate positioning time delay estimation due to inter-CC symbol interference. In other words, if the timing / phase offsets between CCs are not addressed and joint processing of PRSs scheduled / configured on different CCs is not performed, simply increasing the PRS transmission bandwidth using multiple CCs is not sufficient to improve the accuracy of positioning measurements.

[0023] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a procedure is provided for improving the accuracy of positioning measurements by jointly processing PRS sequences scheduled on different CCs. At the transmitter side, PRS sequences may be oversampled in the time domain before being transmitted over multiple CCs, taking into account the aggregated CC bandwidth. At the receiver side, oversampling may also be performed by the transmitter or as instructed by a location server, after which timing / phase offsets between CCs may be corrected / compensated, and the PRS sequences transmitted over different CCs may be jointly processed to generate a single positioning measurement. Inter-CC symbol interference may be eliminated / mitigated during the joint processing of the PRS sequences, improving the accuracy of positioning measurements. The procedure can achieve true performance gains through carrier aggregation.

[0024] For PRS transmission, a frequency-flat channel with a dominant line-of-sight (LOS) path may be considered. Under this assumption, the raw channel H lcan be estimated by multiplying the signal received on the l-th subcarrier with the conjugate of the PRS symbol scheduled on the l-th subcarrier. l The channel frequency response (CFR) of can be approximated as follows:

[0025]

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[0026] To estimate the propagation delay, an IFFT operation can be performed on the channel frequency response. Assuming that two CCs, each with a bandwidth N (N is the number of subcarriers), are aggregated and there is no timing / phase offset between the two CCs, the IFFT-processed channel frequency response (CFR) can be expressed as follows:

[0027]

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[0028] In the above equation (2), "τ l ±ΔT s " depends on the bandwidth N of CC, and "

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[0029] 3 is a message flowchart illustrating a positioning procedure 300 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 3, steps of the positioning procedure 300 may be performed in a first device 301, a second device 303, and a location server (LS) 305. The first device 301 may be implemented as a terminal device such as the UE 110 shown in FIG. 1, and the second device 303 may be implemented as a network device such as any one of the base stations 120 shown in FIG. 1. In another exemplary embodiment, the first device 301 may be implemented as a network device such as any one of the base stations 120 shown in FIG. 1, and the second device 303 may be implemented as a terminal device such as the UE 110 shown in FIG. 1. The location server 305 may be implemented as the location server 130 shown in FIG. 1. As mentioned above, the location server 305 may be implemented as a Location Management Function (LMF) in the core network or a Location Management Component (LMC) in the RAN.

[0030] 3 , at 310 and 312, the location server 305 may transmit an oversampling indication to the second device 303 and the first device 301, respectively. For example, the location server 305 may transmit the oversampling indication to one of the first device 301 and the second device 303 embodied as a UE 110 via an LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) message and to the other of the first device 301 and the second device 303 embodied as a base station 120 via an NR Positioning Protocol a (NRPPa) message. In an exemplary embodiment in which the first device 301 is embodied as a UE 110 and the second device 303 is embodied as a base station 120, the second device 303 may transmit the oversampling indication received from the location server 305 to the first device 301 via RRC signaling at 311, and step 312 may be omitted. In an exemplary embodiment in which the first device 301 is implemented as a base station 120 and the second device 303 is implemented as a UE 110, the first device 301 may transmit the oversampling instruction received from the location server 305 to the second device 303 via RRC signaling at 313, and step 310 may be omitted.

[0031] The oversampling indication may indicate whether oversampling is applied to a positioning reference signal (PRS). For example, the oversampling indication may include an information element (IE) such as "PRSCCoverSample" having a value of "true" or "false" to indicate whether oversampling is applied to a DL PRS. Alternatively, or additionally, the oversampling indication may include an IE such as "SRSCCoverSample" having a value of "true" or "false" to indicate whether oversampling is applied to a sounding reference signal.

[0032] Throughout this disclosure, the terms "positioning reference signal" or "PRS" may refer to any UL or DL ​​reference signal that may be used to perform positioning measurements, unless the context requires otherwise. Examples of UL reference signals for positioning measurements may include, but are not limited to, a sounding reference signal (SRS), a physical random access channel (PRACH), a UL demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a UL phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), and other UL reference signals that may be used for UL positioning defined in the 3GPP® specifications. Examples of DL reference signals for positioning measurements may include, but are not limited to, so-called positioning reference signals defined in the 3GPP specifications, synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), DL DMRS, and other DL reference signals that may be used for DL ​​positioning defined in the 3GPP specifications. In some exemplary embodiments, for convenience of explanation, PRS and SRS defined in the 3GPP specifications are described as examples of DL PRS and UL PRS, respectively, although aspects of the present disclosure are applicable to other positioning reference signals.

[0033] In an exemplary embodiment, the oversampling instruction may further include information of an oversampling factor for oversampling the PRS. The location server 305 may determine an oversampling factor for the CC and signal the determined oversampling factor to the first device 301 and the second device 303. The oversampling factor may be at least equal to the entire aggregated CC bandwidth. In another example, the location server 305 may notify the first device 301 and the second device 303 of the aggregated CC bandwidth, from which the first device 301 and the second device 303 may derive the required oversampling factor for each CC. In yet another example, the first device 301 and the second device 303 may be aware of the entire aggregated CC bandwidth, and the location server 305 does not need to explicitly or implicitly signal the oversampling factor to the first device 301 and the second device 303.

[0034] If the second device 303 determines in 314 from the oversampling instruction received in 310 that oversampling is applied to the PRS, the second device 303 may determine that the PRSs transmitted on multiple CCs are to be jointly processed at the receiver side, and may perform oversampling on the PRSs in the time domain in 316. In this regard, the oversampling instruction may also be referred to as a receiver for performing oversampling and joint processing instructions. For convenience of explanation, two PRSs transmitted on two CCs are described here as an example. In step 316, the second device 303 may oversample the first PRS (PRS1) transmitted on the first CC (CC1) and the second PRS (PRS2) transmitted on the second CC (CC2) based on an oversampling factor.

[0035] 4 illustrates an exemplary oversampling operation according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 4, it is assumed that each of the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 has a bandwidth N (i.e., the number of subcarriers), and an oversampling factor N 12 is equal to or greater than 2N of the total aggregated CC bandwidth, i.e., N 12 ≧2N. The second device 303 detects that the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 are each oversampled with an oversampling factor N 12(2) to improve the positioning measurement accuracy at the receiver side, as described above with respect to equation (2). It should be understood that zero padding in the frequency domain is an example of oversampling the PRS in the time domain, and that other approaches to oversampling are also applicable in the exemplary embodiments.

