Positioning reference signal measurements for cooperative positioning

Abstract

The positions of multiple user equipments (UEs) are jointly determined by a location server using positioning measurements from a common set of PRSs, which may include downlink (DL) positioning reference signals (PRSs), uplink (UL) PRSs, sidelink (SL) PRSs, or a combination thereof. The common set of PRSs may be selected by the location server based on, for example, a rough estimate of the UE's position determined by the location server, a recommendation from the UE, or a position report from the UE. Once selected by the location server, an indication of the common set of PRSs is sent to the UE. The common set of PRSs may alternatively be selected by one or more UEs, for example, by a controlling UE or by consensus, where one or more UEs provide an indication of the common set of PRSs to the location server.

Description

Priority claims

[0001]

[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Non-Provisional Application No. 17 / 165,771, entitled "POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNAL MEASUREMENT FOR JOINT POSITIONING," filed February 2, 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. [Technical Field]

[0002] The subject matter disclosed herein relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to systems, methods, and devices that support joint positioning. [Background technology]

[0003] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, positioning, and broadcasting. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include fourth-generation (4G) systems, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), or LTE-A Pro systems, and fifth-generation (5G) systems, which may be referred to as New Radio (NR) systems.

[0004] In some examples, a wireless multiple-access communication system may include several base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, sometimes known as user equipment (UE). In an LTE or LTE-A network, a set of one or more base stations may define an eNodeB (eNB). In other examples (e.g., in next-generation or 5G networks), a wireless multiple-access communication system may include several distributed units (DUs) (e.g., edge units (EUs), edge nodes (ENs), radio heads (RHs), smart radio heads (SRHs), transmit receiving points (TRPs), etc.) in communication with several central units (CUs) (e.g., central nodes (CNs), access node controllers (ANCs), etc.), where the set of one or more distributed units in communication with the central units may define an access node (e.g., new radio base station (NR BS), new radio node B (NR NB), network node, 5G NB, gNB, etc.). A base station or DU may communicate with a set of UEs over a downlink channel (e.g., for transmissions from the base station or to the UEs) and over an uplink channel (e.g., for transmissions from the UEs to the base station or distributed unit). Additionally, UEs may communicate directly with each other using sidelink channels.

[0005]

[0005] The location of a UE may be useful or necessary for several applications, including emergency calls, navigation, direction finding, asset tracking, and Internet services. The location of a UE may be estimated based on information collected from various systems. For example, in a cellular network implemented according to LTE or 5G NR, a base station may send downlink reference signals on which positioning measurements are performed by the UE, and / or the UE may send uplink reference signals on which positioning measurements are performed by the base station. Additionally, sidelink reference signals may be transmitted by the UE, and positioning measurements may be performed by the UE. The UE may calculate an estimate of its own location using the positioning measurements in UE-based positioning, or may send the positioning measurements to a network entity, e.g., a location server, which may calculate the UE's location based on the positioning measurements in UE-assisted positioning.

[0006]

[0006] It may be desirable for positioning improvements to be implemented in newer technologies, such as 5G NR, to more efficiently support positioning of multiple UEs. Summary of the Invention

[0007]

[0007] The positions of multiple user equipments (UEs) are jointly determined by a location server using positioning measurements from a common set of PRSs, which may include downlink (DL) positioning reference signals (PRSs), uplink (UL) PRSs, sidelink (SL) PRSs, or a combination thereof. The common set of PRSs may be selected by the location server based on, for example, a rough estimate of the UE's position determined by the location server, a recommendation from the UE, or a position report from the UE. Once selected by the location server, an indication of the common set of PRSs is sent to the UE. The common set of PRSs may alternatively be selected by one or more UEs, for example, by a controlling UE or by consensus, where one or more UEs provide an indication of the common set of PRSs to the location server. The UEs perform positioning measurements using the common set of PRSs and provide reports to the location server, which jointly determine the UE's position.

[0008]

[0008] In one implementation, a method for supporting joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) implemented by a location server includes selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from UE(s) in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UE(s) in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; receiving location information from each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof, generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; and jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information.

[0009]

[0009] In one implementation, a location server configured to support joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) includes a communication interface configured to communicate with entities in a wireless network, at least one memory, and at least one processor coupled to the communication interface and the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to select a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals including downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the multiple UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the multiple UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, and uplink positioning reference signals from the multiple UEs to be measured by other UEs in the multiple UEs. the location information comprises downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs via the communications interface, the message comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals; receiving location information from each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof via the communications interface, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; and jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information.

[0010]

[0010] In one implementation, a location server configured to support joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) includes: means for selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; means for sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; means for receiving location information from each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof, generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; and means for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information.

[0011]

[0011] In one implementation, a non-transitory storage medium including program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a location server to support joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs), the non-transitory storage medium including program code for selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals including downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the multiple UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the multiple UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the multiple UEs to be measured by other UEs in the multiple UEs. the location information comprises downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; and program code for sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals; program code for receiving location information from each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; and program code for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information.

[0012]

[0012] In one implementation, a method for supporting joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) performed by a first UE among the multiple UEs includes sending a recommendation to a location server for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE among the multiple UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the multiple UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE among the multiple UEs to be measured by another UE among the multiple UEs, or a combination thereof, for the joint positioning of the multiple UEs, wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof; receiving a message from the location server comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE; and transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals.

[0013]

[0013] In one implementation, a first UE among a plurality of user equipments (UEs) configured to support joint positioning of the UEs includes a wireless transceiver configured to communicate with an entity in a wireless network, at least one memory, and at least one processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor receives, via the wireless transceiver, downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE among the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, and uplink positioning reference signals from a UE among the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs among the plurality of UEs, for the joint positioning of the plurality of UEs. the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurements by the first UE based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof; receives, via the wireless transceiver, from the location server a message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements by the first UE; and transmits downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals.

[0014]

[0014] In one implementation, a first UE among a plurality of user equipments (UEs) configured to support joint positioning of the UEs includes: means for sending a recommendation to a location server for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE among the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE among the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs among the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, for the joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof; means for receiving from the location server a message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE; and means for transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals.

[0015] In one implementation, a non-transitory storage medium including program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a first user equipment (UE) among the plurality of UEs to support joint positioning of the UEs, the non-transitory storage medium storing, for the joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, recommendations for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE among the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE among the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs among the plurality of UEs, or combinations thereof. to a location server, wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof; program code for receiving from the location server a message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE; and program code for transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals.

[0016]

[0016] In one implementation, a method for supporting joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) implemented by a location server includes receiving an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, the one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof generated from the common set of positioning reference signals; and jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information.

[0017]

[0017] In one implementation, a location server configured to support joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs) includes a communication interface configured to communicate with an entity in a wireless network, at least one memory, and at least one processor coupled to the communication interface and the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor receives an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs via the communication interface, and the common set of positioning reference signals includes downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, the downlink positioning reference signals being measured by the one or more base stations. the location information comprises uplink positioning reference signals from a plurality of UEs that are to be measured by a common set of positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs that are to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof via a communications interface, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof generated from the common set of positioning reference signals; and jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information.

[0018]

[0018] In one implementation, a location server configured to support joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) includes: means for receiving an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; means for receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, wherein the location information comprises downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof generated from the common set of positioning reference signals; and means for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information.

[0019]

[0019] In one implementation, a non-transitory storage medium including program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a location server to support joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs), the non-transitory storage medium including program code for receiving, from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs, an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals including downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, the location information comprises downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or combinations thereof generated from a common set of positioning reference signals; and program code for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information.

[0020]

[0020] In one implementation, a method for supporting joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) performed by a first UE among the multiple UEs includes receiving from a location server identification information of the multiple UEs and an indication that the multiple UEs are included in the joint positioning session; sending to the location server an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE among the multiple UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the multiple UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE among the multiple UEs to be measured by other UEs among the multiple UEs, or a combination thereof; transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals from the common set of positioning reference signals, or performing positioning measurements of combinations thereof from the common set of positioning reference signals.

[0021] In one implementation, a first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of user equipments (UEs) configured to support joint positioning of the plurality of UEs includes a wireless transceiver configured to communicate with an entity in a wireless network, at least one memory, and at least one processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor receives, from a location server via the wireless transceiver, identification information of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are included in a joint positioning session; and receives, from the location server via the wireless transceiver, an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement. the common set of positioning reference signals comprises downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; and transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals from the common set of positioning reference signals, or performing positioning measurements of combinations thereof from the common set of positioning reference signals.

[0022]

[0022] In one implementation, a first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of user equipments (UEs) configured to support joint positioning of the plurality of UEs includes: means for receiving, from a location server, identification information of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are included in the joint positioning session; means for sending to the location server an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE among the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE among the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs among the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; and means for transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals from the common set of positioning reference signals, or performing positioning measurements of combinations thereof from the common set of positioning reference signals.

[0023]

[0023] In one implementation, a non-transitory storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a first user equipment (UE) among the plurality of UEs to support joint positioning of the UEs, the non-transitory storage medium including: program code for receiving from a location server identification information of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are included in a joint positioning session; program code for sending to the location server an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE among the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE among the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs among the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; and program code for transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals from the common set of positioning reference signals, or performing positioning measurements of combinations thereof from the common set of positioning reference signals. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0024] [Figure 1]

[0024] A diagram showing the architecture of a communication system including several UEs, a radio access network (RAN), and a 5G core network (5GC). [Figure 2A]

[0025] FIG. 1 illustrates the use of sidelink positioning to enhance positioning of a UE in a wireless communication system. [Figure 2B]

[0026] FIG. 1 illustrates joint positioning of UEs in a wireless communication system in which sidelink positioning between UEs is used. [Figure 3]

[0027] FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified wireless network environment and an example technique for joint positioning of a UE using range between the UE and a base station. [Figure 4]

[0028] FIG. 1 illustrates a joint positioning session for a UE in a sparsely connected wireless network environment. [Figure 5]

[0029] FIG. 1 illustrates a joint positioning session for a UE in a densely connected wireless network environment. [Figure 6]

[0030] 10 is a signaling flow illustrating various messages sent between components of a communication system during a joint positioning session using a common set of PRS selected by a location server. [Figure 7]

[0031] 10 is a signaling flow illustrating various messages sent between components of a communication system during a joint positioning session using a common set of PRS selected by the UE. [Figure 8]

[0032] 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating some example features of a hardware implementation of a UE capable of supporting joint positioning of a group of UEs using a common set of PRSs measured and reported by each UE. [Figure 9]

[0033] 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating some example features of a hardware implementation of a location server capable of supporting joint positioning of a group of UEs using a common set of PRSs measured and reported by each UE. [Figure 10]

[0034] 1 is a flowchart for an example method for supporting joint positioning of multiple UEs in a manner consistent with disclosed implementations. [Figure 11]

[0035] 1 is a flowchart for an example method for supporting joint positioning of multiple UEs in a manner consistent with disclosed implementations. [Figure 12]

[0036] 1 is a flowchart for an example method for supporting joint positioning of multiple UEs in a manner consistent with disclosed implementations. [Figure 13]

[0037] 1 is a flowchart for an example method for supporting joint positioning of multiple UEs in a manner consistent with disclosed implementations. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0025]

[0038] Elements are designated by numerical labels in the figures, and like numbered elements in different figures represent the same or similar elements. Different instances of a common element are designated by following the numerical label for the common element with a distinct numerical suffix. In this case, reference to the numerical label without the suffix refers to any instance of the common element.

[0026]

[0039] Techniques for joint positioning sessions for multiple user equipments (UEs) using a common set of positioning reference signals (PRS) for measurements by the multiple UEs are described herein. The common set of PRS may be downlink (DL) PRSs to be measured by each UE in the multiple UEs, sidelink (SL) PRSs from a UE in the multiple UEs to be measured by other UEs in the multiple UEs, or a combination thereof. The common set of PRS may be one or more of a PRS resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a SL-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof. The common set of PRS may be selected by a location server or by one or more UEs in the multiple UEs. Using a common set of PRSs increases the connectivity density of the wireless network, which provides superior positioning performance compared to sparsely connected wireless networks, such as when UEs have no or few common PRS measurements.

[0027]

[0040] The descriptions may, for example, refer to sequences of actions to be performed by elements of a computing device. The various actions described herein may be performed by particular circuitry (e.g., an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. The sequences of actions described herein may be embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a corresponding set of computer instructions that, when executed, cause an associated processor to perform the functions described herein. Thus, the various aspects described herein may be embodied in several different forms, all of which are within the scope of the present disclosure, including claimed subject matter.

