A computational complexity framework for positioning reference signal processing

Abstract

In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) sends a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of the UE, the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform in time, frequency, or both, and the UE performs a first set of positioning-related measurements on a set of positioning reference signal (PRS) resources and reports a second set of positioning-related measurements based on the UE's reported positioning capability, a set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning-related measurements, a set of reporting parameters, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof.

Description

Claiming priority

[0001]

[0001] This patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Greek Patent Application No. 20190100354, entitled "COMPUTATION COMPLEXITY FRAMEWORK FOR POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNAL PROCESSING," filed on August 13, 2019, and U.S. Nonprovisional Patent Application No. 16 / 991,920, entitled "COMPUTATION COMPLEXITY FRAMEWORK FOR POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNAL PROCESSING," filed on August 12, 2020, both of which are assigned to the assignee of this application and are expressly incorporated by reference in their entireties herein. [Technical field]

[0002] Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communications and the like. [Background technology]

[0003]

[0003] Wireless communication systems have evolved through various generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including intermediate 2.5G networks), third generation (3G) high speed data, Internet-enabled wireless service, and fourth generation (4G) service (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). Currently, there are many different types of wireless communication systems in use, including cellular and personal communication service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the Cellular Analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and the like.

[0004]

[0004] The fifth generation (5G) mobile standard requires, among other improvements, higher data rates, a larger number of connections, and better coverage. The 5G standard by the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance (also called "New Radio" or "NR") is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to each of tens of thousands of users, and 1 gigabit per second to a few dozen workers on an office floor. To support large sensor deployments, hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections must be supported. As a result, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobile communications must be significantly enhanced compared to the current 4G / LTE standards. Furthermore, signaling efficiency must be enhanced and latency must be significantly reduced compared to the current standards. Summary of the Invention

[0005]

[0005] The following provides a simplified summary related to one or more aspects disclosed herein. As such, the following summary should not be considered an extensive overview related to all contemplated aspects, nor should the following summary be considered to identify key or critical elements related to all contemplated aspects or to delineate the scope related to any particular aspect. As such, the following summary has the sole purpose of presenting, in a simplified form, some concepts related to one or more aspects related to the mechanisms disclosed herein, prior to the detailed description presented below.

[0006]

[0006] In one aspect, a method of wireless communications performed by a user equipment (UE) includes sending a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of the UE, the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both; receiving a request to perform a first set of positioning related measurements and to report a second set of positioning related measurements, the second set of positioning related measurements being associated with a set of positioning reference signal (PRS) resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, a set of reporting parameters to be used for the reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof; performing the first set of positioning related measurements on a set of PRS resources; and reporting the second set of positioning related measurements based on the reported positioning capability of the UE, the set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof.

[0007]

[0007] In one aspect, an apparatus for wireless communications includes a transceiver of a UE configured to send a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of the UE, the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both; receive a request to perform a first set of positioning related measurements and to report a second set of positioning related measurements, the second set of positioning related measurements being associated with a set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, a set of reporting parameters to be used for the reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof; perform the first set of positioning related measurements on the set of PRS resources; and report the second set of positioning related measurements based on the reported positioning capability of the UE, the set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof.

[0008]

[0008] In one aspect, an apparatus for wireless communications includes means for sending a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of a UE, the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both, means for receiving a request to perform a first set of positioning related measurements and to report a second set of positioning related measurements, the second set of positioning related measurements being associated with a set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, a set of reporting parameters to be used for the reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof, and means for performing the first set of positioning related measurements on a set of PRS resources and for reporting the second set of positioning related measurements based on the reported positioning capability of the UE, the set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof.

[0009]

[0009] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions includes at least one instruction to instruct a UE to send a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of the UE, the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform in time, in frequency, or both, and at least one instruction to instruct the UE to perform a first set of positioning related measurements and to receive a request to report a second set of positioning related measurements, the second set of positioning related measurements indicating a P to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements. and at least one instruction to instruct a UE to perform a first set of positioning related measurements on a set of PRS resources associated with a set of PRS resources, a set of reporting parameters to be used for the reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof, and to report a second set of positioning related measurements based on the reported UE positioning capabilities, the set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof.

[0010]

[0010] Other objects and advantages associated with the embodiments disclosed herein will become apparent to those skilled in the art based on the accompanying drawings and detailed description.

[0011]

[0011] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in the explanation of various aspects of the present disclosure and are provided merely to illustrate those aspects, not to limit them. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1]

[0012] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communication system in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 2A]

[0013] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network structure in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 2B]FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network structure in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 3A]

[0014] 1 is a simplified block diagram of several sample aspects of components that may be employed in a UE in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 3B] 1 is a simplified block diagram of several sample aspects of components that may be employed in a base station in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 3C] 1 is a simplified block diagram of several sample aspects of components that may be employed within a network entity in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 4]

[0015] 1 illustrates an example frame structure in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Diagram 5]

[0016] FIG. 2 illustrates an example PRS configuration, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 6]

[0017] 4A-4C illustrate example techniques for estimating a location of a mobile device using information obtained from multiple base stations, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 7A]

[0018] 1 illustrates an example technique for estimating a location of a UE using round trip time measurements associated with multiple base stations, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 7B]

[0019] 1 illustrates an example technique for estimating a location of a UE using information obtained from a single base station, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 8]

[0020] FIG. 1 illustrates characteristics of a beamforming wireless signal from a base station to a UE, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 9]

[0021] FIG. 2 illustrates an example beam between a base station and a UE, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 10]

[0022] 1 illustrates an example physical layer procedure for processing PRS transmitted on multiple beams, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 11]

[0023] 1 is a diagram of an example PRS processing method, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 12]

[0024] 1 illustrates various PRS resource configurations per physical resource block (PRB) that a UE can support, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 13]

[0025] 1 illustrates an example method of wireless communication in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013]

[0026] Aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and associated drawings, which are directed to various examples provided for illustration purposes. Alternative aspects may be devised without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Additionally, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the present disclosure.

[0014]

[0027] The words "exemplary" and / or "example" are used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" and / or "example" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Similarly, the term "aspects of the disclosure" does not require that all aspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation.

[0015]

[0028] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the information and signals described below may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the following description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof, depending in part on the particular application, desired design, corresponding technology, etc.

[0016]

[0029] Further, many aspects are described in terms of a sequence of actions to be performed, for example, by elements of a computing device. It will be appreciated that the various actions described herein may be performed by specific circuitry (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. Furthermore, a sequence of actions described herein may be considered to be embodied as a whole in any form of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a corresponding set of computer instructions that, when executed, may cause or instruct an associated processor of a device to perform the functions described herein. Thus, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in a number of different forms, all of which are contemplated to fall within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect may be described herein, for example, as "logic configured to" perform the described actions.

[0017]

[0030] As used herein, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" are not intended to be specific or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT) unless otherwise stated. Generally, a UE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a tracking device, a wearable (e.g., a smart watch, glasses, an augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) headset, etc.), a vehicle (e.g., a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, etc.), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network. A UE may be mobile or (e.g., at some times) stationary and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" may be referred to interchangeably as an "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber device", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or UT, "mobile device", "mobile terminal", "mobile station", or variations thereof. In general, a UE may communicate with a core network via the RAN, through which the UE may be connected with external networks, such as the Internet, and with other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are also possible for a UE, such as via a wired access network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on IEEE 802.11, etc.), etc.

[0018]

[0031] Depending on the network in which it is deployed, a base station may operate according to one of several RATs in communication with the UE and may alternatively be referred to as an access point (AP), network node, Node B, evolved Node B (eNB), next generation eNB (ng-eNB), new radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as gNB or gNode B), etc. A base station may be used primarily to support wireless access by UEs, including supporting data, voice and / or signaling connections for supported UEs. In some systems, a base station may provide purely edge node signaling functionality, while in other systems, a base station may provide additional control and / or network management functionality. A communication link through which a UE may send signals to a base station is referred to as an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., reverse traffic channel, reverse control channel, access channel, etc.). A communication link through which a base station may send signals to a UE is referred to as a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., paging channel, control channel, broadcast channel, forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term Traffic Channel (TCH) can refer to either an uplink / reverse traffic channel or a downlink / forward traffic channel.

[0019]

[0032] The term "base station" may refer to a single physical transmission / reception point (TRP) or multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be collocated. For example, if the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. If the term "base station" refers to multiple collocated physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be an array of antennas of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or in cases where the base station employs beamforming). If the term "base station" refers to multiple non-collocated physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transport medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-collocated physical TRP may be a serving base station that receives measurement reports from a UE and a neighbor base station at which the UE is measuring its reference radio frequency (RF) signal (or simply "reference signal"). A TRP is a point from which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, so that as used herein, references to transmission from or reception at a base station should be understood as referring to the particular TRP of the base station.

[0020]

[0033] In some implementations that support positioning of UEs, a base station may not support wireless access by the UE (e.g., not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections to the UE), but instead may transmit reference signals to the UE to be measured by the UE and / or receive and measure signals transmitted by the UE. Such a base station may be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., when it transmits signals to the UE) and / or a location measurement unit (e.g., when it receives and measures signals from the UE).

[0021]

[0034] An "RF signal" comprises electromagnetic waves of a given frequency that transport information through space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, the receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through a multipath channel. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between a transmitter and a receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal. As used herein, an RF signal may also be referred to as a "wireless signal" or simply as a "signal" when it is clear from the context that the term "signal" refers to a wireless signal or an RF signal.

[0022]

[0035] In accordance with various aspects, FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system 100. The wireless communication system 100 (sometimes referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations (BSs) 102 and various UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macrocell base stations (high-power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low-power cellular base stations). In an aspect, the macrocell base stations may include eNBs and / or ng-eNBs where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network, or gNBs where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an NR network, or a combination of both, and the small cell base stations may include femtocells, picocells, microcells, etc.

[0023]

[0036] The base stations 102 collectively form a RAN and may interface with a core network 170 (e.g., Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or 5G Core (5GC)) through backhaul links 122 and through the core network 170 to one or more location servers 172 (which may be part of the core network 170 or external to the core network 170). In addition to other functions, the base stations 102 may perform functions related to one or more of forwarding user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection setup and release, load balancing, distribution for non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracing, RAN Information Management (RIM), paging, positioning, and distribution of alert messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through EPC / 5GC) via backhaul links 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0024]

[0037] The base stations 102 may wirelessly communicate with the UEs 104. Each of the base stations 102 may provide communication coverage to a respective geographic coverage area 110. In an aspect, one or more cells may be supported by the base stations 102 in each geographic coverage area 110. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used for communication with a base station (e.g., over some frequency resource, called a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, band, etc.) and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., physical cell identifier (PCI), virtual cell identifier (VCI), cell global identifier (CGI)) to distinguish cells operating over the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or others) that may provide access to different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a particular base station, the term "cell" may refer to either or both of the logical communication entity and the base station that supports it, depending on the context. In addition, since a TRP is typically the physical transmission point of a cell, the terms "cell" and "TRP" may be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term "cell" may also refer to the geographic coverage area (e.g., sector) of a base station, so long as the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within any portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0025]

[0038] While neighboring macrocell base stations 102 geographic coverage areas 110 may overlap partially (e.g., in handover regions), some of the geographic coverage areas 110 may be significantly overlapped by larger geographic coverage areas 110. For example, a small cell base station (SC) 102' may have a coverage area 110' that significantly overlaps with the geographic coverage area 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macrocell base stations may be known as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a Home eNB (HeNB) that may serve a restricted group known as a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG).

[0026]

[0039] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include uplink transmissions (also referred to as a reverse link) from the UE 104 to the base station 102, and / or downlink transmissions (also referred to as a forward link) from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna techniques, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 may be over one or more carrier frequencies. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to the downlink and uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to the downlink than the uplink).

[0027]

[0040] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 communicating with a WLAN station (STA) 152 via a communication link 154 in an unlicensed frequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in the unlicensed frequency spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) procedure or a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure before communicating to determine if a channel is available.

[0028]

[0041] The small cell base station 102' may operate in licensed and / or unlicensed frequency spectrums. When operating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the small cell base station 102' may employ LTE or NR technology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum used by the WLAN AP 150. A small cell base station 102' employing LTE / 5G in an unlicensed frequency spectrum may boost coverage to and / or increase capacity of an access network. NR in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as NR-U. LTE in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-U, Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), or MulteFire.

[0029]

[0042] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a millimeter wave (mmW) base station 180 that may operate in mmW and / or near-mmW frequencies in communication with the UE 182. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is a portion of RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near-mmW may extend down to frequencies of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100 millimeters. The very high frequency (SHF) band, also referred to as centimeter wave, extends from 3 GHz to 30 GHz. Communications using the mmW / near-mmW radio frequency bands have high path loss and relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmit and / or receive) over the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range. Further, it will be appreciated that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 may transmit using mmW or near mmW and beamforming. Thus, it will be appreciated that the above description is by way of example only and should not be construed as limiting various aspects disclosed herein.

[0030]

[0043] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in a particular direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in all directions (omni-directionally). With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that particular direction, thereby providing a faster and stronger RF signal (in terms of data rate) to the receiving device. To change the directionality of the RF signal when transmitting, the network node can control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of one or more transmitters broadcasting the RF signal. For example, the network node may use an array of antennas (called a "phased array" or "antenna array") that creates beams of RF waves that can be "steered" to point in different directions without actually moving the antennas. In particular, RF current from the transmitter is fed to the individual antennas with the proper phase relationship so that the waves from the separate antennas add together to increase radiation in the desired direction, while radiation in undesired directions is cancelled out and suppressed.

[0031]

[0044] Transmit beams may be quasi-collocated, meaning that they appear to have the same parameters to a receiver (e.g., a UE) regardless of whether the network node's transmit antennas themselves are physically collocated. In NR, there are four types of quasi-collocated (QCL) relationships. In particular, a QCL relationship of a given type means that some parameters for a second reference RF signal on a second beam can be derived from information about a source reference RF signal on a source beam. Thus, if the source reference RF signal is QCL type A, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread of the second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type B, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of the second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type C, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of the second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type D, the receiver may use the source reference RF signal to estimate spatial receive parameters of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0032]

[0045] In receive beamforming, a receiver uses receive beams to amplify RF signals detected on a given channel. For example, the receiver can increase the gain setting and / or adjust the phase setting of an array of antennas in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., increase its gain level) RF signals received from that direction. Thus, when a receiver is said to beamform in a direction, it means that the beam gain in that direction is high relative to the beam gains along other directions, or that the beam gain in that direction is highest compared to the beam gains in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), Signal-to-Interference-Plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), etc.) of RF signals received from that direction.

