Enhanced configuration of channel sounding signals for bandwidth stitching for wireless device positioning

Abstract

The present disclosure describes a system, method, and device for configuring sounding reference signal (SRS) resources across multiple frequency locations for device positioning. The device may encode, for transmission, a user equipment (UE) device including a first set of SRS resources for a first transmission by the UE device to a Node B network device at a first time and a second set of SRS resources for a second transmission by the UE device to the Node B network device at a second time, decode the first transmission received from the UE device using the first set and a first bandwidth at the first time, decode the second transmission received from the UE device using the second set and a second bandwidth at the second time, and combine the first and second transmissions for device positioning estimation based on the first and second bandwidths.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] [Cross-reference to related patent applications] This application claims the benefit of and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 415,036, filed October 11, 2022, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 424,709, filed November 11, 2022, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 501,284, filed May 10, 2023, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth.

[0002] [Technical field] The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for wireless communications, and more particularly to arrangements for channel sounding. [Background technology]

[0003] Wireless devices are becoming more prevalent and are increasingly using wireless channels. The 3rd Generation Partnership Program (3GPP®) is developing one or more standards for wireless communication. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0004] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an exemplary network environment, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 2A] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using sounding reference signal (SRS) bandwidth stitching over multiple SRS resources for multiple different bandwidth portions (BWPs), in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 2B] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via multiple SRS resources for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 3A]FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 3B] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 4A] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 4B] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 5A] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 5B] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 6A] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via SRS resource sets for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 6B] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via SRS resource sets for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 7A] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via SRS resource sets for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 7B] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via SRS resource sets for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 8] FIG. 1 illustrates an example process for wireless device positioning with SRS collision handling, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 9] FIG. 1 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via multiple SRS resources for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 10] FIG. 1 illustrates a network in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 11] 1 is a diagram that schematically illustrates a wireless network, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 12] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating components according to one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0005] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0006] The following description and drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, algorithmic, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, portions and features of other embodiments. The claimed embodiments encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0007] Wireless devices may operate as defined by technology standards. For cellular telecommunications, the Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) defines communication techniques, including those for wireless device positioning. In 3GPP, user equipment (UE) and gNB / eNB may exchange sounding reference signals that allow them to estimate their distance from each other based on time of arrival and time of departure. The 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) standard supports highly accurate positioning in the vertical and horizontal dimensions, relying on timing-based, angle-based, power-based, or hybrid techniques to estimate user position in the network. In particular, the following RAT-dependent positioning techniques may meet positioning requirements for various use cases, e.g., indoor, outdoor, industrial Internet of Things (IoT), etc.: Downlink Time Difference of Arrival (DL-TDOA), Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (UL-TDOA), Downlink Angle of Departure (DL-AoD), Uplink Angle of Arrival (UL AoA), Multi-Cell Round Trip Time (Multi-RTT), and NR Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID).

[0008] With wide bandwidth and beamforming capabilities for positioning signals in the mmWave (millimeter wave) frequency band (e.g., between 24 GHz and 40 GHz), higher positioning accuracy can be achieved by RAT-dependent (radio access technology) positioning techniques. 3GPP Rel-16 (Release 16) introduced downlink positioning reference signals (DL-PRS) and uplink sounding reference signals (UL-SRS) for positioning as enablers to achieve target performance characteristics.

[0009] It would be beneficial to support a class of NR UE with lower complexity and power consumption levels than Rel-15 NR UE that caters to use cases such as industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs), certain types of wearables, and video surveillance, thereby bridging the gap between current low-power wide-area wireless (LPWA) solutions and eMBB solutions in NR, and further facilitating a smooth transition from 3.5G and 4G technologies to 5G (NR) technologies for currently deployed bands that serve related use cases requiring relatively low-to-moderate reference (e.g., median) and peak user throughput, low device complexity, small device form factor, and relatively long battery life.

[0010] Toward this end, it is expected that a class of Reduced Capability (RedCap) NR User Equipment (UE) will be defined that can be served using the currently specified 5G NR framework, with adaptations and extensions necessary to limit device complexity and power consumption while minimizing adverse impacts on network resource utilization, system spectral efficiency, and operational efficiency. In particular, a RedCap UE will support a maximum UE BW of 20 MHz in the Frequency Range 1 (FR1) band and 100 MHz in the FR2 band.

[0011] For RedCap UEs, bandwidth limitations can result in insufficient resolution in the time domain, which can affect the accuracy of DL-TDOA, UL-TDOA, and multi-RTT timing-based positioning methods. To improve positioning accuracy, frequency hopping with a bandwidth stitching method, in which two consecutive frequency hops share some overlapping PRBs, can be considered for transmitting DL-PRS and / or UL-SRS for positioning. In this case, multiple channel observations obtained from frequency hopping measurements can be processed at the receiver and "stitched" into a wideband channel realization, resulting in a shorter sample time period and an expanded discrete Fourier size.

[0012] In one or more embodiments, the present disclosure describes systems and methods for configuring sounding reference signals for bandwidth stitching for positioning. In particular, the present disclosure proposes (1) bandwidth stitching via one sounding reference signal (SRS) resource set and multiple SRS resources associated with different component carriers (CCs) / bandwidth portions (BWPs), (2) bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set associated with different CCs / BWPs, (3) bandwidth stitching via SRS resource sets across different CCs / BWPs, and (4) collision handling between SRS for positioning and other uplink transmissions.

[0013] In one embodiment, the UE may be configured with a component carrier (CC) / bandwidth portion (BWP) used for transmitting the positioning SRS using frequency hopping such that the CC / BWP has a non-zero frequency region overlap between any two consecutive frequency hops.

[0014] In another embodiment, the UE may be configured with an UL BWP used for transmission of the positioning SRS using frequency hopping, such that the bandwidth for the positioning SRS associated with the BWP may exceed the bandwidth of the UL BWP, even though the UL BWPs may not have frequency overlap. In one variation of this embodiment, the UE may forecast the bandwidth for the positioning SRS to map to resources beyond the associated UL BWP, excluding the active UL BWP.

[0015] In other embodiments, the SRS for positioning resources outside of the active UL BWP, excluding the active UL BWP, may be defined directly on the common resource block (CRB) grid on the UL carrier. In this case, the UE may be configured with a common numerology (subcarrier spacing (SCS) and cyclic prefix (CP) length) for use in each of the frequency hops or may be provided with different numerologies across frequency hops. In one example, the common numerology may follow that defined for the UL carrier.

[0016] In another embodiment, the SRS for positioning resources outside the active UL BWP, excluding the active UL BWP, may be associated with a UL frequency region defined on a CRB grid rather than the UL BWP. In this case, the UE may be configured with a common numerology (subcarrier spacing (SCS) and cyclic prefix (CP) length) for use in each of the frequency hops, or may be provided with different numerologies across frequency hops. In one example, the common numerology may follow that defined for the UL carrier.

[0017] In other embodiments, the bandwidths of different frequency hops as well as the bandwidth of the SRS resource may be the same.

[0018] In other embodiments, the bandwidths of different frequency hops as well as the bandwidth of the SRS resources may be provided separately.

[0019] In other embodiments, the bandwidths of different frequency hops, e.g., the bandwidths of the CC or BWP, or frequency regions not included in the active UL BWP, may be different, but the bandwidth of the SRS resources in each hop may be the same.

[0020] In other embodiments, the UE may be configured to transmit using UL transmit power control (TPC) parameters defined for the active UL BWP.

[0021] In other embodiments, the UE may be configured to transmit using UL TPC parameters that may be provided separately for each frequency hop.

[0022] Although the embodiments and examples in this disclosure are described using a CC or BWP, these techniques may also be applied to scenarios where frequency hops outside of an active UL BWP are not associated with other CCs / BWPs.

[0023] An embodiment of bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set and multiple SRS resources associated with different CC / BWPs is provided as follows.

[0024] In one embodiment, for the positioning SRS, frequency hopping with bandwidth stitching may be achieved by configuring one SRS resource set including multiple SRS resources, which may be associated with different CC / BWPs (the association may be configured at the SRS resource level by RRC). The configured bandwidth for each SRS resource may be the same or different.

[0025] The positioning SRS resource set may be configured on the current scheduling CC / BWP. When transmitting the SRS resource set, the SRS resource may be transmitted on the associated CC / BWP. When switching across different CC / BWPs, a gap period should be defined to perform RF retuning. The time interval between two adjacent SRS transmissions on different CC / BWPs should be equal to or greater than the required gap period.

[0026] In a first option, the gap period is before and after an SRS transmission on a CC / BWP other than the current scheduling CC / BWP. In a second option, the gap period is after an SRS transmission on the current scheduling CC / BWP, and the gap period is also after an SRS transmission on a CC other than the current scheduling CC / BWP. In a third option, in the case of operation with more than two CC / BWPs, after transmitting one SRS resource on a CC / BWP other than the scheduling CC / BWP, the UE should always switch back to the scheduling CC / BWP. In a fourth option, in the case of operation with more than two CC / BWPs, after transmitting one SRS resource on a CC / BWP other than the scheduling CC / BWP, the UE remains on the CC / BWP and can then switch to the other CC / BWP for the next SRS transmission.

[0027] In other embodiments, when SRS resources are transmitted on different CC / BWPs, a starting position in the frequency domain for the SRS may be determined for each CC / BWP separately. The starting position in frequency may be defined relative to subcarrier 0 in common resource block 0, the lowest subcarrier of the current scheduling CC / BWP, or the lowest subcarrier of the CC / BWP on which the SRS resource is transmitted. In one example, the starting position in frequency may be configured for each SRS resource, and the existing parameter freqDomainShift may be reused or a new parameter may be defined.

