Lower layer positioning measurement report

Abstract

A method for sending measurement information from a user equipment includes measuring a reference signal; generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; encoding the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol to generate an encoded payload; and sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload from the user equipment to a network entity, wherein the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC layer (Medium Access Control Layer) protocol.

Description

Claim of Priority

[0001] Cross - Reference to Related Applications

[0001] This application claims the benefit of Indian Patent Application No. 202041038019, filed on September 3, 2020, entitled "LOW - LAYER POSITIONING MEASUREMENT REPORTING", which has been assigned to the assignee of this application and the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

Technical Field

[0002] The present invention relates to a technique for transmitting a measurement report for a measured reference signal.

Background Art

[0003]

[0002] Wireless communication systems have evolved through various generations, including the first - generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second - generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including intermediate 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third - generation (3G) high - speed data, Internet - enabled wireless services, fourth - generation (4G) services (e.g., Long - Term Evolution (LTE (R)) or WiMax (R)), fifth - generation (5G) services, etc. 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), orthogonal frequency - division multiple access (OFDMA), time - division multiple access (TDMA), and mobile access - specific variants of TDMA such as the Global System for Mobile (GSM (R)).

[0004]

[0003] The 5th generation (5G) mobile standard requires, among other improvements, higher data transfer speeds, a greater number of connections, and better coverage. The 5G standard by the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to each of tens of thousands of users and one gigabit per second to tens of workers on an office floor. To support large sensor deployments, hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported. Therefore, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobile communications should be significantly extended compared to current 4G standards. Further, signaling efficiency should be extended and latency should be significantly reduced compared to current standards. These improvements, as well as the use of higher frequency bands, advancements in positioning reference signal processes and technologies, and high-density deployments for 5G, enable highly accurate 5G-based location estimation.

Summary of the Invention

[0005]

[0004] An exemplary user equipment includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, the processor configured to measure a reference signal received by the transceiver; generate a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; encode the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, the lower layer protocol being either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol; and send a lower layer message based on the encoded payload to a network entity via the transceiver.

[0006]

[0005] Another exemplary user equipment includes means for measuring a reference signal; means for generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; means for encoding the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, where the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol; and means for sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload to a network entity.

[0007]

[0006] An exemplary method of sending measurement information from a user equipment includes measuring a reference signal; generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; encoding the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, where the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol; and sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload from the user equipment to a network entity.

[0008]

[0007] An exemplary non - transitory processor - readable storage medium includes processor - readable instructions configured to cause a process of a user equipment to measure a reference signal; generate a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; encode the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, where the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol; and send a lower layer message based on the encoded payload from the user equipment to a network entity for sending measurement information.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0009]

Figure 1

[0008] Schematic diagram of an exemplary wireless communication system.

Figure 2

[0009] Block diagram of the components of an exemplary user equipment shown in FIG. 1.

Figure 3

[0010] Block diagram of the components of an exemplary transmit / receive point.

Figure 4

[0011] Block diagram of the components of an exemplary server, with its various embodiments shown in FIG. 1.

Figure 5

[0012] Block diagram of an exemplary user equipment.

Figure 6

[0013] Diagram of the protocol stacks of a user equipment and a base station.

Figure 7

[0014] Block diagram of the input and output of a measurement reporting unit shown in FIG. 5.

Figure 8

[0015] Diagram of a two-part measurement report.

Figure 9

[0016] Block diagram of a measurement payload split between two messages.

Figure 10

[0017] Block diagram of a measurement message with a payload culled from certain measurement information.

Figure 11

[0018] Block diagram of a message payload having separate parts corresponding to separate messages.

Figure 12

[0019] Block diagram of messages temporally separated to avoid collisions.

Figure 13

[0020] Block diagram of a message having a jointly encoded payload portion.

Figure 14

[0021] Block diagram of a lower layer message containing certain measurement information and an upper layer message containing other measurement information corresponding to the lower layer message.

Figure 15

[0022] Diagram of the process and signal flow for determining positioning information.

Figure 16

[0023] Block flow diagram of a method for sending measurement information from a user equipment.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0010]

[0024] Techniques for transmitting a measurement report for a measured reference signal are described herein. For example, a reference signal such as a positioning reference signal can be measured to determine measurement information. The measurement information can be encoded by an ASN.1 encoder into the payload of a lower-level message, such as a physical layer message or a MAC layer message. Various implementations can be used to facilitate or enable sending and receiving the payload. For example, the fixed-length portion of the message can indicate the length of the variable-length payload and, in some cases, can indicate the fields of the data contained in the payload. As another example, the payload can be split among multiple messages and / or culled of some information to meet size limits. As another example, to avoid collision with another message, a lower-layer message can be concatenated with another message, or the transmission timing of one or both of the messages can be adjusted, or the measurement information and the information of another message can be jointly encoded into the lower-layer message. As another example, some measurement information can be provided in a lower-layer message and other information can be provided in an upper-layer (e.g., RRC layer) message. However, other examples can be implemented.

[0011]

[0025] The items and / or techniques described in this specification may provide one or more of the following capabilities, as well as other capabilities not mentioned. For example, latency based on measurement reports can be reduced by avoiding the processing of measurement reports by one or more upper protocol stack layers (above the MAC layer). Lower level measurement report messages can be provided with greater flexibility than was previously available for lower level messages. The variable length lower level message payload can be adapted. Other capabilities may be provided, and not every implementation according to the present disclosure need provide any, much less all, of the capabilities described.

[0012]

[0026] Obtaining the location of a mobile device accessing a wireless network can be useful for many applications, including, for example, emergency calls, personal navigation, consumer asset tracking, identifying the location of friends or family, etc. Existing positioning methods include methods based on measuring wireless signals transmitted from various devices or entities, including satellite vehicles (SVs), and terrestrial radio sources in a wireless network such as base stations and access points. Standardization for 5G wireless networks is expected to include support for various positioning methods, which may utilize reference signals transmitted by base stations in a similar manner as LTE wireless networks currently utilize positioning reference signals (PRS) and / or cell-specific reference signals (CRS) for positioning.

[0013]

[0027] The description may refer to, for example, a sequence of actions to be performed by elements of a computing device. The various actions described herein may be performed by a particular circuit (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. The sequence of actions described herein may be implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a corresponding set of computer instructions that, when executed, cause the associated processor to perform the functions described herein. Accordingly, the various aspects described herein may be implemented in several different forms, all of which are within the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0014]

[0028] As used herein, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" are not specific to or limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT), unless otherwise specified. Generally, such a UE can be any wireless communication device used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network (e.g., a mobile phone, router, tablet computer, laptop computer, consumer asset tracking device, Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.). The UE can be mobile or (e.g., at some times) stationary and can communicate with a radio access network (RAN). The term "UE" as used herein may be interchangeably referred to as "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber device", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or UT, "mobile terminal", "mobile station", "mobile device", or variants thereof. Generally, the UE can communicate with a core network via the RAN, and through the core network, the UE can be connected to an external network such as the Internet and other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are also possible for the UE, such as via a wired access network, a WiFi (registered trademark) network (e.g., based on IEEE 802.11, etc.).

[0015]

[0029] A base station can operate according to one of several RATs that it is communicating with the UE, depending on the network in which it is deployed. Examples of base stations include access points (APs), network nodes, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs), or general Node Bs (g Node Bs, gNBs). Further, in some systems, the base station can provide purely edge node signaling functionality, while in other systems, it can provide additional control and / or network management functionality.

[0016]

[0030] The UE can be implemented by any of several types of devices including, but not limited to, a printed circuit (PC) card, a compact flash (registered trademark) device, an external or internal modem, a wireless or wireline phone, a smartphone, a tablet, a consumer asset tracking device, an asset tag, etc. The communication link through which the UE can send signals to the RAN is called an uplink channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). The communication link through which the RAN can send signals to the UE is called a downlink or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). The term traffic channel (TCH) as used herein may refer to either an uplink / reverse traffic channel or a downlink / forward traffic channel.

[0017]

[0031] As used herein, the terms "cell" or "sector" may, depending on the context, correspond to one of a plurality of cells of a base station or to the base station itself. The term "cell" may refer to a logical communication entity used for communication with a base station (e.g., on a carrier), and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCID), a virtual cell identifier (VCID)) for distinguishing neighboring cells operating via the same or different carriers. In some examples, a carrier may support a plurality of cells, and different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), etc.) that provide access to different types of devices. In some examples, the term "cell" may refer to a portion (e.g., a sector) of a geographic coverage area over which a logical entity operates.

[0018]

[0032] Referring to FIG. 1, an example of a communication system 100 includes a UE 105, a UE 106, a radio access network (RAN), here a fifth generation (5G) next generation (NG) RAN (NG-RAN) 135, and a 5G core network (5GC) 140. The UE 105 and / or UE 106 can be, for example, an IoT device, a location tracker device, a cellular phone, a vehicle (e.g., a car, a truck, a bus, a boat, etc.), or other device. The 5G network may also be referred to as a new radio (NR) network, the NG-RAN 135 may be referred to as a 5G RAN or an NR RAN, and the 5GC 140 may be referred to as an NG core network (NGC). The standardization of the NG-RAN and 5GC is ongoing in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP (R)). Thus, the NG-RAN 135 and 5GC 140 may comply with current or future standards for 5G support from 3GPP. The NG-RAN 135 can be another type of RAN, such as a 3G RAN, a 4G long term evolution (LTE) RAN, etc. The UE 106 can be configured and coupled in the same manner as the UE 105 to send and / or receive signals with other similar entities in the system 100, but such signaling is not shown in FIG. 1 for simplicity of the figure. Similarly, the description focuses on the UE 105 for simplicity. The communication system 100 can utilize information from a constellation 185 of satellite vehicles (SVs) 190, 191, 192, 193 for a global positioning system (GPS), a global navigation satellite system (GLONASS), Galileo, or a satellite positioning system (SPS) such as Beidou (e.g., a global navigation satellite system (GNSS)), or some other local or regional SPS such as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), or the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). Additional components of the communication system 100 are described below. The communication system 100 can include additional or alternative components.

[0019]

[0033] As shown in FIG. 1, the NG-RAN 135 includes NR Node Bs (gNBs) 110a, 110b and a next-generation eNode B (ng-eNB) 114, and the 5GC 140 includes an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 115, a Session Management Function (SMF) 117, a Location Management Function (LMF) 120, and a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) 125. The gNBs 110a, 110b, and the ng-eNB 114 are communicatively coupled to each other, and are each configured to wirelessly communicate bidirectionally with the UE 105, and are each communicatively coupled to and configured to communicate bidirectionally with the AMF 115. The gNBs 110a, 110b, and the ng-eNB 114 may be referred to as base stations (BSs). The AMF 115, the SMF 117, the LMF 120, and the GMLC 125 are communicatively coupled to each other, and the GMLC is communicatively coupled to an external client 130. The SMF 117 may act as a first contact of a Service Control Function (SCF) (not shown) to create, control, and delete media sessions. A base station such as the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or the ng-eNB 114 may be a macro cell (e.g., a high-power cellular base station), or a small cell (e.g., a low-power cellular base station), or an access point (e.g., a short-range base station configured to communicate using short-range technologies such as WiFi, WiFi-Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee®). One or more BSs, e.g., one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or the ng-eNB 114, may be configured to communicate with the UE 105 via multiple carriers. Each of the gNBs 110a, 110b and the ng-eNB 114 may provide communication coverage for its respective geographic area, e.g., a cell. Each cell may be divided into a plurality of sectors as a function of the base station antenna.

[0020]

[0034] FIG. 1 provides a generalized diagram of various components, any or all of which may be utilized as appropriate, each of which may be replicated or omitted as necessary. Specifically, one UE 105 is shown, but many UEs (e.g., hundreds, thousands, millions, etc.) may be utilized in communication system 100. Similarly, communication system 100 may include more (or fewer) SVs (i.e., more or less than the four SVs 190-193 shown), gNBs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, AMF 115, external client 130, and / or other components. The illustrated connections that connect the various components in communication system 100 include data and signaling connections that may include additional (intermediate) components, direct or indirect physical and / or wireless connections, and / or additional networks. Further, the components may be rearranged, combined, separated, replaced, and / or omitted as desired for the desired functionality.

[0021]

[0035] FIG. 1 shows a 5G-based network, although similar network implementation forms and configurations can be used for other communication technologies such as 3G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), etc. The implementation forms described in this specification (whether they are for 5G technology and / or for one or more other communication technologies and / or protocols) can be used to transmit (or broadcast) a directional synchronization signal, receive and measure a directional signal at a UE (e.g., UE105), and / or provide location assistance to UE105 (e.g., via GMLC125 or other location servers), and / or calculate the location for UE105 at a location-corresponding device such as UE105, gNB110a, 110b, or LMF120 based on the measurement quantities received at UE105 for such directionally transmitted signals. The Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) 125, the Location Management Function (LMF) 120, the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 115, the SMF117, the ng-eNB (eNodeB) 114, and the gNB (gNodeB) 110a, 110b are examples and, in various embodiments, can be replaced by or include various other location server functions and / or base station functions, respectively.

[0022]

[0036] The components of system 100 can communicate with each other directly or indirectly (using at least sometimes a wireless connection) via, for example, gNBs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, and / or 5GC 140 (and / or one or more other devices not shown, such as one or more other base transceiver stations). In indirect communication, the communication can be changed during transmission from one entity to another, for example, to change the header information of data packets, change the format, etc. UE 105 can include multiple UEs and can be a mobile wireless communication device, but can communicate wirelessly and via wired connections. UE 105 can be any of various devices, such as a smartphone, a tablet computer, a vehicle-based device, etc., but UE 105 does not have to be any of these configurations, so these are examples and UEs with other configurations can be used. Other UEs can include wearable devices (such as smartwatches, smart jewelry, smart glasses or headsets, etc.). Whether currently existing or developed in the future, still other UEs can be used. Further, other wireless devices (regardless of whether mobile or not) can be implemented within system 100 and can communicate with each other and / or with UE 105, gNBs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, 5GC 140, and / or external client 130. For example, such other devices can include Internet of Things (IoT) devices, medical devices, home entertainment and / or automation devices, etc. 5GC 140 can communicate with external client 130, for example, to enable external client 130 (such as a computer system) to request and / or receive location information regarding UE 105 (for example, via GMLC 125).