[0028]

[0041] The terms “user equipment” (UE) and “base station” as used herein are not specific to or limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT) unless otherwise specified. Generally, such a UE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a tracking device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network. A UE may be mobile or (e.g., at some times) stationary and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). The term “UE” as used herein may be referred to interchangeably as an “access terminal” or “AT,” “client device,” “wireless device,” “subscriber device,” “subscriber terminal,” “subscriber station,” “user terminal” or UT,” “mobile terminal,” “mobile station,” or variations thereof. Generally, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, through which the UE may be connected to external networks such as the Internet and other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are possible for the UE, such as via a wired access network, a WiFi network (eg, based on IEEE 802.11, etc.), etc.

[0029]

[0042] Depending on the network in which it is deployed, a base station may operate according to one of several RATs in communication with UEs and may alternatively be referred to as an access point (AP), network node, Node B, evolved Node B (eNB), generic Node B (gNode B, gNB), etc. Furthermore, in some systems, the base station may provide purely edge node signaling functionality, while in other systems it may provide additional control and / or network management functionality.

[0030]

[0043] A UE may be embodied by any of several types of devices, including, but not limited to, a printed circuit (PC) card, a compact flash device, an external or internal modem, a wireless or wireline phone, a smartphone, a tablet, a tracking device, an asset tag, etc. A communication link through which a UE may send signals to a RAN is called an uplink channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). A communication link through which a RAN may send signals to a 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.). A communication link through which a UE may send signals to other UEs is called a sidelink channel. As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) can refer to either an uplink / reverse traffic channel or a downlink / forward or sidelink traffic channel.

[0031]

[0044] The terms “cell” or “sector” as used herein may correspond to one of multiple cells of a base station or to the base station itself, depending on the context. 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., physical cell identifier (PCID), virtual cell identifier (VCID)) to distinguish neighboring cells operating over the same or different carriers. In some examples, a carrier may support multiple 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 may provide access to different types of devices. In some examples, the term “cell” may refer to a portion (e.g., sector) of a geographic coverage area over which the logical entity operates.

[0032]

[0045] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a communication system 100 including a UE 105, a UE 106, a radio access network (RAN) 135, a fifth-generation (5G) next-generation RAN (NG) (NG-RAN), and a 5G core network (5GC) 140. The UE 105 and / or the UE 106 may be, for example, an IoT device, a location tracker device, a cellular phone, a vehicle, or other devices. The 5G network may also be referred to as a new radio (NR) network, the NG-RAN 135 may also be referred to as a 5G RAN or an NR RAN, and the 5GC 140 may also be referred to as an NG core network (NGC). Standardization of the NG-RAN and 5GC is underway in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP®). Thus, the NG-RAN 135 and the 5GC 140 may comply with current or future standards for 5G support from 3GPP. The RAN 135 may be another type of RAN, e.g., a 3G RAN, a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) RAN, etc. The UE 106 may be configured and coupled similarly to the UE 105 to send and / or receive signals to and from similar other entities in the system 100. The communications system 100 may utilize information from a constellation 185 of satellite vehicles (SVs) 190, 191, 192, 193 for a satellite positioning system (SPS) (e.g., a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)), such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), a Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), Galileo, or Beidou, or some other local or regional SPS, such as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), or a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). Additional components of the communications system 100 are described below. The communications system 100 may include additional or alternative components.

[0033]

[0046] 1, the NG-RAN 135 includes NR NodeBs (gNBs) 110a, 110b and next-generation eNodeBs (ng-eNBs) 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 configured to wirelessly communicate bidirectionally with the UEs 105 and 106, respectively, and are 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, SMF 117, LMF 120, and GMLC 125 are communicatively coupled to each other, and the GMLC 125 is communicatively coupled to the external client 130. The SMF 117 may serve as a first point of contact for a service control function (SCF) (not shown) to create, control, and delete media sessions. The BSs 110a, 110b, 114 may be macrocells (e.g., high-power cellular base stations), or small cells (e.g., low-power cellular base stations), or access points (e.g., short-range base stations configured to communicate using short-range technologies such as WiFi, WiFi-Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee, etc.). One or more of the BSs 110a, 110b, 114 may be configured to communicate with the UEs 105 and 106 over multiple carriers. Each of the BSs 110a, 110b, 114 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic region, eg, a cell, and each cell may be partitioned into multiple sectors as a function of the base station antennas.

[0034]

[0047] FIG. 1 provides a generalized illustration of various components, any or all of which may be utilized as appropriate, and each of which may be duplicated or omitted as needed. In particular, while only UEs 105 and 106 are shown, many UEs (e.g., hundreds, thousands, millions, etc.) may be utilized in communications system 100. Similarly, communications system 100 may include a greater number (or fewer) of SVs (i.e., more or fewer 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 connecting the various components in communications system 100 include data and signaling connections, which may include additional (intermediate) components, direct or indirect physical and / or wireless connections, and / or additional networks. Furthermore, components may be rearranged, combined, separated, substituted, and / or omitted depending on the desired functionality.

[0035]

[0048] 1 shows a 5G-based network, similar network implementations and configurations may be used for other communication technologies, such as 3G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), etc. The implementations described herein (whether for 5G technology and / or for one or more other communication technologies and / or protocols) may be used to transmit (or broadcast) directional synchronization signals, receive and measure directional signals at a UE (e.g., UE 105, 106) or BS 110a, 110b, 114, and / or provide location assistance to the UE 105, 106 (via the GMLC 125 or other location server), and / or calculate a location for the UE 105, 106 at a location-enabled device, such as the UE 105, 106, BS 110a, 110b, or LMF 120, based on measurements received at the UE 105, 106 or BS 110a, 110b, 114 for such directionally transmitted signals. The Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) 125, Location Management Function (LMF) 120, Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 115, SMF 117, ng-eNB (eNodeB) 114, and gNB (gNodeB) 110a, 110b are examples and may each be replaced by or include various other location server functions and / or base station functions in various embodiments.

[0036]

[0049] System 100 is capable of wireless communication in that components of system 100 can communicate with one another (at least sometimes using wireless connections) directly or indirectly, e.g., via BSs 110a, 110b, 114 and / or network 140 (and / or one or more other devices, not shown, such as one or more other base transceiver stations). In indirect communication, communications may be altered during transmission from one entity to another, e.g., by changing header information of data packets, modifying formatting, etc. UEs 105, 106 may include multiple UEs and may be mobile wireless communication devices, but may communicate wirelessly via wired connections. UEs 105, 106 may be any of a variety of devices, e.g., smartphones, tablet computers, vehicle-based devices, etc., although these are merely examples and other configurations of UEs may be used, as UEs 105, 106 need not be any of these configurations. Other UEs may include wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart jewelry, smart glasses, or headsets, etc.). Still other UEs, whether currently existing or developed in the future, may be used. Additionally, other wireless devices (whether mobile or not) may be implemented within the system 100 and may communicate with each other and / or with the UEs 105, 106, the BSs 110a, 110b, 114, the core network 140, and / or the external clients 130. For example, such other devices may include Internet of Things (IoT) devices, medical devices, home entertainment and / or automation devices, etc. The core network 140 may communicate with the external clients 130 (e.g., computer systems), for example, to enable the external clients 130 to request and / or receive location information regarding the UEs 105, 106 (e.g., via the GMLC 125).

[0037]

[0050] The UEs 105, 106 or other devices may be configured to communicate in various networks and / or for various purposes and / or using various technologies (e.g., 5G, Wi-Fi® communications, multiple frequencies of Wi-Fi communications, satellite positioning, one or more types of communications (e.g., GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), LTE (Long Term Evolution), V2X (e.g., V2P (Vehicle-to-Pedestrian), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure), V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle), etc.), IEEE 802.11p, etc.). The V2X communications may be cellular (Cellular V2X (C-V2X)) and / or WiFi (e.g., DSRC (Dedicated Short-Range Communications)). The system 100 may support operation on multiple carriers (waveform signals at different frequencies). A multi-carrier transmitter can transmit modulated signals simultaneously on multiple carriers. Each modulated signal may 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 may be sent on a different carrier and may carry pilot, overhead information, data, etc. The UEs 105, 106 may communicate with each other through sidelink (SL) communications between UEs by transmitting via one or more sidelink channels, such as a physical sidelink synchronization channel (PSSCH), a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a sidelink channel state information reference signal (SL-CSIRS), a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), or a sidelink sounding reference signal (SL-SRS).

[0038]

[0051] The UEs 105, 106 may comprise and / or be referred to as a device, a mobile device, a wireless device, a mobile terminal, a terminal, a mobile station (MS), a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL)-enabled terminal (SET), or by some other name. Furthermore, the UEs 105, 106 may correspond to a cell phone, a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, a PDA, a tracking device, a navigation device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, an asset tracker, a health monitor, a security system, a smart city sensor, a smart meter, a wearable tracker, or some other portable or movable device. Typically, although not necessarily, the UEs 105, 106 may support wireless communications using one or more radio access technologies (RATs), such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), LTE, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), IEEE 802.11 WiFi (also referred to as Wi-Fi), Bluetooth (BT), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), 5G New Radio (NR) (e.g., using NG-RAN 135 and 5GC 140), etc. The UEs 105, 106 may support wireless communications using a wireless local area network (WLAN), which may connect to other networks (e.g., the Internet) using, for example, a digital subscriber line (DSL) or packet cable. Use of one or more of these RATs may enable the UEs 105, 106 to communicate with the external client 130 (e.g., via elements of the 5GC 140 not shown in FIG. 1 or possibly via the GMLC 125) and / or enable the external client 130 to receive location information regarding the UEs 105, 106 (e.g., via the GMLC 125).

[0039]

[0052] Each of the UEs 105, 106 may comprise a single entity, or may comprise multiple entities, such as in a personal area network where a user may employ audio, video, and / or data I / O (input / output) devices and / or body sensors and a separate wireline or wireless modem. An estimate of the location of a UE, e.g., the UE 105 or 106, may be referred to as a location, location estimate, location fix, fix, position, position estimate, or position fix, and may be geographic and thus provide location coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude) of the UE that may or may not include an altitude component (e.g., height above sea level, height or depth above ground, floor level, or basement level). Alternatively, the location of the UE may be expressed as a civic location (e.g., as a postal address or as a designation of some point or small area in a building, such as a particular room or floor). The location of a UE may be expressed as an area or volume (defined either geographically or in urban terms) within which the UE is expected to be located with a certain probability or confidence level (e.g., 67%, 95%, etc.). The location of a UE may be expressed as a relative location, for example, comprising a distance and a direction from a known location. The relative location may be expressed as relative coordinates (e.g., X, Y (and Z) coordinates) defined relative to some origin in the known location, which may be defined, for example, geographically, with respect to a city, or by reference to a point, area, or volume shown on a map, floor plan, or building plan. In the description contained herein, use of the term location may comprise any of these variations unless otherwise indicated. When calculating the location of a UE, it is common to determine the values ​​of the local x, y, and possibly z coordinates and then, if desired, convert the local coordinates to absolute coordinates (e.g., for latitude, longitude, and altitude above or below mean sea level).

[0040]

[0053] The UEs 105, 106 may be configured to communicate with other entities using one or more of a variety of technologies. The UEs 105, 106 may 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 may be supported using any suitable D2D radio access technology (RAT), such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct® (WiFi-D), Bluetooth, etc. One or more of a group of UEs utilizing D2D communication may be within the geographic coverage area of ​​a transmission / reception point (TRP), such as one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114. Other UEs in such a group may be outside such geographic coverage area or may otherwise be unable to receive transmissions from the base station. A group of UEs communicating via D2D communication may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each UE may transmit to other UEs in the group. The TRP may facilitate scheduling of resources for D2D communication. In other cases, D2D communication may occur between UEs without the involvement of a TRP. One or more of a group of UEs utilizing D2D communication may be within the geographic coverage area of ​​the TRP. Other UEs in such a group may be outside such geographic coverage area or may otherwise be unable to receive transmissions from the base station. A group of UEs communicating via D2D communication may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each UE may transmit to other UEs in the group. The TRP may facilitate scheduling of resources for D2D communication. In other cases, D2D communication may occur between UEs without the involvement of a TRP.

[0041]

[0054] 1 includes NR Node Bs referred to as gNBs 110a and 110b. The pair of gNBs 110a, 110b in the NG-RAN 135 may be connected to each other via one or more other gNBs. Access to the 5G network is provided to the UEs 105, 106 via wireless communication between the UEs and one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and the gNBs 110a, 110b may provide wireless communication access to the 5G Global Configuration Center 140 for UEs using 5G. In FIG. 1, the serving gNB for the UE is assumed to be gNB110b, while the serving gNB for UE106 is assumed to be gNB110a, but another gNB may act as the serving gNB if the UE105, 106 moves to another location, or may act as a secondary gNB to provide the UE105, 106 with additional throughput and bandwidth, and the UE105, 106 may share the same serving gNB.