[0028] In other embodiments, for a periodic / semi-persistent SRS resource set configured on the current scheduling CC / BWP, the SRS resources may be further associated with different CCs / BWPs. Correspondingly, different offsets may be configured for SRS resources associated with different CCs / BWPs (different periodicities may also be configured if the numerology may be different for different CCs / BWPs). A new MAC-CE may be introduced to update the association between the SRS resources and the CCs / BWPs, as well as the corresponding periodicities and offsets. The MAC-CE may also be used to activate / deactivate one or more SRS resources in the SRS resource set.

[0029] In other embodiments, for aperiodic SRS resource sets for positioning, SRS resources may be associated with different CC / BWPs. Correspondingly, the slot offset, or available slots, should be configured at the SRS resource level, and different slot offsets, or available slots, may be configured for SRS resources associated with different CC / BWPs.

[0030] In one example, the slot offset / available slot configuration should ensure that the first SRS transmission is on the scheduling CC / BWP. A new MAC-CE may be introduced to update the association between SRS resources and CC / BWPs and the corresponding slot offset / available slots. The MAC-CE may also be used to activate / deactivate some SRS resources in the SRS resource set.

[0031] When downlink control information (DCI) is received and triggers an aperiodic SRS resource set, the SRS resources may be transmitted via the associated CC / BWP. In some aspects, the DCI may be in any format that carries an SRS request field.

[0032] For aperiodic SRS transmission for positioning, if two or more SRS resources are configured in different BWPs, the BWP used for the first SRS resource is determined according to the indicated BWP index in the scheduling DCI.

[0033] An embodiment of bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set associated with different CC / BWPs is provided as follows.

[0034] In one embodiment, frequency hopping with bandwidth stitching may be supported by configuring one SRS resource set associated with different CC / BWPs for the positioning SRS. The positioning SRS resource set may be configured on the current scheduling CC / BWP, and an SRS resource set may be associated with multiple CC / BWPs (association may be configured at the SRS resource set level by RRC). When switching across different CC / BWPs, a gap period should be defined for RF retuning. The time interval between two adjacent SRS transmissions on different CC / BWPs should be equal to or greater than the required gap period.

[0035] In a first option, the gap period is before and after an SRS transmission on a CC / BWP other than the current scheduling CC / BWP. In a second option, the gap period is after an SRS transmission on the current scheduling CC / BWP, and the gap period is also after an SRS transmission on a CC other than the current scheduling CC / BWP. In a third option, in the case of operation with more than two CC / BWPs, after an SRS transmission on a CC / BWP other than the scheduling CC / BWP, the UE should always switch back to the scheduling CC / BWP. In a fourth option, in the case of operation with more than two CC / BWPs, after an SRS transmission on a CC / BWP other than the scheduling CC / BWP, the UE remains on the CC / BWP and may then switch to the other CC / BWP for the next SRS transmission.

[0036] In another embodiment, when the SRS is transmitted on different CC / BWPs, the starting position in the frequency domain for the SRS should be determined for each CC / BWP. The starting position in frequency may be defined relative to subcarrier 0 in common resource block 0, or the starting position in frequency may be defined relative to the lowest subcarrier of the current scheduling CC / BWP, or the starting position in frequency may be defined relative to the lowest subcarrier of the CC / BWP on which the SRS is transmitted. In one example, the starting position in frequency may be configured for each associated CC / BWP.

[0037] In other embodiments, for a periodic / semi-persistent SRS resource set configured on the current scheduling CC / BWP, the resource set may be associated with multiple CC / BWPs by RRC signaling, and the periodicity and offset may be configured for each associated CC / BWP accordingly (different periodicities may also be configured if the numerology is different for different CC / BWPs). A new MAC-CE may be introduced to update the associated CC / BWP and the corresponding periodicity and offset.

[0038] In another embodiment, for an aperiodic SRS resource set, it is configured on the current scheduling CC / BWP. For an aperiodic SRS resource set, it may be associated with multiple CC / BWPs (the association is configured at the SRS resource set level by RRC), and correspondingly, the slot offset or available slots should be configured in each associated CC / BWP (in one example, the slot offset / available slot configuration should ensure that the first SRS transmission is on the scheduling CC / BWP). A new MAC-CE may be introduced to update the associated CC / BWP and the corresponding slot offset / available slots. When a DCI triggering an aperiodic SRS resource set is received (the DCI can be in any format carrying an SRS request field), the SRS resource set is transmitted on each associated CC / BWP. Alternatively, the DCI may indicate multiple CC / BWPs (which may be new fields, or existing reused fields, or reused unused fields) over which the triggered SRS resource sets are transmitted (in this case, the association with the CC / BWP may not be configured by RRC, or the association is configured but updated by the DCI).

[0039] An embodiment of bandwidth stitching via SRS resource sets on different CC / BWPs is provided as follows.

[0040] In one embodiment, for positioning SRS, frequency hopping with bandwidth stitching can be achieved by multiple SRS resource sets configured for different CC / BWPs, with a single positioning SRS resource set configured for each single CC / BWP. When switching between different CC / BWPs, a gap period should be defined for RF retuning. The time interval between two adjacent SRS transmissions on different CC / BWPs should be equal to or greater than the required gap period.

[0041] In one option, the gap period is before and after the SRS resource set transmitted on a CC / BWP other than the current scheduling CC / BWP. In another option, the gap period is after the SRS resource set transmitted via the current scheduling CC / BWP, and the gap period is also after the SRS resource set transmitted on a CC / BWP other than the current scheduling CC / BWP. In a third option, in the case of operation with more than two CC / BWPs, after an SRS transmission via a CC / BWP other than the scheduling CC / BWP, the UE should always switch back to the scheduling CC / BWP. In a fourth option, in the case of operation with more than two CC / BWPs, after an SRS transmission on a CC / BWP other than the scheduling CC / BWP, the UE can stay on the CC / BWP and then switch to the other CC / BWP for the next SRS transmission.

[0042] In other embodiments, multiple periodic / semi-persistent SRS resource sets, each associated with a CC / BWP, may be configured for periodic / semi-persistent SRS. A new MAC-CE may be introduced to activate / deactivate periodic / semi-persistent SRS transmissions on multiple CC / BWPs.

[0043] In other embodiments, multiple SRS resource sets, each associated with a CC / BWP, may be configured for aperiodic SRS. The SRS resource sets should be configured with the same trigger state.

[0044] In one option, the carrier indicator field in the DCI (DCI format 0_1 / 0_2 / 1_1 / 1_2) may be extended to a bitmap, which may trigger aperiodic SRS resource sets on different CCs / BWPs. Alternatively, some unused fields in the DCI without scheduling (0_1 / 0_2 / 1_1 / 1_2) may be reused to indicate multiple CCs / BWPs for SRS transmission. In another option, a group-common DCI may be used to trigger SRS resource sets on different CCs / BWPs. The existing DCI 2_3 may be reused, or a new group-common DCI may be defined.

[0045] Collision handling of positioning SRS with other uplink transmissions (in the following embodiments, the terms "uplink time window", "measurement gap", and "positioning SRS transmission window" are interchangeable). An embodiment of collision handling of positioning SRS with other uplink transmissions is given as follows:

[0046] In one embodiment, a measurement gap or positioning SRS transmission window may be defined, where positioning SRS across different BWP / CCs, i.e., with frequency hopping, may be transmitted within the measurement gap or SRS processing window.

[0047] In one option, if within a measurement gap, i.e., a positioning SRS transmission window, the transmission of the positioning SRS collides in time with other DL or UL signals or channels, the positioning SRS takes priority, which may depend on the UE capabilities, and in this case the other DL or UL signals / channels may be canceled.

[0048] As a further enhancement, if within a measurement gap, i.e. an uplink time window for positioning SRS with frequency hopping, the transmission of the positioning SRS collides in time with other DL or UL signals or channels except for SSB, PRACH, Msg2 including PDCCH and associated PDSCH for scheduling Msg2 during the RAR window, Msg3, Msg4 including PDCCH and associated PDSCH for scheduling Msg4 during the contention resolution window, MsgA PRACH, MsgA PUSCH, MsgB and / or PUCCH carrying HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 and MsgB, the positioning SRS takes priority, which may depend on the UE capabilities. In this case, other DL or UL signals / channels may be cancelled except for PRACH, Msg2 including the PDCCH and associated PDSCH for scheduling Msg2 during the RAR window, Msg3, Msg4 including the PDCCH and associated PDSCH for scheduling Msg4 during the contention resolution window, MsgA PRACH carrying HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 and MsgB, MsgA PUSCH, MsgB and / or PUCCH.

[0049] In another option, a measurement gap, i.e., an uplink time window for transmission of the positioning SRS with frequency hopping, may be configured for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED mode. Furthermore, if within a measurement gap, i.e., a positioning SRS transmission window for transmission of the positioning SRS with frequency hopping, the positioning SRS transmission conflicts in time with other DL or UL signals or channels except for SSB, Msg2 including a PDCCH for scheduling Msg2 and the associated PDSCH during the RAR window, the associated scheduling PDCCH for scheduling Msg3 PUSCH and Msg3 retransmissions, the MsgA PUSCH and the associated scheduling PDCCH for scheduling MsgA PUSCH retransmissions, MsgB and / or a PUCCH carrying a HARQ-ACK in response to MsgB, the positioning SRS takes priority, which may depend on the UE capabilities. In this case, other DL or UL signals / channels may be cancelled except for the SSB, the PDCCH for scheduling Msg2 and Msg2 including the associated PDSCH during the RAR window, the Msg3 PUSCH and the associated scheduling PDCCH for scheduling Msg3 retransmissions, the MsgA PUSCH and the associated scheduling PDCCH for scheduling MsgA PUSCH retransmissions, MsgB and / or the PUCCH carrying a HARQ-ACK in response to MsgB.