[0036] Referring back to FIG. 3, if oversampling is not applied to the PRS at 314, the second device 303 may determine that the PRS transmitted on multiple CCs are processed independently at the receiver side and may process the transmitted PRS in a conventional manner.

[0037] At 318, the second device 303 may transmit a first positioning reference signal PRS1 on the first component carrier CC1 and a second positioning reference signal PRS2 on the second component carrier CC2 to the first device 301. If the second device 303 is embodied as a network device (e.g., a base station) and the first device 301 is embodied as a terminal device (e.g., a UE), the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 may be DL PRSs, e.g., PRSs defined in the 3GPP specifications. If the second device 303 is embodied as a terminal device and the first device 301 is embodied as a network device, the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 may be UL PRSs, e.g., Sounding Reference Signals (SRSs). Although not shown, the second device 303 may also indicate to the first device 301 whether the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 are oversampled or not.

[0038] At 320, the first device 301 may determine whether oversampling is applied to the PRS based on an oversampling instruction received from the location server 305 or the second device 303. If oversampling is applied, the first device 301 may oversample the received time-domain PRS1 and PRS2 signals at 321. The oversampling may be performed in the same way as on the transmitter side, i.e., by zero padding in the frequency domain as described above with respect to FIG. 4, followed by IFFT processing to obtain more samples in the time domain. A repetitive description of oversampling on the receiver side will be omitted here for convenience.

[0039] The first device 301 may then jointly process 322 the first positioning reference signal PRS1 received on the first component carrier CC1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 received on the second component carrier CC2 to generate a single positioning measurement. The positioning measurement may include time of arrival (TOA) estimation, carrier phase estimation, angle of arrival (AOA) estimation, etc., depending on the positioning scheme implemented in the network. In this approach, PRS sequence length gain may be achieved through carrier aggregation (CA), and the accuracy of the positioning measurement may be improved.

[0040] If the first device 301 determines at 320 that oversampling is not applied, the first device 301 may process the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 in a conventional manner at 324. For example, the first device 301 may process the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 independently to save its processing power and generate two positioning measurements.

[0041] At 326, the first device 301 may report the positioning measurements to the location server 305. The location server 305 may estimate the location of the first device 301 based on the positioning measurement reports received from the first device 301 and the location coordinates of the associated second devices 303. In an exemplary embodiment, the first device 301 may additionally report whether the UE obtained joint positioning measurements, and the UE may further report a CC index along with the positioning measurements, so that the location server 305 knows that the reported positioning measurements are obtained from the reported CC index.

[0042] 5 illustrates a method 400 for jointly processing PRSs received on different CCs according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The method 400 may be performed by the first device 301 in step 322 of the method 300 illustrated in FIG.

[0043] Referring to FIG. 5 , at 410, the first device 301 may compensate for a phase offset between a first component carrier CC1 carrying a first positioning reference signal PRS1 and a second component carrier CC2 carrying a second positioning reference signal PRS2. As described above, the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 may be affected by different / independent timing / phase errors, and the timing / phase offset between the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 must be corrected / compensated for to estimate the propagation delay. Otherwise, bandwidth expansion using carrier aggregation may not improve the accuracy of the propagation delay estimation. Details of phase offset compensation are described below.

[0044] At 420, the first device 301 may apply a frequency shift at baseband to the first positioning reference signal PRS1 received on the first component carrier CC1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 received on the second component carrier CC2. By utilizing the properties of IFFT, the frequency shift of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 can remove the frequency-domain interval between PRS1 and PRS2 caused by the white space between non-adjacent CC1 and non-adjacent CC2 or the guard band between adjacent CC1 and CC2, and generate a continuous PRS spectrum at baseband from the received first positioning reference signal PRS1 and second positioning reference signal PRS2. This can reduce the IFFT window size required to jointly process PRS1 and PRS2, thereby reducing the complexity of the IFFT.

[0045] 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary frequency shifting process in baseband for combining PRSs received on different component carriers, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring first to FIG. 6(a), a first positioning reference signal PRS1 transmitted on a first component carrier CC1 and a second positioning reference signal PRS2 transmitted on a second component carrier CC2 at the transmitter side (e.g., at the second device 303). The first component carrier CC1 is centered at a first center frequency f c_1 and the second component carrier CC2 has a second center frequency f c_2 As mentioned above, the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 are oversampled by zero-padding on both sides. Figure 6(a) also shows the passband center frequency f of the signal bandwidth from CC1 to CC2. c_12 This means that f c_12 =(f c_1 +f c_2 ) / 2. When PRS1 and PRS2 are jointly processed at the receiver side, the passband center frequency f c_12 may correspond to a direct current (DC) frequency in baseband.

[0046] 6(b) shows the first and second positioning reference signals PRS1 and PRS2 in baseband received at the receiver side (e.g., at the first device 301). The first positioning reference signal PRS1 is processed in a first baseband BB1, and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 is processed in a second baseband BB2. As mentioned above, the first and second positioning reference signals PRS1 and PRS2 may be affected by different timing / phase errors associated with the first and second component carriers CC1 and CC2.

[0047] In Fig. 6(c), the timing / phase offset between the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 is corrected / compensated, for example, in step 410 of the method 400 shown in Fig. 5. However, due to the white space or guard band between the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2, a relatively large IFFT window size is still required for joint processing of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2, as shown by the thick solid line in Fig. 6(c).

[0048] Referring to FIG. 6(d), a frequency shift may be applied at baseband to remove the spacing between the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 in the frequency domain by utilizing the properties of IFFT. In an exemplary embodiment, a new center frequency may be determined, and a frequency shift may be applied at the new center frequency. For example, as shown in FIG. 6(d), the DC frequency (vertical arrow) may be treated as the center frequency, and the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 may be frequency shifted so that they are concatenated with each other at the center frequency to generate a continuous PRS sequence spectrum including PRS1 and PRS2. The frequency shift removes the spacing between PRS1 and PRS2 caused by the white space of the guard band between the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2, generating a continuous PRS sequence spectrum at baseband from the received first positioning reference signal PRS1 and second positioning reference signal PRS2. The continuous PRS sequence spectrum may be used for subsequent joint processing of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2.

[0049] It should be understood that the center frequency may also be determined as another frequency, and the frequency shift may also be applied in another manner. For example, referring to Figure 6(c), when the DC frequency (vertical arrow) is treated as the center frequency, the band from the first symbol of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 to the DC frequency may be shifted, so that the first symbol of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 is concatenated with the last symbol of the second positioning reference signal PRS2. The continuous PRS sequence spectrum generated in this way has a different position relative to the DC frequency than that shown in Figure 6(d), but the difference does not affect the power delay profile (PDP) and path delay estimation.