[0033]

[0046] The receive beam may be spatially related to the transmit beam. The spatial relationship means that the parameters for the transmit beam for the second reference signal may be derived from information about the receive beam for the first reference signal. For example, the UE may use a particular receive beam to receive one or more reference downlink reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signal (PRS), navigation reference signal (NRS), tracking reference signal (TRS), cell-specific reference signal (CRS), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), synchronization signal block (SSB), etc.) from the base station. The UE may then form a transmit beam for sending one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., uplink positioning reference signal (UL-PRS), sounding reference signal (SRS), demodulation reference signal (DMRS), etc.) to that base station based on the parameters of the receive beam.

[0034]

[0047] Note that a "downlink" beam can be either a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity forming it. For example, if the base station forms a downlink beam to transmit a reference signal to the UE, then the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if the UE forms a downlink beam, then it is a receive beam to receive the downlink reference signal. Similarly, note that an "uplink" beam can be either a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity forming it. For example, if the base station forms an uplink beam, then it is an uplink receive beam, and if the UE forms an uplink beam, then it is an uplink transmit beam.

[0035]

[0048] In 5G, the frequency spectrum in which wireless nodes (e.g., base station 102 / 180, UE 104 / 182) operate is divided into multiple frequency ranges: FR1 (450-6000 MHz), FR2 (24250-52600 MHz), FR3 (above 52600 MHz), and FR4 (FR1-FR2). In a multi-carrier system such as 5G, one of the carrier frequencies is called the "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell" and the remaining carrier frequencies are called the "secondary carrier" or "secondary serving cell" or "SCell". In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is the carrier operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by the UE 104 / 182 and the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 performs an initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific control channels and may be a carrier in licensed frequencies (although this is not always the case). The secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2) that may be configured once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier and may be used to provide additional radio resources. In some cases, the secondary carrier may be a carrier in unlicensed frequencies. The secondary carrier may contain only the necessary signaling information and signals, e.g., nothing UE-specific may be present in the secondary carrier, since both the primary uplink and downlink carriers are typically UE-specific. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplink primary carrier. The network is capable of changing the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance the load on the different carriers.Since a "serving cell" (whether a PCell or an SCell) corresponds to the carrier frequency / component carrier on which some base station is communicating, terms such as "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. may be used interchangeably.

[0036]

[0049] For example, still referring to FIG. 1, one of the frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or “PCell”), and the other frequencies utilized by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers (“SCells”). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers allows the UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rates. For example, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically lead to a doubling of the data rate (i.e., 40 MHz) compared to that achieved by a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0037]

[0050] The wireless communication system 100 may further include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, that indirectly connect to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links. In the example of FIG. 1, the UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of the UEs 104 connected to one of the base stations 102 (e.g., through which the UE 190 may indirectly obtain cellular connectivity) and a D2D P2P link 194 with a WLAN STA 152 connected to a WLAN AP 150 (through which the UE 190 may indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity). In one example, the D2D P2P links 192 and 194 may be supported with any well-known D2D RAT, such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, etc.

[0038]

[0051] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a UE 164, which may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 via communication link 120 and / or with the mmW base station 180 via mmW communication link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164. In one aspect, the UE 164 may include a positioning processing unit (PPU) manager 166 that may enable the UE 164 to perform the UE operations described herein. It should be noted that although only one UE is shown in FIG. 1 as having a PPU manager 166, any of the UEs in FIG. 1 may be configured to perform the UE operations described herein.

[0039]

[0052] In accordance with various aspects, FIG. 2A illustrates an exemplary wireless network structure 200. For example, the 5GC 210 (also referred to as Next Generation Core (NGC)) may be viewed functionally as a control plane function (C-plane) 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and a user plane function (U-plane) 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data network, IP routing, etc.) that operate cooperatively to form a core network. A user plane interface (NG-U) 213 and a control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 to the 5GC 210, specifically to the user plane function 212 and the control plane function 214, respectively. In an additional configuration, the ng-eNB 224 may also be connected to the 5GC 210 via the NG-C 215 to the control plane function 214 and the NG-U 213 to the user plane function 212. Additionally, the ng-eNB 224 may communicate directly with the gNB 222 via a backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the new RAN 220 may have only one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of both the ng-eNB 224 and the gNB 222. Either the gNB 222 or the ng-eNB 224 may be in communication with the UE 204 (e.g., any of the UEs shown in FIG. 1). Another optional aspect may include a location server 230, which may be in communication with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance to the UE 204. The location servers 230 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively, each may correspond to a single server. The location server 230 may be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204, which may connect to the location server 230 via the core network 5GC 210 and / or via the Internet (not shown). Additionally, the location server 230 may be incorporated into components of the core network, or alternatively, may be external to the core network.

[0040]

[0053] In accordance with various aspects, FIG. 2B illustrates another exemplary wireless network structure 250. For example, the 5GC 260 may be viewed functionally as a control plane function provided by an access and mobility management function (AMF) 264 and a user plane function provided by a user plane function (UPF) 262, which operate cooperatively to form a core network (i.e., the 5GC 260). A user plane interface 263 and a control plane interface 265 connect the ng-eNB 224 to the 5GC 260, specifically to the UPF 262 and the AMF 264, respectively. In an additional configuration, the gNB 222 may also be connected to the 5GC 260 via the control plane interface 265 to the AMF 264 and the user plane interface 263 to the UPF 262. Additionally, the ng-eNB 224 may communicate directly with the gNB 222 via the backhaul connection 223, with or without gNB direct connectivity to the 5GC 260. In some configurations, the new RAN 220 may have only one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of both the ng-eNB 224 and the gNB 222. Either the gNB 222 or the ng-eNB 224 may communicate with the UE 204 (e.g., any of the UEs shown in FIG. 1). The base stations of the new RAN 220 communicate with the AMF 264 via an N2 interface and with the UPF 262 via an N3 interface.

[0041]

[0054] The functions of the AMF 264 include registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, transport of session management (SM) messages between the UE 204 and a session management function (SMF) 266, transparent proxy services for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transport of short message service (SMS) messages between the UE 204 and a short message service function (SMSF) (not shown), and a security anchor function (SEAF). The AMF 264 also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and the UE 204 to receive intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In case of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) based authentication, the AMF 264 retrieves security material from the AUSF. The functions of the AMF 264 also include security context management (SCM). The SCM receives keys from the SEAF that it uses to derive access network specific keys. The functions of the AMF 264 also include location service management for barred services, transport of location service messages between the UE 204 and a location management function (LMF) 270 (acting as the location server 230), transport of location service messages between the new RAN 220 and the LMF 270, EPS bearer identifier allocation for interworking with an evolved packet system (EPS), and UE 204 mobility event notification. In addition, the AMF 264 also supports the functions of non-3GPP access networks.

[0042]

[0055] The functions of the UPF 262 include acting as an anchor point for intra / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an external protocol data unit (PDU) session point for interconnection to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usage reporting, Quality of Service (QoS) processing for the user plane (e.g., uplink / downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in the downlink), uplink traffic validation (Service Data Flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and sending and forwarding one or more "termination markers" to the source RAN node. The UPF 262 may also support transport of location service messages over the user plane between the UE 204 and a location server, such as the Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Location Platform (SLP) 272.

[0043]

[0056] The functions of the SMF 266 include session management, UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, configuration of traffic steering in the UPF 262 to route traffic to the appropriate destination, control of policy enforcement and parts of QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface through which the SMF 266 communicates with the AMF 264 is called the N11 interface.

[0044]

[0057] Another optional aspect may include the LMF 270, which may be in communication with the 5GC 260 to provide location assistance to the UE 204. The LMF 270 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.) or, alternatively, may each correspond to a single server. The LMF 270 may be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204, which may connect to the LMF 270 via the core network 5GC 260 and / or via the Internet (not shown). The SLP 272 may support similar functions as the LMF 270, but while the LMF 270 may communicate with the AMF 264, the new RAN 220, and the UE 204 via a control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to carry signaling messages rather than voice or data), the SLP 272 may communicate with the UE 204 and external clients (not shown in FIG. 2B) via a user plane (e.g., using protocols intended to carry voice and / or data, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and / or IP).

[0045]

[0058] 3A, 3B, and 3C illustrate several example components (represented by corresponding blocks) that may be incorporated in a UE 302 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein), a base station 304 (which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein), and a network entity 306 (which may correspond to or perform any of the network functions described herein, including a location server 230, an LMF 270, and an SLP 272) to support file transmission operations as taught herein. It will be appreciated that these components may be implemented in different types of devices (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system on a chip (SoC), etc.) in different implementations. The components shown may also be incorporated in other devices in a communication system. For example, other devices in the system may include similar components as those described to provide similar functionality. Also, a given device may include one or more of the components. For example, a device may include multiple transceiver components that enable the device to operate on multiple carriers and / or communicate via different technologies.

[0046]

[0059] The UE 302 and the base station 304 each include a wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver 310 and 350, respectively, configured to communicate over one or more wireless communications networks (not shown), such as an NR network, an LTE network, a GSM network, etc. The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., ng-eNB, gNB), etc., over at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) over a wireless communications medium of interest (e.g., some set of time / frequency resources in a particular frequency spectrum). The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be variously configured to transmit and encode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.), respectively, and conversely, to receive and decode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.), respectively, in accordance with the designated RAT. In particular, the WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 each include one or more transmitters 314 and 354, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358, and each include one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively, for receiving and decoding the signals 318 and 358.

[0047]

[0060] The UE 302 and base station 304 also, at least in some cases, include wireless local area network (WLAN) transceivers 320 and 360, respectively. The WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 may be connected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc., via at least one designated RAT (e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, Bluetooth, etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest. The WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 may be variously configured to transmit and encode signals 328 and 368, respectively (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.), and conversely, to receive and decode signals 328 and 368, respectively (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.), in accordance with the designated RAT. In particular, the WLAN transceivers 320 and 360 each include one or more transmitters 324 and 364, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 328 and 368, and each include one or more receivers 322 and 362, respectively, for receiving and decoding the signals 328 and 368.

[0048]

[0061] A transceiver circuit including at least one transmitter and at least one receiver may in some implementations comprise an integrated device (e.g., implemented as a transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit of a single communication device), in some implementations comprise separate transmitter devices and separate receiver devices, or in other implementations may be implemented in other manners. In one aspect, the transmitter may include or be coupled to multiple antennas such as an antenna array (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) that enable the respective devices to perform transmit "beamforming" as described herein. Similarly, the receiver may include or be coupled to multiple antennas such as an antenna array (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) that enable the respective devices to perform receive beamforming as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitter and receiver may share the same multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) such that each device may only receive or transmit at a given time, rather than both receive and transmit at the same time. The wireless communication devices (e.g., one or both of the transceivers 310 and 320 and / or 350 and 360) of the UE 302 and / or base station 304 may also comprise a network listen module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

[0049]

[0062] The UE 302 and base station 304 also, at least in some cases, include satellite positioning system (SPS) receivers 330 and 370, respectively. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 may be connected to one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, for receiving SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, BeiDou signals, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 may comprise any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing the SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 request information and actions from other systems as appropriate, and perform the calculations necessary to determine the position of the UE 302 and base station 304, respectively, using measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithms.

[0050]

[0063] The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include at least one network interface 380 and 390, respectively, for communicating with other network entities. For example, the network interfaces 380 and 390 (e.g., one or more network access ports) may be configured to communicate with one or more network entities via a wire-based or wireless backhaul connection. In some aspects, the network interfaces 380 and 390 may be implemented as transceivers configured to support wire-based or wireless signal communication. This communication may involve, for example, sending and receiving messages, parameters, and / or other types of information.

[0051]

[0064] The UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 also include other components that may be used in conjunction with the operations disclosed herein. The UE 302 includes a processor circuit that implements a processing system 332, for example, for providing functionality related to positioning operations and for providing other processing functions. The base station 304 includes a processing system 384, for example, for providing functionality related to positioning operations and for providing other processing functions disclosed herein. The network entity 306 includes a processing system 394, for example, for providing functionality related to positioning operations and for providing other processing functions disclosed herein. In an aspect, the processing systems 332, 384, and 394 may include, for example, one or more general-purpose processors, multi-core processors, ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices or processing circuits.

[0052]

[0065] The UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 include memory circuits implementing memory components 340, 386, and 396, respectively (e.g., each including a memory device) to maintain information (e.g., information indicative of reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). In some cases, the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may include PPU managers 342, 388, and 398, respectively. The PPU managers 342, 388, and 398 may be hardware circuits that are part of or coupled to the processing systems 332, 384, and 394, respectively, that, when executed, cause the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 to perform the functions described herein. In other aspects, the PPU managers 342, 388, and 398 may be external to the processing systems 332, 384, and 394, respectively (e.g., may be part of a modem processing system, incorporated into another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the PPU managers 342, 388, and 398 may be memory modules stored in the memory components 340, 386, and 396, respectively (as shown in Figures 3A-3C) that, when executed by the processing systems 332, 384, and 394 (or a modem processing system, another processing system, etc.), cause the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 to perform the functions described herein.

[0053]

[0066] The UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to the processing system 332 to provide movement and / or orientation information that is independent of movement data derived from signals received by the WWAN transceiver 310, the WLAN transceiver 320, and / or the SPS receiver 330. By way of example, the sensors 344 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric altimeter), and / or any other type of movement detection sensor. Moreover, the sensors 344 may include multiple different types of devices and combine their outputs to provide movement information. For example, the sensors 344 may use a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and an orientation sensor to provide the ability to calculate a position in a 2D and / or 3D coordinate system.

[0054]

[0067] Additionally, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346 for providing indications (e.g., audible and / or visual indications) to a user and / or for receiving user input (e.g., upon user activation of a sensing device such a keypad, touch screen, microphone, etc.). Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 may also include user interfaces.