[0050] If a positioning SRS transmission using frequency hopping outside the initial BWP in RRC_INACTIVE mode collides with another DL or UL signal or channel in the time domain with any switching time, the positioning SRS transmission may be dropped in the symbol(s) where the collision occurs. In one example, the switching time may correspond to the value indicated in the upper layer parameter switchingTimeSRS-TX-OtherTX. In one example, in the event of a collision, all frequency-hopped positioning SRS transmissions for a given opportunity may be canceled. In another example, in the event of a collision, only frequency-hopped positioning SRS transmissions that overlap with other DL or UL signals or channels may be canceled.

[0051] Another option is that if the transmission of the positioning SRS collides in time with other DL or UL signals or channels within a measurement gap or positioning SRS transmission window, all symbols of the positioning SRS are cancelled, which may depend on the UE capabilities.

[0052] In other options, whether to drop the SRS transmission for positioning may depend on periodic, semi-persistent scheduling, or aperiodic SRS transmission. In one example, for periodic or semi-persistent scheduling-based SRS transmission for positioning, all symbols of the SRS for positioning are canceled within the measurement gap, i.e., the SRS transmission window for positioning.

[0053] In another example, in the case of aperiodic SRS transmission for positioning, all symbols of the positioning SRS transmission are transmitted within a measurement gap, i.e., a positioning SRS transmission window, in which case other DL or UL signals / channels may be canceled.

[0054] In another example, a UE configured with frequency hopping for positioning SRS may be configured with a measurement gap or positioning SRS transmission window that includes all transmission opportunities over the configured CC / BWP. Alternatively, a UE configured with frequency hopping for positioning SRS may be configured with a measurement gap or positioning SRS transmission window that includes only transmission opportunities over configured CC / BWPs that are outside of the active UL BWP in the currently active serving cell.

[0055] When performing collision handling, for DCI(s) where the time interval between the last symbol of the PDCCH scheduling the DL or UL channel / signal and the first transmission of the SRS is at least N1 symbols / slots, the channel or signal scheduled by the DCI is considered for collision handling. For DCI(s) where the time interval between the last symbol of the PDCCH scheduling the DL or UL channel / signal and the first transmission of the SRS is less than N1 symbols / slots, the channel or signal scheduled by the DCI may not be considered for collision handling even if the signal has a high priority. The value of N1 may be predefined or may depend on the UE's capabilities.

[0056] In another embodiment of the present invention, if a UE is expected to switch from a first CC / BWP to a second CC / BWP for a positioning SRS transmission using frequency hopping, and any symbols for the positioning SRS transmission in the second CC / BWP may collide with any other DL or UL channel / signal configured by a higher layer or dynamically triggered / instructed / scheduled for reception or transmission in the first or second CC / BWP, the positioning SRS may be transmitted and the DL or UL channel / signal may be dropped. This may apply when the other DL or UL channel / signal may have a higher priority. If a DCI triggering a high-priority signal is received after the UE has already switched to BWP#2, the UE may remain on BWP#2 and the high-priority signal may be dropped.

[0057] In one option, a common timeline may be defined for the positioning SRS, i.e., an interval of N symbols / slots may be defined prior to the first SRS transmission, where N may be predefined or dependent on UE capabilities. DCI received after the time instance indicated by the N symbols / slots prior to the first SRS transmission may not be considered for collision processing.

[0058] In another option, a separate timeline may be defined for each SRS transmission on a different CC / BWP for the location SRS, i.e., an interval of N symbols / slots may be defined prior to each SRS transmission, where N may be predefined or dependent on UE capabilities. DCI received after the time instance indicated by the N symbols / slots prior to the SRS transmission may not be considered for collision processing.

[0059] In another embodiment of the present invention, the positioning SRS transmission window, i.e., the uplink time window, may be configured by higher layers via RRC signaling, in particular the starting symbol, slot index, and number of symbols or slots in the uplink time domain.

[0060] In one option, the UE may use a Media Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE) to request one or more uplink timing windows for activation or deactivation of the SRS for positioning with frequency hopping for a RedCap UE. In this case, a new logical channel identifier (eLCID) may be defined for requesting one or more uplink time windows for activation or deactivation of the SRS for positioning with frequency hopping.

[0061] Table 1 below shows an example of a MAC-CE for requesting one uplink time window for activation or deactivation of SRS for positioning with frequency hopping for a RedCap UE. In the figure, UL Timing Window ID indicates the identifier of the configured UL timing window for SRS for positioning with frequency hopping for a RedCap UE. The A / D field indicates the activation or deactivation of the UL timing window for SRS for positioning with frequency hopping. The field is set to 1 to indicate activation, otherwise it indicates deactivation. The R field indicates a reserved bit and is set to 0.

[0062] Table 1: Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) for requesting uplink time windows for activating or deactivating SRS for positioning with frequency hopping

[0063] [Table 1]

[0064] In another option, the gNB may send activation or deactivation commands for one or more uplink time windows for SRS for positioning with frequency hopping for RedCap UEs using MAC-CE, in which case a new logical channel identifier (eLCID) may be defined for the activation or deactivation commands for one or more uplink time windows for SRS for positioning with frequency hopping.

[0065] Table 2 below shows the MAC-CE for an activation or deactivation command of one uplink time window for SRS for positioning with frequency hopping for a RedCap UE. In the figure, UL Timing Window ID indicates the identifier of the configured UL timing window for SRS for positioning with frequency hopping for a RedCap UE. The A / D field indicates the activation or deactivation of the UL timing window for SRS for positioning with frequency hopping. The field is set to 1 to indicate activation, otherwise it indicates deactivation. The R field indicates a reserved bit and is set to 0.

[0066] Table 2: MAC-CE for SRS activation or deactivation commands for positioning with frequency hopping

[0067] [Table 2]

[0068] In other embodiments, one or more uplink time windows for positioning the SRS using frequency hopping may be configured in the RRC release message, which may apply in some aspects when the UE is in an RRC inactive state.

[0069] Furthermore, the above embodiments for activating and deactivating the uplink time window may be applied.

[0070] The above description is for purposes of illustration and is not meant to be limiting. Numerous other examples, configurations, processes, algorithms, etc. may exist, some of which are described in detail below. Exemplary embodiments are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0071] FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an exemplary network environment 100, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0072] The wireless network 100 may include one or more UEs 120 and one or more RANs 102 (e.g., gNBs), which may communicate in accordance with 3GPP communication standards. The UEs 120 may be mobile devices that are non-stationary (e.g., do not have a fixed location) or may be stationary devices.

[0073] In some embodiments, the UE 120 and the RAN 102 may include one or more computer systems similar to those of FIGS.

[0074] One or more exemplary UEs 120 and / or RAN 102 may be operable by one or more users 110. A UE may have multiple different characteristics, each of which shapes its functionality. For example, a single addressable unit may simultaneously be a portable UE, a quality of service (QoS) UE, a dependent UE, and a hidden UE. A UE 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) and / or RAN 102 may include any suitable processor-driven device, including, but not limited to, a mobile device or a non-mobile, e.g., static, device. For example, a UE120 may be a software enabled AP (SoftAP), a personal computer, a wearable wireless device (e.g., a bracelet, a watch, eyeglasses, a ring, etc.), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, an ultrabook™ computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a sensor device, a PDA device, a handheld PDA device, an on-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device (e.g., combining cellular phone functionality with PDA device functionality), a consumer device, a vehicular device, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a non-mobile or portable device, a mobile phone, , cellular telephones, PCS devices, PDA devices incorporating wireless communication devices, mobile or portable GPS devices, DVB devices, relatively small computing devices, non-desktop computers, "Carry Small Live Large" (CSLL) devices, ultra-mobile devices (UMDs), ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs), mobile internet devices (MIDs), "origami" devices or computing devices, devices supporting dynamically configurable computing (DCC), context-aware devices, video devices, audio devices, A / V devices, set-top boxes (STBs), Blu-ray Disc (BD) players, BD recorders, digital video disc (DVD) players, high-definition (HD) DVD players, DVD recorders, HDThese may include DVD recorders, personal video recorders (PVRs), broadcast HD receivers, video sources, audio sources, video sinks, audio sinks, stereo tuners, broadcast radio receivers, flat panel displays, personal media players (PMPs), digital video cameras (DVCs), digital audio players, speakers, audio receivers, audio amplifiers, gaming devices, data sources, data sinks, digital still cameras (DSCs), media players, smartphones, televisions, music players, etc. Other devices may also be included in this list, including smart devices such as lamps, environmental controls, auto parts, household parts, appliances, etc.

[0075] As used herein, the term “Internet of Things (IoT) device” is used to refer to any thing (e.g., an appliance, a sensor, etc.) that has an addressable interface (e.g., an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a Bluetooth® identifier (ID), a Near Field Communication (NFC) ID, etc.) and can transmit information to one or more other devices via a wired or wireless connection. An IoT device may have a passive communication interface, such as a Quick Response (QR) code, a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, an NFC tag, or an active communication interface, such as a modem, a transceiver, or a transmitter-receiver. An IoT device may have a particular set of attributes (e.g., a device state or status, such as whether the IoT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available or busy to perform a task, cooling or heating capabilities, the ability to monitor or record the environment, the ability to emit light, the ability to emit sound, etc.) that may be incorporated into and / or controlled / monitored by a central processing unit (CPU), microprocessor, ASIC, etc. and configured to connect to an IoT network, such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example, IoT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators, toasters, ovens, microwave ovens, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools, clothes washers, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners, thermostats, televisions, lighting fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers, electric meters, gas meters, etc. IoT devices may also include mobile phones, desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc. Thus, an IoT network may be composed of a combination of "legacy" internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop or desktop computers, mobile phones, etc.) in addition to devices that typically do not have internet connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).