[0023]

[0037] UE105 or other devices can be configured to communicate in various networks, and / or for various purposes, and / or using various technologies (e.g., 5G, Wi-Fi® communication, multiple frequencies of Wi-Fi communication, satellite positioning, one or more types of communication (e.g., GSM (Global System for Mobile), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), LTE (Long Term Evolution), V2X (Vehicle to Everything, e.g., V2P (Vehicle to Pedestrian), V2I (Vehicle to Infrastructure), V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle), etc.), IEEE802.11p, etc.)). V2X communication can be cellular (Cellular V2X (C-V2X)) and / or Wi-Fi (e.g., DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication)). System 100 can support operation on multiple carriers (waveform signals of different frequencies). A multi-carrier transmitter can transmit modulated signals simultaneously on multiple carriers. Each modulated signal can be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) signal, a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) signal, an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) signal, a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) signal, etc. Each modulated signal can be sent on a different carrier and can carry pilot, overhead information, data, etc. UE105, 106 can communicate with each other through sidelink (SL) communication between UEs by transmitting through one or more sidelink channels such as the Physical Sidelink Synchronization Channel (PSSCH), the Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH), or the Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH).

[0024]

[0038] UE105 may comprise a device, mobile device, wireless device, mobile terminal, terminal, mobile station (MS), secure user plane location (SUPL) enabled terminal (SET), and / or be referred to as such, or be called by some other name. Additionally, UE105 may correspond to a cell phone, smartphone, laptop, tablet, PDA, consumer asset tracking device, navigation device, Internet of Things (IoT) device, health monitor, security system, smart city sensor, smart meter, wearable tracker, or some other portable or mobile device. Generally, but not necessarily, UE105 may support wireless communication using one or more radio access technologies (RATs) such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA (registered trademark)), LTE, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), IEEE802.11 WiFi (also called Wi-Fi), Bluetooth (BT), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX (registered trademark)), 5G New Radio (NR) (e.g., using NG-RAN135 and 5GC140). UE105 may support wireless communication using a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) that can connect to other networks (e.g., the Internet) using, for example, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or packet cable. Use of one or more of these RATs may enable UE105 to communicate with an external client 130 (e.g., via elements of 5GC140 not shown in FIG. 1, or in some cases via GMLC125), and / or may enable the external client 130 to receive location information regarding UE105 (e.g., via GMLC125).

[0025]

[0039] UE105 may include a single entity or may include multiple entities, such as in a personal area network where the user may employ audio, video and / or data I / O (input / output) devices and / or body sensors and / or separate wireline or wireless modems. An estimated value of the location of UE105 may be referred to as a location, location estimate, location fix, fix, position, position estimate, or position fix, and may be geographical and thus may or may not include an altitude component (e.g., altitude above mean sea level, surface altitude or surface depth, floor level, or basement level), and may provide the location coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude) of UE105. Alternatively, the location of UE105 may be represented as an urban location (e.g., as a postal address or as a designation of some point or small area within a building, such as a particular room or floor). The location of UE105 may be represented as an area or volume within which UE105 is expected to be located (defined either geographically or in urban form) with a certain probability or confidence level (e.g., 67%, 95%, etc.). The location of UE105 may be represented as a relative location, for example, with distance and direction from a known location. The relative location may be defined, for example, with respect to some origin at a known location, by reference to points, areas, or volumes shown on a map, floor plan, or building plan, and may be represented as relative coordinates (e.g., X, Y (and Z) coordinates). In the descriptions included herein, the use of the term location may encompass any of these variations, unless otherwise indicated. When calculating the location of the UE, it is common to determine the values of the local x, y, and optionally z coordinates and then, if desired, convert the local coordinates to absolute coordinates (e.g., with respect to latitude, longitude, and altitude above or below mean sea level).

[0026]

[0040] UE105 can be configured to communicate with other entities using one or more of various technologies. UE105 can be configured to indirectly connect to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links. The D2D P2P links can be supported using any suitable D2D radio access technology (RAT), such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (registered trademark) (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, etc. One or more of the groups of UEs that utilize D2D communication can be within the geographical coverage area of one or more transmission / reception points (TRPs), such as one or more of gNB110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB114. Other UEs in such a group can be outside of such geographical coverage area or may otherwise be unable to receive transmissions from the base station. A group of UEs communicating via D2D communication can utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each UE can transmit to other UEs in the group. The TRP can facilitate the scheduling of resources for D2D communication. In other cases, D2D communication can occur between UEs without the involvement of the TRP. One or more of the groups of UEs that utilize D2D communication can be within the geographical coverage area of the TRP. Other UEs in such a group can be outside of such geographical coverage area or may otherwise be unable to receive transmissions from the base station. A group of UEs communicating via D2D communication can utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each UE can transmit to other UEs in the group. The TRP can facilitate the scheduling of resources for D2D communication. In other cases, D2D communication can occur between UEs without the involvement of the TRP.

[0027]

[0041] The base stations (BSs) in the NG-RAN 135 shown in FIG. 1 include NR node Bs called gNBs 110a and 110b. Pairs of gNBs 110a, 110b in the NG-RAN 135 can be connected to each other via one or more other gNBs. Access to the 5G network is provided to the UE 105 via wireless communication between the UE 105 and one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and the gNBs 110a, 110b can provide wireless communication access to the 5GC 140 for the UE 105 that uses 5G. In FIG. 1, it is assumed that the serving gNB for the UE 105 is the gNB 110a, but another gNB (for example, gNB 110b) can serve as the serving gNB if the UE 105 moves to another location, or can serve as a secondary gNB to provide additional throughput and bandwidth to the UE 105.

[0028]

[0042] The base stations (BSs) in the NG-RAN 135 shown in FIG. 1 may include an ng-eNB 114, also referred to as a next-generation evolved node B. The ng-eNB 114 can be connected to one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b in the NG-RAN 135 via, in some cases, one or more other gNBs and / or one or more other ng-eNBs. The ng-eNB 114 can provide LTE wireless access and / or evolved LTE (eLTE) wireless access to the UE 105. One or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or the ng-eNB 114 can transmit signals to assist in determining the location of the UE 105, but may be configured to function as a positioning-only beacon that does not receive signals from the UE 105 or from other UEs.

[0029]

[0043] gNB 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114 may each include one or more TRPs. For example, each sector within a cell of a BS may include a TRP, and multiple TRPs may share one or more components (e.g., share a processor but have separate antennas). System 100 may include only macro TRs, or system 100 may have different types of TRPs, such as macro TRPs, pico TRPs, and / or femto TRPs. A macro TRP may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., with a radius of several kilometers) and may enable unrestricted access by terminals subscribed to the service. A pico TRP may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a pico cell) and may enable unrestricted access by terminals subscribed to the service. A femto TRP or home TRP may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a femto cell) and may enable restricted access by terminals associated with the femto cell (e.g., terminals for home users).

[0030]

[0044] As described above, FIG. 1 shows nodes configured to communicate according to a 5G communication protocol, but nodes configured to communicate according to other communication protocols, such as an LTE protocol or an IEEE802.11x protocol, may be used. For example, in an evolved packet system (EPS) that provides LTE wireless access to UE 105, the RAN may include an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) that includes a base station with an evolved Node B (eNB). The core network for EPS may include an evolved packet core (EPC). EPS may include E-UTRAN + EPC, where E-UTRAN corresponds to NG-RAN 135 in FIG. 1 and EPC corresponds to 5GC 140.

[0031]

[0045] gNBs 110a, 110b, and ng-eNB 114 can communicate with AMF 115, which in turn can communicate with LMF 120 for positioning functionality. AMF 115 can support the mobility of UE 105, including cell changes and handovers, and may participate in supporting the signaling connection to UE 105, and in some cases, the data and voice bearers for UE 105. LMF 120 can communicate directly with UE 105, for example, through wireless communication, or directly with gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114. LMF 120 can support the positioning of UE 105 when UE 105 accesses NG-RAN 135, and can support positioning procedures / methods such as Assisted GNSS (A-GNSS), Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) (e.g., Downlink (DL) OTDOA or Uplink (UL) OTDOA), Round Trip Time (RTT), Multi-Cell RTT, Real-Time Kinematic (RTK), Precise Point Positioning (PPP), Differential GNSS (DGNSS), Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID), Angle of Arrival (AoA), Angle of Departure (AoD), and / or other positioning methods. LMF 120 can process location service requests for UE 105 received, for example, from AMF 115 or from GMLC 125. LMF 120 can be connected to AMF 115 and / or GMLC 125. LMF 120 may be referred to by other names, such as Location Manager (LM), Location Function (LF), Commercial LMF (CLMF), or Value-Added LMF (VLMF). The node / system implementing LMF 120 may implement other types of location support modules, such as an Enhanced Serving Mobile Location Center (E-SMLC) or a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Location Platform (SLP), as an addition or alternative.At least part of the positioning function (including the derivation of the location of UE105) can be implemented in UE105 (e.g., using signal measurements obtained by UE105 for signals transmitted by wireless nodes such as gNB110a, 110b and / or ng-eNB114 and / or for assistance data provided to UE105 by, for example, LMF120). AMF115 can act as a control node that processes signaling between UE105 and 5GC140 and can provide QoS (Quality of Service) flow and session management. AMF115 can support the mobility of UE105, including cell change and handover, and can participate in supporting the signaling connection to UE105.

[0032]

[0046] GMLC125 can support a location request for UE105 received from external client 130 and can forward such a location request to AMF115 for forwarding to LMF120 by AMF115, or can forward the location request directly to LMF120. The location response from LMF120 (including, for example, a location estimate for UE105) can be returned to GMLC125 either directly or via AMF115, and GMLC125 can then return the location response (including, for example, a location estimate) to external client 130. Although GMLC125 connected to both AMF115 and LMF120 is shown, in some implementations it may not be connected to AMF115 or LMF120.

[0033]

[0047] As further shown in Figure 1, LMF120 can communicate with gNB110a, 110b and / or ng-eNB114 using a new radio positioning protocol A (which may be referred to as NPPa or NRPPa) that can be defined in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.455. NRPPa can be the same as, similar to, or an extension of the LTE positioning protocol A (LPPa) defined in 3GPP TS36.455, and NRPPa messages are transferred between LMF120 and gNB110a (or gNB110b) and / or between LMF120 and ng-eNB114 via AMF115. As further shown in Figure 1, LMF120 and UE105 can communicate using the LTE positioning protocol (LPP) that can be defined in 3GPP TS36.355. LMF120 and UE105 can also or alternatively communicate using a new radio positioning protocol that can be the same as, similar to, or an extension of LPP (which may be referred to as NPP or NRPP). Here, LPP messages and / or NPP messages can be transferred between UE105 and LMF120 via AMF115 and the serving gNB110a, 110b or serving ng-eNB114 for UE105. For example, LPP messages and / or NPP messages can be transferred between LMF120 and AMF115 using the 5G Location Service Application Protocol (LCS AP) and can be transferred between AMF115 and UE105 using the 5G non-access stratum (NAS) protocol. The LPP protocol and / or NPP protocol can be used to support the positioning of UE105 using UE-assisted and / or UE-based positioning methods such as A-GNSS, RTK, OTDOA and / or E-CID.The NRPPa protocol can be used to support the positioning of UE 105 using a network-based positioning method such as E-CID (when used together with measurements obtained, for example, by gNB 110a, 110b, or ng-eNB 114), and / or can be used by the LMF 120 to obtain location-related information such as parameters that define the directional SS transmission from gNB 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114. The LMF 120 can be collocated with or integrated into the gNB or TRP, or can be located away from the gNB and / or TRP and configured to communicate directly or indirectly with the gNB and / or TRP.

[0034]

[0048] In the UE-assisted positioning method, the UE 105 can obtain location measurements and send the measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 120) for calculating a location estimate for the UE 105. For example, the location measurements can include one or more of received signal strength indication (RSSI) for gNB 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, and / or WLAN AP, round-trip signal propagation time (RTT), reference signal time difference (RSTD), reference signal received power (RSRP), and / or reference signal received quality (RSRQ). The location measurements can also or alternatively include GNSS pseudorange, code phase, and / or carrier phase measurements for SVs 190 - 193.

[0035]

[0049] In the UE-based positioning method, the UE 105 can obtain location measurements (which can be the same as or similar to the location measurements for the UE-assisted positioning method, for example), and can calculate the location of the UE 105 (with the help of assistance data received from a location server such as LMF 120, or broadcast by gNB 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, or other base stations or APs).

[0036]

[0050] In a network-based positioning method, one or more base stations (e.g., gNB 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114) or APs may obtain location measurement values (e.g., RSSI, RTT, RSRP, RSRQ, or time-of-arrival (ToA) measurements for signals transmitted by UE 105), and / or may receive measurement values obtained by UE 105. One or more base stations or APs may send the measurement values to a location server (e.g., LMF 120) for calculating a location estimate for UE 105.

[0037]

[0051] The information provided by gNB 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114 to LMF 120 using NRPPa may include timing and configuration information for directional SS transmission and location coordinates. LMF 120 may provide some or all of this information to UE 105 as assistance data in LPP messages and / or NPP messages via NG-RAN 135 and 5GC 140.

[0038]

[0052] The LPP message or NPP message sent from the LMF120 to the UE105 may instruct the UE105 to perform any of various things according to the desired function. For example, the LPP message or NPP message may include an instruction to the UE105 to obtain measurement values for GNSS (or A-GNSS), WLAN, E-CID, and / or OTDOA (or some other positioning method). In the case of E-CID, the LPP message or NPP message may instruct the UE105 to obtain one or more measurement quantities (e.g., beam ID, beam width, average angle, RSRP, RSRQ measurement values) of the directional signal transmitted within a specific cell supported by one or more of gNB110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB114 (or supported by some other type of base station such as an eNB or a WiFi AP). The UE105 may send back the measurement quantities to the LMF120 in the LPP message or NPP message (e.g., within a 5G NAS message) via the serving gNB110a (or serving ng-eNB114) and the AMF115.