[0055]

[0068] Referring more particularly to the processing system 384, on the downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the processing system 384. The processing system 384 may implement functionality for an RRC layer, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. The processing system 384 may provide RRC layer functions related to broadcasting of system information (e.g., Master Information Block (MIB), System Information Block (SIB)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting, as well as PDCP layer functions related to header compression / decompression, security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions, as well as RLC layer functions related to transfer of upper layer packet data units (PDUs), error correction via automatic repeat request (ARQ), concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs, as well as MAC layer functions related to mapping between logical channels and transport channels, scheduling information reporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0056]

[0069] The transmitter 354 and receiver 352 may implement Layer 1 functions related to various signal processing functions. Layer 1, including the physical (PHY) layer, may include error detection on the transport channel, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of the transport channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto the physical channel, modulation / demodulation of the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 354 handles mapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), M-phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time and / or frequency domain, and then combined with each other using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a time-domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol streams are spatially precoded to generate multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator may be used to determine the coding and modulation scheme, as well as for spatial processing. The channel estimates may be derived from a reference signal and / or channel condition feedback transmitted by the UE 302. Each spatial stream may then be provided to one or more different antennas 356. The transmitter 354 may modulate an RF carrier with the respective spatial stream for transmission.

[0057]

[0070] At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives the signal through its respective antenna 316. The receiver 312 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to the processing system 332. The transmitter 314 and the receiver 312 implement layer 1 functions related to various signal processing functions. The receiver 312 may perform spatial processing on the information to recover the spatial streams destined for the UE 302. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE 302, they may be combined by the receiver 312 into a single OFDM symbol stream. The receiver 312 then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time domain to the frequency domain using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal comprises a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier and the reference signal are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation point transmitted by the base station 304. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates calculated by a channel estimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signaling originally transmitted by the base station 304 on the physical channel. The data and control signaling are then provided to a processing system 332 that implements Layer 3 and Layer 2 functions.

[0058]

[0071] In the uplink, the processing system 332 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. The processing system 332 is also responsible for error detection.

[0059]

[0072] Similar to the functionality described with respect to downlink transmissions by the base station 304, the processing system 332 provides RRC layer functionality related to system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting, as well as PDCP layer functionality related to header compression / decompression and security (encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification), as well as RLC layer functionality related to transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction via ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs, resegmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs, as well as MAC layer functionality related to mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction via hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0060]

[0073] Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from a reference signal or feedback transmitted by the base station 304 may be used by the transmitter 314 to select an appropriate coding and modulation scheme and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter 314 may be provided to different antennas 316. The transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with each spatial stream for transmission.

[0061]

[0074] Uplink transmissions are processed at the base station 304 in a manner similar to that described with respect to the receiver function at the UE 302. The receiver 352 receives the signal through its respective antenna 356. The receiver 352 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to a processing system 384.

[0062]

[0075] In the uplink, the processing system 384 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, decryption, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the UE 302. The IP packets from the processing system 384 may be provided to a core network. The processing system 384 is also responsible for error detection.

[0063]

[0076] For convenience, the UE 302, the base station 304, and / or the network entity 306 are illustrated in Figures 3A-3C as including various components that may be configured in accordance with various examples described herein, however, it will be appreciated that the illustrated blocks may have different functionality in different designs.

[0064]

[0077] Various components of the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may communicate with each other via data buses 334, 382, ​​and 392, respectively. The components of FIGS. 3A-3C may be implemented in various ways. In some implementations, the components of FIGS. 3A-3C may be implemented in one or more circuits, such as, for example, one or more processors and / or one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors), where each circuit may use and / or incorporate at least one memory component for storing information or executable code used by the circuit to provide this functionality. For example, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 310-346 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of the UE 302 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 350-388 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of the base station 304 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). Also, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390-398 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of the network entity 306 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). For brevity, various operations, acts, and / or functions are described herein as being performed "by the UE," "by the base station," "by the positioning entity," etc. However, it will be appreciated that such operations, acts, and / or functions may actually be performed by a particular component or combination of components, such as the UE, base station, positioning entity, etc., such as the processing systems 332, 384, 394, the transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, the memory components 340, 386, and 396, the PPU managers 342, 388, and 398, etc.

[0065]

[0078] Various frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (e.g., base stations and UEs). Figure 4 is a diagram 400 illustrating an example of a downlink frame structure according to an aspect of the disclosure. Other wireless communication technologies may have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0066]

[0079] LTE, and possibly NR, utilizes OFDM on the downlink and single-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. However, unlike LTE, NR has the option of using OFDM on the uplink as well. OFDM and SC-FDM partition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarrier may be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain in OFDM and in the time domain in SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) may depend on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15 kHz, and the minimum resource allocation (resource block) may be 12 subcarriers (or 180 kHz). As a result, the nominal FFT size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048 for a system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for a system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz, respectively.

[0067]

[0080] LTE supports a single numerology (subcarrier spacing, symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR may support multiple numerologies (μ), e.g., subcarrier spacings (SCS) of 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, 120 kHz, and 240 kHz, or greater, may be available. Table 1 provided below lists some various parameters for different NR numerologies.

[0068] [Table 1]

[0069]

[0081] In the example of Figure 4, a numerology of 15 kHz is used. Thus, in the time domain, a frame (e.g., 10 ms) is divided into 10 equally sized subframes of 1 ms each, with each subframe containing one time slot. In Figure 4, time is represented horizontally (e.g., on the X-axis), with time increasing from left to right, and frequency is represented vertically (e.g., on the Y-axis), with frequency increasing (or decreasing) from bottom to top.

[0070]

[0082] A resource grid may be used to represent a time slot, with each time slot including one or more (also called physical RBs (PRBs)) time-parallel resource blocks (RBs) in the frequency domain. The resource grid is further divided into multiple resource elements (REs). An RE may correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain. In the numerology of FIG. 4, for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB may include 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 7 consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 84 REs. For an extended cyclic prefix, an RB may include 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 6 consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 72 REs. The number of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0071]

[0083] As shown in Figure 4, some of the REs carry downlink reference (pilot) signals (DL-RS) for channel estimation at the UE. The DL-RS may include the DMRS, CSI-RS, CRS, PRS, NRS, TRS, etc., example locations of which are labeled with "R" in Figure 4.

[0072]

[0084] A set of resource elements (REs) used to transmit a PRS is called a "PRS resource." A set of resource elements may span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and may span N (e.g., one or more) consecutive symbols in a slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol in the time domain, a PRS resource occupies consecutive PRBs in the frequency domain.

[0073]

[0085] A "PRS resource set" is a set of PRS resources used to transmit PRS signals, with each PRS resource having a PRS resource ID. In addition, PRS resources within a PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP. A PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a cell ID). In addition, PRS resources within a PRS resource set have the same periodicity across slots, a common muting pattern configuration, and the same repetition factor. The periodicity is 2 μ The repetition factor may have a length of n slots, where n is selected from the set of {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32}.

[0074]

[0086] A PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam (and / or beam ID) transmitted from a single TRP (a TRP can transmit one or multiple beams). That is, each PRS resource in a PRS resource set may be transmitted on a different beam, and thus a "PRS resource" or simply a "resource" may also be referred to as a "beam." Note that this does not carry any implication as to whether the TRP and beam on which the PRS was transmitted is known to the UE.

[0075]

[0087] A "PRS instance" or "PRS opportunity" is one instance of a periodically repeating time window (e.g., a group of one or more contiguous slots) during which a PRS is expected to be transmitted. A PRS opportunity may also be called a "PRS positioning occasion", "PRS positioning instance", "positioning occasion", "positioning instance", or simply an "opportunity" or "instance".

[0076]

[0088] It should be noted that the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" may sometimes refer to specific reference signals used for positioning in LTE systems. However, as used herein, unless otherwise indicated, the terms "positioning reference signal" and "PRS" refer to any type of reference signal that can be used for positioning, such as, but not limited to, PRS in LTE, NRS, TRS, CRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB in 5G.

[0077]

[0089] Currently, there are two alternatives for periodic PRS resource allocation: the first alternative is that the periodicity of the downlink PRS resources is configured at the downlink PRS resource set level, in which case a common periodicity is used for the downlink PRS resources in a downlink PRS resource set; the second alternative is that the periodicity of the downlink PRS resources is configured at the downlink PRS resource level, in which case different periodicities are used for the downlink PRS resources in a downlink PRS resource set.

[0078]

[0090] 5 illustrates an example PRS configuration 500 for a cell / TRP supported by a wireless node (e.g., a base station). FIG. 5 illustrates a PRS configuration 500 for a cell / TRP supported by a wireless node (e.g., a base station) that includes a system frame number (SFN) and a cell-specific subframe offset (Δ PRS )552 and the PRS period (T PRS ) 520. In general, the cell-specific PRS subframe configuration is determined by the PRS configuration index (I PRS ) is defined as the PRS period (T PRS ) 520 and cell-specific subframe offset (Δ PRS ) is the PRS composition index (I PRS ) is defined based on

[0079] [Table 2]

[0080]

[0091] The PRS configuration is defined with reference to the SFN of the cell that transmits the PRS. PRS The PRS instance for the first subframe of the downlink subframes is

[0081]

number

[0082] where n f is 0≦n f SFN with n≦1023 s is 0≦n s n ≦ 19 f is the number of slots in a radio frame defined by T PRS is the PRS period 520, and Δ PRS is the cell-specific subframe offset 552.

[0083]

[0092] As shown in Figure 5, the cell-specific subframe offset (Δ PRS ) 552 may be defined by the number of subframes transmitted starting from SFN0 ("slot number=0", shown as slot 550) until the start of the first (subsequent) PRS positioning occasion. In the example in FIG. 5, the number of successive positioning subframes (N PRS ) is equal to 4. PRS may specify the number of consecutive positioning subframes per opportunity, while N PRS Note that N may instead specify the number of consecutive positioning slots based on the implementation. For example, in LTE, N PRS specifies the number of consecutive positioning subframes per opportunity, whereas in NR, N PRS Specifies the number of consecutive positioning slots per opportunity.

[0084]

[0093] In some aspects, the UE may include a PRS configuration index I PRS When receiving the PRS, the UE uses Table 2 to determine the PRS period (T PRS )520 and PRS subframe offset Δ PRSThe UE may then determine the radio frame, subframe, and slot when the PRS is scheduled in the cell (e.g., using the equations above). The positioning assistance data may be determined, for example, by a location server and may include assistance data for a reference cell and the number of neighbor cells supported by various wireless nodes.

[0085]

[0094] In general, PRS opportunities from all cells in a network using the same frequency are time aligned and have a fixed, known time offset (e.g., a cell-specific subframe offset (Δ PRS In a SFN-synchronized network, all wireless nodes (e.g., base stations) may be aligned on both frame boundaries and system frame numbers. Thus, in a SFN-synchronized network, all cells supported by various wireless nodes may have the same PRS configuration index I for any particular frequency of PRS transmission. PRS On the other hand, in an SFN-asynchronous network, the various wireless nodes may be aligned on frame boundaries but not on system frame numbers. Thus, in an SFN-asynchronous network, a PRS configuration index I for each cell may be used. PRS can be individually configured by the network so that the PRS opportunities are time aligned.

[0086]

[0095] If the UE can acquire the cell timing (e.g., SFN) of at least one of the cells, such as the reference cell or the serving cell, the UE may determine the timing of the PRS opportunities of the reference cell and neighboring cells for positioning. The timing of other cells may then be derived by the UE, for example, based on the assumption that PRS opportunities from different cells overlap.

[0087]

[0096] For LTE systems, the sequence of subframes used to transmit a PRS (e.g., for positioning) is determined by (i) a reserved block of bandwidth (BW), (ii) a PRS configuration index I PRS , (iii) duration N PRS , (iv) an optional muting pattern, and (v) a muting sequence periodicity T that, when present, may be implicitly included as part of the muting pattern in (iv). REP In some cases, at fairly low PRS duty cycles, N PRS = 1, and T PRS = 160 subframes (equivalent to 160 ms) and BW = 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz. To increase the PRS duty cycle, N PRS The value can be increased to 6 (i.e., N PRS =6), the bandwidth (BW) value can be increased up to the system bandwidth (i.e., for LTE, BW = LTE system bandwidth). PRS =T PRS ) up to N PRS (e.g., greater than 6) and / or shorter T PRS An extended PRS with a PRS duration (e.g., shorter than 160 ms) may also be used in later versions of the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP). A directional PRS may be configured as just described, e.g., with a low PRS duty cycle (e.g., N PRS =1, T PRS =160 subframes) or a high duty cycle may be used.

[0088]

[0097] There are several cellular network-based positioning technologies that can be broadly classified into Time of Arrival (ToA) and angle-based positioning methods, and further classified into downlink-based, uplink-based, and downlink- and uplink-based positioning methods. Downlink ToA-based positioning methods include Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) in LTE and Downlink Time Difference of Arrival (DL-TDOA) in NR. Uplink ToA-based positioning methods include Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (UL-TDOA). Downlink and uplink ToA-based positioning methods include Multi-Round Trip Time (RTT) positioning (also called "Multi-cell RTT"). Downlink angle-based positioning methods include Downlink Angle of Departure (DL-AoD) in NR, and uplink angle-based positioning methods include Uplink Angle of Arrival (UL-AoA).

[0089]

[0098] In an OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, the UE measures the difference between the ToAs of reference signals (e.g., PRS, TRS, NRS, CSI-RS, SSB, etc.) received from pairs of base stations, called Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) or Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) values, and reports them to a positioning entity. Based on the RSTD measurements and the known positions of the involved base stations, the positioning entity can estimate the UE's position. UL-TDOA is similar to DL-TDOA, but is based on uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) transmitted by the UE.

[0090]

[0099] For DL-AoD positioning, the positioning entity collects angles and other channel properties (e.g., signal strength) of downlink transmit beams used by at least one (but typically multiple) base stations to communicate with the UE to estimate its position. Similarly, for UL-AoA positioning, the positioning entity collects angles and other channel properties (e.g., gain levels) of uplink receive beams used by at least one (but typically multiple) base stations to communicate with the UE to estimate its position.

[0091]

[0100] In the RTT procedure, the initiator (base station or UE) transmits an RTT measurement signal (e.g., PRS or SRS) to the responder (UE or base station), and the responder transmits an RTT response signal (e.g., SRS or PRS) back to the initiator. The RTT response signal includes the difference between the ToA of the RTT measurement signal and the transmit time of the RTT response signal, called a receive-to-transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement. The initiator calculates the difference between the transmit time of the RTT measurement signal and the ToA of the RTT response signal, called a "Tx-Rx" measurement. The propagation time (also called "time of flight") between the initiator and the responder can be calculated from the Tx-Rx and Rx-Tx measurements. Based on the propagation time and the known speed of light, the distance between the initiator and the responder can be determined. In the case of multi-RTT positioning, the UE performs the RTT procedure with multiple base stations to allow its position to be triangulated based on the known positions of the base stations. The RTT and multi-RTT methods can be combined with other positioning techniques such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD to improve location accuracy.