[0076] The UEs 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and any of the UEs 120 may be configured to communicate with each other wirelessly or wired via one or more communication networks 130 and / or 135. The UEs 120 may also communicate with each other peer-to-peer or directly, with or without the RAN 102. Any of the communication networks 130 and / or 135 may include any one of a combination of different types of suitable communication networks, such as, but not limited to, a broadcast network, a cable network, a public network (e.g., the Internet), a private network, a wireless network, a cellular network, or any other suitable private and / or public network. Furthermore, any of the communication networks 130 and / or 135 may have any suitable communication range associated therewith and may include, for example, a cellular network. Additionally, either communication network 130 and / or 135 may include any type of medium over which network traffic may be carried, including, but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted pair wire, optical fiber, hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) medium, microwave terrestrial transceiver, radio frequency communication medium, white space communication medium, ultra-high frequency communication medium, satellite communication medium, or any combination thereof.

[0077] Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may include one or more communication antennas. The one or more communication antennas may be any suitable type of antenna compatible with the communication protocols used by the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, and 128) and the RAN 102. Some non-limiting examples of suitable communication antennas include cellular antennas, 3GPP family standards-compatible antennas, directional antennas, omnidirectional antennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patch antennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, omnidirectional antennas, quasi-omnidirectional antennas, etc. The one or more communication antennas may be communicatively coupled to radio components for transmitting and / or receiving signals, such as communication signals, to and / or from the UE 120 and / or the RAN 102.

[0078] Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may be configured to perform directional transmission and / or directional reception while communicating over the air in a wireless network. Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may be configured to perform such directional transmission and / or reception using a set of multiple antenna arrays (e.g., DMG antenna arrays, etc.). Each of the multiple antenna arrays may be used for transmission and / or reception in a specific respective direction or range of directions. Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may be configured to perform any given directional transmission toward one or more defined transmit sectors. Either the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) or the RAN 102 may also be configured to perform any given directional reception from one or more defined receive sectors.

[0079] MIMO beamforming in wireless networks may be achieved using RF beamforming and / or digital beamforming. In some embodiments, when performing a given MIMO transmission, the UE 120 and / or the RAN 102 may be configured to use all or a subset of its one or more communication antennas to perform MIMO beamforming.

[0080] Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may include any suitable radio and / or transceiver for transmitting and / or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in a bandwidth and / or channel corresponding to a communication protocol utilized by either the UE 120 or the RAN 102 to communicate with each other. The radio component may include hardware and / or software for modulating and / or demodulating communication signals according to a pre-established transmission protocol. The radio component may further include hardware and / or software instructions for communicating via one or more 3GPP protocols and using a 3GPP bandwidth. The radio component may include any known receiver and baseband suitable for communicating via the communication protocol. The radio component may further include a low noise amplifier (LNA), an additional signal amplifier, an analog-to-digital (A / D) converter, one or more buffers, and a digital baseband.

[0081] 1, one or more of the UEs 120 can exchange frames 140 with the RAN 102. The frames 140 can include UL and DL frames, including signaling for configuring SRS transmissions across multiple BWPs for bandwidth stitching by receiving devices, SRS transmissions, and other transmissions described herein.

[0082] It is understood that the above description is for purposes of illustration and is not meant to be limiting.

[0083] FIG. 2A illustrates an example process 200 for wireless device positioning using sounding reference signal (SRS) bandwidth stitching via multiple SRS resources for multiple different bandwidth portions (BWPs), in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0084] 2A , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. Both BWP 202 and BWP 204 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1 ). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource A (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 , which includes an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource A, UE 206 may wait a period of time, and then, during time Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource B (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource B, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt (which may be the same as or different from Δt). In process 200, a gap period (e.g., dedicated to SRS resource transmission for positioning) may start before and end after completing transmission of SRS resource B on BWP 204. Each BWP may use one resource set for positioning.

[0085] FIG. 2B illustrates an example process 250 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching over multiple SRS resources for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0086] 2B , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. Both BWP 202 and BWP 204 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource A (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS that defines SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource A, UE 206 may wait a period of time, and then, during time Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource B (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource B, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt (which may be the same as or different from Δt). In process 250, a gap period (e.g., dedicated to SRS resource transmission for positioning) may start after completing transmission of SRS resource A on BWP 202 and may end after completing transmission of SRS resource B on BWP 204. Each BWP may use one resource set for positioning.

[0087] FIG. 3A illustrates an example process 300 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0088] 3A , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. BWP 202, BWP 204, and BWP 302 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1 ). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource A (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 , which includes an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource A, UE 206 may wait a certain period of time, and then, during time Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource B (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource B, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt2 (which may be the same as or different from Δt1) before switching from BWP 202 to BWP 302 during time Δt3. After switching to BWP 302, UE 206 may send SRS resource C (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource C, the UE 206 may switch back to the BWP 202 during a time Δt4 (which may be either the same as or different from Δt1).

[0089] FIG. 3B illustrates an example process 350 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0090] 3B , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. BWP 202, BWP 204, and BWP 302 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource A (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource A, UE 206 may wait a period of time, and then, during time Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource B (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource B, UE 206 may switch to BWP 302 during time Δt. After switching to BWP 302, UE 206 may send SRS resource C (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource C, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt (which may be the same as or different from Δt).

[0091] FIG. 4A illustrates an example process 400 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0092] 4A , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. Both BWP 202 and BWP 204 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1 ). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 , which includes an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may wait a certain period of time, and then, during time Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt2 (which may be either the same as or different from Δt1). In process 400, a gap period (e.g., dedicated to positioning SRS resource transmission) may start before and end after completing transmission of SRS resource B on BWP 204.

[0093] FIG. 4B illustrates an example process 450 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0094] 4B , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. Both BWP 202 and BWP 204 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS that defines SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204 during time Δt1. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt2 (which may be either the same as or different from Δt1). In process 450, a gap period (e.g., dedicated to positioning SRS resource transmission) may start before and end after completing transmission of SRS resource B on BWP 204.

[0095] FIG. 5A illustrates an example process 500 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0096] 5A, BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. BWP 202, BWP 204, and BWP 302 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS that defines SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may wait a period of time, and then, during time Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt2 (which may be the same as or different from Δt1) before switching from BWP 202 to BWP 302 during time Δt3. After switching to BWP 302, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 1, the UE 206 may switch back to the BWP 202 during a time Δt4 (which may be the same as or different from Δt1).

[0097] FIG. 5B illustrates an example process 550 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via one SRS resource set for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0098] 5B , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. BWP 202, BWP 204, and BWP 302 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS that defines SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may wait a certain time, and then, for a time period Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may switch to BWP 302 during time Δt. After switching to BWP 302, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may switch again to BWP 202 during time Δt (which may be the same as or different from Δt).

[0099] FIG. 6A illustrates an example process 600 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via SRS resource sets for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0100] 6A , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. Both BWP 202 and BWP 204 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1 ). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 , which includes an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource A, UE 206 may wait a period of time, and then, during time Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 2 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 2, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt2 (which may be the same as or different from Δt1). In process 600, a gap period (e.g., dedicated to SRS resource transmission for positioning) may start before and end after completing transmission of SRS resource set 2 on BWP 204.

[0101] FIG. 6B illustrates an example process 650 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via SRS resource sets for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0102] 6B , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. Both BWP 202 and BWP 204 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS that defines SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource A, UE 206 may wait a period of time, and then during time Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204 during time Δt3. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 2 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 2, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt (which may be the same as or different from Δt). In process 650, a gap period (e.g., dedicated to positioning SRS resource transmission) may start after completing transmission of SRS resource A on BWP 202 and end after completing transmission of SRS resource set 2 on BWP 204.

[0103] FIG. 7A illustrates an example process 700 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via SRS resource sets for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0104] 7A , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. BWP 202, BWP 204, and BWP 302 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1 ). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 , which includes an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may wait a period of time, and then, during time Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 2 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 2, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt2 (which may be the same as or different from Δt1) before switching from BWP 202 to BWP 302 during time Δt3. After switching to BWP 302, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 3 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 3, the UE 206 may switch back to the BWP 202 during a time Δt4 (which may be the same as or different from Δt1).

[0105] FIG. 7B illustrates an example process 750 for wireless device positioning using SRS bandwidth stitching via SRS resource sets for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0106] 7B , BWP 202 may represent a scheduling BWP. BWP 202, BWP 204, and BWP 302 may be used by UE 206 and gNB / eNB (e.g., RAN 102 of FIG. 1). BWP 202 as a scheduling BWP may be an active BWP when UE 206 transmits SRS resource set 1 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS that defines SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After transmitting SRS resource set 1, UE 206 may wait a period of time, and then, during time Δt1, UE 206 may switch from BWP 202 to BWP 204. After switching to BWP 204, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 2 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 2, UE 206 may switch to BWP 302 during time Δt. After switching to BWP 302, UE 206 may send SRS resource set 3 (e.g., to RAN 102 based on frame 140 of FIG. 1 including an SRS defining SRS resources to be sent across different BWPs at different times to enable bandwidth stitching for positioning operations). After sending SRS resource set 3, UE 206 may switch back to BWP 202 during time Δt (which may be the same as or different from Δt).