[0050] In FIG. 6(e), the edge white spaces on both sides of the continuous PRS sequence spectrum may be ignored, and therefore the IFFT window size M for the joint IFFT processing of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 (i.e., the continuous PRS sequence spectrum) may be reduced to M=2N. In an exemplary embodiment, an additional frequency shift may be applied to the concatenated PRS1 and PRS2 (as shown in FIG. 6(e)), so that the first symbol of PRS2 in BB2 is at the DC frequency (i.e., is considered as the DC portion for the IFFT) (not shown in FIG. 6). The IFFT window size determines the complexity of the propagation delay estimation algorithm using carrier aggregation. The proposed process can reduce the complexity of the propagation delay estimation algorithm by eliminating the spectral spacing between the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 and reducing the IFFT window size. Furthermore, joint processing of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 can recover a single PRS sequence for propagation delay estimation, which may improve the accuracy of propagation delay estimation by leveraging the overall sequence length gain in carrier aggregation.

[0051] 7 is a process flow diagram illustrating a method 500 for phase offset compensation according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The method 500 may be performed by the first device 301 in step 410 of the method 400 shown in FIG.

[0052] Before describing method 500, the reason for performing phase offset compensation will be discussed. In equation (2) above, it is assumed that there is no timing / phase offset between the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2, which would not actually occur if the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 are transmitted through different RF chains including at least one hardware component. When the timing / phase offset between the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 is taken into account, equation (2) may be rewritten as follows:

[0053]

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[0054] 7, at 510, the first device 301 may estimate a first phase θ of a first component carrier CC1 and a second phase θ of a second component carrier CC2. At 530, the first device 301 may apply a first phase compensation coefficient to compensate for the first phase θ of the first component carrier CC1 and a second phase compensation coefficient to compensate for the second phase θ of the second component carrier CC2, thereby compensating for a timing / phase offset between the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2.

[0055] 8 is a process flow diagram illustrating steps for estimating a first phase θ of a first component carrier CC1 and a second phase θ of a second component carrier CC2 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 8, in 512, the first device 301 estimates a first propagation delay θ of the first component carrier CC1 on a first arrival path (e.g., a line-of-sight path) from the second device 303 to the first device 301.

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[0056] At 514, the first device 301 receives a first propagation delay

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[0057] FIG. 9 illustrates another method for estimating the first phase θ of the first component carrier CC1 and the second phase θ of the second component carrier CC2, which is based on the carrier phases at the center frequency f as shown in Equation (3) in the frequency domain. c The principle is utilized in that the PRS symbol is associated with a direct current (DC) subcarrier of a component carrier having a PRS symbol. The PRS symbol may be forced to be transmitted on the DC subcarrier, and no other signals are scheduled on the DC subcarrier. The phase of the DC subcarrier may be determined as the carrier phase.

[0058] As shown in FIG. 9 , in 516, the first device 301 may unwrap, in the frequency domain, a first phase response of a first positioning reference signal PRS1 received on a first component carrier CC1 and a second phase response of a second positioning reference signal PRS2 received on a second component carrier CC2. In this case, the DC subcarrier of the first component carrier CC1 is configured for the first positioning reference signal PRS1, and no other signals are scheduled on the DC subcarrier. The DC subcarrier of the second component carrier CC2 is configured for the second positioning reference signal PRS2, and no other signals are scheduled on the DC subcarrier. The unwrapping operation makes the phase responses continuous over 2π discontinuities by adding or subtracting appropriate multiples of 2π radians as necessary. Then, in 518, the first device 301 performs linear interpolation on the unwrapped first and second phase responses to obtain a phase response that is continuous over the DC subcarrier of the first component carrier CC1 (i.e., frequency f c_1 ) is determined as the first phase θ1 of the first component carrier CC1, and the DC subcarrier (i.e., frequency f c_2 ) may be determined as the second phase θ2 of the first component carrier CC1. Compared with the method shown in Fig. 8, the method shown in Fig. 9 has reduced complexity.

[0059] 10 is a process flow diagram illustrating a method 520 for determining a phase compensation coefficient according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Method 520 may be performed by first device 301 prior to step 530 of method 500 shown in FIG.

[0060] 10 , in 522, the first device 301 may perform a frequency flatness check / test on the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 to determine a frequency flatness probability. The frequency flatness check may be performed by counting the number of channels having a channel gain above a channel threshold, and the frequency flatness probability may be expressed by a ratio defined as follows: Frequency flatness ratio = 1-C fading / total number of channels C fading =abs(H l ) <H threshold Number of channels (4) where H l is the l-th channel and the function abs(H l ) returns the magnitude of the lth channel, and H threshold is the predetermined channel gain threshold, and C fading is the channel gain threshold H threshold is the number of fading channels with lower channel gain. The frequency flatness probability / percentage indicates the overall channel quality of the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2.

[0061] In 524, the first device 301 may determine a first phase compensation coefficient for compensating the first phase θ1 of the first component carrier CC1 and a second phase compensation coefficient for compensating the second phase θ2 of the second component carrier CC2 based on the first phase θ1, the second phase θ2, and the determined frequency flatness probability / percentage. In one example, the phase compensation coefficients may be determined as follows: If the frequency flatness ratio is greater than or equal to the frequency flatness threshold, ● First phase compensation coefficient for CC1 = -θ1 ● Second phase compensation coefficient for CC2 = -θ2 Otherwise, ● First phase compensation coefficient for CC1 = -θ1-θ avg ● Second phase compensation coefficient for CC2 = -θ2-θ avg (5) where θ avg is the average carrier phase of the aggregated component carriers, i.e., θ avg =(θ1+θ2) / 2, where the frequency flatness threshold is a threshold configured by the location server 305 or a network device / base station serving the first device 301 when the first device 301 is implemented as a terminal device / UE. As shown in equation (5) above, if the frequency flatness ratio is greater than or equal to the frequency flatness threshold, the phase compensation factor may be set to the negative value of the carrier phase of each component carrier. If the frequency flatness ratio is less than the frequency flatness threshold, the phase compensation factor may be set to the negative value of the sum of the carrier phase of the component carrier and the average carrier phase of the aggregated component carriers.

[0062] Once the phase compensation coefficients for the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 are determined, the first device 301 may apply the phase compensation coefficients to compensate for the carrier phases θ1, θ2 of the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2, for example, in step 530 of the method 500 shown in Figure 7. The phase compensation may be expressed as follows: If the frequency flatness ratio is greater than or equal to the frequency flatness threshold,

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[0063] 11 illustrates a positioning procedure 600 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Once the first device 301 determines a phase compensation factor for jointly processing a first positioning reference signal PRS1 received on a first component carrier CC1 and a second positioning reference signal PRS2 received on a second component carrier CC2, the procedure 600 may be performed by the first device 301, the second device 303, and the location server 305. In the procedure 600, the first device 301 may signal at least one of a frequency flatness probability or an applied phase compensation factor to the second device 303 and / or the location server 305. In the case of multi-RTT positioning, the second device 303 may use the phase compensation factor for subsequent PRS transmissions and / or receptions. The second device 303 may also use the frequency flatness probability to determine the validity of the phase compensation coefficient over time, for example, in the next X slots or subframes, where X is a positive integer determined based on the frequency flatness probability. The location server 305 may use the frequency flatness probability to assess the confidence level of the positioning measurements associated with the first device 301.