[0092]

[0101] To assist the positioning operation, a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) may provide assistance data to the UE. For example, the assistance data may include an identifier of the base station (or cell / TRP of the base station) from which to measure the reference signal, reference signal configuration parameters (e.g., number of consecutive positioning subframes, periodicity of the positioning subframes, muting sequence, frequency hopping sequence, reference signal identifier (ID), reference signal bandwidth, etc.), and / or other parameters applicable to a particular positioning method. Alternatively, the assistance data may originate directly from the base station itself (e.g., in a periodically broadcasted overhead message, etc.). In some cases, the UE may be able to detect neighboring network nodes by itself without using the assistance data.

[0093]

[0102] A position estimate may be referred to by other names, such as a location estimate, location determination, localization, location determination, position determination, etc. A position estimate may be geodetic and comprise coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude) or may be city-related and comprise a street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of a location. A position estimate may also be defined relative to some other known location or in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). A position estimate may include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume that is expected to contain the location with some specified or default confidence).

[0094]

[0103] FIG. 6 illustrates an example wireless communication system 600 according to various aspects of the disclosure. In the example of FIG. 6, a UE 604, which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein, is attempting to calculate an estimate of its location or assist another entity (e.g., a base station or core network component, another UE, a location server, a third party application, etc.) to calculate an estimate of its location. The UE 604 may wirelessly communicate with multiple base stations 602-1, 602-2, and 602-3 (collectively base stations 602), which may correspond to any combination of base stations described herein, using RF signals and a standardized protocol for modulation of the RF signals and exchange of information packets. By extracting different types of information from the exchanged RF signals and utilizing the layout of the wireless communication system 600 (e.g., the location, shape, etc. of the base stations 602), the UE 604 may determine, or assist in determining, its location in a predefined reference frame. In one aspect, the UE 604 may specify its location using a two-dimensional (2D) coordinate system, although the aspects disclosed herein are not so limited and may also be applicable for determining location using a three-dimensional (3D) coordinate system if additional dimensions are desired. Additionally, while FIG. 6 shows one UE 604 and three base stations 602, it will be appreciated that there may be more UEs 604 and more or fewer base stations 602.

[0095]

[0104] To support position estimation, the base station 602 may be configured to broadcast reference signals, such as PRS, NRS, TRS, CRS, CSI-RS, PSS, SSS, SSB, etc., to the UEs 604 within its coverage area to allow the UEs 604 to measure characteristics of such reference signals. For example, for OTDOA and DL-TDOA positioning methods, the UE 604 measures the time differences, known as RSTD or TDOA, between certain reference signals (e.g., PRS, CRS, CSI-RS, etc.) transmitted by different pairs of network nodes (e.g., base station 602, antennas / antenna arrays of the base station 602, etc.) and reports these time differences to a positioning entity, such as the location server 230, the LMF 270, or the SLP 272, or calculates its own position estimate from these time differences.

[0096]

[0105] In general, the RSTD is measured between a reference network node (e.g., base station 602-1 in the example of FIG. 6) and one or more neighboring network nodes (e.g., base stations 602-2 and 602-3 in the example of FIG. 6). The reference network node remains the same for all RSTDs measured by the UE 604 for any single positioning use of OTDOA / DL-TDOA and should typically correspond to a serving cell for the UE 604 or another neighboring cell that has good signal strength at the UE 604. In one aspect, if the measured network node is a cell / TRP supported by a base station, the neighboring network node should typically be a cell / TRP supported by a different base station than the base station for the reference cell / TRP and may have sufficient or insufficient signal strength at the UE 604. The position calculation may be based on the measured time difference (e.g., RSTD) and knowledge of the network node's location and relative transmission timing (e.g., regarding whether the network nodes are precisely synchronized or whether each network node transmits with some known time difference relative to the other network nodes).

[0097]

[0106] To assist in positioning operations, a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) may provide positioning assistance data to UE 604 for a reference network node (e.g., base station 602-1 in the example of FIG. 6) and neighboring network nodes (e.g., base stations 602-2 and 602-3 in the example of FIG. 6) relative to the reference network node. For example, the assistance data may provide a center channel frequency of each network node, various reference signal configuration parameters (e.g., number of consecutive positioning subframes, periodicity of positioning subframes, muting sequence, frequency hopping sequence, reference signal identifier (ID), reference signal bandwidth), network node global ID, and / or other cell-related parameters applicable to OTDOA / DL-TDOA. The positioning assistance data may indicate a serving cell for UE 604 as the reference network node.

[0098]

[0107] In some cases, the positioning assistance data may also include an "expected RSTD" parameter that provides the UE 604 with information regarding the RSTD value that the UE 604 is expected to measure at its current position between the reference network node and each neighboring network node, along with the uncertainty of the expected RSTD parameter. The expected RSTD, along with the associated uncertainty, may define a search window for the UE 604 within which the UE 604 is expected to measure the RSTD value. The positioning assistance information may also include a reference signal configuration information parameter that enables the UE 604 to determine when a reference signal positioning occasion occurs on signals received from various neighboring network nodes related to the reference signal positioning occasion for the reference network node, and to determine the reference signal sequence transmitted from various network nodes to measure the ToA or RSTD of the signal.

[0099]

[0108] In one aspect, a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) may send assistance data to the UE 604, but alternatively, the assistance data may originate directly from the network node (e.g., base station 602) itself (e.g., in periodically broadcast overhead messages, etc.). Alternatively, the UE 604 may detect neighboring network nodes on its own without using assistance data.

[0100]

[0109] The UE 604 may measure and (possibly) report the RSTD between reference signals received from pairs of network nodes (e.g., based in part on assistance data, if provided). Using the RSTD measurements, the known absolute or relative transmit timing of each network node, and the known positions of the transmit antennas relative to the reference and neighboring network nodes, a positioning entity (e.g., location server 230 / LMF 270 / SLP 272, base station 602, UE 604) may estimate the position of the UE 604. More specifically, the RSTD for a neighboring network node "k" relative to a reference network node "Ref" may be calculated as follows: k -ToA Ref), where the ToA values ​​may be measured modulo one subframe duration (1 ms) to remove the effects of measuring different subframes at different times. In the example of FIG. 6, the measured time differences between the reference cell of base station 602-1 and the cells of neighboring base stations 602-2 and 602-3 are represented as τ2-τ1 and τ3-τ1, where τ1, τ2, and τ3 represent the ToAs of the reference signals from the transmit antennas of base stations 602-1, 602-2, and 602-3, respectively. The UE 604 may then convert the ToA measurements for different network nodes into RSTD measurements and send them to the location server 230 / LMF 270 / SLP 272 (if applicable). Using (i) RSTD measurements, (ii) known absolute or relative transmission timing of each network node, (iii) known locations of physical transmitting antennas for reference nets and neighboring network nodes, and / or (iv) directional reference signal characteristics such as direction of transmission, the location of UE 604 can be determined (by either UE 604 or location server 230 / LMF 270 / SLP 272).

[0101]

[0110] With further reference to FIG. 6, when the UE 604 uses OTDOA / DL-TDOA measured time differences to obtain a position estimate, necessary additional data (e.g., network node positions and relative transmission timing) may be provided to the UE 604 by a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272). In some implementations, a position estimate for the UE 604 may be obtained (e.g., by the UE 604 itself or by location server 230 / LMF 270 / SLP 272) from the measured time differences and from other measurements made by the UE 604 (e.g., measurements of signal timing from GPS or other Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellites). In these implementations, known as hybrid positioning, the OTDOA / DL-TDOA measurements may contribute to obtaining a position estimate for the UE 604, but do not necessarily completely determine the position estimate.

[0102]

[0111] UL-TDOA is a positioning method similar to OTDOA / DL-TDOA, but based on uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS, UL PRS) transmitted by the UE (e.g., UE 604). Additionally, transmit and / or receive beamforming at the base station 602 and / or UE 604 can enable wider bandwidth at the cell edge for improved accuracy. Beam refinement can also leverage channel reciprocity procedures in 5G NR.

[0103]

[0112] In NR, there is no requirement for precise timing synchronization across the network, as is necessary to perform OTDOA / DL-TDOA positioning. Instead, it may be sufficient to have coarse time synchronization across base stations (e.g., within the cyclic prefix (CP) duration of an OFDM symbol). RTT-based methods generally require only coarse timing synchronization and therefore may be the preferred positioning method in NR.

[0104]

[0113] In network-centric RTT estimation, the serving base station instructs or informs the UE that it can scan / receive RTT measurement signals from two or more neighboring base stations (and the serving base station, since typically at least three base stations are required). One or more base stations transmit the RTT measurement signals over low reuse resources (e.g., resources used by base stations to transmit system information) allocated by the network (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272). The UE records the ToA of each RTT measurement signal relative to the UE's current downlink timing (e.g., as derived by the UE from a downlink reference signal received from its serving base station), transmits a common inter- or individual RTT response message to one or more base stations (e.g., as instructed by its serving base station), and records in the payload of each RTT response message the difference between the measured arrival time of the RTT measurement signal and the transmission time of the RTT response message ("UE Rx-Tx" or "Tx"). Rx→Tx The RTT response message may include a reference signal (e.g., SRS) from which the base station can estimate the ToA of the RTT response. The difference between the ToA of the RTT response and the transmission time of the RTT measurement signal (referred to as "BS Tx-Rx" or "T Tx→Rx By comparing the UE Rx-Tx measurements (called "progressive" measurements) with the UE Rx-Tx measurements, the base station (or positioning entity) can then determine the propagation time between the UE and the base station, from which the base station can then determine the distance between the UE and the base station by inferring the speed of light during this propagation time.

[0105]

[0114] The UE-centric RTT estimation is similar to the network-based method, except that the UE transmits an uplink RTT measurement signal that is received by multiple base stations (e.g., a serving base station and neighboring base stations) within the communication range of the UE. In one aspect, a base station (e.g., a serving base station) may instruct the UE to transmit an uplink RTT measurement signal. Instructing the UE may include scheduling resources on which the UE transmits the uplink RTT measurement signal. Alternatively, the base station may notify the UE that the UE may transmit an uplink RTT measurement signal, and the notification may include an indication of resources that may be used. Each base station responds to the receipt of the uplink RTT measurement signal with a downlink RTT response message, which may include the arrival time of the RTT measurement signal at the base station in the RTT response message payload.

[0106]

[0115] For both network-centric and UE-centric procedures, the party performing the RTT calculation (network or UE) typically (but not always) sends the initial message or signal (e.g., an RTT measurement signal), while the other party responds with one or more RTT response messages or signals that may include the arrival (or receipt) time of the initial message or signal within the RTT response message payload.

[0107]

[0116] FIG. 7A illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system 700A according to an aspect of the disclosure. In the example of FIG. 7A, a UE 704 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein) is attempting to calculate an estimate of its location or to assist another entity (e.g., a base station or core network component, another UE, a location server, a third party application, etc.) in calculating an estimate of its location. The UE 704 may wirelessly communicate with multiple base stations 702-1, 702-2, and 702-3 (collectively base stations 702, which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein) using RF signals and a standardized protocol for modulating the RF signals and exchanging information packets. It should be noted that while FIG. 7A illustrates one UE 704 and three base stations 702, there may be more UEs 704 and more base stations 702, as can be appreciated.

[0108]

[0117] To support position estimation, a base station 702 may be configured to broadcast reference signals (e.g., PRS, NRS, CRS, TRS, CSI-RS, PSS, SSS, etc.) to UEs 704 within its coverage area to allow the UEs 704 to measure characteristics of such reference signals. For example, the UE 704 may measure the ToAs of particular reference signals transmitted by at least three different base stations 702 and use an RTT positioning method to report these ToAs (and additional information) to the serving base station 702 or another positioning entity (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272).

[0109]

[0118] In one aspect, the UE 704 is described as measuring a reference signal from a base station 702, but the UE 704 may measure a reference signal from one of multiple cells / TRPs supported by the base station 702. If the UE 704 measures a reference signal transmitted on a cell / TRP supported by a first base station 702, at least two other reference signals measured by the UE 704 to perform the RTT procedure should be from cells / TRPs supported by a base station 702 different from the first base station 702 and may have sufficient or insufficient signal strength at the UE 704.

[0110]

[0119] To determine the absolute position (x, y) of the UE 704, an entity determining the position of the UE 704 may calculate the following: k , y k ), where k=1, 2, 3 in the example of FIG. 7A. If the network (e.g., location server 230 / LMF 270 / SLP 272, one of the base stations 702) or the UE 704 decides to determine the location of the UE 704, the location of the associated base station 702 may be provided to the serving base station 702 or UE 704 by a location server that has knowledge of the network geometry (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272). Alternatively, the location server may determine the location of the UE 704 using the known network geometry. In one aspect, the location of the UE 704 may be determined relative to the base station 702, for example, if the location of the base station 702 is not known or the absolute location of the UE 704 is not required.

[0111]

[0120] Either the UE 704 or the respective base station 702 determines the distance (d k , where k=1, 2, 3). In one aspect, the RTT of signals exchanged between the UE 704 and any base station 702 may be determined, and the distance (d k) 710 (particularly, distance to base station 702-1 710-1, distance to base station 702-2 710-2, and distance to base station 702-3 710-3 in the example of FIG. 7A ). As described above, RTT techniques can measure the time between sending a signaling message (e.g., a reference signal) and receiving a response. These methods may utilize calibration to remove any processing delay. In some environments, the processing delay for the UE 704 and the base station 702 may be assumed to be the same. However, such an assumption is not true in practice.

[0112]

[0121] each distance d k Once determined, the UE 704, base station 702, or location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) can determine the position (x,y) of the UE 704 by using various known geometric techniques, such as trilateration. From FIG. 7A, it can be seen that the position of the UE 704 ideally resides at the common intersection of three semicircles, each with a radius d k and center (x k , y k ), where k=1, 2, 3.

[0113]

[0122] In some examples, as described further below, additional information may be obtained in the form of a linear direction (which may be, for example, in a horizontal plane or in three dimensions), or possibly an AoA or AoD measurement that defines a range of directions (e.g., from the position of the base station 702 to the UE 704). The intersection of the two directions at or near a point (x,y) may provide another estimate of the position for the UE 704.