[0042]

[0055] 1 may include the ng-eNB 114, also referred to as a next-generation evolved Node B. The ng-eNB 114 may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b in the NG-RAN 135, possibly via one or more other gNBs and / or one or more other ng-eNBs. The ng-eNB 114 may provide LTE wireless access and / or evolved LTE (eLTE) wireless access to the UEs 105, 106. One or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or ng-eNB 114 may be configured to function as positioning-only beacons that may transmit signals to assist in determining the position of the UEs 105, 106 but may not receive signals from the UEs 105, 106 or other UEs.

[0043]

[0056] Each of the BSs 110a, 110b, and 114 may comprise one or more TRPs. For example, each sector within a BS's cell may comprise a TRP, but the TRPs may share one or more components (e.g., share a processor but have separate antennas). The system 100 may include only macro TRPs, or the 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., a radius of several kilometers) and allow unrestricted access by terminals with service subscriptions. A pico TRP may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a pico cell) and allow unrestricted access by terminals with service subscriptions. A femto TRP or home TRP may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a femto cell) and allow restricted access by terminals associated with the femto cell (e.g., terminals for home users).

[0044]

[0057] The communications system 100 may support NR and may support communications between one or more base stations 110a, 110b, 114 and supported UEs 105 and 106. The UEs may be dispersed throughout the wireless communications system 100, and each UE may be fixed or mobile. As part of communications, the base stations 110a, 110b, 114 and the UEs 105 and 106 may each support reference signal transmissions for operations including channel estimation, beam management and scheduling, and wireless device positioning within the coverage area of ​​one or more base stations.

[0045]

[0058] For example, the base stations 110a, 110b, 114 may transmit one or more downlink reference signals for NR communications, including channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) transmissions. Each CSI-RS transmission may be configured for a particular UE 105, 106 to estimate the channel and report channel quality information. The reported channel quality information may be used for scheduling or link adaptation at the base stations 110a, 110b, 114, or as part of mobility or beam management procedures for directional transmissions associated with extended channel resources. Similarly, the UEs 105 and 106 may be configured to transmit uplink signals to one or more base stations 110a, 110b, 114 and sidelink transmissions between the UEs 105 and 106.

[0046]

[0059] The base stations 110a, 110b, 114 may transmit one or more additional downlink reference signals, including positioning reference signal (PRS) transmissions. The PRS transmissions may be configured for a particular UE 105, 106 to measure and report one or more reporting parameters (e.g., reporting quantities) related to positioning and location information. The PRS transmissions and reporting parameter feedback may support various location services (e.g., navigation systems and emergency communications). In some examples, the reporting parameters supplement one or more additional location systems supported by the UE 105, 106 (such as Global Positioning System (GPS) technology).

[0047]

[0060] The base station 110a, 110b, 114 may configure PRS transmissions on one or more PRS resources of the channel. The PRS resources may span resource elements of multiple physical resource blocks (PRBs) within one or more OFDM symbols of the slot, depending on the configured number of ports. For example, a PRS resource may span one symbol of the slot and include one port for transmission. In any OFDM symbol, the PRS resources may occupy consecutive PRBs. In some examples, PRS transmissions may be mapped to consecutive OFDM symbols of the slot. In other examples, PRS transmissions may be mapped to interspersed OFDM symbols of the slot. Furthermore, PRS transmissions may support frequency hopping within the PRBs of the channel.

[0048]

[0061] One or more PRS resources may span several PRS resource sets according to the PRS resource configuration of the base station 110 a, 110 b, 114. The structure of one or more PRS resources, PRS resource sets, and PRS resource configurations within a PRS transmission may be referred to as a multi-level resource configuration. For example, the multi-level PRS resource configuration of the base station 110 a, 110 b, 114 may include multiple PRS resource sets, and each PRS resource set may include a set of PRS resources (such as a set of four PRS resources).

[0049]

[0062] The UE 105, 106 may receive a PRS transmission over one or more PRS resources of the slot. The UE 105, 106 may determine reporting parameters for at least some, if not each PRS resource included in the transmission. The reporting parameters (which may include a reporting quantity) for each PRS resource may include one or more of the following: time of arrival (TOA), reference signal time difference (RSTD), reference signal received power (RSRP), angle, PRS identification number, received-to-transmitted difference (UE Rx-Tx), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or reference signal received quality (RSRQ).

[0050]

[0063] Similarly, the UEs 105, 106 may be configured to transmit one or more additional uplink reference signals that can be received by the base stations 110a, 110b, 114 and used for positioning. For example, the UE 105 may transmit a sounding reference signal (SRS) for positioning. The base stations 110a, 110b, 114 that receive the uplink reference signals from the UEs 105, 106 may perform positioning measurements such as one or more of a time of arrival (TOA), a receive-to-transmit difference (UE Rx-Tx), etc.

[0051]

[0064] Aspects of the wireless communication system 100 may include the use of downlink PRS transmissions by base stations 110a, 110b, 114 or uplink SRS transmissions by a UE, e.g., UE 105 or UE 106, for UE location determination. For downlink-based UE location determination, a location server in an NR network, e.g., LMF 120 or E-SMLC in LTE (sometimes referred to as location server 120), may be used to provide positioning assistance such as PRS assistance data (AD) to the UE. In UE-assisted positioning, the location server may receive measurement reports from the UE indicating position measurements for one or more base stations 110a, 110b, 114, using, for example, TDOA or other desired techniques, from which the location server may determine a position estimate for the UE. While the location server 120 is shown in FIG. 1 as being located in the core network 140, it may be outside the core network 140, e.g., in the NG-RAN.

[0052]

[0065] A UE's position estimate may be determined using reference signals, such as PRS or SRS signals for positioning signals or other reference signals from one or more base stations 110a, 110b, 114 or the UE. Positioning methods, such as time difference of arrival (TDOA), DL time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), DL angle of departure (DL AoD), and extended cell ID (ECID), are positioning methods that may be used to estimate the UE's position using reference signals from base stations. TDOA relies, for example, on measuring the reference signal time difference (RSTD) between downlink (DL) signals received from a base station for a reference cell and base stations for one or more neighbor cells. DL signals from which RTSD may be obtained comprise cell-specific reference signals (CRS) and positioning reference signals (PRS), for example, as defined in 3GPP TS 36.211.

[0053]

[0066] Other positioning methods may use reference signals transmitted by the UE, including uplink-based positioning methods and downlink-and-uplink-based positioning methods. For example, uplink-based positioning methods include, for example, UL Time Difference of Arrival (UL-TDOA), UL Angle of Arrival (UL AoA), and UL Relative Time of Arrival (UL-RTOA), while downlink-and-uplink-based positioning methods include, for example, Round Trip Time (RTT) with one or more neighbor base stations. Additionally, sidelink-based positioning may be used in which the UE transmits and / or receives sidelink positioning reference signals that are measured and used for positioning.

[0054]

[0067] As mentioned, while Figure 1 illustrates nodes configured to communicate according to a 5G communication protocol, nodes configured to communicate according to other communication protocols, such as, for example, an LTE protocol or an IEEE 802.11x protocol, may be used. For example, in an Evolved Packet System (EPS) providing LTE wireless access to UEs 105, 106, the RAN may comprise an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), which may comprise base stations with evolved Node Bs (eNBs). The core network for the EPS may comprise an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The EPS may comprise an E-UTRAN+EPC, where E-UTRAN corresponds to NG-RAN 135 in Figure 1 and EPC corresponds to 5G Node B 140.

[0055]

[0068] The gNBs 110a, 110b and ng-eNBs 114 may communicate with an AMF 115, which communicates with the LMF 120, for positioning functions. The AMF 115 may support mobility of the UEs 105, 106, including cell changes and handovers, and may participate in supporting signaling connections to the UEs 105, 106 and, in some cases, data and voice bearers for the UEs 105, 106. The LMF 120 may communicate directly with the UEs 105, 106 or with the BSs 110a, 110b, 114, for example, through wireless communications. The LMF 120 may support positioning of the UE 105, 106 when the UE 105, 106 accesses the NG-RAN 135 and may support position procedures / methods such as Aided GNSS (A-GNSS), Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) (e.g., downlink (DL) TDOA or uplink (UL) TDOA), Real Time Kinematics (RTK), Precise Point Positioning (PPP), Differential GNSS (DGNSS), Extended Cell ID (E-CID), Angle of Arrival (AOA), Angle of Departure (AOD), and / or other position methods. The LMF 120 may process location service requests for the UE 105, 106 received, for example, from the AMF 115 or from the GMLC 125. The LMF 120 may correspond to the AMF 115 and / or the GMLC 125. The LMF 120 may be referred to by other names, such as a location manager (LM), location function (LF), commercial LMF (CLMF), or value-added LMF (VLMF). A node / system implementing the LMF 120 may additionally or alternatively 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). At least a portion of the positioning functionality (including derivation of the UE's location) may be performed in the UE (e.g., using signals transmitted by wireless nodes such as the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or ng-eNB 114 and / or signal measurements obtained by the UE, e.g., for assistance data provided to the UE by the LMF 120).At least a portion of the positioning functionality (including deriving the UE's location) may alternatively be implemented in the LMF 120 (e.g., using signal measurements obtained by the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or the ng-eNB 114). The AMF 115 may act as a control node that handles signaling between the UEs 105, 106 and the core network 140 and provides QoS (Quality of Service) flow and session management. The AMF 115 may support mobility of the UEs 105, 106, including cell changes and handovers, and may participate in supporting signaling connections to the UEs 105, 106.

[0056]

[0069] The GMLC 125 may support location requests for the UEs 105, 106 received from the external client 130 and may forward such location requests to the AMF 115 for forwarding by the AMF 115 to the LMF 120 or may forward the location requests directly to the LMF 120. A location response from the LMF 120 (e.g., containing a location estimate for the UEs 105, 106) may be returned to the GMLC 125 either directly or via the AMF 115, which may then return a location response (e.g., containing the location estimate) to the external client 130. Although the GMLC 125 is shown connected to both the AMF 115 and the LMF 120, in some implementations, only one of these connections may be supported by the 5GC 140.

[0057]

[0070] 1, the LMF 120 may communicate with the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or the ng-eNB 114 using the New Radio Location Protocol A (sometimes referred to as NPPa or NRPPa), which may be defined in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.455. NRPPa may be the same as, similar to, or an extension of the LTE Positioning Protocol A (LPPa) defined in 3GPP TS 36.455, and NRPPa messages are transferred between the gNB 110a (or gNB 110b) and the LMF 120 and / or between the ng-eNB 114 and the LMF 120 via the AMF 115. As further shown in FIG. 1, the LMF 120 and the UEs 105, 106 may communicate using the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP), which may be defined in 3GPP TS 36.355. The LMF 120 and the UE 105, 106 may also or instead communicate using the New Radio Positioning Protocol (sometimes referred to as NPP or NRPP), which may be the same as, similar to, or an extension of LPP, where LPP and / or NPP messages may be transferred between the UE 105, 106 and the LMF 120 via the AMF 115 and the serving gNB 110a, 110b or serving ng-eNB 114 for the UE 105, 106. For example, LPP and / or NPP messages may be transferred between the LMF 120 and the AMF 115 using a 5G Location Services Application Protocol (LCS AP), and may be transferred between the AMF 115 and the UE 105, 106 using a 5G Non-Access Stratum (NAS) protocol. Communication between the LMF 120 and the UE 105, 106 using the LPP protocol may be referred to herein as direct communication because the messages are transparent to the serving gNB, i.e., the serving gNB does not need to understand the content of the messages and simply forwards the communication between the LMF 120 and the UE 105, 106.In contrast, during communication using an NPP protocol such as NRPPa, the serving gNB unpacks the message and selects the content, which is packed and sent to the UE in the Uu air interface, e.g., via Radio Resource Control (RRC), Medium Access Control - Control Element (MAC-CE), Downlink Control Information (DCI), etc. The LPP and / or NPP protocols may be used to support positioning of the UE 105, 106 using UE-assisted and / or UE-based location methods such as A-GNSS, RTK, TDOA, AOA, AOD, and / or E-CID. The NRPPa protocol may be used to support positioning of the UEs 105, 106 using network-based location methods such as E-CID (e.g., when used in conjunction with measurements obtained by the gNBs 110a, 110b or ng-eNB 114) and / or may be used by the LMF 120 to obtain location-related information from the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or ng-eNB 114, such as parameters defining directional synchronization signal (SS) transmissions from the gNBs 110a, 110b and / or ng-eNB 114. The LMF 120 may be co-located or integrated with the gNBs or TRPs, or may be located remotely from the gNBs and / or TRPs and configured to communicate directly or indirectly with the gNBs and / or TRPs.

[0058]

[0071] In a UE-assisted location method, a UE, e.g., UE 105 or UE 106, may obtain location measurements and send the measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 120) for calculation of a location estimate for the UE. For example, the location measurements may include one or more of a received signal strength indication (RSSI), a round-trip signal propagation time (RTT), a reference signal time difference (RSTD), a reference signal received power (RSRP) and / or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), an AOA, and an AOD for the gNB 110a, 110b, the ng-eNB 114, and / or a WLAN AP. The location measurements may also or instead include GNSS pseudorange, code phase, and / or carrier phase measurements for the SV 190-193.