[0064] 11 , at 610, the first device 301 may report, e.g., via RRC signaling, at least one of a frequency flatness probability or an applied phase compensation factor for the component carrier to the second device 303. At 612, the first device 301 may report, e.g., via an LPP message, at least one of a frequency flatness probability or an applied phase compensation factor for the component carrier to the location server 305.

[0065] In 614, the second device 303 may apply the received phase compensation coefficients to subsequent transmissions of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 on the first component carrier CC1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 on the second component carrier CC2. The second device 303 can reduce the timing / phase offset between the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 from the transmitter side, and then the receiver (i.e., the first device 301) can iteratively determine phase compensation coefficients for the component carriers to improve phase compensation accuracy, thereby improving positioning measurement accuracy.

[0066] In an example, the second device 303 may determine the validity of the received phase compensation coefficient based on the frequency flatness probability. If the frequency flatness probability has a high percentage value, the second device 303 may apply the phase compensation coefficient to subsequent positioning reference signals PRS1 and PRS2 in more slots or subframes. If the frequency flatness probability has a low percentage value, the second device 303 may apply the phase compensation coefficient in fewer slots or subframes, or the second device 303 may not apply the phase compensation coefficient.

[0067] In 616, in the case of multi-RTT positioning, the first device 301 may apply the first phase compensation factor of the first component carrier CC1 to the third positioning reference signal PRS3 transmitted on the first component carrier, and may apply the second phase compensation factor of the second component carrier CC2 to the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 transmitted on the second component carrier CC2. It should be understood that the first device 301 and the second device 303 may operate in a time division duplex (TDD) mode, in which each of the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 includes both downlink and uplink slots. When the first device 301 is implemented as a terminal device and the second device 303 is implemented as a network device, the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 may be downlink positioning reference signals, and the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 may be uplink sounding reference signals (SRS). When the first device 301 is implemented as a network device and the second device 303 is implemented as a terminal device, the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 may be uplink sounding reference signals (SRS), and the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 may be downlink positioning reference signals.

[0068] In 618, the first device 301 may send a phase compensation instruction to the second device 303. The phase compensation instruction may indicate whether the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 sent to the second device are phase compensated.

[0069] In 620, the first device 301 may transmit the third positioning reference signal PRS3 on the first component carrier CC1 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 on the second component carrier CC2 to the second device 303. Although not shown in FIG. 11 , before transmitting the third positioning reference signal PRS3 on the first component carrier CC1 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 on the second component carrier CC2, the first device 301 may also oversample the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 based on an oversampling instruction received from the second device 303 or the location server 305.

[0070] In 622, the second device 303 may perform phase compensation on the received third positioning reference signal PRS3 and fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 if the phase compensation instruction received in step 618 indicates that the phase offset between the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 is not compensated for by the first device 301. The phase compensation step 622 may be similar to the phase compensation step 530 performed by the first device 301 in the method 500 shown in Figure 7, and a repetitive description will be omitted here for convenience. If the phase compensation instruction received in step 618 indicates that the first device 301 has compensated for the phase offset between the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4, step 622 may be omitted.

[0071] 11, the second device 303 may jointly process the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 to obtain a single PRS sequence. The second device 303 may then estimate a round trip delay time and report the round trip delay time estimate to the location server 305.

[0072] 12 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus 700 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The apparatus 700 may be implemented to include or form at least a portion of the first device 301 described above and to perform operations associated with the first device 301. Because operations associated with the first device 301 have been described above with reference to FIGS. 1-11, the blocks of the apparatus 700 will only be briefly described here, and reference may be made to the above description for details.

[0073] Referring to FIG. 12, the apparatus 700 may include first means 710 for receiving, at the first device 301, from the second device 303, a first positioning reference signal PRS1 on a first component carrier CC1 and a second positioning reference signal PRS2 on a second component carrier CC2, and second means 720 for jointly processing the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 to generate positioning measurements in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is applied to the positioning reference signals.

[0074] In an exemplary embodiment, the first device 301 is a terminal device and the second device 303 is a network device. In this case, the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 are downlink positioning reference signals. The oversampling instruction can be received from the location server 305 or the second device 303.

[0075] In an exemplary embodiment, the first device 301 is a network device and the second device 303 is a terminal device, in which case the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 are sounding reference signals, and the oversampling instruction may be received from the location server 305.

[0076] In an exemplary embodiment, the oversampling instruction may further include information of an oversampling factor for the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2. In one example, the oversampling factor may be equal to the overall bandwidth obtained by aggregating the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2.

[0077] In an exemplary embodiment, the second means 720 may include a first sub-means 730 for compensating a phase offset between the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2, and a second sub-means 740 for applying a frequency shift to the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 to obtain a continuous positioning reference signal spectrum at baseband from the received first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the received second positioning reference signal PRS2. In one example, the second sub-means 740 may apply a frequency shift to the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 in the frequency domain to obtain a continuous positioning reference signal spectrum at baseband from the received first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the received second positioning reference signal PRS2. c_12 A frequency shift may be applied to concatenate the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 in the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2. When the frequency shift is applied, a white space or guard band between the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 is removed.

[0078] In an exemplary embodiment, the first sub-means 730 may include a first unit 731 for estimating a first phase θ1 of the first component carrier CC1 and a second phase θ2 of the second component carrier CC2, and a second unit 733 for applying a first phase compensation coefficient to compensate for the first phase θ1 of the first component carrier CC1 and applying a second phase compensation coefficient to compensate for the second phase θ2 of the second component carrier CC2.

[0079] In an exemplary embodiment, the first unit 731 may include a first subunit 732 for estimating a first propagation delay of a first component carrier CC1 and a second propagation delay of a second component carrier CC2 on a first arrival path (e.g., an LOS path) from the second device 303 to the first device 301, and a second subunit 734 for determining a first phase θ1 of the first component carrier CC1 associated with the first propagation delay and a second phase θ2 of the second component carrier CC2 associated with the second propagation delay.