[0039]

[0053] As described above, the communication system 100 is described with respect to 5G technology, but the communication system 100 can be implemented to support other communication technologies such as GSM, WCDMA, LTE, which are used to support and interact with mobile devices such as UE105 (e.g., to implement voice, data, positioning, and other functions). In some such embodiments, the 5GC 140 can be configured to control different air interfaces. For example, the 5GC 140 can be connected to a WLAN using a non-3GPP interworking function (N3IWF, not shown in FIG. 1) in the 5GC 150. For example, the WLAN can support IEEE802.11 WiFi access for the UE105 and can include one or more WiFi APs. Here, the N3IWF can connect to the WLAN and to other elements in the 5GC 140 such as the AMF 115. In some embodiments, both the NG-RAN 135 and the 5GC 140 can be replaced by one or more other RANs and one or more other core networks. For example, in EPS, the NG-RAN 135 can be replaced by an E-UTRAN including eNBs, and the 5GC 140 can be replaced by an EPC including a mobility management entity (MME) instead of the AMF 115, an E-SMLC instead of the LMF 120, and a GMLC similar to the GMLC 125. In such an EPS, the E-SMLC can use LPPa instead of NRPPa to send location information to the eNBs in the E-UTRAN and receive location information from those eNBs, and can use LPP to support the positioning of the UE105. In these other embodiments, the positioning of the UE105 using the directional PRS can be supported in a manner similar to that described herein for the 5G network, but the functions and procedures described herein for the gNBs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, AMF 115, and LMF 120 can, in some cases, be applied instead to other network elements such as eNBs, WiFi APs, MMEs, and E-SMLCs.

[0040]

[0054] As described, in some embodiments, the positioning function may be implemented using at least in part a directed SS beam sent by a base station (such as gNB110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB114) within the range of a UE (such as UE105 in FIG. 1) whose position is to be determined. The UE may, in some cases, use directed SS beams from multiple base stations (such as gNB110a, 110b, ng-eNB114, etc.) to calculate the position of the UE.

[0041]

[0055] Referring also to FIG. 2, UE200 is an example of one of UE105 and 106, and includes a processor 210, a memory 211 including software (SW) 212, one or more sensors 213, a transceiver interface 214 for a transceiver 215 (including a wireless transceiver 240 and a wired transceiver 250), a user interface 216, a satellite positioning system (SPS) receiver 217, a camera 218, and a position device (PD) 219. The processor 210, the memory 211, the (one or more) sensors 213, the transceiver interface 214, the user interface 216, the SPS receiver 217, the camera 218, and the position device 219 may be communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 220 (which may be configured for optical communication and / or electrical communication, for example). One or more of the illustrated devices (such as one or more of the camera 218, the position device 219, and / or the (one or more) sensors 213) may be omitted from the UE200. The processor 210 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 210 may include a plurality of processors, including a general-purpose / application processor 230, a digital signal processor (DSP) 231, a modem processor 232, a video processor 233, and / or a sensor processor 234. One or more of the processors 230 to 234 may include a plurality of devices (such as a plurality of processors). For example, the sensor processor 234 may include, for example, a processor for RF (radio frequency) sensing (where one or more (cellular) wireless signals are transmitted and one or more reflections are used to identify, map, and / or track an object), and / or may include ultrasonic, etc. The modem processor 232 may support dual SIM / dual connectivity (even more SIMs).For example, a certain SIM (Subscriber Identification Module or Subscriber Identity Module) can be used by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of a counterparty trademark, and another SIM can be used by an end user of the UE200 for connectivity. The memory 211 is a non-transitory storage medium that can include, for example, a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a disk memory, and / or a read-only memory (ROM). The memory 211 stores software 212, which can be processor-readable, processor-executable software code that, when executed, includes instructions configured to cause the processor 210 to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 212 may not be directly executable by the processor 210, but can be configured to cause the processor 210 to perform functions when compiled and executed, for example. This description may refer to the processor 210 that performs the functions, which includes other implementation forms such as when the processor 210 executes software and / or firmware. This description may refer to the processor 210 that performs the functions as an abbreviation for one or more of the processors 230 to 234 that perform the functions. This description may refer to the UE200 that performs the functions as an abbreviation for one or more appropriate components of the UE200 that perform the functions. The processor 210 can include a memory with stored instructions in addition to and / or instead of the memory 211. The functions of the processor 210 are more fully described below.

[0042]

[0056] The configuration of the UE200 shown in FIG. 2 is an example of the present disclosure, including the claims, and does not limit the present disclosure, and other configurations may be used. For example, an exemplary configuration of the UE includes one or more of the processors 230 to 234 of the processor 210, the memory 211, and the wireless transceiver 240. Another exemplary configuration includes one or more of the processors 230 to 234 of the processor 210, the memory 211, the wireless transceiver, and one or more of (one or more) sensors 213, user interface 216, SPS receiver 217, camera 218, PD 219, and / or wired transceiver.

[0043]

[0057] The UE200 may include a modem processor 232 that may be capable of performing baseband processing of signals received and down-converted by the transceiver 215 and / or the SPS receiver 217. The modem processor 232 may perform baseband processing of signals to be up-converted for transmission by the transceiver 215. Similarly or alternatively, the baseband processing may be performed by the processor 230 and / or the DSP 231. However, other configurations may be used to perform the baseband processing.

[0044]

[0058] UE200 may include one or more (a plurality of) sensors 213, which may include one or more of various types of sensors, such as, for example, one or more inertial sensors, one or more magnetometers, one or more environmental sensors, one or more optical sensors, one or more weight sensors, and / or one or more radio frequency (RF) sensors. The inertial measurement unit (IMU) may include, for example, one or more accelerometers and / or one or more gyroscopes (for example, one or more three-dimensional gyroscopes) that collectively respond to the acceleration of the UE200 in, for example, three dimensions. The one or more (a plurality of) sensors 213 may include one or more magnetometers (for example, one or more three-dimensional magnetometers) for determining an orientation (for example, with respect to magnetic north and / or true north) that may be used for any of various purposes, such as, for example, to support one or more compass applications. The one or more (a plurality of) environmental sensors may include, for example, one or more temperature sensors, one or more barometric pressure sensors, one or more ambient light sensors, one or more camera imagers, and / or one or more microphones. The one or more (a plurality of) sensors 213 may generate analog signals and / or digital signals, the instructions of which are stored in the memory 211 and may be processed by the DSP 231 and / or the processor 230 to support one or more applications, such as, for example, applications targeted at positioning and / or navigation operations.

[0045]

[0059] (One or more) sensors 213 can be used in relative location measurement, relative location determination, movement determination, etc. Information detected by (one or more) sensors 213 can be used for movement detection, relative displacement, dead reckoning, sensor-based location determination, and / or sensor-assisted location determination. (One or more) sensors 213 can be useful for determining whether the UE 200 is fixed (stationary), mobile, and / or whether certain useful information regarding the mobility of the UE 200 should be reported to the LMF 120. For example, based on information acquired / measured by (one or more) sensors 213, the UE 200 can notify / report to the LMF 120 that the UE 200 has detected movement or has moved, and report relative displacement / distance (e.g., via dead reckoning, or sensor-based location determination, or sensor-assisted location determination enabled by (one or more) sensors 213). In another example, sensors / IMUs can be used to determine the angle and / or orientation of other devices with respect to the UE 200, etc. for relative positioning information.

[0046]

[0060] The IMU can be configured to provide measurements regarding the direction and / or speed of movement of the UE200 that can be used in relative location determination. For example, one or more accelerometers and / or one or more gyroscopes of the IMU can each detect the linear acceleration and rotational speed of the UE200. To determine the instantaneous direction and displacement of the movement of the UE200, the measurements of the linear acceleration and rotational speed of the UE200 can be integrated over time. To track the location of the UE200, the instantaneous direction and displacement of the movement can be integrated. For example, the reference location of the UE200 can be determined, for example, using the SPS receiver 217 (and / or by some other means) for a certain moment, and the measurements from the (one or more) accelerometers and (one or more) gyroscopes obtained after this moment can be used in dead reckoning to determine the current location of the UE200 based on the movement (direction and distance) of the UE200 relative to the reference location.

[0047]

[0061] (One or more) magnetometers can determine the magnetic field strength in different directions, which can be used to determine the orientation of the UE200. For example, the orientation can be used to provide a digital compass for the UE200. (One or more) magnetometers can include a two-dimensional magnetometer configured to detect and provide an indication of the magnetic field strength in two orthogonal dimensions. (One or more) magnetometers can include a three-dimensional magnetometer configured to detect and provide an indication of the magnetic field strength in three orthogonal dimensions. (One or more) magnetometers can provide means for sensing the magnetic field and providing an indication of the magnetic field, for example, to the processor 210.

[0048]

[0062] Transceiver 215 may include a wireless transceiver 240 and a wired transceiver 250, each configured to communicate with other devices through wireless and wired connections, respectively. For example, the wireless transceiver 240 transmits a wireless signal 248 (e.g., on one or more uplink channels and / or one or more sidelink channels) and / or receives (e.g., on one or more downlink channels and / or one or more sidelink channels), and may include a wireless transmitter 242 and a wireless receiver 244 coupled to one or more antennas 246 for converting between the wireless signal 248 and a wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signal, and from the wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signal to the wireless signal 248. Thus, the wireless transmitter 242 may include a plurality of transmitters that may be individual components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wireless receiver 244 may include a plurality of receivers that may be individual components or combined / integrated components. The wireless transceiver 240 may be configured to communicate signals (e.g., with a TRP and / or one or more other devices) according to various radio access technologies (RATs) such as 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobile), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE Direct (LTE-D), 3GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE802.11 (including IEEE802.11p), WiFi, WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc. The New Radio may use millimeter wave frequencies and / or sub-6 GHz frequencies.The wired transceiver 250 may include a wired transmitter 252 and a wired receiver 254 configured for wired communication, for example, a network interface that can be utilized to communicate with the NG-RAN 135, send communications to the NG-RAN 135, and then receive communications from the NG-RAN 135. The wired transmitter 252 may include a plurality of transmitters that may be individual components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wired receiver 254 may include a plurality of receivers that may be individual components or combined / integrated components. The wired transceiver 250 may be configured for, for example, optical communication and / or electrical communication. The transceiver 215 may be communicatively coupled to the transceiver interface 214, for example, by an optical connection and / or an electrical connection. The transceiver interface 214 may be at least partially integrated with the transceiver 215. The wireless transmitter 242, the wireless receiver 244, and / or the antenna 246 may each include a plurality of transmitters, a plurality of receivers, and / or a plurality of antennas, respectively, for sending and / or receiving appropriate signals.

[0049]

[0063] The user interface 216 may comprise one or more of several devices such as, for example, a speaker, a microphone, a display device, a vibration device, a keyboard, a touch screen, etc. The user interface 216 may include two or more of any of these devices. The user interface 216 may be configured to enable a user to interact with one or more applications hosted by the UE 200. For example, the user interface 216 may store instructions of analog signals and / or digital signals in the memory 211 to be processed by the DSP 231 and / or the general-purpose processor 230 in response to an action from the user. Similarly, an application hosted on the UE 200 may store instructions of analog signals and / or digital signals in the memory 211 to present an output signal to the user. The user interface 216 may include, for example, an audio input / output (I / O) device comprising a speaker, a microphone, a digital-to-analog circuit, an analog-to-digital circuit, an amplifier, and / or a gain control circuit (including two or more of any of these devices). Other configurations of the audio I / O device may be used. Also or alternatively, the user interface 216 may comprise one or more touch sensors responsive to touch and / or pressure, for example, on the keyboard and / or the touch screen of the user interface 216.

[0050]

[0064] The SPS receiver 217 (e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver) may be capable of receiving and collecting SPS signals 260 via the SPS antenna 262. The SPS antenna 262 is configured to convert the SPS signal 260 from a wireless signal to a wired signal, e.g., an electrical signal or an optical signal, and may be integrated with the antenna 246. The SPS receiver 217 may be configured to process all or part of the collected SPS signals 260 to estimate the location of the UE 200. For example, the SPS receiver 217 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 200 by trilateration using the SPS signals 260. The general-purpose processor 230, the memory 211, the DSP 231, and / or one or more dedicated processors (not shown) may be utilized with the SPS receiver 217 to process all or part of the collected SPS signals and / or to calculate the estimated location of the UE 200. The memory 211 may store indications (e.g., measurements) of the SPS signals 260 and / or other signals (e.g., signals collected from the wireless transceiver 240) for use in performing the positioning operation. The general-purpose processor 230, the DSP 231, and / or one or more dedicated processors, and / or the memory 211 may provide or support a location engine for use in processing the measurements to estimate the location of the UE 200.

[0051]

[0065] UE200 may include a camera 218 for capturing still images or videos. The camera 218 may comprise, for example, an imaging sensor (e.g., a charge-coupled device or a CMOS imager), a lens, analog-digital circuitry, a frame buffer, and the like. Additional processing, conditioning, encoding, and / or compression of the signal representing the captured image may be performed by the general-purpose processor 230 and / or the DSP 231. Also or alternatively, the video processor 233 may perform conditioning, encoding, compression, and / or manipulation of the signal representing the captured image. The video processor 233 may decode / restore the stored image data, for example, for presentation on a display device (not shown) of the user interface 216.

[0052]

[0066] The positioning device (PD) 219 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 200, the movement of the UE 200, and / or the relative location of the UE 200, and / or time. For example, the PD 219 may communicate with the SPS receiver 217 and / or include some or all of it. The PD 219 may operate as appropriate in cooperation with the processor 210 and the memory 211 to implement at least a part of one or more positioning methods, although the description herein may refer to the PD 219 being configured to implement according to (one or more) positioning methods or to implement according to (one or more) positioning methods. Also or alternatively, the PD 219 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 200 using ground-based signals (e.g., at least some of the signals 248) for trilateration, to assist in the acquisition and use of the SPS signal 260, or both. The PD 219 may be configured to use one or more other techniques (e.g., relying on the self-reported location of the UE (e.g., part of the UE's location beacon)) to determine the location of the UE 200, and may use a combination of techniques (e.g., SPS and terrestrial positioning signals) to determine the location of the UE 200. The PD 219 may include one or more of the sensors 213 (e.g., (one or more) gyroscopes, (one or more) accelerometers, (one or more) magnetometers, etc.) that can sense the orientation and / or movement of the UE 200 and provide an indication thereof, and the processor 210 (e.g., the processor 230 and / or the DSP 231) may be configured to use the indication to determine the movement of the UE 200 (e.g., the velocity vector and / or the acceleration vector). The PD 219 may be configured to provide an indication of the uncertainty and / or error of the determined location and / or movement. The functions of the PD 219 may be provided in various manners and / or configurations by, for example, the general-purpose / application processor 230, the transceiver 215, the SPS receiver 217, and / or another component of the UE 200, and may be provided by hardware, software, firmware, or various combinations thereof.