[0114]

[0123] To implement the AoD positioning procedure, the base station may transmit reference signals (e.g., PRS, NRS, CRS, TRS, CSI-RS, PSS, SSS, etc.) to the UE on one or more downlink transmit beams, with each beam having a different weight. The different weights of the beams will result in different received signal strengths (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, etc.) at the UE. Furthermore, the channel impulse response will be smaller for transmit beams farther from the actual line-of-sight (LOS) path between the base station and the UE than for transmit beams closer to the LOS path. Similarly, the received signal strength will be lower for transmit beams farther from the LOS path than for transmit beams closer to the LOS path.

[0115]

[0124] In one aspect of AoD-based positioning, when there is only one associated base station, the base station and the UE can perform an RTT procedure (described below with respect to FIG. 7B) to determine the distance between the base station and the UE. Thus, the base station (or location server or other positioning entity) can determine both the direction to the UE (using AoD positioning) and the distance to the UE (using RTT positioning) to estimate the UE's location. Note that the AoD of the beam with the highest received signal strength and strongest channel impulse response is not necessarily along the LOS path. However, for purposes of AoD-based positioning, it is assumed to be along the LOS path.

[0116]

[0125] In another aspect of AoD-based positioning, when there are multiple associated base stations, each base station reports to a positioning entity (e.g., location server, serving base station, UE) a determined AoD for the UE. The positioning entity receives multiple such AoDs from multiple associated base stations (or other geographically separated transmission points) for the UE. With this information and knowledge of the geographical locations of the base stations, the positioning entity can estimate the location of the UE as the intersection of the received AoDs. There should be at least three associated base stations for a 2D location solution, but as will be appreciated, the more base stations involved in the positioning procedure, the more accurate the estimated UE location will be.

[0117]

[0126] 7B illustrates an example wireless communication system 700B according to an aspect of the disclosure. In the example of FIG. 7B, a UE 704 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein) is attempting to calculate an estimate of its location or to assist another positioning entity (e.g., a serving base station or core network component, another UE, a location server, a third party application, etc.) in calculating an estimate of its location. The UE 704 may communicate wirelessly with a base station (BS) 702 (e.g., any of the base stations described herein) using RF signals and standardized protocols for modulation of the RF signals and exchange of information packets.

[0118]

[0127] To support position estimation, the base station 702 may broadcast reference signals (e.g., PRS, NRS, CRS, TRS, CSI-RS, SSB, PSS, SSS, etc.) to the UE 704 within its coverage area to allow the UE 704 to measure characteristics of such reference signals. For example, the UE 704 may measure the ToA and signal strength (e.g., RSRP) of a particular reference signal transmitted by the base station 702 to implement an RTT and / or DL-AoD positioning method with the base station 702. It should be noted that although the UE 704 is described as measuring characteristics of a reference signal from the base station 702, the UE 704 may measure a reference signal from one of multiple cells or TRPs supported by the base station 702.

[0119]

[0128] The distance 710 between the UE 704 and the base station 702 may be determined using an RTT positioning procedure, as described above with respect to FIG. 7A. In particular, the RTT of RF signals exchanged between the UE 704 and the base station 702 may be used to calculate the distance 710 that defines a radius around the base station 702, as described above. The position of the UE 704 is assumed to be on that radius, with some amount of uncertainty. To further refine the estimated position of the UE 704, the base station 702 and the UE 704 may also perform an AoD positioning procedure to determine the angle between the base station 702 and the UE 704. In particular, the UE 704 may determine and report the identity of the downlink transmit beam 712 that provides the highest signal strength and / or strongest channel impulse response to a reference signal received from the base station 702.

[0120]

[0129] The results of the RTT and DL-AoD positioning procedures, or measurements taken during these procedures, are forwarded to a positioning entity, which may be the UE 704, the base station 702, the serving base station (if not the base station 702), or a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272). To determine the position of the UE 704 (e.g., in xy or xyz coordinates), the positioning entity also needs to know the position of the base station 702. When the UE 704 determines its position, the position of the base station 702 may be provided to the UE 704 by the base station 702 or by a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) that has knowledge of the position of the base station 702. Otherwise, the position of the base station 702 should be known to the base station 702 or the location server.

[0121]

[0130] Once the RTT and AoD positioning procedures are performed, the positioning entity can determine the position of the UE 704 using the angle to the UE 704 (from the AoD positioning procedure), the distance to the UE 704 (from the RTT positioning procedure), and the known position of the base station 702. If only measurements from the RTT and AoD positioning procedures are reported, the positioning entity first calculates the distance and angle between the base station 702 and the UE 704, and then uses those results to calculate the position of the UE 704.

[0122]

[0131] 8 illustrates an example wireless communication system 800 according to an aspect of the disclosure. A UE 804 may communicate wirelessly with a base station 802, which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein, using RF signals and a standardized protocol for modulating the RF signals and exchanging packets of information.

[0123]

[0132] As shown in Figure 8, the base station 802 utilizes beamforming to transmit multiple beams 811-815 of RF signals. Each beam 811-815 may be formed and transmitted by an array of antennas (e.g., TRPs) of the base station 802. Although Figure 8 shows the base station 802 transmitting five beams, it will be appreciated that there may be more or less than five beams, and beam shapes such as peak gain, width, and sidelobe gain may vary among the transmitted beams.

[0124]

[0133] A beam index may be assigned to each of the multiple beams 811-815 to distinguish an RF signal associated with one beam from an RF signal associated with another beam. Moreover, an RF signal associated with a particular beam of the multiple beams 811-815 may carry a beam index indicator. The beam index may also be derived from the transmission time of the RF signal (e.g., frame, slot, and / or OFDM symbol number). The beam index indicator may be, for example, a 3-bit field to uniquely distinguish up to eight beams. If two different RF signals with different beam indexes are received, this indicates that the RF signals were transmitted using different beams. If two different RF signals share a common beam index, this indicates that the different RF signals were transmitted using the same beam. Another way to describe that two RF signals were transmitted using the same beam is to state that the antenna port used to transmit the first RF signal is spatially quasi-colocated with the antenna port used to transmit the second RF signal.

[0125]

[0134] In the example of FIG. 8, the UE 804 may receive a non-line of sight (NLOS) data stream 823 of an RF signal transmitted on beam 813 and a line of sight (LOS) data stream 824 of an RF signal transmitted on beam 814. Although FIG. 8 illustrates the NLOS data stream 823 and the LOS data stream 824 as single lines (dashed and solid, respectively), it will be appreciated that the NLOS data stream 823 and the LOS data stream 824 may each comprise multiple rays (i.e., "clusters") depending on the time they reach the UE 804, e.g., due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through a multipath channel. For example, a cluster of RF signals may be formed when an electromagnetic wave is reflected from multiple surfaces of an object, the reflections reach a receiver (e.g., UE 804) from roughly the same angle, and each reflection travels a few wavelengths (e.g., centimeters) more or less than the other reflections. A "cluster" of received RF signals generally corresponds to a single transmitted RF signal.

[0126]

[0135] In the example of FIG. 8, the NLOS data stream 823 is not initially directed to the UE 804, but as can be appreciated, it could be directed initially. However, the NLOS data stream 823 reflects off a reflector 840 (e.g., a building) and reaches the UE 804 without any obstruction, and thus may still be a relatively strong RF signal. In contrast, the LOS data stream 824 is directed to the UE 804, but passes through obstructions 830 (e.g., vegetation, buildings, hills, poor environment such as clouds or smoke, etc.) that may significantly degrade the RF signal. As can be appreciated, although the LOS data stream 824 is weaker than the NLOS data stream 823, the LOS data stream 824 will reach the UE 804 before the NLOS data stream 823 because it follows a shorter path from the base station 802 to the UE 804.

[0127]

[0136] A beam related to data communication between a base station (e.g., base station 802) and a UE (e.g., UE 804) is a beam carrying an RF signal that reaches the UE with the highest signal strength (e.g., highest RSRP, RSRQ, SINR), while a beam related to position estimation is a beam carrying an RF signal that excites the LOS path and has the highest gain along the LOS path among all other beams (e.g., beam 814). That is, even if beam 813 (an NLOS beam) weakly excites the LOS path (even if not focused along the LOS path, due to the propagation characteristics of the RF signal), that weak signal, if any, of the LOS path of beam 813 may not be reliably detectable (compared to the signal from beam 814), thus leading to a larger error in performing positioning measurements.

[0128]

[0137] The beams related to data communication and the beams related to position estimation may be the same beam for some frequency bands (e.g., in FR1), but for other frequency bands, such as mmW, they are not the same beam. Thus, referring to FIG. 8, if UE 804 is engaged in a data communication session with base station 802 (e.g., when base station 802 is the serving base station for UE 804) and is not merely attempting to measure a reference signal transmitted by base station 802, the beam related to the data communication session may be beam 813, since beam 813 carries NLOS data stream 823 that is unobstructed. However, the beam related to position estimation is beam 814, since beam 814 carries the strongest LOS data stream 824, despite being obstructed.

[0129]

[0138] FIG. 9 is a diagram 900 illustrating an example base station 902 (which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein) in communication with an example UE 904 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein) in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. With reference to FIG. 9, the base station 902 may transmit beamformed signals to the UE 904 in one or more transmit beams 902a, 902b, 902c, 902d, 902e, 902f, 902g, 902h. For example, if the base station is beamforming toward the UE 904 with an array of a single antenna, the base station 902 may perform a "beam sweep" by first transmitting beam 902a, then beam 902b, and so on until finally transmitting beam 902h. Alternatively, the base station 902 may transmit beams 902a-h in some pattern, such as beam 902a, then beam 902h, then beam 902b, then beam 902g, and so on. If the base station 902 is beamforming toward the UE 904 using an array of antennas, each antenna array may perform beam sweeping of a subset of the beams 902a-h. Alternatively, each of the beams 902a-h may correspond to a single antenna or antenna array.

[0130]

[0139] The UE 904 may receive beamformed signals from the base station 902 on one or more receive beams 904a, 904b, 904c, 904d. Note that for simplicity, the beams shown in FIG. 9 represent either transmit or receive beams, depending on which of the base station 902 and the UE 904 is transmitting and receiving. Thus, the UE 904 may transmit beamformed signals to the base station 902 on one or more of the beams 904a-904d, and the base station 902 may receive beamformed signals from the UE 904 on one or more of the beams 902a-902h.

[0131]

[0140] The base station 902 and the UE 904 may perform beam training to determine the best receive and transmit beams for each of the base station 902 and the UE 904. For example, depending on environmental conditions and other factors, the base station 902 and the UE 904 may determine that the best transmit and receive beams are 902d and 904b, respectively, or beams 902e and 904c, respectively. The direction of the best transmit beam for the base station 902 may or may not be the same as the direction of the best receive beam, and similarly, the direction of the best receive beam for the UE 904 may or may not be the same as the direction of the best transmit beam.

[0132]

[0141] The base station 902 may transmit reference signals (e.g., PRS, NRS, CRS, TRS, CSI-RS, PSS, SSS, etc.) to the UE 904 for positioning on one or more of the beams 902a-902h. Similarly, the UE 904 may transmit reference signals (e.g., SRS, UL, PRS, etc.) to the base station 902 for positioning on one or more of the beams 904a-904d. In an aspect, the transmitter (i.e., the base station 902 or the UE 904) may use the AoD positioning technique described above with respect to FIG. 7B to estimate the position of the receiver (i.e., the other of the base station 902 and the UE 904). For example, the base station 902 may transmit reference signals to the UE 904 on multiple beams, each beam having a different weight. The different weights of the beams will result in different received signal strengths (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, etc.) at the UE 904. Furthermore, the channel impulse response will be smaller for transmit beams further from the LOS path between the base station 902 and the UE 904 than for transmit beams closer to the LOS path. Similarly, the received signal strength will be lower for transmit beams further from the LOS path than for transmit beams closer to the LOS path.

[0133]

[0142] In the example of FIG. 9, the LOS path between the base station 902 and the UE 904 is represented as LOS path 910. If the base station 902 transmits a reference signal to the UE 904 on beams 902c, 902d, and 902e, then the transmit beam 902d will be best aligned with the LOS path 910, but not the transmit beams 902c and 902e. Thus, the beam 902d will have a stronger channel impulse response and a higher received signal strength than the beams 902c and 902e. The UE 904 can report to the base station 902 the channel impulse response and received signal strength of each measured transmit beam, or alternatively, the identity of the transmit beam having the strongest channel impulse response and the highest received signal strength. With this information, the base station 902 can estimate the location of the UE 904 as being in the direction (i.e., AoD) of its transmit beam, here transmit beam 902d.

[0134]

[0143] To provide a more accurate estimate of the location of the UE 904, the base station 902 and the UE 904 may perform an RTT procedure (described above with respect to FIG. 7B ) to determine the distance between the base station 902 and the UE 904. Thus, the base station 902 may determine both the direction to the UE 904 (using AoD positioning) and the distance to the UE 904 (using RTT positioning) to estimate the location of the UE 904.

[0135]

[0144] 10 is a diagram of an example physical layer procedure 1000 for processing PRS transmitted on multiple beams in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. At stage 1010, the network (e.g., location server 230 or LMF 270, SLP 272) configures a given base station (e.g., gNB) to transmit a beamformed PRS to one or more UEs within the coverage area of ​​a cell supported by the base station. The PRS configuration may include multiple instances of the PRS (e.g., as described above with respect to FIG. 5) to be beam swept (e.g., as described above with respect to FIG. 9) across all AoDs for each cell at full transmit power per beam. In the example of FIG. 10, the base station transmits the PRS on a first beam ("Beam 1") at a first time ("Time=1"), a second beam ("Beam 2") at a second time ("Time=2"), and so on up to an Nth beam ("Beam N") at an Nth time ("Time=N"), where N is an integer from 1 to 128 (i.e., there may be as many as 128 beams for a single cell). The beams shown may be for particular cells supported by the base station, and the base station may beam sweep the PRS in each of the cells that the base station supports. The base station may beam sweep using a single antenna or antenna array, in which case that antenna or antenna array transmits each beam (Beams 1 through N). Alternatively, the base station may beam sweep using multiple antennas or antenna arrays, in which case each antenna or antenna array transmits one or more of Beams 1 through N.