[0080] In an exemplary embodiment, the first unit 731 may include a third sub-unit 736 for unwrapping a first phase response of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and a second phase response of the second positioning reference signal PRS2 in the frequency domain, where a first direct current (DC) sub-carrier of the first component carrier CC1 is configured for the first positioning reference signal PRS1, and no other signals are scheduled on the first DC sub-carrier. A second DC sub-carrier of the second component carrier CC2 is configured for the second positioning reference signal PRS2, and no other signals are scheduled on the second DC sub-carrier. The first unit 731 may further include a fourth sub-unit 738 for performing linear interpolation on the first phase response and the second phase response to determine a first phase θ1 corresponding to a first DC sub-carrier of the first component carrier CC1 as the first phase of the first component carrier CC1, and a second phase θ2 corresponding to a second DC sub-carrier of the second component carrier CC2 as the second phase of the second component carrier CC2.

[0081] In an exemplary embodiment, the first sub-means 730 may further include a third unit 735 for performing a frequency flatness check on the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2 to determine a frequency flatness probability, and a fourth unit 737 for determining a first phase compensation factor and a second phase compensation factor based at least on the first phase θ1 of the first component carrier CC1, the second phase θ2 of the second component carrier CC2, and whether the frequency flatness probability is greater than or equal to a threshold. The threshold may be configured from the second device 303 when the first device 301 is a terminal device and the second device 303 is a network device serving the terminal device, or from the location server 305.

[0082] In an exemplary embodiment, the apparatus 700 may further include third means 750 for reporting at least one of the frequency flatness probability, the first phase compensation factor for the first component carrier CC1, or the second phase compensation factor for the second component carrier CC2 to at least one of the second device 303 or the location server 305.

[0083] In an example embodiment, the apparatus 700 may further include fourth means 760 for applying first and second phase compensation factors to compensate the third and fourth positioning reference signals PRS3 and PRS4, respectively, and fifth means 770 for transmitting the compensated third and fourth positioning reference signals PRS3 and PRS4 on the first and second component carriers CC1 and CC2, respectively, to the second device 303. In one example, the first and second positioning reference signals PRS1 and PRS2 may be downlink positioning reference signals, and the third and fourth positioning reference signals PRS3 and PRS4 may be uplink sounding reference signals. In another example, the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 may be uplink sounding reference signals, and the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 may be downlink positioning reference signals.

[0084] In an exemplary embodiment, the apparatus 700 may further include a sixth means 780 for notifying the second device 303 of the phase compensation performed on the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4.

[0085] In an exemplary embodiment, the apparatus 700 may further include seventh means 790 for oversampling in the time domain the first positioning reference signal PRS1 received on the first component carrier CC1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 received on the second component carrier CC2 in response to the oversampling instruction before the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 are jointly processed.

[0086] In an exemplary embodiment, the seventh means 790 may include first sub-means 792 for zero-padding resource elements on both sides of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 in the frequency domain up to at least a bandwidth indicated by the oversampling factor, and second sub-means for transforming the zero-padded first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the zero-padded second positioning reference signal PRS2 from the frequency domain to the time domain.

[0087] 13 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus 800 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The apparatus 800 may be implemented to include or form at least a portion of the second device 303 described above and to perform operations associated with the second device 303. Because operations associated with the second device 303 have been described above with reference to FIGS. 1-11, the blocks of the apparatus 800 will only be briefly described here, and reference may be made to the above description for details.

[0088] Referring to FIG. 13, the apparatus 800 may include first means 810 for oversampling a first positioning reference signal PRS1 and a second positioning reference signal PRS2 in response to an oversampling instruction indicating that oversampling is applied to the positioning reference signals, and second means 820 for transmitting, to the first device 301, the first positioning reference signal PRS1 on a first component carrier CC1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 on a second component carrier CC2.

[0089] In an exemplary embodiment, the first means 810 may include a first sub-means 812 for zero-padding resource elements on both sides of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 in the frequency domain to a bandwidth at least equal to a total bandwidth of the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2.

[0090] In an exemplary embodiment, the first device 301 may be a terminal device, and the second device 303 may be a network device. The oversampling instruction may be received from the location server 305. In another exemplary embodiment, the first device 301 may be a network device, and the second device 303 may be a terminal device. The oversampling instruction may be received from the location server 305 or from the first device 301. In one example, the oversampling instruction may further include information of an oversampling factor for oversampling the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2.

[0091] In an example embodiment, the first means 810 may further include third means 830 for receiving, from the first device 301, at least one of a frequency flatness probability for the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2, a first phase compensation factor for the first component carrier CC1, or a second phase compensation factor for the second component carrier CC2.

[0092] In an exemplary embodiment, the first means 810 may further include fourth means 840 for applying the first phase compensation factor and the second phase compensation factor for subsequent transmission of the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2, respectively.

[0093] In an exemplary embodiment, the first means 810 may further include fifth means 850 for receiving a third positioning reference signal PRS3 on the first component carrier CC1 and a fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 on the second component carrier CC2 from the first device 301, and sixth means 860 for applying a first phase compensation factor and a second phase compensation factor to compensate the phases of the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4, respectively. In one example, the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 are downlink positioning reference signals, and the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 are uplink sounding reference signals. In another example, the first positioning reference signal PRS1 and the second positioning reference signal PRS2 are uplink sounding reference signals, and the third positioning reference signal PRS3 and the fourth positioning reference signal PRS4 are downlink positioning reference signals.

[0094] 14 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus 900 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The apparatus 900 may be implemented to include or form at least a portion of the above-described location server 305 and to perform operations associated with the location server 305. Because operations associated with the location server 305 have been described above with reference to FIGS. 1-11, the blocks of the apparatus 900 will only be briefly described here and reference may be made to the above description for details.

[0095] 14 , the apparatus 900 may include a first means 910 for transmitting an oversampling indication to at least one of a network device or a terminal device, the oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is applied to the positioning reference signal. In one example, the oversampling indication may further include information of an oversampling factor for oversampling the positioning reference signal.

[0096] In an example embodiment, the apparatus 900 may further include second means 920 for receiving, from at least one of the network device or the terminal device, at least one of the frequency flatness probability for the first component carrier CC1 and the second component carrier CC2, the first phase compensation factor for the first component carrier CC1, or the second phase compensation factor for the second component carrier CC2.

[0097] 15 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary communication system 1000 in which an embodiment of the present disclosure may be implemented. As shown in FIG. 15, the communication system 1000 may include a terminal device 1010 that may be implemented as the UE 110 shown in FIG. 1, a network device 1020 that may be implemented as any one of the base stations 120 shown in FIG. 1, and a network function node 1030 that may be implemented as the location server 130 shown in FIG. 1.