[0053]

[0067] Also referring to FIG. 3, an example of the TRP 300 of the gNB 110a, 110b and / or ng-eNB 114 includes a computing platform comprising a processor 310, a memory 311 including software (SW) 312, and a transceiver 315. The processor 310, the memory 311, and the transceiver 315 can be communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 320 (which can be configured for optical communication and / or electrical communication, for example). One or more of the illustrated devices (for example, a wireless interface) can be omitted from the TRP 300. The processor 310 can include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 310 can include multiple processors (for example, including the general purpose / application processor, DSP, modem processor, video processor, and / or sensor processor shown in FIG. 2). The memory 311 is a non-transitory storage medium that can include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, disk memory, and / or read only memory (ROM), etc. The memory 311 stores software 312, which can be processor-readable, processor-executable software code that, when executed, includes instructions configured to cause the processor 310 to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 312 may not be directly executable by the processor 310, but can be configured to cause the processor 310 to perform functions when compiled and executed, for example.

[0054]

[0068] This description may refer to the processor 310 that implements the functions, which includes other implementation forms such as when the processor 310 executes software and / or firmware. This description may refer to the processor 310 that implements the functions as an abbreviation of one or more of the processors included in the processor 310 that implements the functions. This description may refer to the TRP 300 that implements the functions as an abbreviation of one or more appropriate components of the TRP 300 that implements the functions (e.g., the processor 310 and the memory 311) (and thus, of one of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or the ng-eNB 114). The processor 310 may include a memory with stored instructions in addition to and / or instead of the memory 311. The functions of the processor 310 are more fully described below.

[0055]

[0069] Transceiver 315 may include a wireless transceiver 340 and / or a wired transceiver 350 configured to communicate with other devices through wireless connection and wired connection respectively. For example, the wireless transceiver 340 transmits a wireless signal 348 (e.g., on one or more uplink channels and / or one or more downlink channels), and / or receives (e.g., on one or more downlink channels and / or one or more uplink channels), and includes a wireless transmitter 342 and a wireless receiver 344 coupled to one or more antennas 346 for converting from the wireless signal 348 to a wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signal and from the wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signal to the wireless signal 348. Thus, the wireless transmitter 342 may include a plurality of transmitters that may be individual components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wireless receiver 344 may include a plurality of receivers that may be individual components or combined / integrated components. The wireless transceiver 340 may be configured to communicate signals (e.g., with UE200, one or more other UEs, and / or one or more other devices) according to various radio access technologies (RATs) such as 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobile), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE Direct (LTE-D), 3GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE802.11 (including IEEE802.11p), WiFi, WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc.The wired transceiver 350 may include a wired transmitter 352 and a wired receiver 354 configured for wired communication, e.g., to communicate with the NG-RAN 135, e.g., the LMF 120, and / or to send and then receive communications to and from one or more other network entities, and may include a network interface that can be utilized for such communications. The wired transmitter 352 may include a plurality of transmitters that may be individual components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wired receiver 354 may include a plurality of receivers that may be individual components or combined / integrated components. The wired transceiver 350 may be configured for, e.g., optical and / or electrical communication.

[0056]

[0070] The configuration of the TRP 300 shown in FIG. 3 is an example of the present disclosure, including the claims, and does not limit the present disclosure, and other configurations may be used. For example, the description herein describes that the TRP 300 is configured to perform or perform some functions, but one or more of these functions may be performed by the LMF 120 and / or the UE 200 (i.e., the LMF 120 and / or the UE 200 may be configured to perform one or more of these functions).

[0057]

[0071] Referring also to FIG. 4, an example of which is the LMF120, the server 400 comprises a computing platform including a processor 410, a memory 411 including software (SW) 412, and a transceiver 415. The processor 410, the memory 411, and the transceiver 415 may be communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 420 (which may be configured for optical and / or electrical communication, for example). One or more of the illustrated devices (for example, a wireless interface) may be omitted from the server 400. The processor 410 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 410 may comprise a plurality of processors (for example, including the general-purpose / application processor, DSP, modem processor, video processor, and / or sensor processor shown in FIG. 2). The memory 411 is a non-transitory storage medium that may include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, disk memory, and / or read-only memory (ROM), etc. The memory 411 stores software 412, which may be processor-readable, processor-executable software code configured to cause the processor 410 to perform various functions described herein when executed. Alternatively, the software 412 may not be directly executable by the processor 410, but may be configured to cause the processor 410 to perform functions when compiled and executed, for example. This description may refer to the processor 410 performing the functions, which includes other implementations such as when the processor 410 executes software and / or firmware. This description may refer to the processor 410 performing the functions as an abbreviation for one or more of the processors included in the processor 410 performing the functions. This description may refer to the server 400 performing the functions as an abbreviation for one or more suitable components of the server 400 performing the functions. The processor 410 may include memory with stored instructions in addition to and / or instead of the memory 411.The functions of the processor 410 are more fully described below.

[0058]

[0072] Transceiver 415 may include a wireless transceiver 440 and / or a wired transceiver 450 configured to communicate with other devices through wireless and wired connections, respectively. For example, the wireless transceiver 440 transmits a wireless signal 448 (e.g., on one or more downlink channels) and / or receives (e.g., on one or more uplink channels), and includes a wireless transmitter 442 and a wireless receiver 444 coupled to one or more antennas 446 for converting from the wireless signal 448 to a wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signal and from the wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signal to the wireless signal 448. Thus, the wireless transmitter 442 may include a plurality of transmitters that may be individual components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wireless receiver 444 may include a plurality of receivers that may be individual components or combined / integrated components. The wireless transceiver 440 may be configured to communicate signals (e.g., with UE200, one or more other UEs, and / or one or more other devices) according to various radio access technologies (RATs) such as 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobile), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE Direct (LTE-D), 3GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE802.11 (including IEEE802.11p), WiFi, WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, Zigbee. The wired transceiver 450 may include a wired transmitter 452 and a wired receiver 454 configured for wired communication, e.g., communicating with NG-RAN135 and including a network interface that may be utilized to send and then receive communications to / from, e.g., TRP300, and / or one or more other network entities.The wired transmitter 452 may include a plurality of transmitters that may be individual components or combined / integrated components, and / or the wired receiver 454 may include a plurality of receivers that may be individual components or combined / integrated components. The wired transceiver 450 may be configured for, for example, optical communication and / or electrical communication.

[0059]

[0073] The description herein may refer to the processor 410 that implements the functions, which includes other implementations such as when the processor 410 executes software and / or firmware (stored in the memory 411). The description herein may refer to the server 400 that implements the functions as a shorthand for one or more suitable components of the server 400 that implement the functions (e.g., the processor 410 and the memory 411).

[0060]

[0074] The configuration of the server 400 shown in FIG. 4 is an example of the present disclosure, including the claims, and does not limit the present disclosure, and other configurations may be used. For example, the wireless transceiver 440 may be omitted. Also or alternatively, the description herein describes that the server 400 is configured to or implements some functions, but one or more of these functions may be implemented by the TRP 300 and / or the UE 200 (i.e., the TRP 300 and / or the UE 200 may be configured to implement one or more of these functions).

[0061]

[0075] Positioning techniques

[0076] In the case of terrestrial positioning of a UE in a cellular network, techniques such as Advanced Forward Link Trilateration (AFLT) and Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) often operate in a "UE-assisted" mode where measurements of reference signals (e.g., PRS, CRS, etc.) transmitted by base stations are obtained by the UE and then provided to a location server. The location server then calculates the position of the UE based on the measurements and the known locations of the base stations. Since these techniques use a location server rather than the UE itself to calculate the position of the UE, these positioning techniques are not frequently used in applications such as car navigation or smartphone navigation, and instead, they generally rely on satellite-based positioning.

[0062]

[0077] The UE may use a satellite positioning system (SPS) (Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)) using Precise Point Positioning (PPP) or Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) technology for high-precision positioning. These technologies use assistance data such as measurements from ground stations. LTE Release 15 enables data to be encrypted so that only UEs subscribed to the service can read the information. Such assistance data varies over time. Therefore, a UE subscribed to the service may not easily "break encryption" for other UEs by passing on the data to other UEs that have not paid for the subscription. Passing on would need to be repeated every time the assistance data changes.

[0063]

[0078] In UE-assisted positioning, the UE sends measurement values (e.g., TDOA, angle of arrival (AoA), etc.) to a positioning server (e.g., LMF / eSMLC). The positioning server has a base station almanac (BSA) that contains multiple "entries" or "records" in one record per cell, where each record contains a geographical cell location but may also contain other data. An identifier of one of the multiple "records" in the BSA can be referenced. The BSA and the measurement values from the UE can be used to calculate the location of the UE.

[0064]

[0079] In conventional UE-based positioning, the UE calculates its own location and thus avoids sending measurement values to a network (e.g., a location server), which improves latency and scalability. The UE uses relevant BSA record information from the network (e.g., the location of a gNB (more generally, a base station)). The BSA information can be encrypted. However, since the BSA information changes at a much lower frequency than, for example, the PPP or RTK assistance data described previously, it may be easier to make the BSA information available to UEs that do not subscribe and do not pay for the decryption key (compared to PPP or RTK information). The transmission of reference signals by the gNB potentially makes the BSA information accessible for cloud sourcing or wardriving and essentially enables the BSA information to be generated based on on-site and / or over-the-top observations.

[0065]

[0080] Positioning techniques can be characterized and / or evaluated based on one or more criteria such as positioning accuracy and / or latency. Latency is the time elapsed between an event that triggers the determination of location-related data and the availability of that data at the positioning system interface, e.g., the interface of the LMF120. In the initialization of a positioning system, the latency for the availability of location-related data is called the time to first fix (TTFF) and is greater than the latency after TTFF. The reciprocal of the time elapsed between two consecutive availabilities of location-related data is called the update rate, i.e., the rate at which location-related data is generated after the initial position calculation. Latency can depend, for example, on the processing capabilities of the UE. For example, the UE can report its processing capabilities as the duration of a DL PRS symbol in time units (e.g., milliseconds) that the UE can process every T time amount (e.g., Tms) in the case of 272 PRB (physical resource block) allocations. Other examples of capabilities that can affect latency are the number of TRPs that the UE can process PRS, the number of PRSs that the UE can process, and the bandwidth of the UE.

[0066]

[0081] One or more of a number of different positioning techniques (also referred to as positioning methods) may be used to determine the location of an entity such as one of UEs 105, 106. For example, known positioning techniques include RTT, multi-RTT, OTDOA (also referred to as TDOA and including UL-TDOA and DL-TDOA), Extended Cell Identification Information (E-CID), DL-AoD, UL-AoA, etc. RTT uses the time for a signal to travel from one entity to another and back to determine the range between two entities. That range, along with the known location of the first of the entities and the angle (e.g., azimuth) between the two entities, can be used to determine the location of the second of the entities. In multi-RTT (also referred to as multi-cell RTT), multiple ranges from one entity (e.g., a UE) to other entities (e.g., TRPs) and the known locations of the other entities can be used to determine the location of that one entity. In the TDOA technique, the difference in the travel time between one entity and another can be used to determine the relative range from the other entity, and these can be combined with the known locations of the other entities to be used to determine the location of that one entity. Angle of arrival and / or angle of departure may be used to assist in determining the location of an entity. For example, the angle of arrival or angle of departure of a signal, combined with the range between devices (determined using, e.g., the travel time of the signal, the received signal power, etc.) and the known location of one of the devices, can be used to determine the location of the other device. The angle of arrival or angle of departure can be an azimuth with respect to a reference direction such as true north. The angle of arrival or angle of departure can be a zenith angle with respect to directly above the entity (i.e., radially outward from the center of the Earth).E-CID uses the identification information of the serving cell, the timing advance (i.e., the difference between the reception time and the transmission time at the UE), the estimated timing and power of the detected neighbor cell signals, and optionally the angle of arrival (e.g., of the signal at the UE from the base station or vice versa) to determine the location of the UE. In TDOA, the difference in arrival times of signals from different sources at the receiving device is used, along with the known location of the source and the known offset of the transmission time from the source, to determine the location of the receiving device.

[0067]

[0082] In network-centric RTT estimation, the serving base station instructs the UE to scan / receive RTT measurement signals (e.g., PRS) on the serving cells of two or more neighboring base stations (and generally, at least three base stations are required, so the serving base station). One or more base stations transmit RTT measurement signals on low-reuse resources (e.g., the resources used by the base station to transmit system information) allocated by the network (e.g., a location server such as LMF120). The UE records the arrival time (also called receive time, reception time, time of reception, or ToA) of each RTT measurement signal relative to the UE's current downlink timing (e.g., as derived by the UE from the DL signal received from its serving base station), and transmits a common or individual RTT response message (e.g., SRS (sounding reference signal) for positioning, i.e., UL-PRS) to one or more base stations (e.g., when instructed by its serving base station), and in the payload of each RTT response message, the time difference T between the ToA of the RTT measurement signal and the transmission time of the RTT response message Rx→Tx (i.e., UE T Rx-Tx or UE Rx-Tx) can be included. The RTT response message will include a reference signal from which the base station can infer the ToA of the RTT response. The difference T between the transmission time of the RTT measurement signal from the base station and the ToA of the RTT response at the base station Tx→Rx is the UE reporting time difference T Rx→Tx By comparing with, the base station can infer the propagation time between the base station and the UE, and the base station can determine the distance between the UE and the base station by assuming the speed of light during this propagation time.

