Positioning measurement data reported via L1 or L2 signaling

Abstract

Techniques for wireless communications are disclosed. In one aspect, a first communication node (e.g., a UE, a BS, etc.) obtains one or more measurements associated with one or more PRSs (e.g., an uplink PRS, a downlink PRS, etc.). The first communication node transmits a report based on the one or more measurements to a second communication node (e.g., a UE, a BS, etc.) via L1 or L2 signaling. The second communication node receives the report and performs a position calculation function based on the report.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 966,516, entitled "POSITIONING MEASUREMENT DATA REPORTED VIA L1 OR L2 SIGNALING," filed on January 27, 2020, and U.S. Non-Provisional Application No. 17 / 157,241, entitled "POSITIONING MEASUREMENT DATA REPORTED VIA L1 OR L2 SIGNALING," filed on January 25, 2021, both of which are assigned to the assignee of this application and are expressly incorporated by reference in their entireties herein.

[0002] Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communications. [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., 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), a variant of TDMA, Global System for Mobile Access (GSM), and the like.

[0004]

[0004] The fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, called New Radio (NR), will enable higher data rates, a larger number of connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. The 5G standard by the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance 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 wireless 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 standard. Furthermore, signaling efficiency must be enhanced and latency must be significantly reduced compared to the current standard. Summary of the Invention

[0005]

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

[0006]

[0006] In one aspect, a first communication node obtains one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS) and transmits a report based on the one or more measurements to a second communication node via L1 or L2 signaling.

[0007]

[0007] In another aspect, the second communication node receives a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS) from the first communication node via L1 or L2 signaling, and performs a position computing function based on the report.

[0008]

[0008] In another aspect, the first communication node comprises a memory, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to obtain one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS) and to transmit a report based on the one or more measurements to the second communication node via L1 or L2 signaling.

[0009]

[0009] In another aspect, the second communications node comprises a memory, at least one transceiver, and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS) from the first communications node via L1 or L2 signaling, and to perform a position calculation function based on the report.

[0010]

[0010] In another aspect, the first communication node comprises means for obtaining one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS) and means for transmitting a report based on the one or more measurements to a second communication node via L1 or L2 signaling.

[0011]

[0011] In another aspect, the second communication node comprises means for receiving a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS) from the first communication node via L1 or L2 signaling, and means for performing a position calculation function based on the report.

[0012]

[0012] In another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, comprising at least one instruction to instruct a first communications node to obtain one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS), and at least one instruction to instruct the first communications node to transmit a report based on the one or more measurements to a second communications node via L1 or L2 signaling.

[0013]

[0013] In another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, comprising at least one instruction to instruct a second communications node to receive a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS) from a first communications node via L1 or L2 signaling, and at least one instruction to instruct the second communications node to perform a position calculation function based on the report.

[0014]

[0014] 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 of the invention.

[0015]

[0015] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in the explanation of various aspects of the present disclosure and are provided merely to illustrate the aspects thereof, not to limit the same. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0016] [Figure 1]

[0016] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communication system, in accordance with various aspects. [Figure 2A]

[0017] 1 illustrates an example wireless network structure, in accordance with various aspects. [Figure 2B] 1 illustrates an example wireless network structure, in accordance with various aspects. [Figure 3A]

[0018] 1 is a simplified block diagram of an example aspect of components that may be employed in a wireless communication node and configured to support communication as taught herein; [Figure 3B] 1 is a simplified block diagram of an example aspect of components that may be employed in a wireless communication node and configured to support communication as taught herein; [Figure 3C] 1 is a simplified block diagram of an example aspect of components that may be employed in a wireless communication node and configured to support communication as taught herein; [Figure 4A]

[0019] 1 illustrates an example of a frame structure and channels within the frame structure, according to aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 4B] 1 illustrates an example of a frame structure and channels within the frame structure, according to aspects of the present disclosure. [Diagram 5]

[0020] 1 illustrates an example PRS configuration for a cell supported by a wireless node. [Figure 6]

[0021] FIG. 1 illustrates a method of wireless communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure. [Figure 7] FIG. 1 illustrates a method of wireless communication according to an aspect of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0017]

[0022] 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.

[0018]

[0023] 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.

[0019]

[0024] 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.

[0020]

[0025] 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 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 be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect may be described herein, for example, as "logic configured to" perform the described actions.

[0021]

[0026] 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 noted. 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 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.

[0022]

[0027] Depending on the network in which it is deployed, the 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), new radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as gNB or gNode B), etc. Additionally, in some systems, the base station may provide purely edge node signaling functionality, while in other systems, the base station may provide additional control and / or network management functionality. A communication link through which a UE 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) may refer to either a UL / reverse traffic channel or a DL / forward traffic channel.

[0023]

[0028] The term "base station" may refer to a single physical transmission / reception point (TRP) or multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be collocated. For example, when the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station corresponding to the cell of the base station. When the term "base station" refers to multiple collocated physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be an array of antennas of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or in cases where the base station employs beamforming). When the term "base station" refers to multiple non-collocated physical TRPs, the physical TRP may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transport medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-collocated physical TRP may be a serving base station that receives a measurement report from a UE and a neighbor base station whose reference RF signal the UE is measuring. 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.

[0024]

[0029] 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, a receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between a transmitter and a receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal.

[0025]

[0030] 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 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 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.

[0026]

[0031] The base stations 102 collectively form a RAN and may interface with a core network 170 (e.g., Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or Next Generation Core (NGC)) through backhaul links 122, through which they may interface to one or more location servers 172. In addition to other functions, the base stations 102 may perform functions related to one or more of the following: forwarding of 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 / NGC) via backhaul links 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0027]

[0032] 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 station 102 in each 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)) 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 some cases, the term “cell” may also refer to a geographic coverage area (e.g., a sector) of a base station, so long as the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within any portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

[0028]

[0033] 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 102' may have a coverage area 110' that significantly overlaps with the coverage area 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macrocell base stations may be known as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include Home eNBs (HeNBs) that may serve restricted groups known as Closed Subscriber Groups (CSGs).

[0029]

[0034] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include UL (also referred to as reverse link) transmissions from the UE 104 to the base station 102, and / or downlink (DL) (also referred to as forward link) transmissions from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna techniques, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 may be over one or more carrier frequencies. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to DL and UL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to DL than UL).

[0030]

[0035] 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.

[0031]

[0036] 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.

[0032]

[0037] 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.

[0033]

[0038] 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.

[0034]

[0039] 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-collocation (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 average delay of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type D, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate spatial reception parameters of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0035]

[0040] 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.

[0036]

[0041] The receive beams may be spatially related. The spatial relationship means that parameters for a transmit beam for a second reference signal may be derived from information about the receive beam for a first reference signal. For example, a UE may use a particular receive beam to receive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., a synchronization signal block (SSB)) from a base station. The UE may then form a transmit beam for sending an uplink reference signal (e.g., a sounding reference signal (SRS)) to that base station based on the parameters of the receive beam.

[0037]

[0042] 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.