[0107] FIG. 8 illustrates an example process 800 for wireless device positioning with SRS collision handling, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0108] 8, the UE 206 may send an SRS on the BWP 202 and then switch to the BWP 204 during time Δt1. In step 802, DCI (e.g., which may trigger a high priority signal 804) may be received by the UE on the BWP 202. If the high priority signal 804 is to be transmitted during any symbol of the SRS to be transmitted (e.g., on the BWP 204), the UE 206 may drop (e.g., cancel transmission of) the high priority signal 804. After transmitting the SRS on the BWP 204, the UE 206 may switch back to the BWP 202 during time Δt2.

[0109] FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process 900 for wireless device positioning with SRS bandwidth stitching via multiple SRS resources for multiple different BWPs, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0110] In block 902, a device (e.g., UE device 120 of FIG. 1, UE 1002 of FIG. 10, which may be a RedCap UE) may encode a sounding reference signal (SRS) for transmission to a network node, the SRS including a first set of SRS resources to be used in a first transmission between the UE device and a Node B network device at a first time and a second set of SRS resources to be used in a second transmission between the UE device and the Node B network device at a second time.

[0111] At block 904, the device may decode a received first transmission in response to the SRS at a first time using a first set of SRS resources and a first bandwidth.

[0112] In block 906, the device may decode the received second transmission in response to the SRS at a second time using a second set of SRS resources and a second bandwidth, where the first bandwidth partially overlaps with the second bandwidth. If the SRS includes resources for additional bandwidth (e.g., a BWP), the UE may transmit an additional SRS transmission on the additional bandwidth to be used in positioning operations along with the first and second transmissions.

[0113] In block 908, the device may combine the first transmission and the second transmission (and any other SRS transmissions from the UE over the contiguous bandwidth) for a device positioning estimation operation based on a combined bandwidth that includes the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth. In this manner, the device may use bandwidth stitching for transmissions over different portions of the contiguous bandwidth to perform channel estimation across the combined contiguous bandwidth in a positioning (e.g., device location estimation) operation.

[0114] These embodiments are not intended to be limiting.

[0115] 10 is a diagram illustrating a network 1000 according to various embodiments. The network 1000 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G / NR systems. However, example embodiments are not limited thereto, and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems.

[0116] The network 1000 may include a UE 1002, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with the RAN 1004 over a wireless connection. The UE 1002 may be communicatively coupled to the RAN 1004 by a Uu interface. The UE 1002 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a wearable computing device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment device, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument cluster, a head-up display device, an on-board diagnostic device, a dash-top mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic / engine control unit, an electronic / engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a networked appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an IoT device, etc.

[0117] In some embodiments, the network 1000 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M / D2D devices communicating using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, and PSFCH.

[0118] In some embodiments, the UE 1002 may further communicate with the AP 1006 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 1006 may manage a WLAN connection, which may be responsible for offloading some / all network traffic from the RAN 1004. The connection between the UE 1002 and the AP 1006 may conform to any IEEE 802.11 protocol, and the AP 1006 may be a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) router. In some embodiments, the UE 1002, the RAN 1004, and the AP 1006 may utilize cellular-WLAN aggregation (e.g., LWA / LWIP). Cellular-WLAN aggregation may include the UE 1002 being configured by the RAN 1004 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0119] The RAN 1004 may include one or more access nodes, such as the AN 1008. The AN 1008 may terminate air interface protocols for the UE 1002 by providing access stratum protocols, including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and L1 protocols. In this manner, the AN 1008 may enable data / voice connectivity between the CN 1020 and the UE 1002. In some embodiments, the AN 1008 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer, either in a separate device or as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as, for example, a CRAN or a virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 1008 may be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 1008 may be a macrocell base station or a low-power base station for providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell having a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to a macrocell.

[0120] In embodiments where the RAN 1004 includes multiple ANs, they may be coupled to one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 1004 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 1004 is a 5G RAN). The X2 / Xn interface, which in some embodiments may be separated into a control / user plane interface, may allow the ANs to communicate information regarding handover, data / context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

[0121] The ANs of the RAN 1004 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc., and provide the UE 1002 with an air interface for network access. The UE 1002 may be simultaneously connected to multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 1004. For example, the UE 1002 and the RAN 1004 may use carrier aggregation to enable the UE 1002 to connect to multiple component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or an Scell. In a dual connectivity scenario, the first AN may be a master node providing an MCG, and the second AN may be a secondary node providing an SCG. The first / second ANs may be any combination of eNBs, gNBs, ng-eNBs, etc.

[0122] The RAN 1004 may provide an air interface over licensed or unlicensed spectrum. To operate in unlicensed spectrum, a node may use LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms based on carrier aggregation techniques using PCell / SCell. Before accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the node may perform a medium / carrier sensing operation, for example, based on a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0123] In a V2X scenario, the UE 1002 or the AN 1008 may be or function as an RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. The RSU may be implemented within or by an appropriate AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented within or by a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU,” an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU,” a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU,” etc. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to radio frequency circuits located on the roadside that provide connectivity support to passing vehicular UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high-speed events such as collision avoidance and traffic warnings. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular / WLAN communication services. The RSU components may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network.

[0124] In some embodiments, the RAN 1004 may be an LTE RAN 1010 having an eNB, e.g., eNB 1012. The LTE RAN 1010 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: a 15 kHz SCS, a CP-OFDM waveform for DL ​​and an SC-FDMA waveform for UL, turbo codes for data, and TBCC for control. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management, PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH / PDCCH demodulation, and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation / detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate on sub-6 GHz bands.

[0125] In some embodiments, the RAN 1004 may be an NG-RAN 1014 having a gNB, e.g., gNB 1016, or an ng-eNB, e.g., ng-eNB 1018. The gNB 1016 may connect to a 5G-capable UE using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 1016 may connect to a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 1018 may also connect to the 5G core through the NG interface, but may connect to a UE through an LTE air interface. The gNB 1016 and the ng-eNB 1018 may connect to each other through an Xn interface.

[0126] In some embodiments, the NG interface may be divided into two parts: an NG User Plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between nodes of the NG-RAN 1014 and the UPF 1048 (e.g., the N3 interface), and an NG Control Plane (NG-C) interface, which is the signaling interface between nodes of the NG-RAN 1014 and the AMF 1044 (e.g., the N2 interface).

[0127] The NG-RAN 1014 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS, CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL, polarity, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control, and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface, like the LTE air interface, may rely on CSI-RS and PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS. The 5G-NR air interface may not use CRS but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation, PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH, and tracking reference signals for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operate on the FR1 band, which includes sub-6 GHz bands, or the FR2 band, which includes bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include SSB, which is an area of ​​the downlink resource grid that includes PSS / SSS / PBCH.

[0128] In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWPs may be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, a UE 1002 may be configured with multiple BWPs, each BWP configuration having a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 1002, the SCS of the transmission also changes. Another example use case of a BWP relates to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs may be configured for a UE 1002 with different amounts of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic load scenarios. A BWP with fewer PRBs may be used for data transmission with a light traffic load while enabling power saving at the UE 1002 and, potentially, at the gNB 1016. A BWP with more PRBs may be used for scenarios with a higher traffic load.

[0129] The RAN 1004 is communicatively coupled to the CN 1020, which includes network elements for providing various functions to support data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 1002). The components of the CN 1020 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 1020 onto physical compute / storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 1020 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 1020 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

[0130] In some embodiments, the CN 1020 may be an LTE CN 1022, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 1022 may include an MME 1024, an SGW 1026, an SGSN 1028, an HSS 1030, a PGW 1032, and a PCRF 1034, which are coupled to each other via interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functionality of the elements of the LTE CN 1022 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0131] The MME 1024 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE 1002 to facilitate paging, bearer activation / deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, and the like.

[0132] The SGW 1026 may terminate the S1 interface towards the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 1022. The SGW 1026 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0133] The SGSN 1028 may track the location of the UE 1002 and perform security functions and access control. Additionally, the SGSN 1028 may perform EPC inter-node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks, selection of PDN and S-GW designated by the MME 1024, MME selection for handover, etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 424 and the SGSN 1028 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle / active state.

[0134] The HSS 1030 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entity's processing of communication sessions. The HSS 1030 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, name / address resolution, location dependency, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 1030 and the MME 1024 may enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing user access to the LTE CN 1020.

[0135] The PGW 1032 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 1036, which may include an application / content server 1038. The PGW 1032 may route data packets between the LTE CN 1022 and the data network 1036. The PGW 1032 may be coupled to the SGW 1026 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 1032 may further include a node (e.g., a PCEF) for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Furthermore, the SGi reference point between the PGW 1032 and the data network 1036 may be an operator-external public, private PDN, or intra-operator packet data network, for example, for the provision of IMS services. The PGW 1032 may be coupled to the PCRF 1034 via a Gx reference point.

[0136] The PCRF 1034 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 1022. The PCRF 1034 may be communicatively coupled to an app / content server 1038 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for a service flow. The PCRF 1032 may provision the associated rules to the PCEF (over the Gx reference point) with the appropriate TFT and QCI.

[0137] In some embodiments, the CN 1020 may be a 5GC 1040. The 5GC 1040 may include an AUSF 1042, an AMF 1044, an SMF 1046, a UPF 1048, an NSSF 1050, an NEF 1052, an NRF 1054, a PCF 1056, a UDM 1058, and an AF 1060 coupled to each other via interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functionality of the elements of the 5GC 1040 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0138] The AUSF 1042 may store data and handle authentication-related functions for authentication of the UE 1002. The AUSF 1042 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 1040 through reference points as shown, the AUSF 1042 may exhibit a Nausf service-based interface.