[0068]

[0083] UE-centered RTT estimation is similar to the network-based method, except that the UE (when instructed by, for example, the serving base station) transmits the (one or more) uplink RTT measurement signals received by a plurality of base stations in the vicinity of the UE. Each participating base station responds with a downlink RTT response message, and the downlink RTT response message may include the time difference between the ToA of the RTT measurement signal at the base station and the transmission time of the RTT response message from the base station in the RTT response message payload.

[0069]

[0084] In both the network-centered procedure and the UE-centered procedure, the side performing the RTT calculation (the network or the UE), although not always, generally transmits the first (one or more) messages or (one or more) signals (for example, the (one or more) RTT measurement signals), and the other side responds with one or more RTT response messages or signals that may include the difference between the ToA of the first (one or more) messages or (one or more) signals and the transmission time of the (one or more) RTT response messages or (one or more) signals.

[0070]

[0085] The multi-RTT technique can be used to determine a location. For example, a first entity (e.g., a UE) may transmit one or more signals (e.g., unicast, multicast, or broadcast from a base station), and a plurality of second entities (e.g., other TSPs such as one or more base stations and / or one or more UEs) may receive the signal from the first entity and respond to this received signal. The first entity receives responses from the plurality of second entities. The first entity (or another entity such as an LMF) may use the responses from the second entities to determine the range to the second entities and may use the plurality of ranges and the known locations of the second entities to determine the location of the first entity by trilateration.

[0071]

[0086] In some cases, additional information may be obtained in the form of a direction (which may be in a horizontal plane or in 3D), or in some cases an angle of arrival (AoA) or angle of departure (AoD) that defines a range of directions (e.g., for a UE from the location of a base station). The intersection of two directions can provide another estimate of the location of the UE.

[0072]

[0087] In positioning techniques that use PRS (Positioning Reference Signal) signals (e.g., TDOA and RTT), in order to determine the range from the UE to the TRP, PRS signals sent by multiple TRPs are measured, and the arrival time of the signal, the known transmission time, and the known location of the TRP are used. For example, RSTD (Reference Signal Time Difference) is determined for PRS signals received from multiple TRPs and can be used in the TDOA technique to determine the location of the UE. The positioning reference signal may be referred to as PRS or a PRS signal. PRS signals are generally sent using the same power, and PRS signals with the same signal characteristics (e.g., the same frequency shift) can interfere with each other. Thus, a PRS signal from a farther TRP can be overwhelmed by a PRS signal from a nearer TRP, and thus the signal from the farther TRP may not be detected. PRS muting can be used to help reduce interference by muting some of the PRS signals (reducing the power of the PRS signal to, for example, 0 and thus not transmitting the PRS signal). In this way, weaker PRS signals (at the UE) can be more easily detected by the UE without the stronger PRS signals interfering with those weaker PRS signals. The term RS and its variants (e.g., PRS, SRS) can refer to one reference signal or two or more reference signals.

[0073]

[0088] The positioning reference signal (PRS) includes a downlink PRS (DL PRS, often simply called PRS) and an uplink PRS (UL PRS), which may sometimes be called the sounding reference signal (SRS) for positioning. So that the source of the PRS can act as a pseudo-satellite (pseudo-random number code), the PRS may be provided with a PN code (pseudo-random number code) or generated using a PN code (for example, scrambling the PN code with another signal). The PN code can be unique to the PRS source (at least within a specified area so that the same PRS from different PRS sources does not overlap). The PRS may include a PRS resource or a set of PRS resources in a frequency layer. The DL PRS positioning frequency layer (or simply the frequency layer) is a set of DL PRS resource sets from one or more TRPs that have a common parameter composed of the upper layer parameters DL-PRS-PositioningFrequencyLayer, DL-PRS-ResourceSet, and DL-PRS-Resource, and has one or more PRS resources. Each frequency layer has a DL PRS subcarrier spacing (SCS) for the DL PRS resource set and DL PRS resources in the frequency layer. Each frequency layer has a DL PRS cyclic prefix (CP) for the DL PRS resource set and DL PRS resources in the frequency layer. In 5G, a resource block occupies 12 consecutive subcarriers and a specified number of symbols. Also, the DL PRS point A parameter defines the frequency of the reference resource block (and the lowest subcarrier of the resource block), the DL PRS resources belong to the same DL PRS resource set with the same point A, and all DL PRS resource sets belong to the same frequency layer with the same point A. The frequency layer also has the same DL PRS bandwidth, the same starting PRB (and center frequency), and the same value of the comb size (that is, for the comb N, the frequency of the PRS resource elements per symbol such that every N resource elements are PRS resource elements).A PRS resource set can be associated with a specific TRP (identified by a cell ID) that is identified by a PRS resource set ID and transmitted by an antenna panel of a base station. A PRS resource ID in the PRS resource set can be associated with an omnidirectional signal and / or a single beam (and / or beam ID) transmitted from a single base station (where the base station can transmit one or more beams). Each PRS resource of the PRS resource set can be transmitted on a different beam, and thus a PRS resource or simply a resource may also be referred to as a beam. This has no implication regarding whether the base station and the beam on which the PRS is transmitted are known to the UE.

[0074]

[0089] The TRP can be configured to send DL PRS for each schedule, for example, by an instruction received from a server and / or by software in the TRP. According to the schedule, the TRP can send DL-PRS intermittently, for example, periodically at regular intervals from the initial transmission. The TRP can be configured to send one or more PRS resource sets. A resource set is a set of PRS resources across one TRP, and the resources have the same periodicity, (if any) the same common muting pattern configuration, and the same repetition factor across slots. Each of the PRS resource sets comprises a plurality of PRS resources, and each PRS resource comprises a plurality of resource elements (REs) that can be in a plurality of resource blocks (RBs) within N (one or more) consecutive symbols within a slot. An RB is a set of REs across an amount of one or more consecutive symbols in the time domain and an amount of consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain (12 in the case of a 5G RB). Each PRS resource is composed of an RE offset, a slot offset, a symbol offset within the slot, and the number of consecutive symbols that the PRS resource can occupy within the slot. The RE offset defines the starting RE offset of the first symbol within the DL PRS resource in frequency. The relative RE offsets of the remaining symbols within the DL PRS resource are defined based on the initial offset. The slot offset is the starting slot of the DL PRS resource with respect to the corresponding resource set slot offset. The symbol offset determines the starting symbol of the DL PRS resource within the starting slot. The REs transmitted can repeat across slots, and each transmission is called a repetition, so there can be multiple repetitions within a PRS resource. The DL PRS resources within a DL PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP, and each DL PRS resource has a DL PRS resource ID. The DL PRS resource IDs within a DL PRS resource set are associated with a single beam transmitted from a single TRP (although a TRP can transmit one or more beams).

[0075]

[0090] The PRS resource can also be defined by the quasi - collocation and starting PRB parameters. The quasi - collocation (QCL) parameters can define any quasi - collocation information of the DL PRS resource with other reference signals. The DL PRS can be configured to be of QCL type D with a DL PRS or SS / PBCH (synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel) block from the serving cell or a non - serving cell. The DL PRS can be configured to be of QCL type C with an SS / PBCH block from the serving cell or a non - serving cell. The starting PRB parameter defines the starting PRB index of the DL PRS resource with respect to reference point A. The starting PRB index has a granularity of one PRB and can have a minimum value of 0 PRBs and a maximum value of 2176 PRBs.

[0076]

[0091] A PRS resource set is a set of PRS resources that have the same periodicity, the same muting pattern configuration (if any), and the same repetition factor across slots. Any time configured such that all repetitions of all PRS resources of a PRS resource set are transmitted is called an "instance". Thus, an "instance" of a PRS resource set is a specified number of repetitions for each PRS resource and a specified number of PRS resources within the PRS resource set. Thus, an instance is completed when the specified number of repetitions are transmitted for each of the specified number of PRS resources. An instance may also be called an "occasion". A DL PRS configuration including a DL PRS transmission schedule can be provided to the UE to facilitate (and even enable) the UE to measure the DL PRS.

[0077]

[0092] The multiple frequency layers of the PRS can be aggregated to provide an effective bandwidth that is individually larger than any of the layer bandwidths. Multiple frequency layers that meet criteria such as having the same antenna port, being (continuously and / or separately) component carriers, and being quasi-collocated (QCLed) can be stitched to provide a larger effective PRS bandwidth (for DL PRS and UL PRS), resulting in increased arrival time measurement accuracy. Stitching comprises combining PRS measurements across individual bandwidth fragments into a unified portion such that the stitched PRS can be treated as if taken from a single measurement. When QCLed, different frequency layers behave similarly and it becomes possible for PRS stitching to result in a larger effective bandwidth. The larger effective bandwidth, sometimes referred to as the aggregated PRS bandwidth or the aggregated PRS frequency bandwidth, provides better time domain resolution (e.g., for TDOA). The aggregated PRS includes a set of PRS resources, and each PRS resource of the aggregated PRS may be referred to as a PRS component, and each PRS component can be transmitted on different component carriers, bands, or frequency layers or on different portions of the same band.

[0078]

[0093] RTT positioning is an active positioning technique in that the RTT uses positioning signals sent from the TRP to the UE and from the UE (participating in the RTT positioning) to the TRP. The TRP may send DL-PRS signals received by the UE, and the UE may send SRS (sounding reference signal) signals received by a plurality of TRPs. The sounding reference signal may sometimes be referred to as SRS or SRS signal. In 5G multi-RTT, cooperative positioning may be used, and the UE sends a single UL-SRS for positioning received by a plurality of TRPs instead of sending separate UL-SRSs for positioning for each TRP. TRPs participating in multi-RTT generally will search for UEs currently camped on that TRP (served UEs, the TRP is the serving TRP) and also UEs camped on neighboring TRPs (neighbor UEs). A neighbor TRP may be a TRP of a single BTS (e.g., gNB) or may be a TRP of one BTS and a TRP of a separate BTS. In RTT positioning including multi-RTT positioning, the DL-PRS signal and the UL-SRS regarding the positioning signal in the PRS / SRS used to determine the RTT (and thus used to determine the range between the UE and the TRP) may occur close in time to each other, and thus, errors due to UE movement and / or UE clock drift and / or TRP clock drift are within the tolerance limit. For example, the signals in the PRS / SRS regarding the positioning signal pair may be sent from the TRP and the UE, respectively, within about 10 ms of each other. When the SRS regarding the positioning signal is sent by the UE and the PRS and the SRS regarding the positioning signal are carried close in time to each other, in particular, when many UEs attempt positioning simultaneously, it is known that radio frequency (RF) signal congestion (which may cause excessive noise, etc.) may occur, and / or computational congestion may occur at the TRP attempting to measure many UEs simultaneously.

[0079]

[0094] RTT positioning can be UE-based or UE-assisted. In UE-based RTT, the UE 200 determines the RTT, the corresponding ranges to each of the TRPs 300, and the location of the UE 200 based on the range to the TRP 300 and the known location of the TRP 300. In UE-assisted RTT, the UE 200 measures the positioning signal and provides the measurement information to the TRP 300, and the TRP 300 determines the RTT and the range. The TRP 300 provides the range to a location server, e.g., the server 400, and the server determines the location of the UE 200, e.g., based on the ranges to different TRPs 300. The RTT and / or the range can be determined by the TRP 300 that receives the (one or more) signals from the UE 200 in combination with one or more other devices, e.g., one or more other TRPs 300 and / or the server 400, or by one or more devices other than the TRP 300 that receives the (one or more) signals from the UE 200.

[0080]

[0095] Various positioning techniques are supported in 5G NR. The NR native positioning methods supported in 5G NR include DL dedicated positioning method, UL dedicated positioning method, and DL+UL positioning method. The downlink-based positioning methods include DL-TDOA and DL-AoD. The uplink-based positioning methods include UL-TDOA and UL-AoA. The combined DL+UL-based positioning methods include RTT with one base station and RTT with multiple base stations (multi-RTT).

[0081]

[0096] The location estimate (e.g., for a UE) may be referred to by other names such as location estimate, location, position, location fix, fix, etc. The location estimate can be geodesic and have coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and optionally altitude), or it can be civic and have a location address, postal address, or some other description in words of the location. The location estimate can further be defined relative to some other known location or in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and optionally altitude). The location estimate can include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume in which the location is expected to be included with some specified or default level of confidence).

[0082]

[0097] Positioning measurement report

[0098] Referring to FIG. 5 and further to FIGS. 1 - 4, UE 500 includes a processor 510, an interface 520, and a memory 530 communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 540. UE 500 may include some or all of the components shown in FIG. 5 and may include one or more other components such as any of the components shown in FIG. 2, and thus, UE 200 may be an example of UE 500. The processor 510 may include one or more components of the processor 210. The interface 520 may include one or more of the components of the transceiver 215, e.g., the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246, or the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246, or the wireless transmitter 242, the wireless receiver 244, and the antenna 246. Also or alternatively, the interface 520 may include a wired transmitter 252 and / or a wired receiver 254. The interface 520 may include an SPS receiver 217 and an antenna 262. The memory 530 may be configured similarly to the memory 211, e.g., including software having processor - readable instructions configured to cause the processor 510 to perform functions.

[0083]

[0099] Although the description in this specification may only refer to the processor 510 that implements the functions, this includes other implementation forms such as when the processor 510 executes software and / or firmware (stored in the memory 530). The description in this specification may refer to the UE 500 that implements the functions as a shorthand for one or more appropriate components of the UE 500 that implement the functions (for example, the processor 510 and the memory 530). The processor 510 includes a measurement reporting unit 550 (optionally the memory 530 and, as appropriate, together with the interface 520). The measurement reporting unit 550 may be configured to encode the measurement report payload into a UCI (uplink control information) message and / or a MAC-CE (media access control - control element) message. The measurement reporting unit 550 includes an ASN.1 (abstract syntax notation 1) encoder 560. The configuration and functions of the measurement reporting unit 550 are further described in this specification.

[0084]

[0100] Referring also to FIG. 6, historically, measurement reports from the UE to network entities such as the gNB or LMF have been carried using RRC (radio resource control) messages generated in the RRC layer 610 of the control plane protocol stack 600. In this case, the measurement report will be further processed by the PDCP (packet data convergence protocol) layer 620, the RLC (radio link control) layer 630, the MAC layer 640, and the physical layer (layer 1 (L1)) 650 in order to be sent to a network entity such as the gNB via the air interface 660. When measurement information such as the positioning state information (PSI) included in the measurement report can be sent from the UE 500 to the TRP 300 as a MAC-CE message or a UCI message, the latency can be reduced compared to using an RRC message for the PSI. The description in this specification uses PSI and positioning measurements as examples, but this description can be applied to other types of measurements and measurement reports.