[0038]

[0043] 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.

[0039]

[0044] 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.

[0040]

[0045] 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.

[0041]

[0046] The wireless communications system 100 may further include a UE 164, which may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 via communications link 120 and / or with the mmW base station 180 via an mmW communications link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0042]

[0047] In accordance with various aspects, FIG. 2A illustrates an example wireless network structure 200. For example, the NGC 210 (also referred to as 5GC) may be viewed functionally as a control plane function 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and a user plane function 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 NGC 210, specifically to the control plane function 214 and the user plane function 212. In an additional configuration, the eNB 224 may also be connected to the NGC 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 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 eNBs 224 and the gNBs 222. Either the gNBs 222 or the eNBs 224 may be in communication with the UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs shown in FIG. 1). Another optional aspect may include a location server 230, which may be in communication with the NGC 210 to provide location assistance to the UEs 204. The location servers 230 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules 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 UEs 204 that may connect to the location server 230 via the core network NGC 210 and / or via the Internet (not shown). Additionally, the location server 230 may be incorporated into a component of the core network or alternatively may be external to the core network.

[0043]

[0048] In accordance with various aspects, FIG. 2B illustrates another exemplary wireless network structure 250. For example, the NGC 260 (also referred to as "5GC") may be viewed functionally as a control plane function provided by an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) / User Plane Function (UPF) 264 and a user plane function provided by a Session Management Function (SMF) 262, which operate cooperatively to form a core network (i.e., NGC 260). A user plane interface 263 and a control plane interface 265 connect the eNB 224 to the NGC 260, specifically to the SMF 262 and the AMF / UPF 264, respectively. In an additional configuration, the gNB 222 may also be connected to the NGC 260 via a control plane interface 265 to the AMF / UPF 264 and a user plane interface 263 to the SMF 262. Additionally, eNB 224 may communicate directly with gNB 222 via backhaul connection 223, with or without gNB direct connectivity to NGC 260. In some configurations, new RAN 220 may have only one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of both eNB 224 and gNB 222. Either gNB 222 or eNB 224 may communicate with UE 204 (e.g., any of the UEs shown in FIG. 1). Base stations of new RAN 220 communicate with the AMF side of AMF / UPF 264 via an N2 interface and with the UPF side of AMF / UPF 264 via an N3 interface.

[0044]

[0049] The functions of the AMF include registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, transport of session management (SM) messages between the UE 204 and the SMF 262, 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 also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and the UE 204, and receives intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In case of authentication based on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), the AMF retrieves security material from the AUSF. The functions of the AMF also include security context management (SCM). The SCM receives keys from the SEAF that it uses to derive access network specific keys. The AMF functions also include location service management for barred services, UE 204 and Location Management Function (LMF) 270 between new RAN 220 and LMF 270, EPS bearer identifier allocation for interworking with Evolved Packet System (EPS), and UE 204 mobility event notification. In addition, the AMF 264 also supports the functionality of non-3GPP access networks.

[0045]

[0050] The functions of the UPF include acting as an anchor point for intra / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an external protocol data unit (PDU) session point for interconnection to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usage reporting, Quality of Service (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g., UL / DL rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in the DL), UL traffic validation (Service Data Flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the UL and DL, DL packet buffering and DL data notification triggering, and sending and forwarding one or more "termination markers" to the source RAN node.

[0046]

[0051] The functions of the SMF 262 include session management, UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, configuration of traffic steering in the UPF to route traffic to the appropriate destination, control of policy enforcement and parts of QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface through which the SMF 262 communicates with the AMF side of the AMF / UPF 264 is called the N11 interface.

[0047]

[0052] Another optional aspect may include the LMF 270, which may be in communication with the NGC 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 NGC 260 and / or via the Internet (not shown).

[0048]

[0053] 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 location server 230 and LMF 270) 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.

[0049]

[0054] 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 variously configured to transmit and encode signals 318 and 358, respectively (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.), and conversely, to receive and decode signals 318 and 358, respectively (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.), in accordance with a designated RAT. In particular, the transceivers 310 and 350 each include one or more transmitters 314 and 354, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358, respectively, and each include one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively, for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively.

[0050]

[0055] 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 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, respectively.

[0051]

[0056] A transceiver circuit including a transmitter and a 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, 336, and 376), that enable each device 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, 336, and 376), that enable each device to perform receive beamforming as described herein. In one aspect, the transmitter and receiver may share the same multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 336, and 376), such that each device can only receive or transmit at a given time, rather than both receive and transmit at the same time. The wireless communication devices of apparatus 302 and / or 304 (e.g., one or both of transceivers 310 and 320 and / or 350 and 360) may also include a network listen module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

[0052]

[0057] Devices 302 and 304 also, in at least some cases, include satellite positioning system (SPS) receivers 330 and 370. 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. SPS receivers 330 and 370 may comprise any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively. SPS receivers 330 and 370 request information and actions from other systems as appropriate, and perform the calculations necessary to determine the positions of devices 302 and 304 using measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithms.

[0053]

[0058] The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include a 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, or other types of information.

[0054]

[0059] The devices 302, 304, and 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 false base station (FBS) detection as disclosed herein and for providing other processing functions. The base station 304 includes a processing system 384, for example, for providing functionality related to FBS detection as disclosed herein and for providing other processing functions. The network entity 306 includes a processing system 394, for example, for providing functionality related to FBS detection as disclosed herein and for providing other processing functions. 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.

[0055]

[0060] The apparatuses 302, 304, and 306 include memory circuitry implementing memory components 340, 386, and 396, respectively (e.g., including memory devices, respectively) for maintaining information (e.g., information indicative of reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). In some cases, the apparatuses 302, 304, and 306 may include PRS measurement modules 342 and 388, respectively. The PRS measurement modules 342 and 388 may be hardware circuits that are part of or coupled to the processing systems 332, 384, and 394, respectively, that, when executed, cause the apparatuses 302, 304, and 306 to perform the functions described herein. Alternatively, the PRS measurement modules 342 and 388 may be memory modules stored in memory components 340, 386, and 396, respectively (as shown in Figures 3A-3C), which when executed by the processing systems 332, 384, and 394 cause the devices 302, 304, and 306 to perform the functions described herein.

[0056]

[0061] 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 GPS 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.

[0057]

[0062] 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 devices 304 and 306 may also include user interfaces.

[0058]

[0063] 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 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.

[0059]

[0064] 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 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.

[0060]

[0065] 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.

[0061]

[0066] In the UL, 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.

[0062]

[0067] Similar to the functionality described with respect to DL transmission 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 higher 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 HARQ, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0063]

[0068] 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.

[0064]

[0069] The UL transmission is processed at the base station 304 in a manner similar to that described with respect to the receiver function at the UE 302. The receiver 352 receives the signal through its respective antenna 356. The receiver 352 recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to a processing system 384.

[0065]

[0070] In the UL, the processing system 384 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, 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 the core network. The processing system 384 is also responsible for error detection.