[0139] The AMF 1044 may enable other functions of the 5GC 1040 to communicate with the UE 1002 and the RAN 1004 and subscribe to notifications about mobility events related to the UE 1002. The AMF 1044 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., to register the UE 1002), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 1044 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 1002 and the SMF 1046 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 1044 may also provide transport for SMS messages between the UE 1002 and the SMSF. The AMF 1044 may interact with the AUSF 1042 and the UE 1002 and perform various security anchor and context management functions. Additionally, the AMF 1044 may be the termination point of the RAN CP interface and may include or be the N2 reference point between the RAN 1004 and the AMF 1044. The AMF 1044 may be the termination point of NAS (N1) signaling and may perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. The AMF 1044 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 1002 via the N3 IWF interface.

[0140] The SMF 1046 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, tunnel management between the UPF 1048 and the AN 1008), UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization), selection and control of UP functions, configuring traffic steering in the UPF 1048 to route traffic to the appropriate destination, termination of the interface towards the policy control function, policy enforcement, charging, and control of parts of QoS, lawful interception (for SM events and the interface towards the L1 system), termination of the SM portion of NAS messages, downlink data notification, initiating AN-specific SM information transmitted via the AMF 1044 through N2 to the AN 1008, and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connection service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 1002 and the data network 1036.

[0141] The UPF 1048 may function as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point for interconnection to the data network 1036, and a branch point for supporting multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 1048 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, enforce the user plane portion of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), traffic usage reporting, QoS processing for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), uplink traffic validation (e.g., SDF-to-QoS flow mapping), transport-level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering, and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 1048 may include an uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to the data network.

[0142] The NSSF 1050 may select a set of network slice instances to serve the UE 1002. The NSSF 1050 may also determine the allowed NSSAIs and their mapping to subscribed S-NSSAIs, if necessary. The NSSF 1050 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 1002, or a list of candidate AMFs based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 1054. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 1002 may be triggered by the AMF 1044 to which the UE 1002 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 1050, which may lead to an AMF change. The NSSF 1050 may interact with the AMF 1044 via the N22 reference point and may communicate with other NSSFs in the visited network via the N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 1050 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0143] The NEF 1052 may securely expose services and capabilities offered by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 1060), edge computing systems, or fog computing systems. In such embodiments, the NEF 1052 may authenticate, authorize, or restrict AFs. The NEF 1052 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 1060 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 1052 may translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF 1052 may also receive information from other NFs based on the other NFs' published capabilities. This information may be stored in the NEF 1052 as structured data or in a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be republished by the NEF 1052 to other NFs and AFs or used for other purposes, such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 1052 may exhibit an NEF service-based interface.

[0144] The NRF 1054 supports service discovery functionality, receives NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provides information about discovered NF instances to the NF instances. The NRF 1054 also maintains information about available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, terms such as "instantiate," "instantiation," and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to a specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 1054 may exhibit an Nnrf service-based interface.

[0145] The PCF 1056 may provide policy rules for controlling and enforcing plane functions and may support a unified policy framework for managing network behavior. The PCF 1056 may also implement a front end for accessing subscription information related to policy decisions within the UDRs of the UDM 1058. In addition to communicating with functions through reference points as shown, the PCF 1056 exhibits an Npcf service-based interface.

[0146] The UDM 1058 may process subscription-related information to support processing of communication sessions for network entities and may store subscription data for the UE 1002. For example, the subscription data may be communicated via the N8 reference point between the UDM 1058 and the AMF 1044. The UDM 1058 may include two parts: an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store structured data for subscription and policy data for the UDM 1058 and the PCF 1056, and / or exposure and application data for the NEF 1052 (including PFD for application discovery, application requirement information for multiple UEs 1002). A Nudr service-based interface may be indicated by the UDR to enable the UDM 1058, the PCF 1056, and the NEF 1052 to access specific sets of stored data as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of associated data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses the subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. As shown, in addition to communicating with other NFs via reference points, the UDM 1058 may expose a Nudm service-based interface.

[0147] The AF 1060 may influence applications on traffic routing, provide access to the NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

[0148] In some embodiments, the 5GC 1040 may enable edge computing by selecting an operator / third-party service that is geographically close to the point where the UE 1002 attaches to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide an edge computing implementation, the 5GC 1040 may select a UPF 1048 close to the UE 1002 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 1048 to the data network 1036 via the N6 interface. This may be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 1060. In this way, the AF 1060 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on the operator's deployment, when the AF 1060 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator may allow the AF 1060 to interact directly with associated NFs. Additionally, the AF 1060 may exhibit a NAF service-based interface.

[0149] Data network 1036 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services, which may be provided by one or more servers, including, for example, application / content server 1038 .

[0150] 11 is a diagram that schematically illustrates a wireless network 1100 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 1100 may include a UE 1102 that is in wireless communication with an AN 1104. The UE 1102 and the AN 1104 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, similarly named components described elsewhere herein.

[0151] The UE 1102 may be communicatively coupled to the AN 1104 via a connection 1106. The connection 1106 is shown as an air interface enabling the communicative coupling and may correspond to a cellular communication protocol such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating in mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies.

[0152] The UE 1102 may include a host platform 1108 coupled to a modem platform 1110. The host platform 1108 may include an application processing circuit 1112 that may be coupled to a protocol processing circuit 1114 of the modem platform 1110. The application processing circuit 1112 may execute various applications for the UE 1102 to source / sink application data. The application processing circuit 1112 may further perform one or more layer operations to send / receive application data to / from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) and Internet (e.g., IP) operations.

[0153] The protocol processing circuit 1114 may perform one or more of the layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 1106. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuit 1114 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

[0154] The modem platform 1110 may further include digital baseband circuitry 1116 that may implement one or more layer operations that are "lower" layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 1114 in a network protocol stack. These operations may include PHY operations including, for example, one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling / descrambling, encoding / decoding, layer mapping / demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol / bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding / decoding that may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency, or spatial coding, reference signal generation / detection, preamble sequence generation and / or decoding, synchronization sequence generation / detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

[0155] The modem platform 1110 may further include transmit circuitry 1118, receive circuitry 1120, RF circuitry 1122, and an RF front end (RFFE) 1124, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 1126. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 1118 may include digital-to-analog converters, mixers, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc., the receive circuitry 1120 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, etc., the RF circuitry 1122 may include low-noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, power tracking components, etc., and the RFFE 1124 may include filters (e.g., surface / bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the transmit circuitry 1118, receive circuitry 1120, RF circuitry 1122, RFFE 1124, and antenna panel 1126 components (collectively referred to as "transmit / receive components") may be specific to the details of a particular implementation, such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies. In some embodiments, the transmit / receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit / receive chains, may be located on the same or different chips / modules, etc.

[0156] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuit 1114 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functionality for the transmit / receive components.

[0157] UE reception may be established by and through the antenna panel 1126, the RFFE 1124, the RF circuitry 1122, the receive circuitry 1120, the digital baseband circuitry 1116, and the protocol processing circuitry 1114. In some embodiments, the antenna panel 1126 may receive transmissions from the AN 1104 by receive-beamforming signals received by multiple antennas / antenna elements of one or more of the antenna panels 1126.

[0158] UE transmissions may be established by and through the protocol processing circuitry 1114, the digital baseband circuitry 1116, the transmit circuitry 1118, the RF circuitry 1122, the RFFE 1124, and the antenna panel 1126. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 1104 may apply spatial filters to data to be transmitted to form transmit beams emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panel 1126.

[0159] Similar to the UE 1102, the AN 1104 may include a host platform 1128 coupled to a modem platform 1130. The host platform 1128 may include an application processing circuit 1132 coupled to the protocol processing circuit 1134 of the modem platform 1130. The modem platform may further include a digital baseband circuit 1136, a transmit circuit 1138, a receive circuit 1140, an RF circuit 1142, an RFFE circuit 1144, and an antenna panel 1146. The components of the AN 1104 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the similarly named components of the UE 1102. In addition to performing data transmission / reception as described above, the components of the AN 1108 may perform various logical functions, including RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

[0160] FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, a computer-readable medium that can read instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) to perform any one or more of the methodologies described herein. Specifically, FIG. 12 illustrates a schematic diagram of hardware resources 1200, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1210, one or more memory / storage devices 1220, and one or more communication resources 1230, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1240 or other interface circuitry. In embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1202 may execute to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1200.

[0161] Processor 1210 may include, for example, processor 1212 and processor 1214. Processor 1210 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), other processors (including those described herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0162] The memory / storage device 1220 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 620 may include any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory, such as, but not limited to, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0163] Communications resources 1230 may include interconnect or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices for communicating with one or more peripheral devices 1204 or one or more databases 1206 or other network elements over network 1208. For example, communications resources 1230 may include wired communications components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communications components, NFC components, Bluetooth (or Bluetooth Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi (or other communications components), and other communications components.

[0164] The instructions 1250 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code that cause at least one of the processors 1210 to perform any one or more of the methods described herein. The instructions 1250 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1210 (e.g., in a processor's cache memory), within the memory / storage device 1220, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1250 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1200 from any combination of the peripheral device 1204 or the database 1206. Accordingly, the memory of the processor 1210, the memory / storage device 1220, the peripheral device 1204, and the database 1206 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0165] The following examples relate to further embodiments.

[0166] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components depicted in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods as described in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described below. As another example, circuitry associated with a UE, a base station, a network element, etc. described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described below in the example section.