[0085]

[0101] Measurement reports are generally complex and have multiple optional and / or conditionally optional fields. To accommodate these fields, complex combinations such as defined fixed fields, priority rules, payload compression mechanisms, collision avoidance rules, etc. can be developed and implemented. Different combinations can be developed and implemented for different transmissions, e.g., PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) transmission, PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) transmission, and / or MAC-CE transmission.

[0086]

[0102] Referring also to FIG. 7, the measurement report unit 550 of the UE 500 includes an ASN.1 encoder 560 configured to encode measurement information, the indicated PSI 710, into the encoded payload of an output message 720 that is a lower layer message such as a UCI message or a MAC-CE message. Although UCI messages and MAC-CE messages are described as examples, this description is applicable to other similar physical layer messages and / or other similar MAC layer messages. The measurement report unit 550 may receive one or more instructions from the TRP 300 via the interface 520 and may, based on the one or more instructions, configure the output message 720, e.g., determine a reporting configuration. For example, the one or more instructions may instruct the UE 500 whether to use one or more fields of a reference report (e.g., an RRC measurement report). The (one or more) instructions may indicate not to provide one or more of the reference report fields. Also or alternatively, the (one or more) instructions may instruct the UE 500 that the UE 500 may include one or more optional fields in the measurement report provided by the UE 500. Thus, the measurement report unit 550 may provide a measurement report with more flexibility than a previous UCI message or MAC-CE message, e.g., the measurement report has one or more optional fields and no detailed set of rules is specified for lower layer measurement reports.

[0087]

[0103] Referring also to FIG. 8, the measurement report unit 550 may be configured to facilitate the decoding of the measurement report by the TRP300 by providing auxiliary information in the measurement report 800. The measurement report 800 is a lower layer measurement report comprising a physical layer message or a MAC layer message. The TRP300 may be aware of the payload structure of the measurement report, but since the payload size may vary, for example, the UE500 may determine whether to include each optional field, so it may not know the fields that the measurement report will contain, for example, it may not know whether the measurement report contains optional fields. The measurement report 800 includes a first part 810 and a second part 820. The first part 810 may have a fixed size, i.e., a known number of invariant bits. The first part 810 may include a size indicator 830 indicating the size of the second part 820. The size indicator 830 may indicate the amount of bits of the second part 820 to facilitate the decoding of the measurement report 800 by the TRP300. The first part 810 may include a field indicator 840 indicating which fields the second part 820 contains data for. In this example, the second part 820 contains data for fields 2, 3, 4, and 6 out of 8 fields, and the field indicator 840 includes a bit sequence of 01110100. Each bit in the bit sequence corresponds to each field in numerical order, where "0" indicates that the data for each field is not included in the second part 820, and "1" indicates that the data for each field is included in the second part 820. Thus, in the case of the bit sequence 01110100, the second bit, the third bit, the fourth bit, and the sixth bit are "1", indicating that the second field, the third field, the fourth field, and the sixth field are included in the second part 820. The first part 810 may not be ASN.1 encoded, but the second part 820 may be ASN.1 encoded by the ASN.1 encoder 560.

[0088]

[0104] Referring to FIGS. 9 and 10 and further to FIGS. 5 and 8, measurement report unit 550 may be configured to facilitate decoding of measurement reports by the TRP300 by implementing a limit on the size of the measurement report payload. The limit may be known to the TRP300 and the UE500 in various ways, such as being indicated to the UE500 by the TRP300, being pre-programmed in the TRP300 and the UE500, etc. As shown in FIG. 9, measurement report unit 550 may be configured to respond to determining that the encoded payload size exceeds the payload limit by splitting the measurement report among a plurality of messages such that payload information can be transmitted. In the example shown in FIG. 9, measurement report unit 550 split the payload between message 910 and message 920 (e.g., between PUSCH instances). In this example, the measurement payload of the second part 820 including fields 2, 3, 4, 6 exceeds the payload size limit, and measurement report unit 550 generated message 910 including fields 2, 3, 4 and message 920 including field 6 such that neither message 910 nor 920 exceeds the payload size limit. Also or alternatively, referring to FIG. 10, measurement report unit 550 may be configured to respond to determining that the encoded payload size exceeds the payload limit by omitting information from the measurement report payload such that a portion of the payload can be transmitted. For example, measurement report unit 550 may omit one or more optional fields from the payload (e.g., discard, ignore) and re-determine the payload without including, for example, the omitted information. In the example of FIG. 10, field 4 of the second part 820 was omitted from message 1010 such that message 1010 does not exceed the payload limit. Other examples are possible, such as splitting the payload and omitting some payload information. For example, if the combined fields 2, 3, 6 still exceed the payload limit, one or more fields may be omitted from message 910.Messages 910, 920, and 1010 are lower layer messages each comprising a physical layer message or a MAC layer message.

[0089]

[0105] The measurement report unit 550 may be configured to take one or more actions to avoid collisions between physical layer messages to be transmitted. The measurement report unit 550 may be configured to take one or more actions according to one or more instructions (e.g., DCI (downlink control information)) from the TRP 300 (e.g., gNB) regarding how to respond to the determination that a collision is imminent. For example, referring to FIGS. 5 and 11, the measurement report unit 550 may be configured to respond by generating a UCI message having a UCI message payload 1100 that includes a first portion 1110 dedicated to non-PSI UCI and a second portion 1120 dedicated to PSI, in response to determining that a collision is going to occur between physical layer messages, e.g., between a certain UCI message and another UCI message including PSI. The UCI message payload 1100 effectively has two separate messages in the same payload, the first portion 1110 is based on a fixed format, and the second portion is encoded by the ASN.1 encoder 560. As another example, and referring also to FIG. 12, the measurement report unit 550 may schedule the non-PSI UCI payload and the PSI UCI payload at different times, e.g., delay one of the UCI payloads. The measurement report unit 550 may determine the scheduling of the payload according to one or more priority rules, e.g., always giving priority to non-PSI over PSI UCI, or determining the priority based on a priority indication from the TRP 300 in, e.g., the DCI message. In the example of FIG. 12, the measurement report unit 550 schedules a non-PSI-UCI message 1210 including a non-PSI payload and a PSI-UCI message 1220 including PSI such that the non-PSI-UCI message 1210 is transmitted before the PSI-UCI message 1220 is transmitted. The non-PSI-UCI message 1210 may not be ASN.1 encoded, while the PSI-UCI message 1220 is ASN.1 encoded by the ASN.1 encoder 560.As another example, referring also to FIG. 13, the ASN.1 encoder 560 jointly encodes non-PSI-UCI payload information and PSI-UCI payload information into the UCI message payload 1300, for example, by concatenating those two payloads and then encoding the concatenated payload. The concatenated payload is part of a larger UCI message (not shown). Techniques for avoiding collisions help to ensure that the desired information is successfully transmitted and received, even though one or more implementations of those techniques may otherwise have a low likelihood of normal transmission and reception due to the potential for collisions.

[0090]

[0106] Referring to FIGS. 5 and 14, the measurement report unit 550 can also or alternatively provide positioning information in a lower layer message 1410 (e.g., a physical layer message such as a UCI message or a MAC layer message such as a MAC-CE message) and other positioning information in a higher layer message 1420, e.g., an RRC message. For example, the lower layer message 1410 can contain basic information such as a reference TRP ID, RSTD, one or more timestamps, etc., from which a rough location of the UE 500 can be determined. The higher layer message 1420 can contain detailed information such as multipath information, SINR (signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio), one or more RSRPs, etc., from which a more fine-grained location of the UE 500 can be determined. The measurement report unit 550 can split the payload information between the lower layer message 1410 and the higher layer message 1420 based on the payload information exceeding a threshold size.

[0091]

[0107] Referring also to FIG. 15, a process and signal flow 1500 for determining location information is shown including the illustrated steps. Flow 1500 is an example and steps can be added to, removed from, and / or rearranged within flow 1500.

[0092]

[0108] In stage 1510, the UE 500 sends a capability message 1512 to the TRP 300. The capability message 1512 provides the TRP 300 with one or more indications of the capabilities of the UE 500 regarding sending a lower layer measurement report message. For example, the capability message 1512 may indicate the capabilities of the UE 500 for encoding measurement information into a lower layer message by ASN.1 encoding, and / or one or more formats of messages that can be provided by the UE 500, such as a two-part message like the measurement report 800. The capability message 1512 may indicate how the UE 500 will respond if the measurement payload exceeds the payload limit (e.g., indicated by the TRP 300), for example, by splitting the payload between messages as shown in FIG. 9, and / or by culling measurement information as shown in FIG. 10. The capability message 1512 may indicate how the UE 500 will respond to a potential collision between a lower layer measurement report message and another lower layer message.

[0093]

[0109] In stage 1520, the TRP 300 sends an RS and reporting configuration message 1522 to the UE 500. The RS and reporting configuration message 1522 may indicate resource configuration parameters for a reference signal (RS) such as a PRS to be sent to the UE 500. The resource configuration parameters may include, for example, the number of symbols, (one or more) time and / or frequency offsets, repetition factors, etc. The RS and reporting configuration message 1522 may include configuration parameters for the UE 500 to use for sending measurement reports, such as the number of resources, the resource schedule, etc. The RS and reporting configuration message 1522 may include one or more instructions regarding how the UE 500 should respond to a potential collision between lower layer messages, and / or regarding the payload size limit for measurement information, etc.

[0094]

[0110] In stage 1530, the TRP 300 sends one or more RSs 1532 to the UE 500, and the UE 500 determines measurement information of the RSs 1532 in sub-stage 1534. For example, the TRP 300 may send PRSs to the UE 500, and the UE 500 may measure the PRSs to determine measurement information (such as RSRP, ToA, SINR, etc.).

[0095]

[0111] In stage 1540, the UE 500 encodes the measurement information determined in sub-stage 1534 onto a lower layer message. For example, the ASN.1 encoder 560 encodes some or all of the measurement information onto a UCI payload or a MAC-CE payload. Some measurement information may not be included in the payload (e.g., not encoded or discarded after encoding) as appropriate to meet the payload size limit. The payload may be split among multiple messages, included with the payload of another message, or jointly encoded with information about another message.

[0096]

[0112] In stage 1550, the UE 500 sends one or more lower layer messages 1552 to the TRP 300. For example, the UE 500 sends one or more lower layer messages 1552 according to one or more descriptions among FIGS. 8 to 14.

[0097]

[0113] In stage 1560, the UE 500 may send an RRC message 1562 to the TRP 300. For example, if one or more lower layer messages 1552 include a lower layer message 1410, the UE 500 may send an upper layer message 1420 to supplement or complement the lower layer message 1410.

[0098]

[0114] In stage 1570, the TRP 300 may determine location information. The TRP 300 may determine the range and / or location estimate of the UE 500, for example, based on the (one or more) messages 1552, 1562 and optionally based on one or more other messages with other measurement information. Similarly or alternatively, another network entity such as the server 400 (e.g., LMF) may determine location information based on the measurement information provided by the TRP 300.

[0099]

[0115] Operation

[0116] Referring to FIG. 16 and further to FIGS. 1-15, a method 1600 of sending measurement information from a user equipment is illustrated including stages. However, the method 1600 is merely an example and is not limiting. The method 1600 may be varied, for example, by stages being added, removed, rearranged, combined, performed simultaneously, and / or a single stage being split into multiple stages.

[0100]

[0117] In stage 1610, the method 1600 includes measuring a reference signal. For example, the processor 510 measures an RS received via the interface 520, for example, a PRS, to determine measurement information (e.g., one or more measurements such as RSRP, RSTD, SINR). The processor 510 may be provided with means for measuring the reference signal, optionally in combination with the memory 530 and in combination with the interface 520 (e.g., the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246).

[0101]

[0118] In stage 1620, the method 1600 includes generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal. For example, the measurement report unit 550 obtains the measurement information to be sent in the measurement report and arranges it in an expected order, for example, according to the measurement report protocol. The processor 510 may be provided with means for generating the measurement report payload, optionally in combination with the memory 530.

[0102]

[0119] In stage 1630, method 1600 includes encoding a measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, where the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol. For example, ASN.1 encoder 560 encodes measurement report information to be the payload of a UCI message or a MAC-CE message. Processor 510 may, in some cases in combination with memory 530, comprise means for encoding the measurement report payload.

[0103]

[0120] In stage 1640, method 1600 includes sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload from the user equipment to a network entity. For example, measurement report unit 550 may send one or more lower layer messages including the encoded payload. Processor 510 may, in some cases in combination with memory 530 and in combination with interface 520 (e.g., wireless transmitter 242 and antenna 246), comprise means for sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload.

[0104]

[0121] Implementations of method 1600 may include one or more of the following features. In an exemplary implementation, the encoded payload includes, for each optional field of the encoded payload, an inclusion indicator indicating whether data for the respective optional field is included in the encoded payload. For example, ASN.1 encoder 560 may encode a bit to indicate whether data for the corresponding field follows the indicator bit. In another exemplary implementation, method 1600 includes generating a lower layer message to have a first part and a second part, where the first part has a fixed amount of bits and indicates the amount of bits in the second part. For example, measurement report unit 550 may generate a measurement report 800 in which first part 810 includes a size indicator 830 indicating the size of second part 820. Processor 510 may optionally be provided, in combination with memory 530, with means for generating a lower layer message. In a further exemplary implementation, generating a lower layer message includes generating the lower layer message such that the first part further indicates whether data for each of a plurality of optional fields is included in the second part. For example, measurement report unit 550 may generate a measurement report 800 having a field indicator 840 indicating one or more fields for which data is included in second part 820.