[0136]

[0145] At 1020, a given UE monitors all cells that the UE has been configured by the network to monitor, and the cells are configured to transmit PRS over the configured instances. There may need to be several PRS instances / occasions to allow the UE to detect a sufficient number of cells for positioning (due to the time it takes for the UE to tune its radio from one cell to another and then monitor the cells). The UE measures the channel, specifically the channel energy response (CER) and ToA, over all cells for which the UE is configured to search for PRS.

[0137]

[0146] At 1030, the UE prunes the CER across cells to determine the ToA of the PRS beam. At 1040, the ToA may be used to estimate the UE's location using, for example, OTDOA / DL-TDOA (shown in FIG. 6), RTT (shown in FIG. 7A), DL-AoD (shown in FIG. 7B), etc. If the UE has been provided with a base station almanac (BSA), the UE can estimate its location based on the ToA. Alternatively, if the UE reports the ToA to the network, the network can estimate the UE's location.

[0138]

[0147] The complexity between positioning in LTE and in NR increases significantly. In LTE, each base station (e.g., gNB) can configure only one PRS resource per Tms. In contrast, in NR, each base station (e.g., gNB) can configure X PRS resources (i.e., X PRS beams) per Tms. X can be up to 128 for FR2 time division duplex (TDD), up to 8 for FR1 TDD (e.g., China Mobile Communications Company (CMCC)), or 1 or 2 for FR1 FDD (e.g., T-Mobile E-911). In addition, in LTE, the FFT size is 2K, while in 5G, the FFT size is 8K (to allow quadradic interpolation). Furthermore, in LTE, there are 16 RE / PRBs per PRS resource (specifically, 8 symbols with comb-6). However, in NR, the potential worst case could be 6 symbols x 6RE / symbol for 36RE / PRS per PRS resource. Thus, the potential worst case increase in complexity between LTE and NR could be 1000 times or more.

[0139]

[0148] The UE is configured to transmit a channel state information (CSI) report at regular intervals or when triggered by the network. The CSI report includes information indicative of the quality of a given channel at a particular time. In detail, the CSI report includes the following parameters: a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), a synchronization signal (SS) / physical broadcast channel (PBCH) resource block indicator (SSBRI), a rank indicator (RI) and / or a layer-1 reference signal received power (L1-RSRP), and a layer indicator (LI). For CSI acquisition and beam management, the UE may be configured with a CSI reporting setting in RRC signaling, which may contain a parameter (e.g., ReportQuantity) to indicate one or more CSI-related quantities to report, which component carriers (e.g., CRI, RI, PMI, CQI, L1-RSRP, etc.) as well as which uplink channels should be used to carry the reported CSI-related quantities (e.g., Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), etc.).

[0140]

[0149] There are several CSI processing criteria in generating the CSI report. The UE may select the number of supported simultaneous CSI calculations N CPU The UE can show that N CPU When supporting simultaneous CSI calculations, N CPU A UE is said to have N CSI Processing Units (CPUs). If L CPUs are dedicated to the computation of CSI reports in a given OFDM symbol, the UE can have N CPU -L free CPUs. N CSI reports are CPU -L CPUs start occupying their respective CPUs on the same unoccupied OFDM symbol, where each CSI report n=0,...,N-1 is

[0141]

number

[0142] and the UE does not need to update the N M requested CSI reports with the lowest priority, where 0≦M≦N.

[0143]

number

[0144] is the maximum value for which

[0145]

[0150] UE is N CPU It is not expected that an aperiodic CSI trigger state containing more reporting configurations will be configured. The processing of the CSI report occupies a number of CPUs relative to the number of symbols. For example, for a CSI report with CSI-ReportConfig with upper layer parameter reportQuantity set to "none" and CSI-RS-ResourceSet with upper layer parameter trs-Info configured, CPU = 0. Alternatively, for CSI reports with CI-ReportConfig (and CSI-RS-ResourceSet with no higher layer parameter trs-Info configured) with higher layer parameter reportQuantity set to "cri-RSRP", "ssb-Index-RSRP" or "none", CPU= 1. For CSI reporting with CSI-ReportConfig with higher layer parameter reportQuantity set to "cri-RI-PMI-CQI", "cri-RI-i1", "cri-RI-i1-CQI", "cri-RI-CQI", or "cri-RI-LI-PMI-CQI", if CSI reporting is triggered aperiodically without transmitting PUSCH with either transport block or HARQ-ACK or both when L=0 CPU is occupied, where the CSI corresponds to a single CSI with wideband frequency granularity and at most 4 CSI-RS ports in a single resource without CRI reporting, where codebookType is set to "typeI-SinglePanel", or where reportQuantity is set to "cri-RI-CQI", CPU =N CPU otherwise, O CPU =K s where K s is the number of CSI-RS resources in the CSI-RS resource set for channel measurements.

[0146]

[0151] For CSI reporting with CSI-ReportConfig with upper layer parameter reportQuantity set to "none" and CSI-RS-ResourceSet with upper layer parameter trs-Info not configured, the CPU is occupied for the number of OFDM symbols according to various criteria. In particular, periodic or semi-persistent CSI reporting (except for the first semi-persistent CSI report on PUSCH after a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) triggered report) occupies the CPU from the first symbol of the earliest of periodic or semi-persistent CSI-RS / SSB resources for channel measurement for L1-RSRP calculation to Z3' symbols after the last symbol of the latest of CSI-RS / SSB resources for channel measurement for L1-RSRP calculation in each transmission opportunity. Aperiodic CSI reporting occupies the CPU from the first symbol after the PDCCH triggers CSI reporting to the last symbol between Z3 symbols after the first symbol after the PDCCH triggers CSI reporting and Z3′ symbols after the last symbol of the latest one of the CSI-RS / SSB resources for channel measurements for L1-RSRP calculation.

[0147]

[0152] In any slot, a UE is not expected to have more active CSI-RS ports or active CSI-RS resources than reported as capabilities. A non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resource is active for a duration defined as follows: For aperiodic CSI-RS, the duration starts at the end of the PDCCH containing a request and ends at the end of the PUSCH containing a report related to this aperiodic CSI-RS. For semi-persistent CSI-RS, the duration starts when an activation command is applied and ends when a deactivation command is applied. For periodic CSI-RS, the duration starts when periodic CSI-RS is configured by higher layer signaling and ends when the periodic CSI-RS configuration is released. If a CSI-RS resource is referenced by N CSI reporting configurations, the CSI-RS resource and the CSI-RS ports within the CSI-RS resource are counted N times.

[0148]

[0153] Taking the above-described CSI processing framework as a starting point, the present disclosure defines a positioning processing framework that includes a positioning processing unit (PPU) to report various positioning related capabilities of a UE. In particular, similar to a CPU that indicates the number of simultaneous CSI calculations a UE can perform across all configured cells, the present disclosure introduces a PPU that indicates the number of simultaneous positioning calculations a UE can perform across all configured cells. Similar to CSI reporting, a UE can report the number of PPUs that the UE can support to the network on one or more PPUs. The network may provide a definition of a PPU (e.g., some number of simultaneous positioning calculations) to the UE, and the UE may report the number of PPUs that the UE can support based on that definition. Alternatively, the UE may report the number of PPUs that the UE can support based on the UE's own definition of a PPU. Note that "simultaneous" calculation means that two or more calculations are performed at least partially at the same time and / or at the same frequency. The calculations may start and / or end at different times and / or frequencies, but there is at least a portion of time / frequency where the time and frequency overlap. In other words, the PPU indicates the number of positioning calculations that the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both.

[0149]

[0154] For positioning measurements and reports, the proposed framework defines how to count the number of active PRS resources in order to allocate PPUs among different PRS resources / reports and to limit the number of occupied PPUs. Regarding how to count the number of active PRS resources, as described above, each PRS resource spans a set of REs. If there is a limit to the number of REs that a UE can process (e.g., simultaneously), the number of active PRS resources may be practically and implicitly limited by this number. Regarding the allocation of PPUs in different PRS resources / reports, PPUs may be assigned to different PRS resources / reports according to the following parameters / characteristics, which are further described below: (1) the number of REs allocated to carry the PRS (which is the number of PRS resources required for the UE to process, and may be referred to as PRS overhead), (2) whether the position estimation is UE-assisted or UE-based, (3) which parameters should be measured and / or reported, and (4) how quickly the calculation should be performed (i.e., latency-based differentiation). With regard to limiting the number of occupied PPUs, this is achieved by the UE signaling its capabilities for the above characteristics / parameters.

[0150]

[0155] To distinguish from the CSI processing approaches described above, special considerations specific to positioning measurements and reporting are given herein. For example, reporting parameters may include Positioning Reference Indicator (PRI), RSRP, difference between reception of downlink reference signal and transmission of uplink reference signal at the UE (i.e., "UE Rx-Tx" measurement), RSTD, per-path RSRP, multiple RSTDs, and downlink AoA / zenith of arrival (ZoA).

[0151]

[0156] The CSI framework described above is not for positioning. For example, there are many fewer REs for CSI processing (e.g., 1-3 REs per slot) than are required for PRS processing (e.g., at least 6 REs per port). Typical PRS processing includes symbol processing, slot processing, opportunity processing, and peak detection. Symbol processing includes tone extraction, phase rotation, descrambling, and scaling. Slot processing includes tone combining, destaggering, and IFFT (depending on the corresponding report). Opportunity processing includes coherent integration over consecutive slots. Peak detection includes identifying the ToA of the PRS.

[0152]

[0157] FIG. 11 is a diagram of an example PRS processing method 1100 according to various aspects of the present disclosure. To identify the ToA of an RF signal (e.g., PRS), a receiver (e.g., UE) first processes all REs on the channel on which a transmitter (e.g., base station) is transmitting the RF signal together and performs an inverse Fourier transform to convert the received RF signal to the time domain. The conversion of the received RF signal to the time domain is called an estimation of the channel energy response (CER) or channel impulse response (CIR). The CER indicates the peaks on the channel over time, and the earliest "significant" peak should therefore correspond to the ToA of the RF signal. In general, the receiver uses a noise-related quality threshold to remove spurious local peaks, whereby the significant peaks on the channel are presumably correctly identified. For example, the receiver may select a ToA estimate that is the earliest local maximum of the CER that is at least X decibels (dB) higher than the median CER and a maximum value that is Y dB lower than the main peak on the channel. The receiver determines the CER for each RF signal from each transmitter in order to determine the ToA for each RF signal from a different transmitter.

[0153]

[0158] Thus, referring to FIG. 11, in an FFT stage 1110, a UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein) receives a time-domain RF signal and converts it to a frequency-domain signal. In a correlation stage 1120, the UE generates a frequency-domain channel impulse response from the frequency-domain signal based on a descrambling sequence. In an IFFT stage 1130, the UE generates a time-domain channel impulse response from the frequency-domain channel impulse response (also referred to as a channel energy response). In an earliest peak detection stage 1140, the UE generates a detection indication and a ToA for the time-domain RF signal received in the FFT stage 1110 based on the time-domain channel impulse response received from the IFFT stage 1130.

[0154]

[0159] In an aspect, the UE may receive the time domain RF signal at one or more of the antennas 316. The subsequent stages (i.e., FFT stage 1110, correlation stage 1120, IFFT stage 1130, earliest peak detection stage 1140) may be performed by a corresponding one or more receivers 312, WWAN transceivers 310, and / or processing systems 332 depending on the hardware implementation of the UE.

[0155]

[0160] The time required to perform the PRS processing may depend on the above parameters / characteristics, in particular: (1) the number of REs allocated to carry the PRS, (2) whether the location estimation is UE-assisted or UE-based, (3) which parameters are to be measured and / or reported, and (4) how quickly the calculations should be performed. Note that "UE-assisted" means that another entity (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) estimates the UE's location based on measurements taken by the UE, and "UE-based" means that the UE estimates its own location.

[0156]

[0161] In the proposed PPU framework, the UE may report to the network the number of PPUs that the UE can support / perform (and thus the number of positioning calculations that the UE can support / perform per unit of time / frequency) as the UE's positioning capabilities. The number of PPUs that the UE can perform may depend on various factors. For example, as mentioned above, the number of PPUs may be a function of the maximum number of REs that the UE can process simultaneously for the PRS resources. The number of REs may be defined per millisecond (e.g., the PPU may indicate that the UE can process up to 1000 REs per millisecond simultaneously across all PRS resources), per slot (e.g., the PPU may indicate that the UE can process up to 48 REs per slot), per opportunity, per PRB, or per PRS bandwidth. In this scenario, since the PPU indicates the maximum number of REs that the UE can process simultaneously, if the network configures the UE to process PRS on more REs than the UE is capable of, the UE will ignore the additional REs. For example, if a UE reports a PPU indicating that the UE can process 6 REs per PRB and the base station transmits a PRS with more than six REs per PRB, the UE will ignore the additional REs and process only six.

[0157]

[0162] In one aspect, the UE can report the number of PPUs that the UE can support in a ProvideCapabilities LPP message similar to the OTDOA-ProvideCapabilities LPP message. A field depending on the definition of the PPU can be added. For example, if the PPU depends on the number of RE / PRBs carrying PRS per slot, a field such as NumberOfPPUsPerSlot can be added, which can take values ​​of "3" (e.g., 1-symbol comb-4), "6" (e.g., 1-symbol comb-2), "12" (e.g., 2-symbol comb-2), "24", "48", "72", "144", or "168" (e.g., 14-symbol comb-12).

[0158]

[0163] Furthermore, a PPU may be defined across all PRS resources within a single component carrier (across all base stations) or across all PRS resources across all component carriers (across all base stations). For example, if the UE indicates (via a PPU) that it can handle up to 60 PRS REs on a single component carrier, but more than 61 PRS REs are transmitted on that component carrier by one or more base stations in total, then the UE shall ignore the additional PRS REs. Similarly, as another example, if the UE indicates (via a PPU) that it can handle up to 60 PRS REs across all component carriers, but more than 60 PRS REs are transmitted across all component carriers by one or more base stations, then the UE shall ignore the PRS REs beyond 60 that the UE can support.

[0159]

[0164] The UE may explicitly indicate the number of PRS REs that the UE can process simultaneously in a PPU, as described above, or may implicitly indicate the number of PRS REs. For example, instead of reporting the number of PRS REs that the UE can support, the UE may report the number of symbols per PRB that the UE can process simultaneously and the comb-type. The number of reported symbols is the number of consecutive symbols that the UE can process, and the comb-type indicates the number of subcarriers in each symbol that the UE can process. For example, a comb-type of comb-4 means that the UE is capable of processing a PRS RE in every third subcarrier of a given symbol.