[0066]

[0071] For convenience, devices 302, 304 and / or 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 functions in different designs.

[0067]

[0072] The various components of the devices 302, 304, and 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 390-396 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 PRS measurement modules 342 and 388, etc.

[0068]

[0073] 4A is a diagram 400 illustrating an example of a DL frame structure according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 4B is a diagram 430 illustrating an example of channels within a DL frame structure according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Other wireless communication technologies may have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0069]

[0074] 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.

[0070]

[0075] LTE supports a single numerology (subcarrier spacing, symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR may support multiple numerologies, e.g., subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, 120 kHz, and 204 kHz or greater may be available. Table 1 provided below lists some various parameters for different NR numerologies.

[0071] [Table 1]

[0072]

[0076] In the example of Figures 4A and 4B, 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 Figures 4A and 4B, 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.

[0073]

[0077] A resource grid may be used to represent a time slot, with each time slot including one or more (also called physical RB (PRB)) 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. 4A and FIG. 4B, for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB may include 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 7 consecutive symbols (OFDM symbols for DL, SC-FDMA symbols for UL) 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.

[0074]

[0078] As shown in Figure 4A, some of the REs carry DL reference (pilot) signals (DL-RS) for channel estimation at the UE. The DL-RS may include demodulation reference signals (DMRS) and channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), example locations of which are labeled with "R" in Figure 4A.

[0075]

[0079] FIG. 4B shows an example of various channels in a DL subframe of a frame. A physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries DL control information (DCI) in one or more control channel elements (CCEs), each CCE containing 9 RE groups (REGs), each REG containing 4 consecutive REs in an OFDM symbol. The DCI carries information about UL resource allocation (persistent and non-persistent) and a description about the DL data transmitted to the UE. Multiple (e.g., up to 8) DCIs can be configured in the PDCCH, and these DCIs can have one of multiple formats. For example, for UL scheduling, there are different DCI formats for non-MIMO DL scheduling, for MIMO DL scheduling, and for UL power control.

[0076]

[0080] The primary synchronization signal (PSS) is used by the UE to determine subframe / symbol timing and physical layer identity. The secondary synchronization signal (SSS) is used by the UE to determine the physical layer cell identity group number and radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identity group number, the UE can determine the PCI. Based on the PCI, the UE can determine the location of the aforementioned DL-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH) carrying the MIB may be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form an SSB (also called SS / PBCH). The MIB provides the number of RBs in the DL system bandwidth and the system frame number (SFN::system frame number). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data and broadcast system information not transmitted over the PBCH, such as system information blocks (SIBs), and paging messages.

[0077]

[0081] In some cases, the DL RS shown in FIG. 4A may be a positioning reference signal (PRS). FIG. 5 shows an example PRS configuration 500 for a cell supported by a wireless node (e.g., base station 102). FIG. 5 shows a PRS configuration 500 for a cell supported by a wireless node (e.g., base station 102) 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 The PRS period (T PRS ) 520 and cell-specific subframe offset (Δ PRS ) is the PRS composition index I as shown in Table 2 below. PRS It is defined based on:

[0078] [Table 2]

[0079]

[0082] 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

[0080]

number

[0081] 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 PRSis the cell-specific subframe offset 552.

[0082]

[0083] As shown in Figure 5, the cell-specific subframe offset Δ PRS 552 may be defined by the number of subframes transmitted starting from system frame number 0 (slot "number 0", shown as slot 550) to 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 four, that is, each shaded block representing PRS positioning occasions 518a, 518b, and 518c represents four subframes.

[0083]

[0084] 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 PRS The UE may then determine the radio frame, subframe, and slot when the PRS is scheduled in the cell (e.g., using equation (1)). The OTDOA assistance data may be determined, for example, by a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270) and may include assistance data for a reference cell and the number of neighboring cells supported by various base stations.

[0084]

[0085] In general, PRS opportunities from all cells in a network using the same frequency may be time-aligned and have a fixed, known time offset (e.g., cell-specific subframe offset 552) relative to other cells in the network using different frequencies. In an SFN-synchronous network, all wireless nodes (e.g., base stations 102) may be aligned on both frame boundaries and system frame numbers. Thus, in an SFN-synchronous network, all cells supported by various wireless nodes may use the same PRS configuration index for any particular frequency of PRS transmission. On the other hand, in an SFN-asynchronous network, various wireless nodes may be aligned on frame boundaries but not on system frame numbers. Thus, in an SFN-asynchronous network, the PRS configuration index for each cell may be individually configured by the network such that the PRS opportunities are time-aligned.

[0085]

[0086] If the UE can acquire the timing (e.g., SFN) of at least one cell, e.g., a reference cell or a serving cell, the UE may determine the timing of the PRS opportunities of the reference cell and neighboring cells for OTDOA positioning. The timing of other cells may then be derived by the UE, e.g., based on the assumption that PRS opportunities from different cells overlap.

[0086]

[0087] 3GPP Rel.16 introduced various NR positioning aspects aimed at increasing the location accuracy of positioning schemes involving measurements associated with one or more UL or DL ​​PRS (e.g., higher bandwidth (BW), FR2 beam sweeping, angle-based measurements such as Angle of Arrival (AoA) and Angle of Departure (AoD) measurements, multi-cell Round-Trip Time (RTT) measurements, etc.). When latency reduction is a priority, UE-based positioning techniques (e.g., DL-only techniques without UL location measurement reporting) are typically used. However, when latency is less of a concern, UE-assisted positioning techniques may be used whereby UE measurement data is reported to a network entity (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, etc.). The latency-related UE-assisted positioning techniques may be somewhat reduced by implementing an LMF in the RAN.

[0087]

[0088] Layer 3 (L3) signaling (e.g., RRC or Location Positioning Protocol (LPP)) is typically used to transport reports comprising location-based data in connection with UE-assisted positioning techniques. L3 signaling is associated with relatively high latency (e.g., greater than 100 ms) compared to Layer 1 (L1, or PHY layer) signaling or Layer 2 (L2, or MAC layer) signaling. In some cases, lower latency (e.g., less than 100 ms, less than 10 ms, etc.) between the UE and the RAN for location-based reporting may be desired. In such cases, L3 signaling may not be able to reach these lower latency levels.

[0088]

[0089] 6 illustrates an example process 600 of wireless communication according to an aspect of the disclosure. In an aspect, the process 600 may be performed by a first communication node. In some implementations, the first communication may correspond to a UE (e.g., in a scenario where the UE is measuring DL PRS and reporting to a base station) or a BS (e.g., in a scenario where the BS is measuring UL PRS and reporting to the UE).

[0089]

[0090] At 610, the first communications node obtains one or more measurements associated with one or more PRSs (e.g., one or more UL PRSs, one or more DL PRSs, etc.). As described in more detail below, the one or more measurements may be obtained directly (e.g., via a direct measurement at the first communications node) or indirectly (e.g., via an external entity that performs the measurement and then relays the measurement data to the first communications node). In an aspect, the operations 610 may be performed by the receiver 312, the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory 340, the PRS measurement module 342, the sensor 344, the receiver 352, the WWAN transceiver 350, the processing system 384, the memory 386, the PRS measurement module 388, etc.