[0105]

[0122] Similarly or alternatively, an implementation of method 1600 may include one or more of the following features. In an exemplary implementation, the lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and in response to the encoded payload exceeding a threshold size, method 1600 divides the encoded payload between a first lower layer message and a second lower layer message that is separate from the first lower layer message, and / or further includes omitting at least a portion of the encoded payload from the lower layer message sent to the network entity. For example, if the payload in one message is too large, measurement reporting unit 550 may send multiple messages, such as messages 910, 920, and / or the measurement reporting unit may cull measurement information that should be included in a message, such as message 1010, to reduce the payload size within the allowable size. Processor 510 may optionally be combined with memory 530 and include means for dividing the encoded payload and / or means for omitting at least a portion of the encoded payload from the first lower layer message. In another exemplary implementation, the lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and method 1600 includes avoiding a potential collision between a first lower layer message and a second lower layer message to be sent by a user equipment by generating the first lower layer message according to an instruction from the network entity and / or sending the first lower layer message according to an instruction from the network entity. For example, measurement reporting unit 550 may determine that a collision would occur without a change in message content or scheduling of one or more messages. To prevent a collision, measurement reporting unit 550 may format one or more messages to include the content of both messages, or may send the content of the two messages in a way that avoids a collision.Processor 510 may, in some cases in combination with memory 530, include means for generating a first lower layer message according to instructions. Processor 510 may, in some cases in combination with memory 530 and in combination with interface 520 (e.g., wireless transmitter 242 and antenna 246), include means for sending a first lower layer message according to instructions. In a further exemplary implementation, avoiding potential collisions includes generating a first lower layer message having an encoded payload with a first part and a second part, where the first part includes the payload of the first lower layer message, the second part includes the payload of a second lower layer message, and / or adjusting the transmission time of at least one of the first lower layer message or the second lower layer message based on instructions to avoid a collision of the first lower layer message with the second lower layer message, and / or encoding the payload of the second lower layer message together with a measurement report payload according to ASN.1 encoding to generate the encoded payload. For example, measurement report unit 550 may include the contents of two messages in a single message payload, e.g., separate payload portions of payload 1100, and / or send the contents of the two messages in temporally separated messages (e.g., by delaying one or both of the messages), e.g., messages 1210, 1220, and / or encode the contents of the two messages together into a jointly encoded payload, e.g., payload 1300. Processor 510 may, in some cases in combination with memory 530, include means for generating a first lower layer message having an encoded payload with a first part and a second part, and / or means for adjusting the transmission time, and / or means for encoding the measurement report payload and the payload of the second lower layer message together.

[0106]

[0123] Similarly or alternatively, an implementation of method 1600 may include one or more of the following features. In an exemplary implementation, the lower layer message includes a first portion of the encoded payload, and method 1600 includes sending a radio resource control message having a second portion of the encoded payload. For example, measurement reporting unit 550 may send a lower layer message 1410 having coarse location information and may send an upper layer message 1420 having fine-tuned location information. Processor 510 may, optionally in combination with memory 530 and in combination with interface 520 (e.g., wireless transmitter 242 and antenna 246), comprise means for sending a radio resource control message having a second portion of the encoded payload.

[0107]

[0124] Implementation example

[0125] Implementation examples are provided in the following numbered clauses.

[0108]

[0126] Clause 1. A transceiver, A memory, A processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory A user equipment comprising, wherein the processor Measures a reference signal received by the transceiver; Generates a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; Encodes the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, wherein the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol, to generate an encoded payload; Sends a lower layer message based on the encoded payload to a network entity via the transceiver A user equipment configured to perform.

[0109]

[0127] Clause 2. The user equipment according to Clause 1, wherein the encoded payload includes an inclusion indicator for each optional field of the encoded payload, indicating whether the data for each optional field is included in the encoded payload.

[0110]

[0128] Clause 3. The user equipment according to Clause 1, wherein the processor is configured to generate a lower layer message such that the lower layer message has a first part and a second part, the first part having a fixed number of bits and indicating the number of bits of the second part.

[0111]

[0129] Clause 4. The user equipment according to Clause 3, wherein the processor is configured to generate a lower layer message such that the first part further indicates whether the data for each of a plurality of optional fields is included in the second part.

[0112]

[0130] Clause 5. The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the processor is further configured to, in response to the encoded payload exceeding a threshold size, either split the encoded payload between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message that is separate from the first lower layer message, or omit at least a portion of the encoded payload from the first lower layer message The user equipment according to Clause 1, further configured to perform at least one of the above.

[0113]

[0131] Clause 6. The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the processor is configured to, in response to a potential collision between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message to be sent by the user equipment, generate or transmit the first lower layer message according to an instruction from a network entity, and is configured to perform at least one of the above.

[0114]

[0132] Clause 7. The processor is configured to generate a first lower layer message having an encoded payload comprising a first part and a second part, the first part comprising the payload of the first lower layer message and the second part comprising the payload of a second lower layer message, or adjust the transmission time of at least one of the first lower layer message or the second lower layer message based on an instruction to avoid collision of the first lower layer message with the second lower layer message, or encode the payload of the second lower layer message together with a measurement report payload according to ASN.1 encoding to generate an encoded payload The user equipment according to clause 6, further configured to perform at least one of the above.

[0115]

[0133] Clause 8. The user equipment according to clause 1, wherein the processor is configured to send a lower layer message including a first part of an encoded payload in the lower layer message and to send a radio resource control message having a second part of the encoded payload.

[0116]

[0134] Clause 9. means for measuring a reference signal; means for generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; means for encoding the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, the lower layer protocol being either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol, for generating an encoded payload; means for sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload to a network entity A user equipment comprising the above.

[0117]

[0135] Clause 10. The user equipment described in Clause 9, wherein the encoded payload includes an inclusion indicator for each optional field of the encoded payload, indicating whether the data for each respective optional field is included in the encoded payload.

[0118]

[0136] Clause 11. The user equipment described in Clause 9, further comprising means for generating a lower layer message having a first part and a second part, wherein the first part has a fixed number of bits and indicates the number of bits of the second part.

[0119]

[0137] Clause 12. The user equipment described in Clause 11, wherein the means for generating a lower layer message comprises means for generating the lower layer message such that the first part further indicates whether the data for each of a plurality of optional fields is included in the second part.

[0120]

[0138] Clause 13. In response to the lower layer message being a first lower layer message and the encoded payload exceeding a threshold size, the user equipment comprises at least one of: means for splitting the encoded payload between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message separate from the first lower layer message, or means for omitting at least a portion of the encoded payload from the first lower layer message The user equipment described in Clause 9.

[0121]

[0139] Clause 14. The user equipment according to Clause 9, comprising collision means for at least one of generating or transmitting a first lower layer message according to an instruction from a network entity in response to a potential collision between the first lower layer message, which is a lower layer message, and a second lower layer message to be sent by the user equipment, or sending the first lower layer message according to an instruction from a network entity in response to a potential collision.

[0122]

[0140] Clause 15. The collision means means for generating a first lower layer message having an encoded payload comprising a first part and a second part, the first part comprising the payload of the first lower layer message and the second part comprising the payload of the second lower layer message, or means for adjusting the transmission time of at least one of the first lower layer message or the second lower layer message based on an instruction to avoid a collision of the first lower layer message with the second lower layer message, or means for encoding the payload of the second lower layer message together with a measurement report payload according to ASN.1 encoding to generate an encoded payload The user equipment according to Clause 14, further comprising at least one of the above.

[0123]

[0141] Clause 16. The user equipment according to Clause 9, wherein the means for sending a lower layer message comprises means for sending a lower layer message including a first part of an encoded payload in the lower layer message, and the user equipment comprises means for sending a radio resource control message having a second part of the encoded payload.

[0124]

[0142] Clause 17. A method for sending measurement information from a user equipment, the method comprising: measuring a reference signal; generating a measurement report payload based on a measurement of a reference signal; encoding the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, the lower layer protocol being either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol, to generate an encoded payload; sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload from a user equipment to a network entity; A method comprising:

[0125]

[0143] Clause 18. The method according to clause 17, wherein the encoded payload includes an inclusion indicator indicating whether data for each optional field of the encoded payload is included in the encoded payload, for each optional field of the encoded payload.

[0126]

[0144] Clause 19. The method according to clause 17, further comprising generating a lower layer message having a first part and a second part, the first part having a fixed number of bits and indicating the number of bits of the second part.

[0127]

[0145] Clause 20. The method according to clause 19, wherein generating the lower layer message comprises generating the lower layer message such that the first part further indicates whether data for each of a plurality of optional fields is included in the second part.

[0128]

[0146] Clause 21. In response to the lower layer message being a first lower layer message and the encoded payload exceeding a threshold size, the method: dividing the encoded payload between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message separate from the first lower layer message, or omitting at least a portion of the encoded payload from the first lower layer message. The method according to clause 17, further comprising at least one of the following.

[0129]

[0147] Clause 22. The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the method generates a first lower layer message according to an instruction from a network entity, or sends a first lower layer message according to an instruction from a network entity The method according to clause 17, further comprising avoiding a potential collision between a first lower layer message and a second lower layer message to be sent by a user equipment by at least one of the following.

[0130]

[0148] Clause 23. Avoiding a potential collision generates a first lower layer message having an encoded payload comprising a first part and a second part, the first part comprising the payload of the first lower layer message, the second part comprising the payload of the second lower layer message, or adjusts the transmission time of at least one of the first lower layer message or the second lower layer message based on an instruction to avoid a collision of the first lower layer message with the second lower layer message, or encodes the payload of the second lower layer message together with a measurement report payload according to ASN.1 encoding to generate an encoded payload The method according to clause 22, further comprising at least one of the following.

[0131]

[0149] Clause 24. The lower layer message includes a first part of an encoded payload, and the method according to clause 17 further comprises sending a radio resource control message having a second part of the encoded payload.

[0132]

[0150] Clause 25. To a processor of a user equipment, for sending measurement information measuring a reference signal; generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; encoding the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, where the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol, to generate an encoded payload; sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload from a user equipment to a network entity; A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing the above to be performed.

[0133]

[0151] Clause 26. The encoded payload includes, for each optional field of the encoded payload, an inclusion indicator indicating whether data for each respective optional field is included in the encoded payload, the storage medium according to Clause 25.

[0134]

[0152] Clause 27. The storage medium according to Clause 25, further comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a processor of a user equipment to generate a lower layer message having a first part and a second part, the first part having a fixed amount of bits and indicating an amount of bits of the second part.

[0135]

[0153] Clause 28. The storage medium according to Clause 27, wherein the processor-readable instructions for causing a processor of a user equipment to generate a lower layer message further comprise processor-readable instructions for causing the processor of the user equipment to generate the lower layer message such that the first part further indicates whether data for each of a plurality of optional fields is included in the second part.

[0136]

[0154] Clause 29. The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the storage medium causes a processor of the user equipment, in response to the encoded payload exceeding a threshold size, to split the encoded payload between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message that is separate from the first lower layer message, or to omit at least a portion of the encoded payload from the first lower layer message The storage medium according to clause 25, further comprising processor-readable instructions for causing at least one of the above to be performed.

[0137]

[0155] Clause 30. The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the storage medium causes a processor of the user equipment to avoid a potential collision between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message to be sent by the user equipment, to generate the first lower layer message according to an instruction from a network entity, or to send the first lower layer message according to an instruction from a network entity The storage medium according to clause 25, further comprising collision avoidance instructions comprising processor-readable instructions for causing at least one of the above to be performed.

[0138]

[0156] Clause 31. The collision avoidance instructions cause a processor of the user equipment to generate a first lower layer message having an encoded payload comprising a first portion and a second portion, the first portion comprising the payload of the first lower layer message and the second portion comprising the payload of the second lower layer message, or to adjust the transmission time of at least one of the first lower layer message or the second lower layer message based on an instruction to avoid a collision of the first lower layer message with the second lower layer message, or To generate a symbolized payload, encode the payload of the second lower layer message together with the measurement report payload according to the ASN.1 encoding The storage medium according to clause 30, further comprising processor-readable instructions for causing at least one of the above to be performed.

[0139]

[0157] Clause 32. The lower layer message includes a first part of the symbolized payload, and the storage medium further comprises processor-readable instructions for causing the processor of the user equipment to send a radio resource control message having a second part of the symbolized payload. The storage medium according to clause 25.

[0140]

[0158] Other considerations

[0159] Other examples and implementations fall within the scope of the present disclosure and the scope of the appended claims. For example, due to software and computer nature, the functions described above may be implemented using software, hardware, firmware, hardwiring, or any combination thereof executed by a processor. The features implementing the functions may also be physically located at various positions, including being distributed such that parts of the functions are implemented at different physical locations.

[0141]

[0160] As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" include the plural unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. The terms "comprises", "comprising", "includes", and / or "including" as used herein specify the presence of the stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and / or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and / or groups thereof.

[0142]

[0161] As used herein, the term RS (reference signal) may refer to one or more reference signals and may be applied, as appropriate, to any form of the term RS, such as PRS, SRS, CSI-RS, etc.

[0143]

[0162] Unless otherwise specified, as used herein, a description that a function or operation is “based on” an item or condition means that the function or operation may be based on the stated item or condition and, in addition to the stated item or condition, may be based on one or more items and / or conditions.

[0144]

[0163] Also, as used herein, "or" as used in the listing of items (which may in some cases end with "at least one of" or "one or more of") indicates a disjunctive listing such that, for example, the listing "at least one of A, B, or C", or the listing "one or more of A, B, or C", or the listing "A, or B, or C" means A or B or C, or AB (A and B), or AC (A and C), or BC (B and C), or ABC (i.e., A and B and C), or combinations having two or more features (e.g., AA, AAB, ABBC, etc.). Thus, a statement that an item, e.g., a processor, is configured to perform a function related to at least one of A or B, or that an item is configured to perform function A or function B, means that the item may be configured to perform the function related to A, or may be configured to perform the function related to B, or may be configured to perform the functions related to A and B. For example, the phrase "a processor configured to measure at least one of A or B" or "a processor configured to measure A or measure B" means that the processor may be configured to measure A (and may or may not be configured to measure B), or may be configured to measure B (and may or may not be configured to measure A), or may be configured to measure A and measure B (and may be configured to select which of A and B, or both, should be measured). Similarly, a statement of means for measuring at least one of A or B includes means for measuring A (which may or may not be capable of measuring B), or means for measuring B (and may or may not be configured to measure A), or means for measuring A and B (which may be capable of selecting which of A and B, or both, should be measured).As another example, a statement that an item, e.g., a processor, is configured to perform at least one of performing function X or performing function Y means that the item can be configured to perform function X, or can be configured to perform function Y, or can be configured to perform both function X and function Y. For example, the phrase "a processor configured to perform at least one of measuring X or measuring Y" means that the processor can be configured to measure X (and may or may not be configured to measure Y), or can be configured to measure Y (and may or may not be configured to measure X), or can be configured to perform both measuring X and measuring Y (and can be configured to select which of X and Y, or both, should be measured).