[0167] The term "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any embodiment described herein as "exemplary" should not necessarily be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. As used herein, the terms "computing device," "user device," "communication station," "station," "handheld device," "mobile device," "wireless device," and "user equipment" (UE) refer to wireless communication devices such as cellular phones, smartphones, tablets, netbooks, wireless terminals, laptop computers, femtocells, high data rate (HDR) subscriber stations, access points, printers, point-of-sale devices, access terminals, or other personal communications system (PCS) devices. Devices may be mobile or stationary.

[0168] As used herein, the term "communicating" is intended to include transmitting, receiving, or both transmitting and receiving. This can be particularly useful in claims when describing an organization of data that is transmitted by one device and received by another, but where only the functionality of one of those devices is required to infringe a claim. Similarly, a two-way exchange of data between two devices (where both devices transmit and receive during the exchange) can be described as "communicating" when only the functionality of one of those devices is recited in the claims. The term "communicating" as used herein with respect to wireless communication signals includes transmitting wireless communication signals and / or receiving wireless communication signals. For example, a wireless communication unit capable of communicating wireless communication signals may include a wireless transmitter for transmitting wireless communication signals to at least one other wireless communication unit and / or a wireless communication receiver for receiving wireless communication signals from at least one other wireless communication unit.

[0169] As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the use of ordinal adjectives such as "first," "second," "third," etc. to describe a common object merely indicates reference to different instances of the same object and is not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given order, temporally, spatially, or rank-ordered, or in any other way.

[0170] As used herein, the term "access point" (AP) may refer to a fixed station. An access point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station, an evolved node (eNodeB), or some other similar terminology known in the art. An access terminal may also be referred to as a mobile station, a user equipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or some other similar terminology known in the art. TECHNICAL FIELD The embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to wireless networks. Some embodiments may relate to wireless networks that operate according to one of the IEEE 802.11 standards.

[0171] Some embodiments may be used with a variety of devices and systems, such as personal computers (PCs), desktop computers, mobile computers, laptop computers, notebook computers, tablet computers, server computers, handheld computers, handheld devices, personal digital assistant (PDA) devices, handheld PDA devices, on-board devices, off-board devices, hybrid devices, vehicular devices, non-vehicular devices, mobile or portable devices, consumer devices, non-mobile or non-portable devices, wireless communication stations, wireless communication devices, wireless access points (APs), wired or wireless routers, wired or wireless modems, video devices, audio devices, audio-video (A / V) devices, wired or wireless networks, wireless area networks, wireless video area networks (WVANs), local area networks (LANs), wireless LANs (WLANs), personal area networks (PANs), wireless PANs (WPANs), and the like.

[0172] Some embodiments may be used with one-way and / or two-way wireless communication systems, cellular radiotelephone communication systems, mobile phones, cellular phones, wireless phones, personal communication system (PCS) devices, PDA devices incorporating wireless communication devices, mobile or portable global positioning system (GPS) devices, devices incorporating GPS receivers or transceivers or chips, devices incorporating RFID elements or chips, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transceivers or devices, single-input multiple-output (SIMO) transceivers or devices, multiple-input single-output (MISO) transceivers or devices, devices with one or more internal and / or external antennas, digital video broadcast (DVB) devices or systems, multi-standard wireless devices or systems, wired or wireless handheld devices, e.g., smartphones, wireless application protocol (WAP) devices, etc.

[0173] Some embodiments may utilize one or more wireless communication protocols, such as radio frequency (RF), infrared (IR), frequency division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal FDM (OFDM), time division multiplexing (TDM), time division multiple access (TDMA), enhanced TDMA (E-TDMA), general packet radio service (GPRS), enhanced GPRS, code division multiple access (CDMA), wideband CDMA (WCDMA), CDMA 2000, single-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier modulation (MDM), discrete multi-tone (DMT), Bluetooth®, global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, ZigBee, ultra-wideband (UWB), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks, 3GPP, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), etc. Other embodiments may be used in various other devices, systems, and / or networks.

[0174] Various embodiments are described below.

[0175] Example 1 is an apparatus of a user equipment (UE) device for configuring a set of sounding reference signal (SRS) resources across multiple frequency locations for device positioning, the apparatus including a processing circuit coupled to a storage for storing information associated with configuring, the processing circuit configured, by the UE device, for transmission, a first set of sounding reference signal (SRS) resources to be used in a first transmission between the user equipment (UE) device and a Node B network device at a first time and a second set of sounding reference signal (SRS) resources to be used in a second transmission between the UE device and the Node B network device at a second time. and a second set of SRS resources to be used in the received first transmission, decode a received first transmission at a first time using the first set of SRS resources and a first bandwidth in response to the SRS, decode a received second transmission at a second time using the second set of SRS resources and a second bandwidth in response to the SRS, the first bandwidth partially overlapping with the second bandwidth, and combine the first and second transmissions for a device positioning estimation operation based on a combined bandwidth including the first and second bandwidths.

[0176] Example 2 may include the device of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, where the first set is the same as the second set.

[0177] Example 3 can include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, where the first set is different from the second set.

[0178] Example 4 may include the apparatus of example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first bandwidth is different from the second bandwidth.

[0179] Example 5 may include the apparatus of example 1 and / or any other example herein, where the first bandwidth is the same as the first bandwidth.

[0180] Example 6 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, where the first bandwidth is an active bandwidth portion (BWP) at a first time and the second bandwidth is an inactive bandwidth at a second time.

[0181] Example 7 may include the apparatus of Example 6 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission are received during a time period designated for the SRS resource, the time period starting before at least the second transmission and ending after at least the second transmission is completed.

[0182] Example 8 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein the SRS further includes a third set of SRS resources to be used in a third transmission by the UE device to the Node B network device at a third time, and wherein decoding and combining the received third transmission at the third time using the third set and a third bandwidth in response to the SRS further includes combining the third transmission with the first transmission and the second transmission, the combined bandwidth further including a third bandwidth, and the third bandwidth partially overlapping with the second bandwidth and not overlapping with the first bandwidth.

[0183] Example 9 may include the apparatus of Example 8 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first set, the second set, and the third set are defined on a common resource block grid.

[0184] Example 10 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first set of SRS resources includes a first SRS resource associated with a first bandwidth and a second SRS resource associated with a second bandwidth.

[0185] Example 11 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to encode a radio resource control (RRC) message indicating the first time and the second time for transmission to the UE device.

[0186] Example 12 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein the uplink time window is configured by RRC signaling with a starting symbol, a starting slot, and a number of symbols and slots.

[0187] Example 13 may include the apparatus of Example 12 and / or any other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to encode a first set of SRS resources for transmission during the uplink time window and cancel one or more additional uplink signals or channels during the uplink time window.

[0188] Example 14 may include a computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by the processing circuit, cause a processing circuit of a user equipment (UE) device for configuring a set of sounding reference signal resources across multiple frequency locations for device positioning to cause the UE device to encode, for transmission, an SRS including a first set of sounding reference signal (SRS) resources to be used in a first transmission between the UE device and a Node B network device at a first time and a second set of SRS resources to be used in a second transmission between the UE device and the Node B network device at a second time; cause the device to decode, in response to the SRS, the received first transmission at the first time using the first set and a first bandwidth; cause the device to decode, in response to the SRS, the received second transmission at the second time using the second set and a second bandwidth; and combine the first transmission and the second transmission for a device positioning estimation operation based on a combined bandwidth including the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth, the first bandwidth partially overlapping the second bandwidth.

[0189] Example 15 may include the computer-readable storage medium of Example 14 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first set is the same as the second set.

[0190] Example 16 may include the computer-readable storage medium of Example 14 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first set is different from the second set.

[0191] Example 17 is a method for configuring a set of sounding reference signal resources across multiple frequency locations for device positioning, the method including: encoding, by processing circuitry in a user equipment (UE) device, for transmission, a sounding reference signal (SRS) including a first set of SRS resources to be used in a first transmission between the user equipment (UE) device and a Node B network device at a first time and a second set of SRS resources to be used in a second transmission between the UE device and the Node B network device at a second time; and decoding, by a processing circuit, a first transmission received in response to the SRS at a first time using a first set of SRS resources and a first bandwidth; decoding, by a processing circuit, a second transmission received in response to the SRS at a second time using a second set of SRS resources and a second bandwidth, wherein the first bandwidth partially overlaps with the second bandwidth; and combining, by the processing circuit, the first transmission and the second transmission for a device positioning estimation operation based on a combined bandwidth including the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth.

[0192] Example 18 may include the method of Example 17 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first bandwidth is different from the second bandwidth.

[0193] Example 19 can include a computer-readable storage medium including instructions for performing the method of either Example 17 or Example 18.

[0194] Example 20 can include an apparatus comprising means for performing the method of either Example 17 or Example 18.

[0195] Embodiments according to the present disclosure are disclosed in the accompanying claims, which are particularly directed to methods, storage media, devices, and computer program products, and any feature recited in one claim category, e.g., a method, may also be claimed in other claim categories, e.g., a system. Dependencies or references to preceding matters in the accompanying claims are selected for formality reasons only. However, any subject matter resulting from an intentional reference to any preceding claim (e.g., multiple dependencies) may also be claimed, and as a result, any combination of claims and their features is disclosed and may be claimed regardless of the dependencies selected in the accompanying claims. Subject matter that may be claimed includes not only combinations of features recited in the accompanying claims, but also any other combination of features in the claims, and each feature recited in a claim may be combined with any other feature or combination of features in the claim. Furthermore, any embodiment and feature described or illustrated herein may be claimed in a separate claim and / or in any combination with any embodiment or feature described or illustrated herein or with any feature of the accompanying claims.