[0090]

[0091] At 620, the first communication node transmits a report based on the one or more measurements to the second communication node via L1 or L2 signaling. For example, an example of L1 signaling that may be used to transport the report is an L1 uplink control information (UCI) communication or an L1 downlink control information (DCI) communication, and an example of L2 signaling that may be used to transport the report is an L2 MAC command element (CE). In an aspect, the operation 620 may be performed by the transmitter 314, the WWAN transceiver 310, the processing system 332, the memory 340, the PRS measurement module 342, the transmitter 354, the WWAN transceiver 350, the processing system 384, the memory 386, the PRS measurement module 388, etc.

[0091]

[0092] 7 illustrates an example process 700 of wireless communication according to an aspect of the disclosure. In an aspect, the process 700 may be performed by a second communication node. In some implementations, the second communication may correspond to a UE (e.g., in a scenario where the BS is measuring and reporting the UL PRS to the UE, or the UE is measuring and reporting the DL PRS to a sidelink (SL) UE that is performing a position calculation function on behalf of the UE) or correspond to a BS (e.g., in a scenario where the UE is measuring and reporting the DL PRS to the BS).

[0092]

[0093] At 710, the second communication node receives a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more PRSs from the first communication node via L1 or L2 signaling. For example, operation 710 may correspond to receiving the report transmitted in operation 620, as described above with respect to FIG. 6. In an aspect, operation 710 may be performed by receiver 312, WWAN transceiver 310, processing system 332, memory 340, PRS measurement module 342, receiver 352, WWAN transceiver 350, processing system 384, memory 386, PRS measurement module 388, etc.

[0093]

[0094] At 720, the second communications node performs a position calculation function (eg, LMF) based on the report. In an aspect, operation 720 may be performed by processing system 332, memory 340, processing system 384, memory 386, or the like.

[0094]

[0095] As mentioned above, L1 and L2 signaling is not currently used in connection with PRS-based reporting. However, L1 and L2 signaling is currently used in some systems to transport CSI reports (e.g., reports of Channel Quality Indication (CQI), Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI), Layer Indicator (Lis), L1-RSRP, etc.). A CSI report may comprise a set of fields in a predefined order (e.g., defined by the relevant standard). A single UL transmission (e.g., over PUSCH or PUCCH) may include multiple reports, referred to herein as "sub-reports," that are arranged according to a predefined priority (e.g., defined by the relevant standard). In some designs, the predetermined order may be based on the associated sub-report periodicity (e.g., aperiodic / semi-persistent / periodic (A / SP / P) over PUSCH / PUCCH), measurement type (e.g., L1-RSRP or not), serving cell index (e.g., in case of carrier aggregation (CA)), and reportconfigID. In two-part CSI reporting, part 1 of all reports is grouped together and part 2 is grouped separately, and each group is coded separately (e.g., part 1 payload size is fixed based on configuration parameters, but part 2 size is variable and also depends on configuration parameters and associated part 1 content). The number of coded bits / symbols to be output after encoding and rate matching is calculated based on the number of input bits and beta coefficient per associated standard. A linkage (e.g., time offset) is defined between the instance of the RS being measured and the corresponding report.

[0095]

[0096] 6-7, the L1 / L2 reports at 620 and 710 may leverage the linkage (or time offset) used for the CSI reports to convey the time difference and associated PRS that the report transmission is at without requiring a timestamp to be embedded in the report. In other words, the L1 / L2 reports at 620 and 710 are transmitted with respect to one or more timings associated with one or more PRSs based on at least one measurement type associated with one or more measurements.

[0096]

[0097] In one example, assume that at least one measurement type is associated with a downlink-based positioning technique. In this case, the L1 / L2 reports in 620 and 710 may be transmitted with respect to a downlink PRS. This relationship may further depend on the periodicity of the downlink PRS, e.g., whether it is aperiodic, semi-persistent, or periodic, and in the latter two cases, on the particular period of occurrence of the PRS resource. Note that positioning generally requires measurements based on multiple PRS transmissions between multiple cells or TRPs, and thus the timing relationship may depend on multiple such PRSs (e.g., based on the latest time of all PRSs on which the report is based). In some designs, the at least one measurement type comprises one or more of a difference of arrival (TDOA) measurement, a Reference Signal Receive Power (RSRP) measurement, an angle of arrival (AoA) measurement, an angle of departure (AoD) measurement, a motion state measurement, a trajectory measurement, a report quality indication, or any combination thereof.

[0097]

[0098] In another example, assume that at least one measurement type is associated with a combination of downlink-based and uplink-based positioning techniques. In this case, the L1 / L2 reports in 620 and 710 may be transmitted with respect to the timing of the downlink PRS and the uplink PRS. For example, the report timing may relate to the timing of the later of the two PRS (downlink and uplink). In another example, the report timing may be a specified or configured delay after the downlink PRS for downlink-based positioning, and may be the later of the two delays for downlink- and uplink-based positioning, with the first delay being a configured or configured delay after the downlink PRS and the second delay being a second configured or configured delay after the uplink PRS. In these examples, the delays may be specified with respect to absolute time units (such as milliseconds) or with respect to OFDM symbols, slots, subframes, frames, etc. For example, rules may be specified for determining the numerology (i.e., subcarrier spacing (SCS) and cyclic prefix duration) for which these units (such as slots) are counted, using the numerology of the DL PRS or UL PRS, or the maximum or minimum value of the SCS of the DL PRS and UL PRS. In some designs, at least one measurement type may comprise a round-trip time (RTT) measurement, and the report may comprise a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) value associated with the RTT measurement.

[0098]

[0099] In some designs, the L1 / L2 reports at 620 and 710 may comprise at least some CSI-related report data in addition to PRS-related measurement data. In such implementations, timing rules may be defined (e.g., based on reporting periodicity requirements, etc.) and not all reports need to be such “hybrid” (i.e., CSI plus PRS) reports. Thus, separate timing rules for hybrid reports may be specified compared to non-hybrid reports. For example, hybrid report timing may pertain to the timing of both PRS and CSI-related RS (such as CSI-RS or SSB).