[0145]

[0164] Substantial variations may be made in accordance with particular requirements. For example, customized hardware may also be used, and / or certain elements may be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software such as applets) executed by a processor, or both. Further, connections to other computing devices such as network input / output devices may be employed. Unless otherwise stated, functional or other components shown in the figures and / or described herein as being connected to or communicating with each other are communicatively coupled. That is, they can be connected directly or indirectly so as to enable communication between them.

[0146]

[0165] The systems and devices described above are examples. Various configurations may omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate. For example, the features described for some configurations may be combined in various other configurations. Different aspects and elements of the configurations may be combined in a similar manner. Also, technology evolves, and thus many of the elements are examples and do not limit the present disclosure or the scope of the claims.

[0147]

[0166] A wireless communication system is a communication system in which communication is carried by electromagnetic waves and / or acoustic waves that are wirelessly propagated, i.e., through the atmosphere rather than through a wire or other physical connection. A wireless communication network may not have all communications transmitted wirelessly and is configured such that at least some communications are transmitted wirelessly. Further, the term "wireless communication device" or a similar term does not require that the function of the device be solely or equally primarily for communication, or that the device be a mobile device, but indicates that the device includes wireless communication capabilities (one-way or two-way), for example, including at least one radio for wireless communication (each radio being part of a transmitter, receiver, or transceiver).

[0148]

[0167] In the description, specific details are given to provide a complete understanding of the exemplary configurations (including implementation forms). However, the configurations may be practiced without these specific details. For example, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques are shown without unnecessary details to avoid obscuring the configurations. This description only gives exemplary configurations and does not limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims. Rather, the above description of the configurations provides an explanation for implementing the described techniques. Various changes may be made in the functions and configurations of the elements.

[0149]

[0168] As used herein, the terms "processor-readable medium", "machine-readable medium", and "computer-readable medium" refer to any medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operate in a particular fashion. Using a computing platform, various processor-readable media may participate in providing instructions / code to a processor(s) for execution and / or may be used to store and / or carry such instructions / code (e.g., as a signal). In many implementations, the processor-readable medium is a physical and / or tangible storage medium. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical disks and / or magnetic disks. Volatile media includes, for example, dynamic memory.

[0150]

[0169] Although some exemplary configurations have been described, various modifications, alternative configurations, and equivalents may be used. For example, the above elements may be components of a larger system, and other rules may take precedence over or otherwise modify the application of the present invention. Also, some operations may be performed before, during, or after the above elements are considered. Accordingly, the above description does not limit the claims.

[0151]

[0170] The description that a value exceeds (or is greater than or above) a first threshold is equivalent to the description that the value meets or exceeds a second threshold that is slightly greater than the first threshold. For example, the second threshold is one value that is higher than the first threshold in the resolution of the computing system. The description that a value is less than (or within or below) a first threshold is equivalent to the description that the value is less than or equal to a second threshold that is slightly lower than the first threshold. For example, the second threshold is one value that is lower than the first threshold in the resolution of the computing system. The invention described in the claims of the present application at the time of filing is appended below. [C1] A transceiver, A memory, A processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, A user equipment comprising: wherein the processor Measures a reference signal received by the transceiver; Generates a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; Encodes the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation 1) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, wherein the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol, to generate an encoded payload; Sends a lower layer message based on the encoded payload to a network entity via the transceiver; A user equipment configured to perform the above. [C2] The user equipment according to C1, wherein the encoded payload includes an inclusion indicator indicating whether data for each optional field of the encoded payload is included in the encoded payload for each optional field. [C3] The user equipment according to C1, wherein the processor is configured to generate the lower layer message such that it has a first part and a second part, the first part having a fixed number of bits and indicating the number of bits of the second part. [C4] The user equipment according to C3, wherein the processor is configured to generate the lower layer message such that the first part further indicates whether data for each of a plurality of optional fields is included in the second part. [C5] The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the processor, in response to the encoded payload exceeding a threshold size, Divides the encoded payload between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message that is separate from the first lower layer message, or Omit at least a portion of the encoded payload from the first lower layer message. The user equipment according to C1, further configured to perform at least one of them. [C6] The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the processor is configured to perform at least one of generating or transmitting the first lower layer message according to an instruction from the network entity in response to a potential collision between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message to be sent by the user equipment. The user equipment according to C1. [C7] The processor Generating the first lower layer message having the encoded payload comprising a first part and a second part, the first part comprising the payload of the first lower layer message, the second part comprising the payload of the second lower layer message, or Adjusting the transmission time of at least one of the first lower layer message or the second lower layer message based on the instruction to avoid a collision of the first lower layer message with the second lower layer message, or Encoding the payload of the second lower layer message together with the measurement report payload according to the ASN.1 encoding to generate the encoded payload, The user equipment according to C6, further configured to perform at least one of them. [C8] The processor is configured to send the lower layer message including the first part of the encoded payload in the lower layer message and send a radio resource control message having the second part of the encoded payload. The user equipment according to C1. [C9] Means for measuring a reference signal; Means for generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; Means for encoding the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol to generate an encoded payload, the lower layer protocol being either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol; Means for sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload to a network entity; A user equipment comprising. [C10] The user equipment according to C9, wherein the encoded payload includes an inclusion indicator indicating whether data for each optional field of the encoded payload is included in the encoded payload, for each optional field of the encoded payload. [C11] The user equipment according to C9, further comprising means for generating the lower layer message to have a first part and a second part, the first part having a fixed number of bits and indicating the number of bits of the second part. [C12] The user equipment according to C11, wherein the means for generating the lower layer message comprises means for generating the lower layer message to further indicate whether data for each of a plurality of optional fields is included in the second part, in the first part. [C13] The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and in response to the encoded payload exceeding a threshold size, the user equipment means for splitting the encoded payload between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message that is separate from the first lower layer message, or means for omitting at least a portion of the encoded payload from the first lower layer message, The user equipment according to C9, further comprising at least one of the above. [C14] The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the user equipment generates or transmits the first lower layer message according to an instruction from the network entity in response to a potential collision between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message to be sent by the user equipment, or sends the first lower layer message according to the instruction from the network entity in response to the potential collision, The user equipment according to C9, comprising collision means for performing at least one of the above. [C15] The collision means is means for generating the first lower layer message having the encoded payload comprising a first part and a second part, the first part comprising the payload of the first lower layer message and the second part comprising the payload of the second lower layer message, or Means for adjusting the transmission time of at least one of the first lower layer message or the second lower layer message based on the instruction to avoid collision of the first lower layer message with the second lower layer message, or means for encoding the payload of the second lower layer message together with the measurement report payload according to the ASN.1 encoding to generate the encoded payload, The user equipment according to C14, further comprising at least one of them. [C16] The means for sending the lower layer message comprises means for sending the lower layer message including a first part of the encoded payload in the lower layer message. The user equipment according to C9, wherein the user equipment comprises means for sending a radio resource control message having a second part of the encoded payload. [C17] A method for sending measurement information from a user equipment, comprising: Measuring a reference signal; Generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; Encoding the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, wherein the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol; Sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload from the user equipment to a network entity; The method comprising. [C18] The method according to C17, wherein the encoded payload includes an inclusion indicator indicating whether data for each optional field of the encoded payload is included in the encoded payload for each optional field. [C19] The method according to C17, further comprising generating the lower layer message to have a first part and a second part, wherein the first part has a fixed number of bits and indicates the number of bits of the second part. [C20] The method according to C19, wherein generating the lower layer message comprises generating the lower layer message such that the first part further indicates whether data for each of a plurality of optional fields is included in the second part. [C21] The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and in response to the encoded payload exceeding a threshold size, the method divides the encoded payload between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message that is separate from the first lower layer message, or omits at least a portion of the encoded payload from the first lower layer message, The method according to C17, further comprising at least one of the above. [C22] The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the method generates the first lower layer message according to an instruction from the network entity, or sends the first lower layer message according to the instruction from the network entity, The method according to C17, further comprising avoiding a potential collision between the first lower layer message and the second lower layer message to be sent by the user equipment by at least one of the above. [C23] Avoiding the potential collision generating the first lower layer message having the encoded payload comprising a first part and a second part, the first part comprising the payload of the first lower layer message, the second part comprising the payload of the second lower layer message, or adjusting the transmission time of at least one of the first lower layer message or the second lower layer message based on the instruction to avoid a collision of the first lower layer message with the second lower layer message, or encoding the payload of the second lower layer message together with the measurement report payload according to the ASN.1 encoding to generate the encoded payload, The method according to C22, further comprising at least one of the above. [C24] The lower layer message includes a first part of the encoded payload, The method further comprises sending a radio resource control message having a second part of the encoded payload. The method according to C17. [C25] To a processor of a user equipment, for sending measurement information, measuring a reference signal, and generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal, To generate a symbolized payload, encode the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation 1) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, where the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol. Send a lower layer message based on the symbolized payload from the user equipment to a network entity. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing the above to be performed. [C26] The symbolized payload according to storage medium C25, wherein for each optional field of the symbolized payload, the symbolized payload includes an inclusion indicator indicating whether data for each optional field is included in the symbolized payload. [C27] The storage medium according to C25, further comprising processor-readable instructions for causing the processor of the user equipment to generate the lower layer message to have a first part and a second part, wherein the first part has a fixed amount of bits and indicates the amount of bits of the second part.

Claims

A method for sending measurement information from a user equipment (UE) based on a reference signal wirelessly received at the UE, comprising: measuring the reference signal; generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; encoding the measurement report payload according to ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation 1) encoding and according to a lower layer protocol, where the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol; sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload from the UE to a network entity; wherein the lower layer message includes a first part of the encoded payload, the first part including information from which a rough location of the UE can be determined, and the method further comprises sending a radio resource control message having a second part of the encoded payload, the second part including information from which a more finely resolved location of the UE can be determined; A method comprising the above steps. The method according to claim 1, wherein the encoded payload includes an inclusion indicator for each optional field of the encoded payload, indicating whether data for each optional field is included in the encoded payload. The method according to claim 1, further comprising generating the lower layer message to have a first part and a second part, the first part having a fixed number of bits and indicating the number of bits of the second part. The method according to claim 3, wherein generating the lower layer message comprises generating the lower layer message such that the first part further indicates whether data for each of a plurality of optional fields is included in the second part. The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and in response to the encoded payload exceeding a threshold size, the method comprises: dividing the encoded payload between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message that is separate from the first lower layer message, or omitting at least a portion of the encoded payload from the first lower layer message, The method according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of the above. **Claim 6** The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the method generating the first lower layer message according to an instruction from the network entity, or sending the first lower layer message according to the instruction from the network entity, The method according to claim 1, further comprising avoiding a potential collision between the first lower layer message and the second lower layer message to be sent by the UE by at least one of the above. **Claim 7** Avoiding the potential collision generating the first lower layer message having the encoded payload comprising a first part and a second part, the first part comprising the payload of the first lower layer message and the second part comprising the payload of the second lower layer message, or adjusting the transmission time of at least one of the first lower layer message or the second lower layer message based on the instruction to avoid a collision of the first lower layer message with the second lower layer message, or encoding the payload of the second lower layer message together with the measurement report payload according to the ASN.1 encoding to generate the encoded payload, The method according to claim 6, further comprising at least one of the above. **Claim 8** A user equipment (UE), means for measuring a reference signal wirelessly received at the UE; means for generating a measurement report payload based on the measurement of the reference signal; Means for encoding the measurement report payload in accordance with ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) encoding and in accordance with a lower layer protocol, where the lower layer protocol is either a physical layer protocol or a MAC (Media Access Control) layer protocol, for generating a symbolized payload. Means for sending a lower layer message based on the encoded payload to a network entity. Here, the means for sending the lower layer message comprises means for sending a lower layer message including a first portion of the encoded payload in the lower layer message, the first portion including information from which a rough location of the UE can be determined, and the UE comprises means for sending a radio resource control message having a second portion of the encoded payload, the second portion including information from which a more finely resolved location of the UE can be determined. A UE comprising the above.

9. The UE according to claim 8, wherein the encoded payload includes an inclusion indicator indicating whether data for each optional field of the encoded payload is included in the encoded payload for each optional field of the encoded payload.

10. The UE according to claim 8, further comprising means for generating the lower layer message to have a first part and a second part, the first part having a fixed amount of bits and indicating the amount of bits of the second part.

11. The UE according to claim 10, wherein the means for generating the lower layer message comprises means for generating the lower layer message to further indicate whether data for each of a plurality of optional fields is included in the second part in the first part.

12. The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and in response to the encoded payload exceeding a threshold size, the UE means for splitting the encoded payload between the first lower layer message and a second lower layer message separate from the first lower layer message, or Means for omitting at least a part of the encoded payload from the first lower layer message The UE according to claim 8, further comprising at least one of them

13. The lower layer message is a first lower layer message, and the UE In response to a potential collision between the first lower layer message and the second lower layer message to be sent by the UE, generating or transmitting the first lower layer message according to an instruction from the network entity, or In response to the potential collision, sending the first lower layer message according to the instruction from the network entity The UE according to claim 8, comprising collision means for performing at least one of them

14. The collision means Means for generating the first lower layer message having the encoded payload comprising a first part and a second part, the first part comprising the payload of the first lower layer message, and the second part comprising the payload of the second lower layer message, or Means for adjusting the transmission time of at least one of the first lower layer message or the second lower layer message based on the instruction to avoid a collision of the first lower layer message with the second lower layer message, or Means for encoding the payload of the second lower layer message together with the measurement report payload according to the ASN.1 encoding to generate the encoded payload The UE according to claim 13, further comprising at least one of them

15. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions for causing a processor of a user equipment (UE) to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 for sending measurement information

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