[0160]

[0165] FIG. 12 illustrates various PRS resource configurations per PRB that a UE may support, according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Each example PRS resource (e.g., transmit beam) configuration illustrated in FIG. 12 is a different combination of comb-type and number of symbols per PRB of resources. The x-axis of each graph in FIG. 12 represents time, and the y-axis represents frequency. Each block of each PRB in FIG. 12 represents an RE. As explained above, each RE consists of one symbol in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain.

[0161]

[0166] For the first exemplary PRS configuration 1210, the UE may be capable / configured to measure PRS transmitted on REs in two consecutive symbols having a comb-type of Comb-4. For the second exemplary PRS configuration 1220, the UE may be capable / configured to measure PRS transmitted on REs in two consecutive symbols, but having a comb-type of Comb-2. As can be appreciated, because the UE must measure REs on twice as many subcarriers per symbol for PRS configuration 1220 than for PRS configuration 1210, the UE needs to have higher capability to measure PRS configuration 1220 than it does to measure PRS configuration 1210.

[0162]

[0167] For the third exemplary PRS configuration 1230, the PRS is transmitted and / or measured in the RE over four consecutive symbols having a comb-type of Comb-4. For the fourth exemplary PRS configuration 1240, the PRS is transmitted and / or measured in the RE over four consecutive symbols having a comb-type of Comb-2. Again, as can be appreciated, because the UE must measure the RE on twice as many subcarriers per symbol for PRS configuration 1240 than for PRS configuration 1230, the UE needs to have a higher capability to measure PRS configuration 1240 than it does for measuring PRS configuration 1230. In addition, because the UE must measure the RE on twice as many symbols for PRS configurations 1230 and 1240 than for PRS configurations 1210 and 1220, the UE needs to have a higher capability to measure PRS configurations 1230 and 1240 than it does for measuring PRS configurations 1210 and 1220.

[0163]

[0168] For the fifth exemplary PRS configuration 1250, the PRS is transmitted and / or measured in the RE over six consecutive symbols having a comb-type of Comb-4. For the sixth exemplary PRS configuration 1260, the PRS is transmitted and / or measured in the RE over six consecutive symbols having a comb-type of Comb-2. Again, as can be appreciated, because the UE must measure REs on twice as many subcarriers per symbol for PRS configuration 1260 than for PRS configuration 1250, the UE needs to have higher capability to measure PRS configuration 1260 than it does to measure PRS configuration 1250.

[0164]

[0169] As a further example where the PPU is independent of the configured bandwidth, the UE may dedicate one PPU to PRS REs spanning two symbols with comb-2 (e.g., PRS configuration 1220), or spanning four symbols with comb-4 (e.g., PRS configuration 1230), or spanning six symbols with comb-6. In the case of one PPU to PRS REs spanning two symbols with comb-2, the UE may dedicate two PPUs to PRS REs on four symbols with comb-2 (i.e., doubling the number of PRS REs on two symbols with comb-2). In the case of one PPU to PRS REs spanning four symbols with comb-4, the UE may dedicate two PPUs to PRS REs on six symbols with comb-4 (i.e., nearly doubling the number of PRS REs on four symbols with comb-4). In this case, the field may be called NumberOfPPU in the LPP ProvideCapabilities message and can take values ​​of 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 24, 36, or 72, which allows the field to have up to 12 6-symbol-comb-6 configurations (each counting as 6 PPUs, 6*12=72).

[0165]

[0170] As another example where the PPU is independent of the configured bandwidth, for every 10 MHz of the configured or processed PRS resource bandwidth, the UE may dedicate one PPU to PRS REs spanning two symbols with comb-2 (e.g., PRS configuration 1220), or spanning four symbols with comb-4 (e.g., PRS configuration 1230), or spanning six symbols with comb-6. In the case of one PPU for PRS REs spanning two symbols with comb-2, for every 10 MHz of the configured or processed PRS resource bandwidth (e.g., 100 MHz), the UE may dedicate two PPUs to PRS REs on four symbols with comb-2 (i.e., double the number of PRS REs on two symbols with comb-2). In the case of one PPU for PRS REs spanning four symbols with comb-4, for a configured PRS resource bandwidth for every 10 MHz of the configured PRS resource or processed PRS resource bandwidth, the UE may dedicate two PPUs for PRS REs on six symbols with comb-4 (i.e., approximately double the number of PRS REs on four symbols with comb-4). That is, the PPU may define the number of PRS REs that the UE can process simultaneously for X (e.g., 10) MHz of the total PRS bandwidth. The UE will ignore PRS REs outside the specified bandwidth.

[0166]

[0171] As can be appreciated, the fewer PRS REs a UE can process and / or the smaller the bandwidth over which the UE can process the PRS REs, the worse the positioning performance of the UE will be, and conversely, the more PRS REs a UE can process and / or the larger the bandwidth over which the UE can process the PRS REs, the better the positioning performance of the UE will be.

[0167]

[0172] In an aspect, the number of PRS REs that the UE can process simultaneously, as indicated by the PPU, may also depend on whether the position estimation is UE-assisted or UE-based. UE-based position estimation is more measurement / computation intensive for the UE than UE-assisted position estimation. Thus, the reported PPU may be specified a different amount depending on whether the position estimation is UE-assisted or UE-based. For example, the UE may report that for UE-assisted position estimation, the UE can process the PRB with PRS REs in 6 symbols with comb-2, while for UE-based position estimation, the UE can only process the PRB with PRS REs in 2 symbols with comb-2. In an aspect, to signal such capabilities, there may be two NumberOfPPU fields in the LPP ProvideCapabilities message, one for UE-based positioning and one for UE-assisted positioning.

[0168]

[0173] In one aspect, the number of PRS REs indicated in the PPU may depend on what parameters are measured / reported for the UE-assisted positioning. For example, reporting only L1-RSRP is less complex than reporting only timing information (e.g., RSTD, UE Rx-Tx) for the main peak of the channel impulse response, which is less complex than reporting both L1-RSRP and timing information (e.g., RSTD, UE Rx-Tx) for the main peak, which is less complex than reporting timing information for more than one peak, which is less complex than reporting L1-RSRP and timing information (e.g., RSTD, UE Rx-Tx) for more than one peak. The more complex, the less PRS REs the UE may have the ability to process for a given measurement.

[0169]

[0174] For example, if the UE is configured to measure / report RSTD across 10 PRS resources (e.g., transmit beams), each PRS resource may require two PPUs, whereas if the 10 PRS resources are only used for L1-RSRP reporting because L1-RSRP has low complexity, each PRS resource may require only one PPU. As another example, if the UE is configured to report RSTD, the UE may process 20 PRS resources (e.g., 20 transmit beams) in one slot / millisecond / subframe / etc., whereas if the UE is configured to report L1-RSRP, the UE may process 10 PRS resources in one slot / millisecond / occasion / etc., but again, if the UE is configured to report multiple peaks of RSTD, the UE may process only 4 PRS in one slot / millisecond / occasion / etc.

[0170]

[0175] In one aspect, the positioning capability, or PPU allocation, may also depend on the required accuracy (if any) of the position estimation (for UE-based positioning). For example, if the network (e.g., serving base station, location server) requires high accuracy of the position estimation, the base station is expected to configure many PRS resources (e.g., multiple transmit beams carrying PRS), and the UE is expected to process a significant portion of them. However, if the required accuracy is low, even if the base station configures many PRS resources, the UE does not process them at all, and thus the PPU requirement is lower. The positioning processing capability, or PPU allocation, may be signaled in the NumberOfPPU field for different levels of accuracy. In that case, the LPP ProvideCapabilities message may contain multiple such fields (e.g., NumberOfPPUsLowAccuracy, NumberOfPPUsHighAccuracy), and the UE reports both.

[0171]

[0176] In one aspect, the positioning processing capability, or PPU allocation, may also depend on the frequency band, or frequency range (FR), in which the PRS is transmitted, or in a combination of bands. For example, there may be up to 128 beams in FR2, while there are only up to 8 beams in FR1 TDD. Thus, the UE cannot process as many PRS resources in FR2 as in FR1 TDD. In this case, the NumberOfPPU field may be a series of values, each corresponding to a different FR or band, or band-in-band combination.

[0172]

[0177] In one aspect, the allocation of positioning processing capability, or PPU, may also depend on the required latency between the latest PRS occasion and reporting of positioning measurements (in UE-assisted mode) or UE position (in UE-based mode). For example, the UE is only expected to report updated RSTD / UE Rx-Tx / L1-RSRP values ​​using a PRS occasion ending on symbol / slot "X" if the reports are sent on PUSCH that are at least X+n apart, where n is some number of symbols / slots. For different reporting parameters, n may be different. For example, reporting the UE's position may require more processing time (e.g., n=10) than reporting only measurements of RSTD or L1-RSRP (e.g., n=5). In this case, there may be a NumberOfPPU field for different latency reporting.

[0173]

[0178] 13 illustrates an example method 1300 of wireless communication in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The method 1300 may be performed by a UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

[0174]

[0179] At 1310, the UE sends a report to a network entity (e.g., (serving) base station / TRP / cell, location server e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) indicating the UE's positioning capabilities, where the positioning capabilities indicate the number of positioning calculations the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both (i.e., the number of PPUs the UE can support). In one aspect, operation 1310 may be performed by the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory component 340, and / or the PPU component 342, any or all of which may be considered as a means for performing this operation.

[0175]

[0180] At 1320, the UE receives a request to perform a first set of positioning related measurements and to report a second set of positioning related measurements, the second set of positioning related measurements relating to a set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, a set of reporting parameters to be used for reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof. In an aspect, operation 1320 may be performed by the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory component 340, and / or the PPU manager 342, any or all of which may be considered a means for performing this operation.

[0176]

[0181] At 1330, the UE performs a first set of positioning related measurements on the set of PRS resources and reports a second set of positioning related measurements based on the UE's reported positioning capabilities, the set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof. In one aspect, operation 1330 may be performed by the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory component 340, and / or the PPU manager 342, any or all of which may be considered a means for performing this operation.

[0177]

[0182] In one aspect, the set of reporting parameters may include RSRP parameters, UE Rx-Tx measurements, ToA, RSTD parameters, UE location, reception angles, PRS resource identifiers, PRS resource set identifiers, timestamps during which the second set of positioning related measurements are valid, or any combination thereof. The first set of positioning related measurements may include RSRP parameters, UE Rx-Tx measurements, ToA, RSTD parameters, UE location, reception angles, PRS resource identifiers, PRS resource set identifiers, timestamps during which the second set of positioning related measurements are valid, or any combination thereof. The second set of positioning related measurements may include RSRP parameters, UE Rx-Tx measurements, ToA, RSTD parameters, UE location, reception angles, PRS resource identifiers, PRS resource set identifiers, timestamps during which the second set of positioning related measurements are valid, or any combination thereof.

[0178]

[0183] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referred to throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0179]

[0184] Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, the various exemplary components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Those skilled in the art may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0180]

[0185] The various example logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed using a general purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but alternatively, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0181]

[0186] The methods, sequences, and / or algorithms described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in software modules executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software modules may reside in a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a read only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). Alternatively, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

[0182]

[0187] In one or more exemplary aspects, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or code. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and computer communication media, including any medium that enables transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media may comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of the medium. As used herein, disk and disc include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray disc, where disks typically reproduce data magnetically and discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0183]