[0059]

[0072] In a UE-based location method, a UE, e.g., UE 105 or UE 106, may obtain location measurements (e.g., which may be the same as or similar to location measurements for a UE-assisted location method) and may calculate the location of the UE (e.g., with the aid of assistance data received from a location server such as the LMF 120 or broadcast by the gNB 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, or other base station or AP).

[0060]

[0073] In a network-based position method, one or more base stations (e.g., gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114), sidelink UEs, or APs may obtain location measurements (e.g., RSSI, RTT, RSRP, RSRQ, AOA, AOD, or Time of Arrival (ToA) measurements for signals transmitted by a UE, e.g., UE 105 or UE 106) and / or receive measurements obtained by the UE. The one or more base stations or APs may send the measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 120) for calculation of a location estimate for the UE.

[0061]

[0074] The information provided by the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or the ng-eNB 114 to the LMF 120 using the NRPPa may include timing and configuration information for directional SS transmissions and location coordinates. The LMF 120 may provide some or all of this information to the UEs 105, 106 as assistance data in LPP and / or NPP messages via the NG-RAN 135 and the 5GC 140.

[0062]

[0075] An LPP or NPP message sent from the LMF 120 to the UE 105, 106 may instruct the UE 105, 106 to do any of a variety of things depending on the desired functionality. For example, the LPP or NPP message may include instructions for the UE 105, 106 to obtain measurements for GNSS (or A-GNSS), WLAN, E-CID, and / or TDOA (or some other location method). In the case of E-CID, the LPP or NPP message may instruct the UE 105, 106 to obtain one or more measurements (e.g., beam ID, beam width, average angle, RSRP, RSRQ measurements) of directional signals transmitted within a particular cell supported by one or more of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and / or ng-eNB 114 (or supported by some other type of base station, such as an eNB or WiFi AP). The UEs 105, 106 may send measurements back to the LMF 120 in an LPP or NPP message (e.g., within a 5G NAS message) via the serving gNB 110a (or serving ng-eNB 114) and the AMF 115.

[0063]

[0076] As mentioned, although the communication system 100 is described with respect to 5G technology, the communication system 100 may be implemented to support other communication technologies, such as GSM, WCDMA, LTE, etc., used to support and interact with mobile devices, such as the UEs 105, 106 (e.g., to implement voice, data, positioning, and other functions). In some such embodiments, the 5GC 140 may be configured to control different air interfaces. For example, the 5GC 140 may connect to a WLAN using a non-3GPP interworking function (N3IWF, not shown in FIG. 1 ) in the 5GC 140. For example, the WLAN may support IEEE 802.11 WiFi access for the UEs 105, 106 and may comprise one or more WiFi APs. Here, the N3IWF may 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 may be replaced by one or more other RANs and one or more other core networks. For example, in an EPS, the NG-RAN 135 may be replaced by an E-UTRAN including eNBs, and the 5GC 140 may be replaced by an EPC including a mobility management entity (MME) in place of the AMF 115, an E-SMLC in place of the LMF 120, and a GMLC that may be similar to the GMLC 125. In such an EPS, the E-SMLC may use an LPPa instead of an NRPPa to send location information to and receive location information from eNBs in the E-UTRAN, and may use an LPP to support positioning of the UEs 105, 106. In these other embodiments, positioning of UEs 105, 106 using directional PRS may be supported in a manner similar to that described herein for 5G networks, except that the functions and procedures described herein for gNBs 110a, 110b, ng-eNBs 114, AMFs 115, and LMFs 120 may alternatively apply to other network elements, such as eNBs, WiFi APs, MMEs, and E-SMLCs, in some cases.

[0064]

[0077] Positioning for a UE in a wireless network, such as the communication system 100 shown in FIG. 1, typically uses the Uu interface, i.e., the air interface between the UE and the radio access network, for DL ​​PRS and / or UL PRS. Positioning for a UE may use sidelink PRS (SL-PRS), which may be a specific sidelink-defined reference signal for positioning, or may reuse Uu PRS, sometimes referred to as sounding reference signals for positioning (SRSPos), e.g., UL PRS, or other reference signals may be transmitted in the sidelink channel. Sidelink positioning may enhance UE positioning by providing additional transmitting (or receiving) nodes.

[0065]

[0078] 2A illustrates, for example, the use of sidelink positioning to enhance positioning of UEs in a wireless communication system 200, where the location of a target UE 106 can be determined using downlink PRS and / or uplink PRS between several base stations 110a, 110b, 110c (gNB1, gNB2, gNB3, respectively) and another UE 105 acting as an additional positioning (anchor) node via a sidelink channel with the target UE 106. As illustrated, the target UE 106 communicates with a location server (LMF 120) via the serving base station 110a, while the anchor UE 105 communicates with the location server (LMF 120) via a separate serving base station 110d (gNB4), although the anchor UE 105 can communicate to the LMF 120 via the serving base station 110a for the target UE 106 if desired. Additionally, while FIG. 2A illustrates a single anchor UE 105, it should be understood that multiple anchor UEs can be used if desired.

[0066]

[0079] During a positioning session for target UE 106, target UE 106 may receive downlink PRS from and / or transmit uplink PRS to base stations 110a, 110b, and 110c. Each receiving node, e.g., target UE 106 and / or base stations 110a, 110b, and 110c, may measure the received positioning reference signals using, e.g., timing-based measurements such as RSTD, ToA, RTT, or angle-based measurements such as AoA or AoD, and report the positioning measurements to LMF 120. Additionally, anchor UE 105 and / or target UE 106 may transmit SL-PRS in a sidelink channel, which may be measured using time-based or angle-based measurements and reported to LMF 120 by UE 105 and / or 106 via their respective serving base stations 110a and 110d.

[0067]

[0080] The LMF 120 may determine the location of the target UE 106 based on positioning measurements of Uu PRS, e.g., DL PRS and / or UL PRS, measured by the target UE 106 and / or base stations 110a, 110b, and 110c, respectively, and SL-PRS measured by the target UE 106 and / or anchor UE 105. The LMF 120 may further use known locations of the base stations 110a, 110b, and 110c and the anchor UE 105 to determine the location of the target UE 106. For example, the LMF 120 may determine the distance between the target UE 106 and the base stations 110a, 110b, and 110c and the anchor UE 105, e.g., using TDOA, RTT, etc., and may determine the location of the target UE 106 using the known absolute locations of the base stations 110a, 110b, and 110c and the anchor UE 105, e.g., using multilateral positioning.

[0068]

[0081] 2B illustrates joint positioning of UEs in a wireless communication system 250 in which sidelink positioning is used to enhance positioning. Both UEs 105 and 106 are jointly positioned (as indicated by box 252) using downlink PRS and / or uplink PRS with several base stations 110a, 110b, 110c, and 110d and using SL-PRS between UEs 105 and 106. As shown in FIG. 2B, during the joint positioning session, UE 106 measures DL PRS from base stations 110a, 110b, 110c, and 110d using, for example, timing, angle, or power-based measurements, which are reported to LMF 120 (not shown). UE 106 also transmits SL-PRS. UE 105 measures the DL PRS from base station 110 d and the SL-PRS received from UE 106 , for example, using timing, angle, or power-based measurements, which are reported to LMF 120 .

[0069]

[0082] During joint positioning, the LMF 120 jointly determines the positions of both the UE 105 and the UE 106 based on positioning measurements received from the UEs 105 and 106 for measuring Uu PRS, e.g., DL PRS from base stations 110a, 110b, 110c, and 110d measured by the UE 106, DL PRS from base station 110d measured by the UE 105, and SL-PRS from the UE 106 measured by the UE 105. In the joint positioning of the UEs 105 and 106, both the UEs 105 and 106 are treated as target UEs, and each UE may act as an anchor node for the other UE. For example, the LMF 120 may determine the distance between the UE 106 and the base stations 110a, 110b, 110c, and 110d, the distance between the UE 105 and the base station 110d, and the distance between the UEs 105 and 106, using, e.g., TDOA, RTT, etc. The LMF 120 may simultaneously determine the positions of the UEs 105 and 106 using the determined distances and the known absolute positions of the base stations 110a, 110b, 110c, and 110d, for example, using multilateration.

[0070]

[0083] 3 illustrates a simplified wireless network environment 300 and an exemplary technique for joint positioning of UEs 105 and 106 using, for example, distances between the UEs and base stations determined using multi-RTT or other types of PRS measurements. The joint positioning of UEs 105 and 106 may be performed using, for example, multi-dimensional scaling and may use RTT (as shown in FIG. 3), TDOA, double differential RTT, or double differential TDOA (which may be implemented in a manner similar to differential GPS), etc. The positions of UEs 105 and 106, which are to be jointly determined, are each expressed in Cartesian coordinates (x 105 ,y 105 ) and (x 106 ,y 106 ) in two dimensions. Distance measurements may be obtained for one or more anchor points or nodes, denoted as gNBs 110a, 110b, and 110c, with coordinates (xk, yk), where k=a, b, c, using DL and / or UL PRS measurements. In some implementations, the distance between the UEs 105 and 106 may also be obtained based on SL-PRS measurements between the UEs 105 and 106. A location server, e.g., the LMF 120, may determine distances d1, d2, d3 from the UE 106 to the three gNBs 110a, 110b, and 110c, respectively, distance d4 from the UE 105 to gNB 110c, and distance d5 between the UEs 105 and 106. Based on the RTT measurements, the distance d between two nodes is given by

[0071]

number

[0072]

[0084] where RTT is the measured RTT for the gNB110 or sidelink UE, and c is the speed of the signal (e.g., the speed of light).

[0073]

[0085] Once each distance d is determined, the location server 120 may determine the actual position (x ∈ R ) of the UE 105 based on the known absolute locations of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and 110c using various known geometric techniques, such as, for example, multilateral positioning. 105 ,y 105 ) and (x 106 ,y 106 ) can be determined. In FIG. 3, it can be seen that the location of the UE 105 is ideally at the common intersection point of all of the circles with radii defined by the determined distances between the nodes and their centers defined by the locations of the nodes, where the centers of the circles 302, 304, 306, and 308 are defined by the known actual locations of the gNBs 110a, 110b, and 110c, and the center of the circle 310 can be defined as the unknown location of the UE 105 or, equivalently, the unknown location of the UE 106. In practice, the intersection points of these circles may not be at a single point due to noise and other errors in obtaining RTT measurements. The method shown in FIG. 3 can be extended to a larger number of gNBs 110 and additional or fewer UEs and can be used to determine the three-dimensional locations of the UEs 105, 106 (e.g., from the common intersection point of spheres centered on each of the gNBs 110) when the gNBs 110 are at different heights. Such extensions are commonly known to those skilled in the art.

[0074]

[0086] In general, joint positioning can be modeled as a graph in which a subset of nodes are gNBs and another subset of nodes are UEs. Each edge in the graph represents a PRS measurement between two nodes, e.g., either a unidirectional measurement such as DL or UL, or a bidirectional measurement in Uu or sidelink. By increasing the number of edges in the graph, the graph becomes more connected and denser.

[0075]

[0087] 4 illustrates a joint positioning session 400 for UEs 105 and 106 in a sparsely connected wireless network environment using DL PRSs 402, 404, 406, and 408 from base stations 110a, 110b, 110c, and 110d and an SL-PRS 410 from UE 105 to UE 106. As shown, UE 106 receives DL PRSs 402 and 404 from base stations 110a and 110b, while UE 105 receives DL PRSs 406 and 408 from base stations 110c and 110d.

[0076]

[0088] As can be seen, UE 105 measures a significantly different set of PRSs than UE 106. Thus, in Figure 4, each UE 105 and 106 selects to measure a unique subset of PRSs, and there is no intersection of the sets of PRSs measured by UE 105 and UE 106. Thus, the graph of positioning session 400 may be considered sparsely connected (there is a relatively low number of edges in the graph), and therefore the joint positioning session will have relatively poor positioning performance.

[0077]

[0089] In positioning, if the number of common PRS measurements between different node pairs, including anchors (e.g., base stations or other UEs), increases, thereby increasing the number of edges in the graph, the positioning accuracy may be improved by additional redundancy, and measurement uncertainty or ambiguity may be reduced. Furthermore, positioning algorithms may be improved, for example, by compressed sensing, dimensionality reduction, etc., to achieve better accuracy by increasing the density of the graph.

[0078]

[0090] To increase the density of PRS measurements for joint positioning, a common set of PRSs for PRS measurements may be used. The common set of PRSs may be DL PRSs, UL-PRSs, RTTs, SL-PRSs, or a combination thereof, and may be identified based on one or more PRS resource IDs, PRS resource set IDs, TRP IDs, cell IDs, SL-PRS IDs, UE IDs, SIMs, or any combination thereof.