[0099]

[0100] 6-7, in some designs, the L1 / L2 report at 620 and 710 may be generated as a concatenation of measurement information from multiple sub-reports according to at least one sub-report concatenation rule. In one example, the at least one sub-report concatenation rule comprises one or more of the following: Concatenating measurement information (e.g. RSRP measurement information) from multiple sub-reports on a per-cell (or per-TRP) basis; Concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports that are common across multiple cells associated with the same transmission reception point (TRP) (e.g. a single TOA measurement using "PRS stitching" across cells aggregated by carrier aggregation, where the PRS from each component carrier is effectively combined to form a single PRS across a larger bandwidth); Concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports associated with multiple PRSs (e.g., from the same cell or TRP, different cells or TRPs, etc.); Concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports associated with disparate measurement types (e.g., TDOA, AoA, etc.); Concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports associated with different TRPs; Concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports associated with different report transmission triggers (e.g. different periodicities such as aperiodic (A) sub-reports, semi-persistent (SP) reports, periodic (P) reports, etc.); Concatenating UE-local measurement information (e.g., motion state, trajectory, mobility information, etc.); Concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports (e.g. higher priority measurement information placed earlier in the report relative to lower priority measurement information) according to a concatenation order based on one or more criteria, where the priority is determined based on one or more of the attributes of the sub-reports described herein (measurement type, whether the measurement is based on a single cell or multiple cells, etc.); Concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports based on measurement type such that only measurement information from one measurement type (e.g. only RSRP, only AoA, etc.) is concatenated into a report; Concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports based on measurement type groupings such that only measurement information from one measurement type group (e.g. only RSRP and AoA, any measurement type except RSRP, etc.) is concatenated in a report; or Any combination thereof.

[0100]

[0101] 6-7, in some designs, the L1 / L2 reports at 620 and 710, the multiple sub-reports contributing to the measurement information concatenated in the report, may comprise measurement information associated with a single cell, measurement information associated with multiple cells, measurement information associated with at least one sidelink, or any combination thereof.

[0101]

[0102] 6-7, in some designs, the L1 / L2 report at 620 and 710 may comprise measurement information associated with two or more measurement types (e.g., RSRP and AoA, etc.). In some designs, a portion of the measurement information from one or more measurements (e.g., measurement information that overlaps with other measurement data in the report and / or measurement information associated with a low confidence level or low accuracy, etc.) may be omitted from the report associated with at least one cell.

[0102]

[0103] 6-7, in some designs, the L1 / L2 reports at 620 and 710 may have a fixed size. In other designs, the L1 / L2 reports at 620 and 710 may have a variable size (e.g., scale together) that depends on the amount of measurement information concatenated in the report. In some designs, the particular different sets of sub-report types may be concatenated separately from each other such that each set of sub-report types is coded differently (e.g., similar to CSI Parts 1 and 2 described above). For example, a first sub-report type concatenation group may comprise TDOA sub-reports and a second sub-report type concatenation group may comprise RSRP sub-reports. In one example, the particular grouping of sub-report types that are concatenated together for common coding may be based on one or more of the sub-report concatenation rules described above. In one example, the first sub-report type concatenation group may have a preset size (e.g., similar to CSI Part 1), while the second sub-report type concatenation group may have a variable or dynamic size (e.g., similar to CSI Part 2).

[0103]

[0104] 6-7, in some designs, the encoding and concatenation of L1 / L2 reports may be performed in any order. In one example, encoding may be any after all concatenation. In an L1-specific example, the sub-reports may be grouped and then concatenated and sent to separate encoders, and then the encoded output may be multiplexed onto the L1 channel.

[0104]

[0105] 6-7, in some designs, the L1 / L2 reports at 620 and 710 may be sent in association with a report format indication indicating a first set of measurement fields to be captured in the report, a second set of measurement fields to be not captured in the report (e.g., these fields may either be blanked out or omitted entirely from the report), or a combination thereof.

[0105]

[0106] 6-7, in some designs, the L1 / L2 reports at 620 and 710 may comprise a standalone measurement value for at least one particular measurement. As used herein, an independent measurement is an absolute or independent value that is not related to another measurement. In some designs, for at least one particular measurement, the L1 / L2 reports at 620 and 710 may comprise a differential measurement value relative to an independent measurement included in this report or included in a different report. For example, a particular measurement type may be made with respect to multiple cells. In this case, as an example, one independent measurement for one of the multiple cells may be paired with a differential measurement of one or more other cells of the multiple cells in the same report. In another example, a particular measurement type (e.g., trajectory) may be tracked over time. In this case, as an example, the differential measurement may be relative to an independent measurement taken earlier in time (e.g., directly relative or indirectly relative via one or more “intervening” differential measurements). Even though the independent measurement is earlier in time relative to the difference measurement, the earlier independent measurement may be part of either the earlier report or even the same L1 / L2 report at 620 and 710 .

[0106]

[0107] 6-7, in some designs, in the context of a differential reporting scheme, the independent measurement to which one or more differential measurements are associated may correspond to a maximum or minimum value (e.g., earliest delay, strongest path, etc.). Furthermore, when multiple measurements are reported for the same measurement type, in some designs, the multiple measurements may be sorted within the report according to a defined sort order. For example, when multiple differential measurements are sorted together within a report, the multiple differential measurements may be implicitly associated with independent measurements of the same criterion. Alternatively, the independent measurements may be implicitly indicated by the structure of the report. Alternatively, the independent measurements associated with the differential measurements may be explicitly indicated in the report.

[0107]

[0108] Although some examples of L1 / L2 reporting in 620 and 710 are provided with respect to L1-specific aspects, L1 / L2 reporting in 620 and 710 may also be implemented via L2 signaling (e.g., MAC-CE). In L2 (MAC-CE), there is no separate coding similar to the L1 case (e.g., CSI parts 1-2). However, there is still a code block (CB) / code block group (CBG) partitioning that may be viewed as a form of separate coding (e.g., this partitioning is separated from the information content of the associated packet). In this case, an indication specifying which CBG carries which particular MAC-CE may be leveraged to transport the L1 / L2 reporting in 620 and 710.

[0108]

[0109] Although some examples of L1 / L2 reporting at 620 and 710 are provided where the first communication node corresponds to a UE and the second communication node corresponds to a BS, in other designs the communication node may correspond to a BS and the second communication node may correspond to a UE. For example, a UE-based positioning scheme may be extended whereby the BS (or RAN) conveys measurement information to the UE via L1 / L2 reporting at 620 and 710 (e.g., the eNB reports Rx-Tx to the UE to enable the UE to calculate an RTT-based position). Such reporting may also include measurement information associated with multiple cells and / or sidelink UEs (e.g., the serving cell collects measurements and / or calculated positions from these external devices and then relays this information to the UE via L1 / L2 reporting at 620 and 710). In some designs, a new DCI format may be defined to transport the L1 / L2 report at 620 and 710, so that the report may be monitored via an existing RNTI or a new positioning-specific RNTI (e.g., may be defined within the standard). In a scenario where the BS is the first communication node, the "separate encoding" aspect (e.g., different concatenated sub-report groups are coded differently) need not be applied or may be applied in a modified form (e.g., for MAC-CE, a CBG may be used for DL ​​MAC-CE similar to the UL MAC-CE described above, and for DCI, a multi-stage DCI approach may be used).

[0109]

[0110] With reference to FIG. 6, in some designs, the second communication node may correspond to a SL UE acting as a relay to the base station.