[0098] 15 , a terminal device 1010 may include one or more processors 1011, one or more memories 1012, and one or more transceivers 1013 interconnected through one or more buses 1014. The one or more buses 1014 may be address, data, or control buses and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of wires on a motherboard or integrated circuit, optical fibers, optical systems, or other optical communication equipment. Each of the one or more transceivers 1013 may include a receiver and a transmitter, which are connected to one or more antennas 1016. The terminal device 1010 may communicate wirelessly with a network device 1020 through the one or more antennas 1016. The one or more memories 1012 may include instructions 1015 that, when executed by the one or more processors 1011, may cause the terminal device 1010 to perform operations and procedures related to the UE 110, as described above.

[0099] The network device 1020 may include one or more processors 1021, one or more memories 1022, one or more transceivers 1023, and one or more network interfaces 1027, interconnected through one or more buses 1024. The one or more buses 1024 may be address, data, or control buses and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of wires on a motherboard or integrated circuit, optical fibers, optical systems, or other optical communication equipment. Each of the one or more transceivers 1023 may include a receiver and a transmitter, which are connected to one or more antennas 1026. The network device 1020 may operate as a base station for the terminal device 1010 and communicate wirelessly with the terminal device 1010 through the one or more antennas 1026. The one or more network interfaces 1027 may provide wired or wireless communication links through which the network device 1020 may communicate with other network devices, entities, elements, or functions. For example, network device 1020 may communicate with network function node 1030 via backhaul connection 1028. One or more memories 1022 may include instructions 1025 that, when executed by one or more processors 1021, may cause network device 1020 to perform operations and procedures associated with any one of base stations 120.

[0100] The network function node 1030 may include one or more processors 1031, one or more memories 1032, and one or more network interfaces 1037, interconnected through one or more buses 1034. The one or more buses 1034 may be address, data, or control buses and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of wires on a motherboard or integrated circuit, optical fibers, optical systems, or other optical communication equipment. The network function node 1030 operates as a core network function node and may communicate wired or wirelessly with the network devices 1020 through one or more links. The one or more network interfaces 1037 may provide wired or wireless communication links through which the network function node 1030 may communicate with other network devices, entities, elements, or functions. The one or more memories 1032 may include instructions 1035 that, when executed by the one or more processors 1031, may cause the network function node 1030 to perform operations and procedures related to the location server 130, as described above.

[0101] The one or more processors 1011, 1021, and 1031 mentioned above may be of any suitable type suitable for the local technology network and may include one or more of a general-purpose processor, a special-purpose processor, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), one or more processors of a processor-based multi-core processor architecture, and a special-purpose processor such as those developed based on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). The one or more processors 1011, 1021, and 1031 may be configured to control and work in cooperation with other elements of the UE / network device / network element to implement the procedures mentioned above.

[0102] The one or more memories 1012, 1022, and 1032 may include at least one storage medium in various forms, such as transient and / or non-transitory memory. Transitory memory may include, for example, but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM) or cache. Non-transitory memory may include, for example, but is not limited to, read-only memory (ROM), hard disk, flash memory, etc. The term "non-transitory" as used herein is not a limitation on data storage permanence (e.g., RAM vs. ROM), but rather a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal). Furthermore, the one or more memories 1012, 1022, and 1032 may include, but are not limited to, an electric, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination of the above.

[0103] It should be understood that the blocks in the figures may be implemented in various ways, including software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, one or more blocks may be implemented using software and / or firmware, e.g., machine-executable instructions stored on a storage medium. In addition to, or instead of, machine-executable instructions, some or all of the blocks in the figures may be implemented, at least in part, by one or more hardware logic components. For example, without limitation, exemplary types of hardware logic components that may be used include field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application specific standard products (ASSPs), systems-on-chips (SOCs), complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), etc.

[0104] Some exemplary embodiments further provide program instructions or instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, can cause a device or apparatus to perform the procedures described above. The program instructions for performing the procedures of the exemplary embodiments can be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program instructions can be provided to one or more processors or controllers of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus such that, when executed by the processor or controller, the functions / operations specified in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams are performed. The program instructions can be executed entirely on the machine, partially on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partially on the machine and partially on a remote machine, or entirely on a remote machine or server.

[0105] Some exemplary embodiments further provide a computer program product or a computer-readable medium having program instructions or instructions stored therein. The computer-readable medium may be any tangible medium that can contain or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine-readable medium may be a machine-readable signal medium or a machine-readable storage medium. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of machine-readable storage media include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0106] As used herein, "at least one of " and "at least one of " and similar phrases, when a list of two or more elements is connected by "and" or "or", mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all of the elements.

[0107] Furthermore, although operations are shown in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring such operations to be performed in the particular order or sequential order shown, or that all illustrated operations be performed to achieve desirable results. In some situations, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Similarly, while the above description includes details of several specific implementations, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.

[0108] Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and / or method actions, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not limited to the specific features or actions described above. Rather, the specific features and actions described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. A first device in a communication network, at least one processor; at least one memory that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the first device to receiving a first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and a second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier from a second device in the communications network; in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to the positioning reference signal, jointly processing the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal to generate a positioning measurement; at least one memory storing instructions to cause a first device comprising:

2. 2. The first device of claim 1, wherein the first device is a terminal device, the second device is a network device, the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are downlink positioning reference signals, and the oversampling instruction is received from a location server in the communication network or from the second device.

3. 2. The first device of claim 1, wherein the first device is a network device, the second device is a terminal device, the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are sounding reference signals, and the oversampling instruction is received from a location server in the communication network.

4. The first device of claim 1 , wherein the oversampling indication further includes information related to an oversampling factor for the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal.

5. The at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the first device to 5. The first device of claim 4, further storing instructions for oversampling the first and second positioning reference signals in the time domain in response to the oversampling indication before jointly processing the first and second positioning reference signals.

6. oversampling the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal in a time domain; zero-padding resource elements on both sides of the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal in the frequency domain to at least a bandwidth indicated by the oversampling factor; converting the zero-padded first positioning reference signal and the zero-padded second positioning reference signal from a frequency domain to a time domain; The first device of claim 5 , comprising:

7. jointly processing the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal; compensating for a phase offset between the first component carrier and the second component carrier; applying a frequency shift to the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal to obtain a continuous positioning reference signal spectrum at baseband from the received first positioning reference signal and the received second positioning reference signal; The first device of claim 1 , comprising:

8. 8. The first device of claim 7, wherein the frequency shift is applied to concatenate the first and second positioning reference signals at a center frequency between the first and second positioning reference signals in the frequency domain, and a frequency interval between the first and second positioning reference signals caused by a white space or a guard band between the first and second component carriers is removed when the frequency shift is applied in baseband.