[0079]

[0091] FIG. 5 illustrates another joint positioning session 500 for UEs 105 and 106 in a densely connected wireless network environment using, by way of example, DL PRS measured by the UE 106 from base stations 110a, 110b, 110c, and 110d to the UEs 105 and 106 and SL-PRS from the UE 105 to the UE 106. FIG. 5 is similar to FIG. 4 but with an increased density of PRS. Unlike FIG. 4, which shows a relatively sparse connection, FIG. 5 illustrates each UE 105 and 106 measuring PRS from each base station, e.g., DL PRSs 502, 506, 510, and 514 from base stations 110a, 110b, 110c, and 110d measured by the UE 106, and DL PRSs 504, 508, 512, and 516 from base stations 110a, 110b, 110c, and 110d measured by the UE 105.

[0080]

[0092] As can be seen in Figure 5, UE 105 and UE 106 measure substantially the same set of PRSs. Thus, UEs 105 and 106 in Figure 5 measure a common set of PRSs. A common set of PRSs refers to a set of PRSs that a group of UEs, e.g., UEs 105 and 106 in Figure 5, are recommended, suggested, or required to measure over the same PRS session.

[0081]

[0093] The SL-PRS 518 may, but is not necessarily, included in the anchor set of a PRS. When the UEs 105 and 106 are in close proximity to each other, which may be determined based on a previous position fix for the UE or based on the UE's wireless connectivity, such as sharing the same serving cell, a sidelink channel may be established between the UEs 105 and 106 and sidelink-assisted positioning may be used in the positioning session.

[0082]

[0094] When UEs 105 and 106 are close to each other, they may have similar environments, indicating that they may both measure the same PRS in the environment and may find similar "good" PRS, i.e., PRS with good signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR), good line-of-sight (LOS) conditions, etc. By defining a common set of PRS for measurement by the UEs during a joint positioning session, the UEs may measure all PRS in the common set of PRS and include these measurements in location information reports for the location server, resulting in increased density of connections and therefore improved positioning accuracy.

[0083]

[0095] In some implementations, a location server, e.g., LMF 120, may select and assign a common set of PRS to all UEs to measure and include in location information reports during the joint positioning session. In some implementations, one or more UEs in the joint positioning session may select a common anchor set of PRS to be measured and included in location information reports.

[0084]

[0096] 6 is a signaling flow 600 illustrating various messages sent between components of the communication system 100 shown in FIG. 1 during a joint positioning session for UE1 105 and UE2 106 using a common set of PRS to be measured and reported by the UEs 105 and 106. The common set of PRS in FIG. 6 is selected and provided to the UEs by a location server, e.g., the LMF 120. The UEs 105 and 106 may be configured to perform network-based positioning in which the UEs 105 and 106 receive and measure DL PRS from a common base station, e.g., serving gNB 110a, gNB 110b, and gNB 110c (which may be collectively referred to as gNB 110 or base station 110). In some implementations, the UEs 105 and 106 may be further configured to perform sidelink-assisted positioning by transmitting and / or receiving and reporting SL-PRS to the location server 120. During the joint positioning session in the signaling flow 600 shown in FIG. 6, additional or fewer messages may be exchanged, or the order of messages may be changed. For example, in some implementations, the UEs 105 and 106 may additionally or alternatively transmit an UL PRS, which is received by the base station 110 and reported to the location server 120. Furthermore, some messages may be combined, e.g., broadcast to multiple nodes, or removed. Additional messages may be sent from the location server 120 to the UEs 105 and 106, such as a request for location information or a request to enable UL PRS transmission by the UEs 105 and 106 to be measured by the gNB 110. In the signaling flow 600, the UEs 105 and 106 and the location server 120 are assumed to communicate using the LPP positioning protocol mentioned above, although the use of other future protocols, such as NPP, or a combination of LPP and NPP, or NRPPa, is also possible.

[0085]

[0097] In stages 1 and 2, the UEs 105 and 106 and the location server 120, respectively, perform capability transfer, which may use the LPP or NRPPa positioning protocol. For example, the location server 120 may send a capability request message to the UEs 105 and 106 to request capabilities from the UEs, and the UEs 105 and 106 may return a capability provision message to the location server 120, which may indicate the UEs 105 and 106's capabilities for sidelink-assisted positioning.

[0086]

[0098] In stage 3, the location server 120 may select a group of UEs for joint positioning. For example, the location server 120 may select UEs for joint positioning based on the proximity of the UEs and receiving requests for location information for the UEs at approximately the same time. The location server 120 may determine whether the UEs 105 and 106 are in proximity, for example, based on previous position estimates of the UEs 105 and 106 determined by the location server 120 or reported by one or more UEs 105 and 106, or based on whether the UEs 105 and 106 already have a sidelink connection or whether the UEs 105 and 106 use the same serving base station 110a, which may be determined from previous messages. The location server 120 may further determine whether sidelink-assisted positioning can be used during the joint positioning session, for example, based on the capabilities and proximity of the UEs.

[0087]

[0099] In step 4, the location server 120 selects a common set S of PRSs that each UE (UEs 105 and 106) in the joint positioning session must measure and report. The common set S of PRSs may include DL PRSs, UL-PRSs, RTTs, SL-PRSs, or a combination thereof. Because the UEs 105 and 106 may have different locations and different LOS path conditions, it may not be appropriate to require each UE to measure the same PRS resources from the same TRP. Therefore, the common set S of PRSs may include one or more lists of PRS resource IDs, PRS resource set IDs, TRP IDs, cell IDs, SL-PRS IDs, UE IDs, subscriber identity modules (SIMs), or any combination thereof.

[0088]

[0100] Location server 120 may select the common set S of PRS based on various factors. For example, location server 120 may determine rough estimates for a group of UEs during a joint positioning session based on, e.g., previously determined locations of the UEs or cell information for the UEs (e.g., all UEs are attached to the same serving base station), and may determine the common set S of PRS based on the estimated locations of the group of UEs. In another example, one or more of UEs 105 and 106 may provide a recommendation for the common set S of PRS to location server 120 in a message such as, e.g., a capability transfer or an assistance data request message (not shown) or other type of message to location server 120, and location server 120 determines DL PRS, UL-PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof to include in the common set S of PRS. In another example, the location server 120 may receive location measurement reports from one or more UEs 105 and 106 that include a priori estimates of the locations of the one or more UEs 105 and 106, and the location server 120 may determine a common set S of PRSs based on the a priori estimates of the locations of the UEs received from the UEs.

[0089]

[0101] In optional step 5A, the location server 120 may schedule (or reschedule) a PRS configuration for each base station 110, denoted as gNB1 110a, gNB2 110b, and gNB3 110c, and for UE1 105, that is included in a common set S of PRS. In some implementations, the PRS may already be configured, and the location server 120 may select a common PRS set based on the already configured PRS, in which case step 5A is not necessary. The PRS configuration includes at least the common set S of PRS, but in some implementations may include additional PRS configurations that may not be in the common set S for all UEs. For example, in addition to the common set S of PRS, the location server 120 may schedule a PRS configuration for one or more additional base stations (not shown) and for UE1 105 that will not be measured by UE2 106. The location server 120 may further schedule measurements of UL PRSs transmitted from the UEs if they are included in the common set S of PRS.

[0090]

[0102] In optional step 5B, the location server 120 may schedule (or reschedule) a PRS configuration for UE2 106 included in the common set S of PRS with each base station 110, denoted as gNB1 110a, gNB2 110b, and gNB3 110c. In some implementations, step 5B may be combined with step 5A. Further, in some implementations, the PRS may already be configured, and the location server 120 may select a common PRS set based on the already configured PRS, in which case step 5B is not necessary. The PRS configuration includes at least the common set S of PRS, but in some implementations may include additional PRS configurations that may not be in the common set S for all UEs. For example, in addition to the common set S of PRS, the location server 120 may schedule a PRS configuration for UE2 106 with one or more additional base stations (not shown) that will not be measured by UE1 105. Location server 120 may further schedule measurements on UL PRSs transmitted from the UE if they are included in the common set S of PRSs.

[0091]

[0103] In stages 6A and 6B, location server 120 may send assistance data to UE1 105 and UE2 106, respectively. The assistance data may include configuration information for PRSs that may be available for measurements, for example, for multiple DL PRSs, UL PRSs, SL PRSs, or combinations thereof, that may be included in a common set S of PRSs. In some implementations, additional PRSs may be included in the assistance data. As an example, configuration information DL PRSs for the common set S of PRSs may be configured in the assistance data as shown in Table 1, which illustrates an Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) fragment illustrating an NR-DL-PRS-Config information element (IE) that may be used to define a DL PRS configuration.

[0092] [Table 1]

[0093]

[0104] In stage 7, location server 120 sends a message to UE1 105, such as a Measurement Request, which may include a request for location measurements and may include an indication of at least the common set S of PRSs to be measured. In some implementations, the indication may be, for example, an identifier for a PRS in the common set S of PRSs. In some implementations, the indication may be a reference to an index that includes a PRS in the common set S of PRSs. The common set S of PRSs may be indicated in other ways if desired. In some implementations, an indication or identification of the common set S of PRSs may be provided in a message other than the Measurement Request message, such as in an Assistance Data message during stage 6A or in a different type of message.

[0094]

[0105] In step 8, similar to step 7, location server 120 sends a message to UE2 106, such as a Measurement Request, which may include a request for location measurements and may include an indication of at least the common set S of PRSs to be measured. In some implementations, the indication may be, for example, an identifier for a PRS in the common set S of PRSs. In some implementations, the indication may be a reference to an index that includes a PRS in the common set S of PRSs. The common set S of PRSs may be indicated in other ways if desired. In some implementations, the indication or identification of the common set S of PRSs may be provided in a message other than the Measurement Request message, such as in an Assistance Data message during step 6B or in a different type of message.

[0095]

[0106] In stage 9, the PRS are transmitted, for example, gNB 110 may broadcast the DL PRS configured by location server 120, UE1 105 and UE2 106 may broadcast the UL PRS configured by location server 120, or both may be done, for example, in the case of RTT.

[0096]

[0107] In step 10, received PRSs from a common set S of PRSs are measured, as shown by steps 10A, 10B, and 10C, e.g., UE1 105 and UE2 106 measure received DL PRSs (if present) from the common set S of PRSs, as shown by steps 10A and 10B, respectively, and gNB 110 measures received UL PRSs (if present) from the common set of PRSs, as shown by step 10C. The measurements may be, for example, timing-based measurements such as TOA, Rx-Tx, RTT, etc., angle-based measurements such as AoA, or power-based measurements such as RSRP.

[0097]

[0108] In stage 11, if sideline-assisted positioning is used in the positioning session, one or both of UEs 105 and 106 may transmit SL-PRS. As shown in Figure 6, UE1 105 transmits SL-PRS to UE2 106, and UE2 106 transmits SL-PRS to UE1 105, although in some implementations, only one of the UEs may transmit SL-PRS.

[0098]

[0109] In stages 12A and 12B, UE1 105 and UE2 106, respectively, measure the received SL-PRS transmitted in stage 11 if it is included in the common set S of PRS. The measurements may be, for example, timing-based measurements such as TOA, Rx-Tx, angle-based measurements such as AoA, or power-based measurements such as RSRP. It should be understood that in some implementations, the SL-PRS may be transmitted and measured before the DL PRS is transmitted and measured, e.g., stages 11, 12A, and 12B may be performed before stages 9, 10A, and 10B.

[0099]

[0110] In step 13, UE1 105 sends a positioning information report to location server 120, including the positioning measurements obtained during steps 10A and 12A.

[0100]

[0111] In step 14, UE2 106 sends a positioning information report to location server 120 that includes the positioning measurements obtained during steps 10B and 12B.

[0101]

[0112] In step 15, the gNB 110 sends a positioning information report to the location server 120 including the positioning measurements obtained during step 10C, if any.

[0102]

[0113] In stage 16, location server 120 jointly determines the locations of UE1 105 and UE2 106 based on the measurement responses received in stages 13, 14, and 15 along with the known location of gNB 110 using, for example, multi-RTT, TDOA, dual differential RTT, dual differential TDOA, and multilateral positioning, intersection of multiple AoAs, etc. Location server 120 may send the locations to UEs 105 and 106 or to a requesting external client (not shown).