[0110]

[0111] 6-7, in some designs, the first communication node may be a UE attempting to determine its location, and the second communication node may correspond to a SL UE performing a position calculation function on behalf of the UE (e.g., so that the BS or WWAN does not need to be part of the position fix). In this scenario, in one example, MAC-CE or DL ​​L1 Sidelink Control Information (SCI) (instead of DCI) may be used for L1 / L2 reporting in 620 and 710 (rather than the UL L1 approach described above). For example, such an approach may help avoid new decoder implementations for "UCI-over-PUSCH / PUCCH" transmission types in SL UEs. A similar approach was followed for CSI reporting in SL for 3GPP Rel. 16 V2X (using MAC-CE).

[0111]

[0112] Process 600 of FIG. 6 may include additional implementations, such as any single implementation or any combination of implementations, with respect to one or more other processes described below and / or elsewhere herein.

[0112]

[0113] In a first implementation, the transmitting includes transmitting a report regarding one or more timings associated with one or more PRSs based on at least one measurement type associated with the one or more measurement values.

[0113]

[0114] In a second implementation, alone or in combination with the first implementation, at least one measurement type is associated with a downlink-based positioning technique, wherein the transmitting transmits a report related to a downlink PRS.

[0114]

[0115] In a third implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first and second implementations, the at least one measurement type comprises one or more of a difference of arrival (TDOA) measurement, a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, an angle of arrival (AoA) measurement, an angle of departure (AoD) measurement, a motion state measurement, an orbit measurement, a reporting quality indication, or any combination thereof.

[0115]

[0116] In a fourth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to third implementations, at least one measurement type is associated with a combination of downlink-based and uplink-based positioning techniques, wherein transmitting transmits a report related to timing of the downlink PRS and the uplink PRS.

[0116]

[0117] In a fifth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fourth implementations, at least one measurement type is a round-trip time (RTT) measurement, wherein the report comprises a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) value associated with the RTT measurement.

[0117]

[0118] In a sixth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fifth implementations, the report comprises one or more of a Difference of Arrival (TDOA) measurement, a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurement, an Angle of Arrival (AoA) measurement, an Angle of Departure (AoD) measurement, a motion state measurement, an orbit measurement, a report quality indication, a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) value, or any combination thereof.

[0118]

[0119] In a seventh implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to sixth implementations, the process 600 includes generating a report by combining measurement information from multiple sub-reports according to at least one sub-report combination rule.

[0119]

[0120] In an eighth implementation form, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to seventh implementation forms, the at least one sub-report concatenation rule comprises one or more of: concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports on a per-cell basis; concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports that are common across multiple cells associated with the same transmission / reception point (TRP); concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports associated with multiple PRSs; concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports associated with different measurement types; concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports associated with different TRPs; concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports associated with different report transmission triggers; concatenating UE local measurement information; concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports according to a concatenation order based on one or more criteria; concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports based on measurement type such that only measurement information from one measurement type is concatenated into the report; concatenating measurement information from multiple sub-reports based on measurement type grouping such that only measurement information from one measurement type group is concatenated into the report; or any combination thereof.

[0120]

[0121] In a ninth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eighth implementations, the multiple sub-reports comprise measurement information associated with a single cell, or the multiple sub-reports comprise measurement information associated with multiple cells, or the multiple sub-reports comprise measurement information associated with at least one sidelink, or any combination thereof.

[0121]

[0122] In a tenth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to ninth implementations, the report comprises measurement information associated with a single cell, or the report comprises measurement information associated with multiple cells, or the report comprises measurement information associated with at least one sidelink, or any combination thereof.

[0122]

[0123] In an eleventh implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through tenth implementations, the report comprises measurement information associated with two or more measurement types.

[0123]

[0124] In a twelfth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eleventh implementations, a portion of measurement information from one or more measurements is omitted from a report relating to at least one cell.

[0124]

[0125] In a thirteenth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to twelfth implementations, the reports are associated with a fixed size or with a variable size that depends on the amount of measurement information concatenated with the report.

[0125]

[0126] In a fourteenth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to thirteenth implementations, the sending includes sending a report associated with a report format indication indicating a first set of measurement fields to be captured in the report, a second set of measurement fields not to be captured in the report, or a combination thereof.

[0126]

[0127] In a fifteenth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fourteenth implementations, the transmitting transmits the report via an L1 uplink control information (UCI) communication or an L1 downlink control information (DCI) communication, or the transmitting transmits the report via an L2 medium access control-command element (MAC-CE) communication.

[0127]

[0128] In a sixteenth implementation form, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fifteenth implementation forms, the obtaining obtains at least one of the one or more measurements via direct measurement at the UE, or the obtaining obtains at least one of the one or more measurements based on receiving a report from at least one external entity that performed the respective measurement.

[0128]

[0129] In a seventeenth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to sixteenth implementations, the first communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE) or the first communication node corresponds to a base station.

[0129]

[0130] In an eighteenth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to sixteenth implementations, the second communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE) or the second communication node corresponds to a base station.

[0130]

[0131] In a nineteenth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eighteenth implementations, for a particular measurement of the one or more measurements, the report comprises an independent measurement.

[0131]

[0132] In a 19th implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the 1st to 18th implementations, the report comprises a differential measurement value relative to an independent measurement value included in the report or included in a different report.

[0132]

[0133] Although Figure 6 shows example blocks of process 600, in some implementations, process 600 may include additional blocks, fewer blocks, different blocks, or blocks arranged differently than those shown in Figure 6. Additionally or alternatively, two or more of the blocks of process 600 may be performed in parallel.

[0133]

[0134] Process 700 of FIG. 7 may include additional implementations, such as any single implementation or any combination of implementations, with respect to one or more other processes described below and / or elsewhere herein.

[0134]

[0135] In a first implementation, the receiving includes receiving one or more timing-related reports associated with one or more PRSs based on at least one measurement type associated with the one or more measurement values.

[0135]

[0136] In a second implementation, alone or in combination with the first implementation, the report comprises one or more of a difference of arrival (TDOA) measurement, a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, an angle of arrival (AoA) measurement, an angle of departure (AoD) measurement, a motion state measurement, an orbit measurement, a report quality indication, a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) value, or any combination thereof.

[0136]

[0137] In a third implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first and second implementations, the report comprises measurement information concatenated from multiple sub-reports according to at least one sub-report concatenation rule.

[0137]

[0138] In a fourth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through third implementations, the report comprises measurement information associated with two or more measurement types.

[0138]

[0139] In a fifth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fourth implementations, the reports are associated with a fixed size or with a variable size that depends on the amount of measurement information concatenated with the report.

[0139]

[0140] In a sixth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fifth implementations, receiving includes receiving a report associated with a report format indication indicating a first set of measurement fields to be captured in the report, a second set of measurement fields not to be captured in the report, or a combination thereof.

[0140]

[0141] In a seventh implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to sixth implementations, the receiving receives the report via an L1 uplink control information (UCI) communication or an L1 downlink control information (DCI) communication, or the receiving receives the report via an L2 medium access control-command element (MAC-CE) communication.

[0141]

[0142] In an eighth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to seventh implementations, the first communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE) or the first communication node corresponds to a base station.

[0142]

[0143] In a ninth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to seventh implementations, the second communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE) or the second communication node corresponds to a base station.