[0196] The above description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

[0197] Some aspects of the present disclosure are described above with reference to block diagrams and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and / or computer program products according to various implementations. It will be understood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flow diagrams, respectively, may be implemented by computer-executable program instructions. Similarly, some blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams may not necessarily be performed in the order presented, or may not necessarily be performed at all, according to some implementations.

[0198] These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded into a special-purpose computer or other specific machine, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particular machine, such that the instructions executing on the computer, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for performing one or more functions specified in one or more blocks of the flowcharts. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or memory that can instruct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium produce a product including instruction means for performing one or more functions specified in one or more blocks of the flowcharts. As an example, one implementation may provide a computer program product that includes a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code or program instructions embodied thereon, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functions specified in one or more blocks of the flowcharts. Computer program instructions may also be loaded into a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus and cause the computer or other programmable apparatus to perform a series of operational elements or steps, generating a computer-implemented process, such that the instructions executing on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elements or steps for performing the functions specified in one or more blocks of the flowcharts.

[0199] Thus, the blocks in the block diagrams and flow charts support combinations of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of elements or steps for performing the specified functions, and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flow charts, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flow charts, can be implemented by a dedicated hardware-based computer system that performs the specified functions, elements, or steps, or a combination of dedicated hardware and computer instructions.

[0200] In particular, conditional language such as "can," "should," "might," or "could" is intended to generally convey that some implementations may include certain features, elements, and / or operations, while other implementations do not, unless expressly stated otherwise or understood otherwise within the context in which it is used. Thus, such conditional language does not generally imply that the features, elements, and / or operations are somehow required in one or more implementations, or that one or more implementations necessarily include logic for determining, with or without user input or prompts, whether these features, elements, and / or operations are included in or should be performed in any particular implementation.

[0201] Many modifications and other implementations of the disclosure described herein will be apparent with the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. It is therefore to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.

[0202] For purposes of this specification, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the embodiments and embodiments discussed herein.

[0203] As used herein, the term “circuitry” refers to, is a part of, or includes hardware components, such as electronic circuits, logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or group) and / or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or programmable SoCs), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., configured to provide a described functionality. In some embodiments, a circuitry can execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” can also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuitry used in an electrical or electronic system) and program code used to perform the functions of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuit.

[0204] As used herein, the term “processor circuit” refers to, is a part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically performing a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and / or transferring digital data. A processing circuit may include one or more processing cores that execute instructions and one or more memory structures that store program and data information. The term “processor circuit” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, physical central processing units (CPUs), single-core processors, dual-core processors, triple-core processors, quad-core processors, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and / or functional processes. A processing circuit may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms “application circuit” and / or “baseband circuit” may be considered synonymous with “processor circuit” and may be referred to as “processor circuit.”

[0205] As used herein, the term "interface circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuitry" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I / O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, etc.

[0206] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device having wireless communication capabilities and may represent a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous with and may be referred to as client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0207] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment and / or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and / or may be referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and / or the like.

[0208] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic device, computing device, or component thereof. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to each other. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computing devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to each other and configured to share computing and / or networking resources.

[0209] As used herein, the terms "appliance," "computer appliance," and the like refer to a computing device or system having program code (e.g., software or firmware) specifically designed to provide particular computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computing appliance, or is otherwise dedicated to providing particular computing resources.

[0210] As used herein, the term “resource” refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component in a computing environment, and / or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as a computer device, a mechanical device, memory space, processor / CPU time, processor / CPU usage, processor and accelerator load, hardware time or usage, power, input / output operations, ports or network sockets, channel / link assignments, throughput, memory usage, storage, networks, databases and applications, workload units, etc. “Hardware resources” may refer to computational, storage, and / or network resources provided by physical hardware elements. “Virtualization resources” may refer to computational, storage, and / or network resources provided by a virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The terms “network resources” or “communication resources” may refer to resources accessible by a computer device / system via a communication network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entity for providing services and may include computing and / or network resources. A system resource can be thought of as a coherent set of functionality, network data objects, or services accessible through a server, where such a system resource resides on a single host or multiple hosts and is clearly identifiable.

[0211] The term "channel," as used herein, refers to any tangible or intangible transmission medium used to communicate data or data streams. The term "channel" may be synonymous with and / or equivalent to "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," and / or any other similar term indicating a path or medium over which data is communicated. Additionally, the term "link," as used herein, refers to a connection between two devices via a RAT for transmitting and receiving information.

[0212] As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instantiation," and the like refer to the creation of an instance. An "instance" may also refer to a specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0213] The terms "coupled" and "communicatively coupled," along with their derivatives, are used herein. The term "coupled" can mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term "directly coupled" can mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" can mean that two or more elements can be in contact with each other by means of communication, including via a wire or other interconnection, via a wireless communication channel or link, and / or the like.

[0214] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the individual contents of an information element or the data element that contains the contents.

[0215] Unless used differently herein, terms, definitions, and abbreviations may be consistent with those defined in 3GPP TR 21.905 v16.0.0(2019-06) and / or any other 3GPP standard. For purposes of this specification, the following abbreviations (shown in Table 3) may apply to the embodiments and examples discussed herein:

[0216] [Table 3-1] [Table 3-2] [Table 3-3] [Table 3-4] [Table 3-5] [Table 3-6] [Table 3-7] [Table 3-8] [Table 3-9] [Table 3-10] [Table 3-11] [Table 3-12] [Table 3-13] [Table 3-14] Table 3-15 Table 3-16 Table 3-17 Table 3-18 Table 3-19

Claims

1. 1. An apparatus for a user equipment (UE) device for configuring a set of sounding reference signal resources across a plurality of frequency locations for device positioning, the apparatus including: a processing circuit coupled to a storage for storing information associated with the configuring; and Encoding, by the UE device, for transmission, a sounding reference signal (SRS) including a first set of SRS resources to be used in a first transmission between the UE device and a Node B network device at a first time and a second set of SRS resources to be used in a second transmission between the UE device and the Node B network device at a second time; decoding the received first transmission in response to the SRS at the first time using the first set of SRS resources and a first bandwidth; decoding the received second transmission in response to the SRS at the second time using the second set of SRS resources and a second bandwidth, the first bandwidth partially overlapping the second bandwidth; configured to combine the first transmission and the second transmission for a device positioning estimation operation based on a combined bandwidth including the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth. Device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first set is the same as the second set.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first set is different from the second set.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first bandwidth is different from the second bandwidth.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first bandwidth is the same as the first bandwidth.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first bandwidth is an active bandwidth portion (BWP) at the first time and the second bandwidth is an inactive bandwidth at the second time.

7. 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission are received during a time period designated for an SRS resource, the time period starting before at least the second transmission and ending after at least the second transmission is completed.

8. the SRS further includes a third set of SRS resources to be used in a third transmission by the UE device to the Node B network device at a third time; decoding the received third transmission in response to the SRS at the third time using the third set and a third bandwidth; the combining further includes combining the third transmission with the first transmission and the second transmission, the combined bandwidth further including the third bandwidth; the third bandwidth partially overlaps with the second bandwidth and does not overlap with the first bandwidth; 8. An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the first set, the second set, and the third set are defined on a common resource block grid.

10. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first set of SRS resources includes a first SRS resource associated with the first bandwidth and a second SRS resource associated with the second bandwidth.

11. The processing circuitry encoding a radio resource control (RRC) message indicating the first time and the second time for transmission to the UE device; The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

12. 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the uplink time window is configured by RRC signaling with a starting symbol, a starting slot, and a number of symbols and slots.

13. The processing circuitry encoding the first set of SRS resources for transmission during the uplink time window; canceling one or more additional uplink signals or channels during the uplink time window; The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising:

14. a processing circuit in a user equipment (UE) device for configuring a set of sounding reference signal resources across a plurality of frequency locations for device positioning, the processing circuit, upon execution of instructions by the processing circuit, encoding, by the UE device, a sounding reference signal (SRS) for transmission, the SRS including a first set of SRS resources to be used in a first transmission between the UE device and a Node B network device at a first time and a second set of SRS resources to be used in a second transmission between the UE device and the Node B network device at a second time; decoding the received first transmission in response to the SRS at the first time using the first set and a first bandwidth; causing the device to decode the received second transmission at the second time using the second set and a second bandwidth in response to the SRS, the first bandwidth partially overlapping the second bandwidth; combining the first transmission and the second transmission for a device positioning estimation operation based on a combined bandwidth including the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth; including the instructions A computer-readable storage medium.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the first set is the same as the second set.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the first set is different from the second set.

17. 1. A method for configuring a set of sounding reference signal resources across multiple frequency locations for device positioning, the method comprising: encoding, by a processing circuit in a user equipment (UE) device, for transmission, a sounding reference signal (SRS) including a first set of SRS resources to be used in a first transmission between the user equipment (UE) device and a Node B network device at a first time and a second set of SRS resources to be used in a second transmission between the UE device and the Node B network device at a second time; decoding, by the processing circuitry, the first transmission received in response to the SRS using the first set of SRS resources and a first bandwidth at the first time; decoding, by the processing circuitry, the second transmission received in response to the SRS at the second time using the second set of SRS resources and a second bandwidth, wherein the first bandwidth partially overlaps the second bandwidth; combining, by the processing circuitry, the first transmission and the second transmission for a device positioning estimation operation based on a combined bandwidth that includes the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth; A method comprising:

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the first bandwidth is different from the second bandwidth.

19. 19. A computer readable storage medium containing instructions for performing the method of any of claims 17 or 18.

20. 19. Apparatus comprising means for carrying out the method according to any of claims 17 or 18.

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