[0103]

[0114] 7 is a signaling flow 700 illustrating various messages sent between components of communication system 100 shown in FIG. 1 during a joint positioning session for UE1 105 and UE2 106 using a common set of PRS selected by one or more of UEs 105 and 106 to be measured and reported by UEs 105 and 106. Similar to the joint positioning session in signaling flow 600 shown in FIG. 6, UEs 105 and 106 may be configured to perform network-based positioning in which UEs 105 and 106 receive and measure DL PRS from a common set of base stations, e.g., serving gNBs 110a, 110b, and 110c (which may be collectively referred to as gNBs 110 or base stations 110). In some implementations, UEs 105 and 106 may be further configured to perform sidelink-assisted positioning by transmitting and / or receiving and reporting SL-PRS to location server 120. During the joint positioning session in the signaling flow 700 shown in FIG. 7, additional or fewer messages may be exchanged, or the order of messages may be changed. For example, in some implementations, the UEs 105 and 106 may additionally or alternatively transmit an UL PRS, which is received by the base station 110 and reported to the location server 120. Furthermore, some messages may be combined, e.g., broadcast to multiple nodes, or removed. Additional messages may be sent from the location server 120 to the UEs 105 and 106, such as a request for location information or a request to enable UL PRS transmission by the UEs 105 and 106 to be measured by the gNB 110. In the signaling flow 700, the UEs 105 and 106 and the location server 120 are assumed to communicate using the LPP positioning protocol mentioned above, although the use of other future protocols, such as NPP, or a combination of LPP and NPP, or NRPPa, is also possible.

[0104]

[0115] In stages 1 and 2, the UEs 105 and 106 and the location server 120, respectively, perform capability transfer, which may use the LPP or NRPPa positioning protocol. For example, the location server 120 may send a capability request message to the UEs 105 and 106 to request capabilities from the UEs, and the UEs 105 and 106 may return a capability provision message to the location server 120, which may indicate the UEs 105 and 106's capabilities for sidelink-assisted positioning.

[0105]

[0116] In stage 3, the location server 120 may select a group of UEs for joint positioning. For example, the location server 120 may select UEs for joint positioning based on the proximity of the UEs and receiving requests for location information for the UEs at approximately the same time. The location server 120 may determine whether the UEs 105 and 106 are in proximity, for example, based on previous position estimates of the UEs 105 and 106 determined by the location server 120 or reported by one or more UEs 105 and 106, or based on whether the UEs 105 and 106 already have a sidelink connection or whether the UEs 105 and 106 use the same serving base station 110a, which may be determined from previous messages. The location server 120 may further determine whether sidelink-assisted positioning can be used during the joint positioning session, for example, based on the capabilities and proximity of the UEs.

[0106]

[0117] In optional stages 4A and 4B (which may be combined into a single stage), the location server 120 may schedule PRS configurations for a group of base stations 110, denoted, for example, as gNB1 110a, gNB2 110b, and gNB3 110c, and for UE1 105 and UE2 106, respectively. In some implementations, the PRS may not change, for example, if the PRS is periodic and broadcast, but stages 4A and 4B may be performed if the PRS is on-demand or aperiodic.

[0107]

[0118] In stages 5A and 5B, location server 120 may send assistance data to UE1 105 and UE2 106, respectively. The assistance data may include, for example, configuration information for PRSs that may be available for measurements for multiple DL PRSs, UL PRSs, SL PRSs, or a combination thereof.

[0108]

[0119] In stage 6, location server 120 sends a message to UE1 105, such as a measurement request, which may indicate that UE1 is included in a joint positioning session and may identify other UEs, for example, UE2 106. The measurement request may indicate that one or more of the UEs in the joint positioning session are to determine a common set S of PRSs. In some implementations, the message in stage 6 may indicate PRSs that are available for measurement by UE1 105 and that may be included in the common set of PRSs. In some implementations, the indication may be, for example, identifiers for the PRSs that are available for measurement. In some implementations, the indication may be a reference to an index that includes the PRSs that are available. The common set S of PRSs may be indicated in other ways if desired. In some implementations, location server 120 may indicate that a UE is included in a group positioning session and may provide an indication of the available PRSs in a different message, such as in the assistance data message of stage 5A.

[0109]

[0120] In stage 7, location server 120 sends a message to UE2 106, such as a measurement request, which may indicate that UE2 is included in a joint positioning session and may identify other UEs, for example, UE1 105. The measurement request may indicate that one or more of the UEs in the joint positioning session are to determine a common set S of PRSs. In some implementations, the message in stage 6 may indicate PRSs that are available for measurement by UE2 106 and that may be included in the common set of PRSs. In some implementations, the indication may be, for example, identifiers for the PRSs that are available for measurement. In some implementations, the indication may be a reference to an index that includes the PRSs that are available. The common set S of PRSs may be indicated in other ways if desired. In some implementations, location server 120 may indicate that a UE is included in a group positioning session and may provide an indication of the available PRSs in a different message, such as in the assistance data message of stage 5B.

[0110]

[0121] In stage 8, the UEs 105 and 106 may determine a recommended common set S of PRS that each UE (UEs 105 and 106) in the joint positioning session must measure and report. The common set S of PRS may include DL PRS, UL-PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof. The common set S of PRS may include one or more lists of PRS resource IDs, PRS resource set IDs, TRP IDs, cell IDs, SL-PRS IDs, UE IDs, subscriber identity modules (SIMs), or any combination thereof.

[0111]

[0122] The UEs 105 and 106 may determine a common set S of PRSs via sidelink communication with other UEs in the group, for example, via unicast, broadcast, or multicast. For example, once the UEs 105 and 106 determine their inclusion in a group for joint positioning and the identities of the other UEs in the group, one or more of the UEs 105 and 106 may initiate sidelink communication. The common set S of PRSs may be selected by the UEs 105 and 106 based on the PRSs provided in messages received in states 6 and 7. In one implementation, one of the UEs, for example, the UE 105, acts as a controlling UE and may collect recommended sets of PRSs from each other UE included in the group, for example, the UE 106. Based on the received recommended sets of PRSs from the other UEs, the controlling UE 105 may determine a common set S of PRSs for the UEs to be used in joint positioning. The controlling UE 105 sends the common set S of PRSs to the location server 120 (e.g., in stage 9), which distributes the common set S of PRSs to the other UEs in the group. In another implementation, the UEs 105 and 106 may send the recommended set of PRSs to each other, for example, during multiple iterations, until a consensus on the common set S of PRSs is reached. For example, the UEs may distribute the recommended common set S of PRSs in a round-robin procedure (e.g., from UE1 to UE2, then to UE3 (not shown), back to UE1, etc.) or in a distributed voting procedure (e.g., from UE2 and UE3 (not shown) to UE1, which may cooperate and determine the common set S of PRSs). For example, all elements in the common set S of PRSs may be selected individually by polling each UE in the group or by each UE voting for each element of the set of PRSs and sharing the vote with other UEs until a consensus is reached. Once agreement is reached on the common set S of PRS, one or more UEs, e.g., UE 105, may send the common set S of PRS to location server 120 (e.g., in stage 9) to distribute the common set S of PRS to other UEs in the group.

[0112]

[0123] In step 9, the UE 105 may, for example, send to the location server 120 an indication of the common set S of PRSs determined in step 8. The indication of the common set S of PRSs may, for example, be identifiers for the PRSs included in the common set S of PRSs. In some implementations, another type of indication may be used, such as a reference to an index containing the PRSs that are available.

[0113]

[0124] In optional steps 10 and 11 (which may be combined into a single step), location server 120 may reschedule PRS configurations for a group of base stations 110, e.g., denoted as gNB1 110a, gNB2 110b, and gNB3 110c, and UE1 105 and UE2 106, respectively, based on the common set S of PRS received from one or more UEs in step 9. As with steps 4A and 4B, in some implementations, the PRS may not be changed, e.g., if the PRS is periodic and broadcast, but steps 10 and 11 may be performed if the PRS is on-demand or aperiodic. Location server 120 may further schedule measurements of UL PRS transmitted from UEs if they are included in the common set S of PRS.

[0114]

[0125] In stage 12, the PRS are transmitted, for example, gNB 110 may broadcast the DL PRS configured by location server 120, UE1 105 and UE2 106 may broadcast the UL PRS configured by location server 120, or both may be done, for example, for RTT.

[0115]

[0126] In step 13, received PRSs from a common set S of PRSs are measured, as shown in steps 13A, 13B, and 13C, e.g., UE1 105 and UE2 106 measure received DL PRSs (if present) from the common set S of PRSs, as shown by steps 13A and 13B, respectively, and gNB 110 measures received UL PRSs (if present) from the common set of PRSs, as shown in step 13C. The measurements may be, for example, timing-based measurements such as TOA, Rx-Tx, RTT, etc., angle-based measurements such as AoA, or power-based measurements such as RSRP.

[0116]

[0127] In stage 14, if sideline-assisted positioning is used in the positioning session, one or both of UEs 105 and 106 may transmit SL-PRS. As shown in Figure 6, UE1 105 transmits SL-PRS to UE2 106, and UE2 106 transmits SL-PRS to UE1 105, although in some implementations, only one of the UEs may transmit SL-PRS.

[0117]

[0128] In stages 15A and 15B, UE1 105 and UE2 106, respectively, measure the received SL-PRS transmitted in stage 14 if it is included in the common set S of PRS. The measurements may be, for example, timing-based measurements such as TOA, Rx-Tx, angle-based measurements such as AoA, or power-based measurements such as RSRP. It should be understood that in some implementations, the SL-PRS may be transmitted and measured before the DL PRS is transmitted and measured, e.g., stages 14, 15A, and 15B may be performed before stages 12, 13A, and 13B.

[0118]

[0129] In step 16, UE1 105 sends a positioning information report to location server 120 including the positioning measurements obtained during steps 13A and 15A.

[0119]

[0130] In step 17, UE2 106 sends a positioning information report to location server 120 that includes the positioning measurements obtained during steps 13B and 15B.

[0120]

[0131] In step 18, the gNB 110 sends a positioning information report to the location server 120 including the positioning measurements obtained during step 13C, if any.

[0121]

[0132] In stage 19, location server 120 jointly determines the locations of UE1 105 and UE2 106 based on the measurement responses received in stages 16, 17, and 18 along with the known location of gNB 110 using, for example, multi-RTT, TDOA, dual differential RTT, dual differential TDOA, and multilateral positioning, intersection of multiple AoAs, etc. Location server 120 may send the locations to UEs 105 and 106 or to a requesting external client (not shown).

[0122]

[0133] 8 shows a schematic block diagram illustrating some example features of a hardware implementation of a UE 800, which may be a UE 105 or 106 that, in some implementations, is capable of supporting joint positioning of a group of UEs including itself using sidelink-assisted positioning based on a selected common set of PRSs measured and reported by each UE in the group of UEs, in a manner consistent with the disclosed implementations. The common set of PRSs may include, for example, DL PRSs, UL-PRSs, RTTs, SL-PRSs, or a combination thereof. The UE 800 includes hardware components such as one or more processors 802, memory 804, sensor units 816, transceivers 810 (e.g., wireless network interfaces), which may be operably coupled to one or more connections 806 (e.g., buses, lines, fibers, links, etc.) to a non-transitory computer-readable medium 820 and memory 804. The UE 800 may further include additional items not shown, such as a user interface that may include, for example, a display, a keypad or other input device such as a virtual keypad on the display through which a user may interface with the UE, or a satellite positioning system receiver. In some example implementations, all or a portion of the UE 800 may take the form of a chipset or the like.

[0123]

[0134] The transceiver 810 may include, for example, a transmitter 812 enabled to transmit one or more signals over one or more types of wireless communication networks and a receiver 814 for receiving one or more signals transmitted over one or more types of wireless communication networks. In some embodiments, the UE 800 may include an antenna 811, which may be internal or external. The UE antenna 811 may be used to transmit and / or receive signals processed by the transceiver 810. In some embodiments, the UE antenna 811 may be coupled to the transceiver 810. In some embodiments, measurements of signals received (transmitted) by the UE 800 may be performed at the point of connection between the UE antenna 811 and the transceiver 810. For example, measurement points of reference for received (transmitted) RF signal measurements may be the input (output) terminal of the receiver 814 (transmitter 812) and the output (input) terminal of the UE antenna 811. In a UE 800 with an antenna 811 including multiple antennas or an antenna array, the antenna connector may be considered a virtual point representing the aggregate output (input) of the multiple UE antennas. The phase difference of the received signal at multiple antennas or antenna arrays may be used to determine the AoA of the signal relative to the antenna array, which may be converted to a local or global reference frame based on the known orientation of the UE 800. In some embodiments, the UE 800 may measure the received signal including timing measurements, angle measurements, or signal strength measurements, and the raw measurements may be processed by one or more processors 802.

[0124]

[0135] The sensor unit 816 may comprise 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, etc. For example, the sensor unit 816 may include one or more accelerometers (e.g., collectively responsive to acceleration of the UE 800 in three dimensions) and / or one or more gyroscopes (e.g., 3D gyroscopes), one or more magnetometers (e.g., 3D magnetometers) for determining orientation (e.g., relative to magnetic north and / or true north), 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, etc. The sensors 816 may generate analog and / or digital signals whose indications may be stored in the memory 804 and processed by the processing unit 802 to support one or more applications, such as applications directed to positioning and / or navigation operations. The sensor unit 816 may be used in relative location measurements, relative location determination, motion determination, etc. Information detected by the sensor unit 816 may be used for motion detection, relative displacement, dead reckoning, sensor-based location determination, and / or sensor-assisted location determination. The sensor unit 816 may be useful, for example, to determine the orientation of the anchor UE 800. The orientation of the UE 800 may be used to convert the AoA of sidelink communication signals received from the target UE 106 to a local or global reference frame.