[0143]

[0144] In a tenth implementation, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to ninth implementations, for a particular measurement value of the one or more measurements, the report comprises an independent measurement value.

[0144]

[0145] In an eleventh implementation form, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to ninth implementation forms, for a particular measurement value among the one or more measurement values, the report comprises a differential measurement value relative to an independent measurement value included in the report or included in a different report.

[0145]

[0146] Although Figure 7 shows example blocks of process 700, in some implementations, process 700 may include additional blocks, fewer blocks, different blocks, or blocks arranged differently than those shown in Figure 7. Additionally or alternatively, two or more of the blocks of process 700 may be performed in parallel.

[0146]

[0147] 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.

[0147]

[0148] 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.

[0148]

[0149] 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.

[0149]

[0150] 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.

[0150]

[0151] 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 original application is set forth below. [C1] A method of operating a first communications node, comprising: obtaining one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS); transmitting a report based on said one or more measurements to a second communication node via L1 or L2 signaling; A method comprising: [C2] The method of C1, wherein the transmitting step transmits the report regarding one or more timings associated with the one or more PRSs based on at least one measurement type associated with the one or more measurement values. [C3] The method of C2, wherein the at least one measurement type is associated with a downlink-based positioning technique; and the transmitting comprises transmitting the report regarding a downlink PRS. [C4] The at least one measurement type is Difference of Arrival (TDOA) measurements, Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurements, Angle of Arrival (AoA) measurements, Angle of Departure (AoD) measurements, motion state measurements, orbit measurements, reporting quality indications, or any combination thereof. The method of claim 3, comprising one or more of the following: [C5] the at least one measurement type is associated with a combination of a downlink-based positioning technique and an uplink-based positioning technique; and transmitting the report regarding timing of a downlink PRS and an uplink PRS. The method described in C2. [C6] The at least one measurement type is a round trip time (RTT) measurement, and the report comprises a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) value associated with the RTT measurement. The method according to C5. [C7] The said report: Difference of Arrival (TDOA) measurements, Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurements, Angle of Arrival (AoA) measurements, Angle of Departure (AoD) measurements, motion state measurements, orbit measurements, reporting quality indications, receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) values, or any combination thereof. The method of claim 1, comprising one or more of: [C8] generating said report by combining measurement information from a plurality of sub-reports according to at least one sub-report combination rule. The method of C1, further comprising: [C9] The at least one sub-reporting consolidation rule comprises: combining measurement information from said plurality of sub-reports on a cell-by-cell basis; concatenating measurement information from the sub-reports that are common across multiple cells associated to the same transmission / reception point (TRP); concatenating measurement information from the multiple sub-reports associated with multiple PRSs; concatenating measurement information from the multiple sub-reports associated with different measurement types; Concatenating measurement information from the sub-reports associated with different TRPs; Concatenating measurement information from the sub-reports associated with different report transmission triggers; Concatenating UE local measurement information; Concatenating measurement information from the plurality of sub-reports according to a consolidation order based on one or more criteria; concatenating measurement information from the plurality of sub-reports based on measurement type such that only measurement information from one measurement type is concatenated into the report; Concatenating measurement information from the plurality of sub-reports based on a measurement type grouping such that only measurement information from one measurement type group is concatenated into the report; or any combination thereof. The method of claim 8, comprising one or more of the following: [C10] The plurality of sub-reports comprises measurement information associated with a single cell, or the plurality of sub-reports comprises measurement information associated with a plurality of cells, or the plurality of sub-reports comprises measurement information associated with at least one sidelink, or Any combination thereof. The method according to C8. [C11] the report comprises measurement information associated with a single cell, or the report comprises measurement information associated with a plurality of cells; or the report comprises measurement information associated with at least one sidelink, or Any combination thereof. The method according to C1. [C12] The method of C1, wherein the report comprises measurement information associated with two or more measurement types. [C13] The method of C1, wherein a portion of measurement information from the one or more measurements is omitted from the report relating to at least one cell. [C14] The report is associated with a fixed size, or the report is associated with a variable size depending on the amount of measurement information concatenated with the report; The method according to C1. [C15] The method of C1, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the report associated with a report format indication indicating a first set of measurement fields to be captured in the report, a second set of measurement fields not to be captured in the report, or a combination thereof. [C16] The method of C1, wherein for a particular measurement among the one or more measurements, the report comprises an independent measurement. [C17] The method of C1, wherein for a particular measurement of the one or more measurements, the report comprises a differential measurement relative to an independent measurement included in the report or included in a different report. [C18] The transmitting comprises transmitting the report via an L1 uplink control information (UCI) communication or an L1 downlink control information (DCI) communication; or the transmitting comprises transmitting the report via L2 Medium Access Control-Command Element (MAC-CE) communication. The method according to C1. [C19] The obtaining comprises obtaining at least one of the one or more measurements via direct measurement at a UE; or and obtaining at least one of the one or more measurements based on receiving a report from at least one external entity that performed a respective measurement. The method according to C1. [C20] The first communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The first communication node corresponds to a base station; The method according to C1. [C21] The second communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The second communication node corresponds to a base station. The method according to C1. [C22] A method of operating a second communications node, comprising the steps of: receiving a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS) from a first communication node via L1 or L2 signaling; performing a position calculation function based on said report; A method comprising: [C23] The method of C22, wherein the receiving receives the report regarding one or more timings associated with the one or more PRSs based on at least one measurement type associated with the one or more measurement values. [C24] The above report states: Difference of Arrival (TDOA) measurements, Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurements, Angle of Arrival (AoA) measurements, Angle of Departure (AoD) measurements, motion state measurements, orbit measurements, reporting quality indications, receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) values, or any combination thereof. The method of C22, comprising one or more of the following: [C25] The method of C22, wherein the report comprises measurement information concatenated from a plurality of sub-reports according to at least one sub-report concatenation rule. [C26] The method of C22, wherein the report comprises measurement information associated with two or more measurement types. [C27] The report is associated with a fixed size, or the report is associated with a variable size depending on the amount of measurement information concatenated with the report; The method described in C22. [C28] The method of C22, wherein the receiving comprises receiving the report associated with a report format indication indicating a first set of measurement fields to be captured in the report, a second set of measurement fields not to be captured in the report, or a combination thereof. [C29] The method of C22, wherein for a particular measurement among the one or more measurements, the report comprises an independent measurement. [C30] The method of C22, wherein for a particular measurement of the one or more measurements, the report comprises a differential measurement relative to an independent measurement included in the report or included in a different report. [C31] The receiving comprises receiving the report via an L1 uplink control information (UCI) communication or an L1 downlink control information (DCI) communication; or the receiving comprises receiving the report via L2 Medium Access Control-Command Element (MAC-CE) communication. The method described in C22. [C32] The first communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The first communication node corresponds to a base station; The method described in C22. [C33] The second communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The second communication node corresponds to a base station. The method described in C22. [C34] Memory and At least one transceiver; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and to the at least one transceiver; a first communication node comprising: obtaining one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS); transmitting a report based on said one or more measurements to a second communication node via L1 or L2 signaling; A first communication node configured to: [C35] The first communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The first communication node corresponds to a base station; A first communication node according to C34. [C36] The second communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The second communication node corresponds to a base station. A first communication node according to C34. [C37] Memory and At least one transceiver; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and to the at least one transceiver; a second communication node comprising: receiving a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS) from a first communication node via L1 or L2 signaling; performing a position calculation function based on said report; A second communication node configured to: [C38] The first communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The first communication node corresponds to a base station; A second communication node as described in C37. [C39] The second communications node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The second communication node corresponds to a base station. A second communication node as described in C37. [C40] means for obtaining one or more measurements associated with one or more Positioning Reference Signals (PRS); means for transmitting a report based on said one or more measurements to a second communication node via L1 or L2 signaling; A first communication node comprising: [C41] The first communications node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The first communication node corresponds to a base station; A first communication node as described in C40. [C42] The second communications node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The second communication node corresponds to a base station. A first communication node as described in C40. [C43] means for receiving from a first communication node via L1 or L2 signalling a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more Positioning Reference Signals (PRS); means for performing a position calculation function based on said reports; A second communication node comprising: [C44] The first communications node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The first communication node corresponds to a base station; A second communication node according to C43. [C45] The second communications node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The second communication node corresponds to a base station. A second communication node according to C43. [C46] A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising: at least one instruction to instruct a first communications node to obtain one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS); and at least one instruction to instruct the first communication node to transmit a report based on the one or more measurements to a second communication node via L1 or L2 signaling. [C47] The first communications node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The first communication node corresponds to a base station; A non-transitory computer readable medium as described in C46. [C48] The second communications node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The second communication node corresponds to a base station. A non-transitory computer readable medium as described in C46. [C49] A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising: at least one instruction to instruct the second communication node to receive from the first communication node via L1 or L2 signaling a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more positioning reference signals (PRS); at least one instruction for instructing the second communication node to perform a position calculation function based on the report; 1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising: [C50] The first communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The first communication node corresponds to a base station; A non-transitory computer readable medium as described in C49. [C51] The second communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or The second communication node corresponds to a base station. A non-transitory computer readable medium as described in C49.