9. Compensating for the phase offset between the first component carrier and the second component carrier estimating a first phase of the first component carrier and a second phase of the second component carrier; applying a first phase compensation factor to compensate for the first phase of the first component carrier and applying a second phase compensation factor to compensate for the second phase of the second component carrier; The first device of claim 7 , comprising:

10. estimating the first phase of the first component carrier and the second phase of the second component carrier; estimating a first propagation delay of the first component carrier and a second propagation delay of the second component carrier on a first path from the second device to the first device; determining the first phase of the first component carrier relative to the first propagation delay and the second phase of the second component carrier relative to the second propagation delay; The first device of claim 9 , comprising:

11. estimating the first phase of the first component carrier and the second phase of the second component carrier; unwrapping, in a frequency domain, a first phase response of the first positioning reference signal and a second phase response of the second positioning reference signal, when a first DC subcarrier of the first component carrier is configured for the first positioning reference signal and a second DC subcarrier of the second component carrier is configured for the second positioning reference signal; performing linear interpolation on the first phase response and the second phase response to determine a phase corresponding to the first DC subcarrier of the first component carrier as the first phase of the first component carrier and a phase corresponding to the second DC subcarrier of the second component carrier as the second phase of the second component carrier; The first device of claim 9 , comprising:

12. The at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the first device to performing a frequency flatness check on the first component carrier and the second component carrier to determine a frequency flatness probability; determining the first phase compensation coefficient and the second phase compensation coefficient based at least on the first phase of the first component carrier, the second phase of the second component carrier, and whether the frequency flatness probability is greater than or equal to a threshold; The first device of claim 9 , further storing instructions to:

13. 13. The first device of claim 12, wherein the threshold is configured from the second device when the first device is a terminal device and the second device is a network device serving the terminal device, or from a location server in the communication network.

14. The at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the first device to 13. The first device of claim 12, further storing instructions to cause at least one of the second device or a location server in the communication network to report at least one of the frequency flatness probability, the first phase compensation factor for the first component carrier, or the second phase compensation factor for the second component carrier.

15. The at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the first device to applying the first phase compensation factor and the second phase compensation factor to compensate a third positioning reference signal and a fourth positioning reference signal, respectively; transmitting, to the second device, the third positioning reference signal compensated on the first component carrier and the fourth positioning reference signal compensated on the second component carrier; The first device of claim 12 , further storing instructions to:

16. The at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the first device to The first device of claim 15 , further storing instructions for causing the second device to notify the second device of the phase compensation performed on the third positioning reference signal and the fourth positioning reference signal.

17. the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are downlink positioning reference signals, and the third positioning reference signal and the fourth positioning reference signal are uplink sounding reference signals; or 16. The first device of claim 15, wherein the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are uplink sounding reference signals, and the third positioning reference signal and the fourth positioning reference signal are downlink positioning reference signals.

18. a second device in the communication network, at least one processor; at least one memory that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the second device to oversampling the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to the positioning reference signal; transmitting the first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and the second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier to a first device in the communications network; at least one memory storing instructions to cause a second device comprising:

19. oversampling the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal; zero-padding resource elements on both sides of the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal in the frequency domain to a bandwidth at least equal to a total bandwidth of the first component carrier and the second component carrier; converting the zero-padded first positioning reference signal and the zero-padded second positioning reference signal from a frequency domain to a time domain; 20. The second device of claim 18, comprising:

20. 20. The second device of claim 18, wherein the first device is a terminal device, the second device is a network device, the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are downlink positioning reference signals, and the oversampling instruction is received from a location server in the communication network.

21. 20. The second device of claim 18, wherein the first device is a network device, the second device is a terminal device, the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are sounding reference signals, and the oversampling instruction is received from a location server in the communication network or from the first device.

22. The second device of claim 18 , wherein the oversampling indication further comprises information related to an oversampling factor for oversampling the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal.

23. The at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the second device to 20. The second device of claim 18, further storing instructions to receive, from the first device, at least one of a frequency flatness probability for the first component carrier and the second component carrier, a first phase compensation factor for the first component carrier, or a second phase compensation factor for the second component carrier.

24. The at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the second device to 24. The second device of claim 23, further storing instructions for applying the first phase compensation factor and the second phase compensation factor for subsequent transmissions of the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal, respectively.

25. The at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the second device to receiving a third positioning reference signal on the first component carrier and a fourth positioning reference signal on the second component carrier from the first device; applying the first phase compensation coefficient and the second phase compensation coefficient to compensate the phases of the third positioning reference signal and the fourth positioning reference signal, respectively; 24. The second device of claim 23, further storing instructions to:

26. the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are downlink positioning reference signals, and the third positioning reference signal and the fourth positioning reference signal are uplink sounding reference signals; or 26. The second device of claim 25, wherein the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are uplink sounding reference signals, and the third positioning reference signal and the fourth positioning reference signal are downlink positioning reference signals.

27. 1. A location server in a communications network, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the location server to causing at least one of a network device or a terminal device in the communication network to transmit an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to a positioning reference signal; at least one memory that stores instructions; A location server comprising:

28. The at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the location server to 28. The location server of claim 27, further storing instructions to receive, from at least one of the network device or the terminal device, at least one of a frequency flatness probability for a first component carrier and a second component carrier, a first phase compensation factor for the first component carrier, or a second phase compensation factor for the second component carrier.

29. 28. The location server of claim 27, wherein the oversampling indication further comprises information related to an oversampling factor for oversampling the positioning reference signal.

30. receiving, at a first device in a communications network, a first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and a second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier from a second device in the communications network; in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to the positioning reference signal, jointly processing the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal to generate a positioning measurement; A method comprising:

31. 31. The method of claim 30, wherein the first device is a terminal device, the second device is a network device, the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are downlink positioning reference signals, and the oversampling instruction is received from a location server in the communication network or from the second device.

32. 31. The method of claim 30, wherein the first device is a network device, the second device is a terminal device, the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are sounding reference signals, and the oversampling indication is received from a location server in the communication network.

33. The method of claim 30 , wherein the oversampling indication further comprises information related to an oversampling factor for the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal.

34. 34. The method of claim 33, further comprising oversampling the first and second positioning reference signals in the time domain in response to the oversampling indication before jointly processing the first and second positioning reference signals.

35. oversampling the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal in a time domain; zero-padding resource elements on both sides of the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal in the frequency domain to at least a bandwidth indicated by the oversampling factor; converting the zero-padded first positioning reference signal and the zero-padded second positioning reference signal from a frequency domain to a time domain; 35. The method of claim 34, comprising:

36. jointly processing the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal; compensating for a phase offset between the first component carrier and the second component carrier; applying a frequency shift to the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal to obtain a continuous positioning reference signal spectrum at baseband from the received first positioning reference signal and the received second positioning reference signal; 31. The method of claim 30, comprising:

37. 37. The method of claim 36, wherein the frequency shift is applied to concatenate the first and second positioning reference signals at a center frequency between the first and second positioning reference signals in the frequency domain, and a frequency interval between the first and second positioning reference signals caused by a white space or a guard band between the first and second component carriers is removed when the frequency shift is applied in baseband.