[0125]

[0136] The one or more processors 802 may be implemented using a combination of hardware, firmware, and software. For example, the one or more processors 802 may be configured to perform the functions described herein by implementing one or more instructions or program code 808 on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as the medium 820 and / or the memory 804. In some embodiments, the one or more processors 802 may represent one or more circuits configurable to perform at least a portion of a data signal computation procedure or process related to the operation of the UE 800.

[0126]

[0137] The medium 820 and / or memory 804 may store instructions or program code 808, which, when executed by one or more processors 802, include executable code or software instructions that cause the one or more processors 802 to operate as a special-purpose computer programmed to perform the techniques disclosed herein. As shown in the UE 800, the medium 820 and / or memory 804 may include one or more components or modules that can be implemented by the one or more processors 802 to perform the methods described herein. While the components or modules are shown as software in the medium 820 executable by the one or more processors 802, it should be understood that the components or modules may be stored in the memory 804 or may be dedicated hardware either within or external to the one or more processors 802.

[0127]

[0138] A number of software modules and data tables may reside in the medium 820 and / or memory 804 and be utilized by the one or more processors 802 to manage both the communications and functionality described herein. It should be appreciated that the organization of the contents of the medium 820 and / or memory 804 as shown in the UE 800 is only an example, and thus the functionality of the modules and / or data structures may be combined, separated, and / or structured in various ways depending on the implementation of the UE 800.

[0128]

[0139] The medium 820 and / or the memory 804 may include a common PRS unit 822 that, when implemented by the one or more processors 802, configures the one or more processors 802 to determine a common set of PRSs including DL PRSs from one or more base stations, SL-PRSs from the UE, or a combination thereof to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs. The common set of PRSs may include one or more of a PRS ID, a PRS resource set ID, a TRP ID, a cell ID, a SL-PRS ID, a UE ID, a SIM, or any combination thereof. The one or more processors 802 may be configured to send or receive an indication of the common set of PRSs from a location server or another UE via the wireless transceiver 810. The indication may be, for example, an identifier of the PRS or a reference to one or more indexes including the PRS. In one implementation, the one or more processors 802 may be configured to receive, from a location server via the wireless transceiver 810, identification information of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are included in a joint positioning session. The one or more processors 802 may be configured to receive, via the wireless transceiver 810, configuration information from at least one other UE for DL ​​PRS, UL PRS, RTT, SL PRS, or a combination thereof that are available for measurement and may be included in a common set of PRS, determine which of the DL PRS, UL PRS, RTT, SL PRS, or a combination thereof are correspondingly included in the common set of PRS, and send, via the wireless transceiver 810, an indication of the common set of PRS to each other UE.The one or more processors 802 may be configured to send, to at least one other UE via the wireless transceiver 810, a recommendation for DL ​​PRS, UL PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof to be included in a common set of PRS, and receive, from at least one other UE via the wireless transceiver 810, a recommendation for DL ​​PRS, UL PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof to be included in the common set of PRS, where the common set of PRS is determined by consensus of a plurality of UEs. In another implementation, the one or more processors 802 may be configured to send, via the wireless transceiver 810, a recommendation for DL ​​PRS, UL PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof to a location server that selects the common set of PRS, and receive an indication of the common set of PRS from the location server via the wireless transceiver 810.

[0129]

[0140] The medium 820 and / or memory 804 may include a message unit 824 that, when implemented by the one or more processors 802, configures the one or more processors 802 to receive messages, such as measurement requests and / or assistance data, from a location server via the wireless transceiver 810. In some implementations, the message may include an indication of a common set of PRSs to be measured, such as an identifier of the PRS or a reference to one or more indices identifying the PRSs. In some implementations, the message may comprise configuration information for multiple DL PRSs, multiple SL-PRSs, or a combination thereof, from which the common set of PRSs may be selected by one or more UEs. The message may further include identification information of the multiple UEs and an indication that the multiple UEs are included in a joint positioning session.

[0130]

[0141] The medium 820 and / or memory 804 may include a positioning measurement unit 826 that, when implemented by the one or more processors 802, configures the one or more processors 802 to perform positioning measurements of DL PRS, UL-PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof from a common set of PRSs via the wireless transceiver 810. The positioning measurements may be, for example, timing measurements such as TOA, Rx-Tx, RTT, angle measurements such as AoA, power measurements such as RSRP, or a combination thereof.

[0131]

[0142] The medium 820 and / or memory 804 may include a reporting unit 828 that, when implemented by the one or more processors 802, configures the one or more processors 802 to send, via the wireless transceiver 810, location information reports comprising positioning measurements of DL PRS, UL-PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof to a location server.

[0132]

[0143] The medium 820 and / or memory 804 may include a location unit 830 that, when implemented by the one or more processors 802, configures the one or more processors 802 to receive, via the wireless transceiver 810, from a location server a location estimate for the UE that has been determined by the location server in conjunction with the locations of other UEs.

[0133]

[0144] The methods described herein may be implemented by various means depending on the application. For example, these methods may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or any combination thereof. In a hardware implementation, the one or more processors 802 may be implemented within one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, electronic devices, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or combinations thereof.

[0134]

[0145] For a firmware and / or software implementation, the methods may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, etc.) that perform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable medium tangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing the methods described herein. For example, software code may be stored in memory and executed by one or more processor units, causing the processor units to operate as special-purpose computers programmed to implement the algorithms disclosed herein. The memory may be implemented within the one or more processors or external to the one or more processors. The term "memory," as used herein, may refer to any type of long-term memory, short-term memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or other memory, and should not be limited to a specific type or number of memories or the type of medium on which the memory is stored.

[0135]

[0146] If implemented in firmware and / or software, the functions may be stored as one or more instructions or program code 808 on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as the medium 820 and / or the memory 804. Examples include computer-readable media encoded with a data structure and computer-readable media encoded with a computer program 808. For example, a non-transitory computer-readable medium with program code 808 stored thereon may include program code 808 for supporting joint positioning sessions and, in some implementations, sidelink-assisted positioning using a selected common set of PRSs in a manner consistent with the disclosed embodiments. The non-transitory computer-readable medium 820 includes a physical computer storage medium. A storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such non-transitory computer-readable media may comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to store desired program code 808 in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer; disk and disc, as used herein, include compact discs (CDs), laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs (DVDs), floppy disks, and Blu-ray discs, where disks typically reproduce data magnetically and discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0136]

[0147] In addition to being stored on the computer-readable medium 820, the instructions and / or data may be provided as signals on a transmission medium contained in a communications device. For example, a communications device may include a transceiver 810 having signals indicative of instructions and data. The instructions and data are configured to cause one or more processors to implement the functions outlined in the claims. That is, the communications device includes a transmission medium with signals indicative of information to perform the disclosed functions.

[0137]

[0148] Memory 804 may represent any data storage mechanism. Memory 804 may include, for example, primary memory and / or secondary memory. Primary memory may include, for example, random access memory, read-only memory, etc. While shown in this example as being separate from one or more processors 802, it should be understood that all or a portion of the primary memory may be provided within one or more processors 802 or, in some cases, co-located / coupled with one or more processors 802. Secondary memory may include, for example, the same or similar type of memory as the primary memory and / or one or more data storage devices or systems, such as, for example, disk drives, optical disk drives, tape drives, solid-state memory drives, etc.

[0138]

[0149] In some implementations, the secondary memory may be operatively capable of receiving, or possibly configurable to couple to, a non-transitory computer-readable medium 820. Thus, in some example implementations, the methods and / or apparatuses presented herein may take the form, in whole or in part, of a computer-readable medium 820, which may include computer-implementable code 808 stored thereon, which, when executed by at least one processor 802, may be effectively enabled to perform all or a portion of the example operations described herein. The computer-readable medium 820 may be part of the memory 804.

[0139]

[0150] 9 is a schematic block diagram illustrating some example features of a hardware implementation of a location server 900, such as the LMF 120, that can support joint positioning of a group of UEs using sidelink-assisted positioning, in some implementations, based on a selected common set of PRSs measured and reported by each UE in the group of UEs, in a manner consistent with disclosed implementations. The common set of PRSs may include, for example, DL PRSs, UL-PRSs, RTTs, SL-PRSs, or a combination thereof. The location server 900 includes hardware components, such as one or more processors 902, memory 904, and a communication interface 910, that may be operatively coupled to one or more connections 906 (e.g., buses, lines, fibers, links, etc.) to a non-transitory computer-readable medium 920 and memory 904. The external interface 910 may be a wired and / or wireless interface that can connect to a transmission / reception point or base station, such as the gNB 110, via one or more intermediate entities, such as an AMF, and that can communicate with UEs, such as the target UE 106 and the anchor UE 105.

[0140]

[0151] The one or more processors 902 may be implemented using a combination of hardware, firmware, and software. For example, the one or more processors 902 may be configured to perform the functions described herein by implementing one or more instructions or program code 908 on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as the medium 920 and / or the memory 904. In some embodiments, the one or more processors 902 may represent one or more circuits configurable to perform at least a portion of data signal computing procedures or processes related to the operation of the location server 900.

[0141]

[0152] The medium 920 and / or memory 904 may store instructions or program code 908, which, when executed by one or more processors 902, include executable code or software instructions that cause the one or more processors 902 to operate as a special-purpose computer programmed to perform the techniques disclosed herein. As shown in location server 900, the medium 920 and / or memory 904 may include one or more components or modules that may be implemented by the one or more processors 902 to perform the methods described herein. While the components or modules are shown as software in the medium 920 executable by the one or more processors 902, it should be understood that the components or modules may be stored in memory 904 or may be dedicated hardware either within or external to the one or more processors 902.

[0142]

[0153] A number of software modules and data tables may reside in the medium 920 and / or memory 904 and be utilized by the one or more processors 902 to manage both the communications and functionality described herein. It should be appreciated that the organization of the contents of the medium 920 and / or memory 904 as shown in the location server 900 is only exemplary, and thus the functionality of the modules and / or data structures may be combined, separated, and / or structured in different ways depending on the implementation of the location server 900.

[0143]

[0154] The medium 920 and / or memory 904 may include a common PRS unit 922 that, when implemented by the one or more processors 902, configures the one or more processors 902 to select a common set of PRS for measurement. The common set of PRS may comprise DL PRSs from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, UL PRSs from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, SL-PRSs from UEs in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof. The common set of PRS may include one or more of a PRS ID, a PRS resource set ID, a TRP ID, a cell ID, a SL-PRS ID, a UE ID, a SIM, or any combination thereof. As an example, the one or more processors 902 may be configured to determine location estimates for the plurality of UEs and correspondingly determine a DL PRS, a UL-PRS, an RTT, a SL-PRS, or a combination thereof for the common set of PRS. In another example, the one or more processors 902 may receive recommendations for DL ​​PRS, UL PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof from one or more UEs via communication interface 910 and may determine DL PRS, UL PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof for a common set of PRS based on the recommendations. In another example, the one or more processors 902 may receive location measurement reports from one or more UEs and determine DL PRS, UL PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof for the common set of PRS based on the locations of the UEs from the location measurement reports. In another implementation, the one or more processors 902 may receive a common set of PRS from one or more UEs via communication interface 910, for example, where one or more UEs have selected DL PRS, UL PRS, RTT, SL-PRS, or a combination thereof to be used in the common set of PRS.

[0144]

[0155] The medium 920 and / or memory 904 may include a message unit 924 that, when implemented by the one or more processors 902, configures the one or more processors 902 to send a message, such as a measurement request or assistance data message, to each UE in the plurality of UEs via the communication interface 910. In some implementations, the message may comprise an indication of a common set of PRSs selected by the location server 900 based, for example, on an identifier of the PRS or a reference to an index from which the common set of PRSs can be determined. In some implementations, the message may comprise configuration information for multiple DL PRSs, UL-PRSs, RTTs, SL-PRSs, or a combination thereof and / or an indication of PRSs available for measurements from which a common set of positioning reference signals can be selected by the UE. In some implementations, the message may include identification information of the multiple UEs and an indication that the multiple UEs are involved in a joint positioning session.

[0145]

[0156] The medium 920 and / or memory 904 may include a location information reporting unit 926 that, when implemented by one or more processors 902, configures the one or more processors 902 to receive location information from each UE and / or base station during a joint positioning session via the communication interface 910. The location information from each UE may include, for example, measurements of DL PRS, UL PRS, RTT, SL-PRS made by each UE, or a combination thereof. The positioning measurements may be, for example, timing measurements such as TOA, Rx-Tx, RTT, angle measurements such as AoA, power measurements such as RSRP, or a combination thereof.