Claims

1. 1. A method of operating a first communication node, comprising the steps of: obtaining one or more measurements associated with one or more downlink positioning reference signals (PRS); transmitting to a second communication node a report based on said one or more measurements; Equipped with The report is sent to the second communication node via L2 Medium Access Control-Command Element (MAC-CE) communication; the report is associated with one or more timings associated with the one or more downlink and uplink PRSs based on at least one measurement type associated with the one or more measurement values; the at least one measurement type is associated with a combination of a downlink-based positioning technique and an uplink-based positioning technique; the at least one measurement type comprises a round trip time (RTT) measurement; The method, wherein the report comprises a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) value associated with the RTT measurement.

2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one measurement type further comprises one or more of a difference of arrival (TDOA) measurement, a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, an angle of arrival (AoA) measurement, an angle of departure (AoD) measurement, a motion state measurement, an orbit measurement, a reporting quality indication, or any combination thereof.

3. generating the report by combining measurement information from a plurality of sub-reports according to at least one sub-report combination rule, the at least one sub-report combination rule comprising: combining measurement information from said plurality of sub-reports on a cell-by-cell basis; concatenating measurement information from the sub-reports that are common across multiple cells associated to the same transmission / reception point (TRP); concatenating measurement information from the multiple sub-reports associated with multiple PRSs; concatenating measurement information from said plurality of sub-reports associated with different measurement types; concatenating measurement information from the sub-reports associated with different TRPs; concatenating measurement information from said plurality of sub-reports associated with different report transmission triggers; Concatenating UE local measurement information; Concatenating measurement information from the plurality of sub-reports according to a consolidation order based on one or more criteria; concatenating measurement information from the plurality of sub-reports based on measurement type such that only measurement information from one measurement type is concatenated into the report; Concatenating measurement information from the plurality of sub-reports based on a measurement type grouping such that only measurement information from one measurement type group is concatenated into the report; or Any combination of them The method of claim 1 , comprising one or more of:

4. the report comprises measurement information associated with a single cell, or the report comprises measurement information associated with a plurality of cells; or the report comprises measurement information associated with at least one sidelink, or Any combination thereof. The method of claim 1.

5. the first communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or the first communication node corresponds to a base station; The method of claim 1.

6. the second communication node corresponds to a user equipment (UE), or the second communication node corresponds to a base station; The method of claim 1.

7. A method of operating a second communication node, comprising the steps of: receiving from a first communications node a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more downlink positioning reference signals (PRS); performing a position calculation function based on said report; Equipped with the report is received from the first communication node via L2 Medium Access Control-Command Element (MAC-CE) communication; the report is associated with one or more timings associated with the one or more downlink and uplink PRSs based on at least one measurement type associated with the one or more measurement values; the at least one measurement type is associated with a combination of a downlink-based positioning technique and an uplink-based positioning technique; the at least one measurement type comprises a round trip time (RTT) measurement; The method, wherein the report comprises a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) value associated with the RTT measurement.

8. The report states: a time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurement, a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, an angle of arrival (AoA) measurement, an angle of departure (AoD) measurement, a motion state measurement, an orbit measurement, a reporting quality indication, or any combination thereof. The method of claim 7 , further comprising one or more of:

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the report comprises measurement information concatenated from multiple sub-reports according to at least one sub-report concatenation rule.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the report comprises measurement information associated with two or more measurement types.

11. Memory, At least one transceiver; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and to the at least one transceiver; a first communication node comprising: obtaining one or more measurements associated with one or more downlink positioning reference signals (PRS); transmitting to a second communication node a report based on said one or more measurements; configured to: the at least one processor is configured to transmit the report to the second communication node via L2 Medium Access Control-Command Element (MAC-CE) communication; the report is associated with one or more timings associated with the one or more downlink and uplink PRSs based on at least one measurement type associated with the one or more measurement values; the at least one measurement type is associated with a combination of a downlink-based positioning technique and an uplink-based positioning technique; the at least one measurement type comprises a round trip time (RTT) measurement; The first communications node, wherein the report comprises a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) value associated with the RTT measurement.

12. Memory, At least one transceiver; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and to the at least one transceiver; a second communication node comprising: receiving from a first communications node a report based on one or more measurements associated with one or more downlink positioning reference signals (PRS); performing a position calculation function based on said report; configured to: the at least one processor is configured to receive the report from the first communication node via L2 Medium Access Control-Command Element (MAC-CE) communication; the report is associated with one or more timings associated with the one or more downlink and uplink PRSs based on at least one measurement type associated with the one or more measurement values; the at least one measurement type is associated with a combination of a downlink-based positioning technique and an uplink-based positioning technique; the at least one measurement type comprises a round trip time (RTT) measurement; The second communications node, wherein the report comprises a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) value associated with the RTT measurement.

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