38. Compensating for the phase offset between the first component carrier and the second component carrier estimating a first phase of the first component carrier and a second phase of the second component carrier; applying a first phase compensation factor to compensate for the first phase of the first component carrier and applying a second phase compensation factor to compensate for the second phase of the second component carrier; 37. The method of claim 36, comprising:

39. estimating the first phase of the first component carrier and the second phase of the second component carrier; estimating a first propagation delay of the first component carrier and a second propagation delay of the second component carrier on a first path from the second device to the first device; determining the first phase of the first component carrier relative to the first propagation delay and the second phase of the second component carrier relative to the second propagation delay; 39. The method of claim 38, comprising:

40. estimating the first phase of the first component carrier and the second phase of the second component carrier; unwrapping, in a frequency domain, a first phase response of the first positioning reference signal and a second phase response of the second positioning reference signal, when a first DC subcarrier of the first component carrier is configured for the first positioning reference signal and a second DC subcarrier of the second component carrier is configured for the second positioning reference signal; performing linear interpolation on the first phase response and the second phase response to determine a phase corresponding to the first DC subcarrier of the first component carrier as the first phase of the first component carrier and a phase corresponding to the second DC subcarrier of the second component carrier as the second phase of the second component carrier; 39. The method of claim 38, comprising:

41. performing a frequency flatness check on the first component carrier and the second component carrier to determine a frequency flatness probability; determining the first phase compensation coefficient and the second phase compensation coefficient based at least on the first phase of the first component carrier, the second phase of the second component carrier, and whether the frequency flatness probability is greater than or equal to a threshold; 39. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

42. 42. The method of claim 41, wherein the threshold is configured from the second device when the first device is a terminal device and the second device is a network device serving the terminal device, or from a location server in the communication network.

43. 42. The method of claim 41, further comprising reporting at least one of the frequency flatness probability, the first phase compensation factor for the first component carrier, or the second phase compensation factor for the second component carrier to at least one of the second device or a location server in the communication network.

44. applying the first phase compensation factor and the second phase compensation factor to compensate a third positioning reference signal and a fourth positioning reference signal, respectively; transmitting, to the second device, the third positioning reference signal compensated on the first component carrier and the fourth positioning reference signal compensated on the second component carrier; 42. The method of claim 41, further comprising:

45. 45. The method of claim 44, further comprising notifying the second device of the phase compensation performed on the third and fourth positioning reference signals.

46. the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are downlink positioning reference signals, and the third positioning reference signal and the fourth positioning reference signal are uplink sounding reference signals; or 45. The method of claim 44, wherein the first and second positioning reference signals are uplink sounding reference signals, and the third and fourth positioning reference signals are downlink positioning reference signals.

47. at a second device in the communication network, oversampling the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to the positioning reference signals; transmitting the first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and the second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier to a first device in the communications network; A method comprising:

48. oversampling the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal; zero-padding resource elements on both sides of the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal in the frequency domain to a bandwidth at least equal to a total bandwidth of the first component carrier and the second component carrier; converting the zero-padded first positioning reference signal and the zero-padded second positioning reference signal from a frequency domain to a time domain; 48. The method of claim 47, comprising:

49. 48. The method of claim 47, wherein the first device is a terminal device, the second device is a network device, the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are downlink positioning reference signals, and the oversampling indication is received from a location server in the communication network.

50. 48. The method of claim 47, wherein the first device is a network device, the second device is a terminal device, the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are sounding reference signals, and the oversampling indication is received from a location server in the communication network or from the first device.

51. 48. The method of claim 47, wherein the oversampling indication further comprises information related to an oversampling factor for oversampling the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal.

52. 48. The method of claim 47, further comprising receiving from the first device at least one of a frequency flatness probability for the first component carrier and the second component carrier, a first phase compensation factor for the first component carrier, or a second phase compensation factor for the second component carrier.

53. 53. The method of claim 52, further comprising applying the first and second phase compensation factors for subsequent transmissions of the first and second positioning reference signals, respectively.

54. receiving a third positioning reference signal on the first component carrier and a fourth positioning reference signal on the second component carrier from the first device; applying the first phase compensation coefficient and the second phase compensation coefficient to compensate the phases of the third positioning reference signal and the fourth positioning reference signal, respectively; 53. The method of claim 52, further comprising:

55. the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal are downlink positioning reference signals, and the third positioning reference signal and the fourth positioning reference signal are uplink sounding reference signals; or 55. The method of claim 54, wherein the first and second positioning reference signals are uplink sounding reference signals, and the third and fourth positioning reference signals are downlink positioning reference signals.

56. A method comprising: transmitting, from a location server in a communications network, an oversampling indication to at least one of a network device or a terminal device in the communications network, the oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to a positioning reference signal.

57. 57. The method of claim 56, further comprising receiving at least one of a frequency flatness probability for a first component carrier and a second component carrier, a first phase compensation factor for the first component carrier, or a second phase compensation factor for the second component carrier from at least one of the network device or the terminal device.

58. 57. The method of claim 56, wherein the oversampling indication further comprises information related to an oversampling factor for oversampling the positioning reference signal.

59. means, in a first device in a communications network, for receiving a first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and a second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier from a second device in the communications network; means for jointly processing the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal to generate positioning measurements in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to the positioning reference signal; An apparatus comprising:

60. means, at a second device in the communication network, for oversampling the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to the positioning reference signals; means for transmitting the first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and the second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier to a first device in the communication network; An apparatus comprising:

61. 1. An apparatus comprising: means for transmitting, from a location server in a communications network, an oversampling indication to at least one of a network device or a terminal device in the communications network, the oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to a positioning reference signal.

62. When executed by an apparatus, the apparatus at least: receiving, at a first device in a communications network, a first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and a second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier from a second device in the communications network; in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to the positioning reference signal, jointly processing the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal to generate a positioning measurement; A computer-readable medium containing instructions for performing the following:

63. When executed by an apparatus, the apparatus at least: at a second device in the communication network, oversampling the first positioning reference signal and the second positioning reference signal in response to an oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to the positioning reference signals; transmitting the first positioning reference signal on a first component carrier and the second positioning reference signal on a second component carrier to a first device in the communications network; A computer-readable medium containing instructions for performing the following:

64. When executed by an apparatus, the apparatus at least: A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing a location server in a communication network to transmit an oversampling indication to at least one of a network device or a terminal device in the communication network, the oversampling indication indicating that oversampling is to be applied to a positioning reference signal.

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