[0188] Although the above disclosure illustrates exemplary aspects of the disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications may be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and / or actions of the method claims according to the aspects of the disclosure described herein need not be performed in any particular order. Furthermore, although elements of the disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated. The invention as described in the claims of the present application as originally filed is set forth below. [C1] 1. A method of wireless communication implemented by a user equipment (UE), comprising: sending a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of the UE, the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both; receiving a request to perform a first set of positioning-related measurements and to report a second set of positioning-related measurements, the second set of positioning-related measurements being associated with a set of positioning reference signal (PRS) resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning-related measurements, a set of reporting parameters to be used for the reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof; performing the first set of positioning related measurements on the set of PRS resources and reporting the second set of positioning related measurements based on the reported positioning capability of the UE, the set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof; A method comprising: [C2] The method of claim 1, wherein the number of positioning calculations is expressed in the report as a number of positioning processing units (PPUs) supported by the UE, where PPU indicates a number of resource elements (REs) dedicated to PRS resources per unit of time, frequency, or both that the UE can process per unit of time, frequency, or both. [C3] receiving a definition of the PPU from the network entity, the definition of the PPU indicating a number of the REs per unit of time, frequency, or both; determining a number of the PPUs supported by the UE based on the definition of the PPU; The method of C2, further comprising: [C4] The method of claim 1, wherein the unit of time comprises one or more milliseconds, one or more frames, one or more subframes, one or more slots, one or more positioning occasions, or one or more symbols, and the unit of frequency comprises one or more physical resource blocks (PRBs), or a portion of a bandwidth used for positioning. [C5] The method of claim 1, wherein the number of positioning calculations is expressed in the report as a number of symbols per time unit during which the UE is configured to measure a PRS. [C6] The method of C1, wherein the set of PRS resources comprises one or more transmission beams transmitted by a serving transmission / reception point (TRP) or one or more neighboring TRPs. [C7] The method of claim 1, wherein the number of positioning calculations is across all PRS resources for all TRPs operating on a given frequency layer. [C8] The method according to C1, wherein the number of positioning calculations is for all PRS resources for all TRPs operating on all frequency layers supported by the UE. [C9] The method of claim 1, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on whether the UE is expected to report the second set of positioning related measurements to assist the network entity in estimating a position of the UE, or based on whether the UE estimates the position of the UE. [C10] The method of claim 9, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on a required latency between a last PRS opportunity and the UE sending the second set of positioning related measurements based on the UE assisting the network entity to estimate the position of the UE. [C11] The method of claim 9, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on the UE estimating a position of the UE and a required latency between a last PRS opportunity and the UE sending the position of the UE. [C12] The method of claim 1, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on a required accuracy of the UE's position estimation. [C13] The method of claim 12, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on the required accuracy based on which the UE performs the location estimation. [C14] The method of claim 1, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on a bandwidth, band, or frequency range over which the set of PRS resources is transmitted. [C15] The method of claim 1, wherein the UE reports an updated value for the set of reporting parameters using a PRS resource that ends at a given symbol or slot based on the updated value being transmitted at least a threshold number of symbols or slots after the given symbol or slot. [C16] The method of claim 1, wherein the UE sends the report periodically or upon request from the network entity. [C17] The method of claim 1, wherein the number of sets of PRS resources is based on what parameters are included in the set of reporting parameters. [C18] the set of reporting parameters comprises a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) parameter, a UE receive-to-transmit (UE Rx-Tx) measurement, a Time of Arrival (ToA), a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) parameter, a position of the UE, an angle of reception, a PRS resource identifier, a PRS resource set identifier, a timestamp for which the second set of positioning related measurements is valid, or any combination thereof; the first set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSRP parameters, the UE Rx-Tx measurements, the ToA, the RSTD parameters, the position of the UE, the reception angles, the PRS resource identifiers, the PRS resource set identifiers, the timestamps during which the second set of positioning related measurements is valid, or any combination thereof; The method of claim 17, wherein the second set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSRP parameters, the UE Rx-Tx measurements, the ToA, the RSTD parameters, the position of the UE, the reception angle, the PRS resource identifier, the PRS resource set identifier, the timestamps during which the second set of positioning related measurements is valid, or any combination thereof. [C19] The method of C18, wherein the first set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSTD parameters and the second set of positioning related measurements comprises the position of the UE. [C20] The method of C18, wherein the first set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSTD parameters and the reception angles, and the second set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSTD parameters, the reception angles, or both. [C21] The method of C18, wherein the first set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSTD parameters, and the second set of positioning related measurements comprises a PRS resource ID corresponding to an earliest route from a TRP. [C22] The method of C18, wherein the first set of positioning related measurements is the same as the second set of positioning related measurements. [C23] reporting the RSRP parameters is of comparable or less complexity to reporting the RSTD parameters or the UE Rx-Tx measurements for a main peak of a channel on which the set of PRS resources is transmitted; reporting the RSTD parameters and the UE Rx-Tx measurement values ​​for the main peak is of equal or lesser complexity than reporting the RSRP parameters, the RSTD parameters, and the UE Rx-Tx measurement values ​​for the main peak; reporting the RSRP parameters, the RSTD parameters, and the UE Rx-Tx measurements is of equal or less complexity than reporting the RSRP parameters, the RSTD parameters, and the UE Rx-Tx measurements for peaks more than the main peak. The method according to C18. [C24] Memory, At least one transceiver; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor comprising: causing the at least one transceiver to transmit a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of the UE, the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both; receiving, via the at least one transceiver, a request to perform a first set of positioning related measurements and to report a second set of positioning related measurements, the second set of positioning related measurements being associated with a set of positioning reference signal (PRS) resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, a set of reporting parameters to be used for the reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof; performing the first set of positioning related measurements on the set of PRS resources and reporting the second set of positioning related measurements based on the reported positioning capability of the UE, the set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof; A user equipment (UE) configured to perform the above. [C25] The UE described in C24, wherein the number of positioning calculations is expressed in the report as a number of positioning processing units (PPUs) supported by the UE, where PPU indicates a number of resource elements (REs) dedicated to PRS resources per unit of time, frequency, or both that the UE can process per unit of time, frequency, or both. [C26] The at least one processor: receiving a definition of the PPU from the network entity via the at least one transceiver, the definition of the PPU indicating a number of the REs per unit of time, frequency, or both; determining a number of the PPUs supported by the UE based on the definition of the PPU; The UE of C25, further configured to: [C27] The UE of C24, wherein the unit of time comprises one or more milliseconds, one or more frames, one or more subframes, one or more slots, one or more positioning occasions, or one or more symbols, and the unit of frequency comprises one or more physical resource blocks (PRBs) or a portion of a bandwidth used for positioning. [C28] The UE of C24, wherein the number of positioning calculations is expressed in the report as a number of symbols per time unit during which the UE is configured to measure a PRS. [C29] The UE of C24, wherein the set of PRS resources comprises one or more transmit beams transmitted by a serving transmission / reception point (TRP) or one or more neighboring TRPs. [C30] The UE of C24, wherein the number of positioning calculations spans all PRS resources for all TRPs operating on a given frequency layer. [C31] The UE of C24, wherein the number of positioning calculations is for all PRS resources for all TRPs operating on all frequency layers supported by the UE. [C32] The UE described in C24, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on whether the UE is expected to report the second set of positioning related measurements to assist the network entity in estimating a position of the UE, or based on whether the UE is configured to estimate the position of the UE. [C33] The UE described in C32, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on a required latency between a last PRS opportunity and the at least one processor is configured to cause the at least one transceiver to transmit the second set of positioning related measurements based on the UE being configured to assist the network entity to estimate the position of the UE. [C34] The UE described in C32, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on a required latency between a last PRS opportunity and the at least one processor is configured to cause the at least one transceiver to transmit the position of the UE based on the UE being configured to estimate the position of the UE. [C35] The UE of C24, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on a required accuracy of a position estimation of the UE. [C36] The UE of C35, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on the required accuracy based on which the UE is configured to perform the location estimation. [C37] The UE of C24, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on a bandwidth, band, or frequency range over which the set of PRS resources is transmitted. [C38] The UE of C24, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the at least one transceiver to report updated values ​​for the set of reporting parameters using a PRS resource ending at the given symbol or slot based on the updated values ​​being transmitted at least a threshold number of symbols or slots after the given symbol or slot. [C39] The UE of C24, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the at least one transceiver to transmit the report periodically or upon request from the network entity. [C40] The UE of C24, wherein the number of sets of PRS resources is based on what parameters are included in the set of reporting parameters. [C41] the set of reporting parameters comprises a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) parameter, a UE receive-to-transmit (UE Rx-Tx) measurement, a Time of Arrival (ToA), a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) parameter, a position of the UE, an angle of reception, a PRS resource identifier, a PRS resource set identifier, a timestamp for which the second set of positioning related measurements is valid, or any combination thereof; the first set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSRP parameters, the UE Rx-Tx measurements, the ToA, the RSTD parameters, the position of the UE, the reception angles, the PRS resource identifiers, the PRS resource set identifiers, the timestamps during which the second set of positioning related measurements is valid, or any combination thereof; The UE of C40, wherein the second set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSRP parameters, the UE Rx-Tx measurements, the ToA, the RSTD parameters, the position of the UE, the reception angle, the PRS resource identifier, the PRS resource set identifier, the timestamp during which the second set of positioning related measurements is valid, or any combination thereof. [C42] The UE of C41, wherein the first set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSTD parameters, and the second set of positioning related measurements comprises the location of the UE. [C43] The UE of C41, wherein the first set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSTD parameters and the reception angle, and the second set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSTD parameters, the reception angle, or both. [C44] The UE of C41, wherein the first set of positioning related measurements comprises the RSTD parameter, and the second set of positioning related measurements comprises a PRS resource ID corresponding to an earliest route from a TRP. [C45] The UE of C41, wherein the first set of positioning related measurements is the same as the second set of positioning related measurements. [C46] reporting the RSRP parameters is of comparable or less complexity to reporting the RSTD parameters or the UE Rx-Tx measurements for a main peak of a channel on which the set of PRS resources is transmitted; reporting the RSTD parameters and the UE Rx-Tx measurement values ​​for the main peak is of equal or lesser complexity than reporting the RSRP parameters, the RSTD parameters, and the UE Rx-Tx measurement values ​​for the main peak; reporting the RSRP parameters, the RSTD parameters, and the UE Rx-Tx measurements is of equal or less complexity than reporting the RSRP parameters, the RSTD parameters, and the UE Rx-Tx measurements for peaks more than the main peak. The UE described in C41. [C47] means for sending a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of the UE, the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both; means for receiving a request to perform a first set of positioning related measurements and to report a second set of positioning related measurements, the second set of positioning related measurements being associated with a set of positioning reference signal (PRS) resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, a set of reporting parameters to be used for the reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof; means for performing the first set of positioning related measurements on the set of PRS resources and for reporting the second set of positioning related measurements based on the reported positioning capability of the UE, the set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof; A user equipment (UE) comprising: [C48] A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising: at least one instruction to instruct a user equipment (UE) to send a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of the UE, the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both; at least one instruction to instruct the UE to receive a request to perform a first set of positioning related measurements and to report a second set of positioning related measurements, the second set of positioning related measurements being related to a set of positioning reference signal (PRS) resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, a set of reporting parameters to be used for the reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof; at least one instruction to instruct the UE to perform the first set of positioning related measurements on the set of PRS resources and to report the second set of positioning related measurements based on the reported positioning capability of the UE, the set of PRS resources to be used for the first and second sets of positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof; A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising:

Claims

1. 1. A method of wireless communication implemented by a user equipment (UE), comprising: sending a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of the UE, the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both; receiving a request to perform positioning related measurements according to a first set of positioning related measurement information and to report a second set of positioning related measurement information, the second set of positioning related measurement information relating to a set of positioning reference signal (PRS) resources to be used for the positioning related measurements, a set of reporting parameters to be used for the reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof; performing positioning related measurements on a set of PRS resources according to the first set of positioning related measurement information; and reporting the second set of positioning related measurement information based on the reported positioning capability of the UE, the set of PRS resources to be used for the positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof; A method comprising:

2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of positioning calculations is represented in the report as a number of positioning processing units (PPUs) supported by the UE, where a PPU indicates a number of resource elements (REs) dedicated for PRS resources per unit of time, frequency, or both that the UE can process per unit of time, frequency, or both.

3. receiving a definition of the PPU from the network entity, the definition of the PPU indicating a number of the REs per unit of time, frequency, or both; determining the number of PPUs supported by the UE based on the definition of the PPU; The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

4. 2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the time unit comprises one or more milliseconds, one or more frames, one or more subframes, one or more slots, one or more positioning occasions, or one or more symbols, and the frequency unit comprises one or more physical resource blocks (PRBs), or a portion of a bandwidth used for positioning.

5. the number of positioning calculations being expressed in the report as a number of symbols per time unit during which the UE is configured to measure a PRS, or The set of PRS resources comprises one or more transmission beams transmitted by a serving transmission / reception point (TRP) or one or more neighboring TRPs; or The number of positioning calculations is across all PRS resources for all TRPs operating on a given frequency layer, or The method of claim 1 , wherein the number of positioning calculations is for all PRS resources for all TRPs operating on all frequency layers supported by the UE.

6. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on whether the UE is expected to report the second set of positioning related measurement information to assist the network entity to estimate a position of the UE or based on whether the UE estimates the position of the UE.

7. based on the UE assisting the network entity to estimate the position of the UE, the number of positioning calculations being determined based on a required latency between a last PRS opportunity and the UE sending the second set of positioning related measurement information, or 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on a required latency between a last PRS opportunity and the UE sending the position of the UE based on the UE's estimate of the location of the UE.

8. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of positioning calculations is determined based on a required accuracy of the UE's position estimation, and the number of positioning calculations is preferably determined based on the required accuracy based on which the UE performs the position estimation.

9. The number of positioning calculations is determined based on a bandwidth, band, or frequency range in which the set of PRS resources is transmitted; or The UE reports an update to the set of reporting parameters using a PRS resource that ends in a given symbol or slot, based on the update being transmitted at least a threshold number of symbols or slots after the given symbol or slot, or The method of claim 1 , wherein the UE sends the report periodically or upon request from the network entity.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the number of sets of PRS resources is based on what parameters are included in the set of reporting parameters.

11. the set of reporting parameters comprises a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) parameter, a UE receive-to-transmit (UE Rx-Tx) measurement, a Time of Arrival (ToA), a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) parameter, the UE's position, a reception angle, a PRS resource identifier, a PRS resource set identifier, a timestamp during which the second set of positioning related measurement information is valid, or any combination thereof; the first set of positioning related measurement information comprises the RSRP parameters, the UE Rx-Tx measurements, the ToA, the RSTD parameters, the position of the UE, the reception angles, the PRS resource identifiers, the PRS resource set identifiers, the timestamps during which the second set of positioning related measurement information is valid, or any combination thereof; 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the second set of positioning related measurement information comprises the RSRP parameters, the UE Rx-Tx measurements, the ToA, the RSTD parameters, the position of the UE, the reception angles, the PRS resource identifiers, the PRS resource set identifiers, the timestamps during which the second set of positioning related measurement information is valid, or any combination thereof.

12. the first set of positioning related measurement information comprises the RSTD parameters and the second set of positioning related measurement information comprises the position of the UE; or the first set of positioning related measurement information comprises the RSTD parameters and the reception angles, and the second set of positioning related measurement information comprises the RSTD parameters, the reception angles, or both; or The first set of positioning related measurement information comprises the RSTD parameter, and the second set of positioning related measurement information comprises a PRS resource ID corresponding to an earliest route from a TRP; or the first set of positioning related measurement information is the same as the second set of positioning related measurement information, or reporting the RSRP parameters is of equal or lesser complexity than reporting the RSTD parameters or the UE Rx-Tx measurements for a main peak of a channel on which the set of PRS resources is transmitted; reporting the RSTD parameters and the UE Rx-Tx measurements for the main peak is of equal or lesser complexity than reporting the RSRP parameters, the RSTD parameters, and the UE Rx-Tx measurements for the main peak; reporting the RSRP parameters, the RSTD parameters, and the UE Rx-Tx measurements is of equal or less complexity than reporting the RSRP parameters, the RSTD parameters, and the UE Rx-Tx measurements for peaks more than the main peak; The method of claim 11.

13. Memory, At least one transceiver; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and to the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor comprising: causing the at least one transceiver to transmit a report to a network entity indicating a positioning capability of a user equipment (UE), the positioning capability indicating a number of positioning calculations the UE can perform per time, per frequency, or both; receiving, via the at least one transceiver, a request to perform positioning related measurements according to a first set of positioning related measurement information and to report a second set of positioning related measurement information, the second set of positioning related measurement information relating to a set of positioning reference signal (PRS) resources to be used for the positioning related measurements, a set of reporting parameters to be used for the reporting, an accuracy configuration, a latency configuration, or any combination thereof; performing positioning related measurements on a set of PRS resources according to the first set of positioning related measurement information; and reporting the second set of positioning related measurement information based on the reported positioning capability of the UE, the set of PRS resources to be used for the positioning related measurements, the set of reporting parameters, the accuracy configuration, the latency configuration, or any combination thereof; The UE is configured to perform the following:

14. The UE of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform a method according to any one of claims 2 to 12.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising at least one instruction that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), causes the UE to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 12.

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