[0146]

[0157] The medium 920 and / or memory 904 may include a joint positioning unit 928 that, when implemented by one or more processors 902, configures the one or more processors 902 to jointly determine a position estimate for each UE using location information received from each UE. For example, the position measurements from each UE, along with the known location of the base station, may be used to determine the location of each UE using multilateral positioning, intersection of multiple AoA, or other known positioning techniques. The one or more processors 902 may be further configured to send the position estimate corresponding to each UE to each UE via the communication interface 910. The one or more processors 902 may be further configured to select a group of UEs for a joint positioning session based, for example, on the UEs' previously determined locations or a cell ID of a common server, etc.

[0147]

[0158] The medium 920 and / or the memory 904 may include a scheduling unit 930 that, when implemented by the one or more processors 902, configures the one or more processors 902 to schedule DL PRSs included in a common set of PRSs with one or more base stations.

[0148]

[0159] The methods described herein may be implemented by various means depending on the application. For example, these methods may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or any combination thereof. In the case of a hardware implementation, one or more processors may be implemented within one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, electronic devices, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or combinations thereof.

[0149]

[0160] For implementations involving firmware and / or software, the methods may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, etc.) that perform the distinct functions described herein. Any machine-readable medium tangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing the methods described herein. For example, software code may be stored in memory and executed by one or more processor units, causing the processor units to operate as special-purpose computers programmed to implement the algorithms disclosed herein. The memory may be implemented within the one or more processors or external to the one or more processors. The term "memory," as used herein, may refer to any type of long-term memory, short-term memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or other memory, and should not be limited to a specific type or number of memories or the type of medium on which the memory is stored.

[0150]

[0161] If implemented in firmware and / or software, the functions may be stored as one or more instructions or program code 908 on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as the medium 920 and / or the memory 904. Examples include computer-readable media encoded with a data structure and computer-readable media encoded with a computer program 908. For example, a non-transitory computer-readable medium with program code 908 stored thereon may include program code 908 for supporting joint positioning sessions and, in some implementations, sidelink-assisted positioning using a selected common set of PRSs in a manner consistent with the disclosed embodiments. The non-transitory computer-readable medium 920 includes a physical computer storage medium. A storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such non-transitory computer-readable media may comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to store desired program code 908 in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer; disk and disc, as used herein, include compact discs (CDs), laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs (DVDs), floppy disks, and Blu-ray discs, where disks typically reproduce data magnetically and discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0151]

[0162] In addition to being stored on a computer-readable storage medium, the instructions and / or data may be provided as signals on a transmission medium contained in a communications device. For example, a communications device may include a transceiver having signals indicative of the instructions and data. The instructions and data are stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as memory 904, and configured to cause one or more processors to operate as a special-purpose computer programmed to perform the procedures and techniques disclosed herein. That is, the communications device includes a transmission medium with signals indicative of information for performing the disclosed functions.

[0152]

[0163] FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart for an example method 1000 implemented by a location server, such as LMF 120, to support joint positioning of multiple UEs, such as user equipment (UE) 105 and 106, in a manner consistent with the disclosed implementations.

[0153]

[0164] In block 1002, a common set of positioning reference signals is selected for measurement, e.g., as described in step 4 of Figure 6, where the common set of positioning reference signals comprises downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof. The common set of positioning reference signals may comprise, for example, one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof. The means for selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, may be, for example, one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as memory 904 and / or a common PRS unit 922 of the location server 900.

[0154]

[0165] In block 1004, a message is sent to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals, e.g., as described in steps 7 and 8 of Figure 6. The means for sending the message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals, may be, for example, the communications interface 910 and one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as the memory 904 and / or the message unit 924 of the location server 900.

[0155]

[0166] In block 1006, location information is received from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or combinations thereof, e.g., as described in steps 13, 14, and 15 of FIG. 6 , where the location information comprises downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or combinations thereof generated based on indication of the common set of positioning reference signals. The means for receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or combinations thereof, where the location information from each UE comprises downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or combinations thereof generated based on indication of the common set of positioning reference signals, can be, for example, the communications interface 910 and one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as the memory 904 and / or the location information reporting unit 926 of the location server 900.

[0156]

[0167] At block 1008, the location servers jointly determine a position estimate for each UE using the received location information, e.g., as described in step 16 of Figure 6. The means for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information may be, for example, one or more processors 902 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in memory 904 and / or a medium 920, such as a joint positioning unit 928 of the location server 900.

[0157]

[0168] In one implementation, the location server may select multiple UEs for joint positioning before selecting a common set of positioning reference signals, for example, as described in stage 3 of Figure 6. The means for selecting multiple UEs for joint positioning before selecting a common set of positioning reference signals may be, for example, one or more processors 902 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as memory 904 and / or a joint positioning unit 928 of the location server 900.

[0158]

[0169] 6, the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement may be selected by the UE by determining location estimates for the plurality of UEs and determining downlink, uplink, sidelink, or a combination thereof included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the location estimates for the plurality of UEs and a UE included in the plurality of UEs. The means for determining location estimates for the plurality of UEs and the means for determining downlink, uplink, sidelink, or a combination thereof included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the location estimates for the plurality of UEs and a UE included in the plurality of UEs may be, for example, the communication interface 910 and one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as the memory 904 and / or the common PRS unit 922 of the location server 900.

[0159]

[0170] In one implementation, for example, as described in stage 3 of FIG. 6 , the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements may be selected by the UE by receiving recommendations from one or more UEs from a plurality of UEs for downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals, and determining the downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the recommendations received from the one or more UEs. The means for receiving recommendations from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs for downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals, and the means for determining the downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the recommendations received from the one or more UEs may be, for example, the communications interface 910 and one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as the memory 904 and / or the common PRS unit 922 of the location server 900.

[0160]

[0171] 6 , the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement may be selected by the UE by receiving location measurement reports from one or more UEs from a plurality of UEs and determining, based on the location measurement reports received from the one or more UEs, downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, included in the common set of positioning reference signals. The means for receiving location measurement reports from one or more UEs from a plurality of UEs and the means for determining, based on the location measurement reports received from the one or more UEs, downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, included in the common set of positioning reference signals may be, for example, the communication interface 910 and one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as the memory 904 and / or the common PRS unit 922 of the location server 900.

[0161]

[0172] In one implementation, the location server may further schedule downlink positioning reference signals included in the common set of positioning reference signals with one or more base stations, for example, as described in steps 5A and 5B of Figure 6. The means for scheduling downlink positioning reference signals included in the common set of positioning reference signals with one or more base stations may be, for example, the communication interface 910 and one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as the memory 904 and / or the scheduling unit 930 of the location server 900.

[0162]

[0173] In one implementation, the location server may further send the corresponding position estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs, e.g., as described in step 16 of Figure 6. The means for sending the corresponding position estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs may be, for example, one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as a memory 904 and / or a joint positioning unit 928 of the location server 900.

[0163]

[0174] FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart for an example method 1100 implemented by a user equipment (UE), such as UE 105, to support joint positioning of multiple UEs, such as UEs 105 and 106, in a manner consistent with the disclosed implementations.

[0164]

[0175] In block 1102, for example, as described in step 4 of FIG. 6 , the UE sends a recommendation to a location server for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof. For example, the plurality of UEs for joint positioning may be selected by the location server. The common set of positioning reference signals may comprise one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof. The means for sending a recommendation to a location server for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, may be, for example, a wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as a memory 804 and / or a common PRS unit 822 of the UE 800.

[0165]

[0176] In block 1104, a message comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE is received from the location server, e.g., as described in step 7 of Figure 6. The means for receiving a message comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE from the location server may be, for example, the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the message unit 824 of the UE 800.

[0166]

[0177] In block 1106, the UE performs positioning measurements of downlink, sidelink, or uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals, e.g., as described in steps 10A and 12A of FIG. 6. The means for performing positioning measurements of downlink, sidelink, or uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals, may be, for example, the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the positioning measurement unit 826 of the UE 800.

[0167]

[0178] In one implementation, the UE may send a location information report comprising positioning measurements of downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof to a location server, for example, as described in step 13 of FIG. 6. The means for sending a location information report comprising positioning measurements of downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof to a location server may be, for example, a wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the reporting unit 828 of the UE 800. In one example, the location server may jointly determine a position estimate for each UE in the plurality of UEs based on the location information report and location information reports received from at least one of other UEs and one or more base stations, or a combination thereof. For example, as described in step 16 of FIG. 6, the UE may further receive a position estimate for the UE from the location server. The means for receiving a position estimate for the UE from the location server may be, for example, a wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820 such as memory 804 and / or a position unit 830 of the UE 800.

[0168]

[0179] FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart for an example method 1200 implemented by a location server, such as LMF 120, to support joint positioning of multiple UEs, such as user equipment (UE) 105 and 106, in a manner consistent with the disclosed implementations.

[0169]

[0180] 7, the location server receives an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement from one or more UEs from a plurality of UEs, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof. The common set of positioning reference signals may comprise, for example, one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof. The means for receiving an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, may be, for example, a communications interface 910 and one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as a memory 904 and / or a common PRS unit 922 of the location server 900.

[0170]

[0181] 7 , the location server receives location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or combinations thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or combinations thereof generated from a common set of positioning reference signals. The means for receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or combinations thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or combinations thereof, generated from the common set of positioning reference signals, can be, for example, the communications interface 910 and one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as the memory 904 and / or the location reporting unit 926 of the location server 900.

[0171]

[0182] In block 1206, the location servers jointly determine a position estimate for each UE using the received location information, e.g., as described in step 19 of Figure 7. The means for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information may be, for example, one or more processors 902 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in memory 904 and / or a medium 920, such as a joint positioning unit 928 of the location server 900.

[0172]

[0183] 7, the location server may send a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising configuration information for a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals, a plurality of uplink positioning reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, from which a common set of positioning reference signals is selected by the one or more UEs. The means for sending the message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising configuration information for a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals, a plurality of uplink positioning reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, from which a common set of positioning reference signals is selected by the one or more UEs, may be, for example, the communication interface 910 and one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as the memory 904 and / or the message unit 924 of the location server 900.

[0173]

[0184] In one implementation, the location server may further schedule the multiple downlink positioning reference signals with one or more base stations before receiving the common set of positioning reference signals, for example, as described in steps 4A and 4B of Figure 7. The means for scheduling the multiple downlink positioning reference signals with one or more base stations before receiving the common set of positioning reference signals may be, for example, the communication interface 910 and one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in the memory 904 and / or the medium 920, such as the scheduling unit 930 of the location server 900. For example, as described in steps 10 and 11 of Figure 7, the location server may further schedule the downlink positioning reference signals with one or more base stations after receiving the common set of positioning reference signals. The means for scheduling downlink positioning reference signals with one or more base stations after receiving a common set of positioning reference signals may be, for example, a communication interface 910 and one or more processors 902 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920 such as memory 904 and / or a scheduling unit 930 of the location server 900.

[0174]

[0185] In one implementation, the location server may further select multiple UEs for joint positioning, for example, as described in step 3 of FIG. 7. For example, as described in steps 6 and 7 of FIG. 7, the location server may further send identification information of the multiple UEs and an indication that the multiple UEs are included in the joint positioning session to each UE in the multiple UEs. The means for selecting multiple UEs for joint positioning may be, for example, one or more processors 902 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as the memory 904 and / or the joint positioning unit 928 of the location server 900. The means for sending the identification information of the multiple UEs and the indication that the multiple UEs are included in the joint positioning session to each UE in the multiple UEs may be, for example, the communication interface 910 and one or more processors 902 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as the memory 904 and / or the joint positioning unit 928 and message unit 924 of the location server 900.

[0175]

[0186] In one implementation, the location server may further send the corresponding position estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs, e.g., as described in step 19 of Figure 7. The means for sending the corresponding position estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs may be, for example, one or more processors 902 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 920, such as memory 904 and / or a joint positioning unit 928 of the location server 900.

[0176]

[0187] FIG. 13 illustrates a flowchart for an example method 1300 implemented by a user equipment (UE), such as UE 105, to support joint positioning of multiple UEs, such as UEs 105 and 106, in a manner consistent with the disclosed implementations.

[0177]

[0188] In block 1302, the UE receives, from the location server, identification information of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are to be included in the joint positioning session, e.g., as described in step 6 of Figure 7. The means for receiving, from the location server, identification information of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are to be included in the joint positioning session may be, for example, the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the common PRS unit 822 of the UE 800.

[0178]

[0189] In block 1304, the UE sends an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement to the location server, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, as described in step 9 of FIG. 7. The common set of positioning reference signals may comprise one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof. The means for sending an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals to the location server for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from UEs in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, may be, for example, the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the common PRS unit 822 of the UE 800.

[0179]

[0190] In block 1306, the UE performs positioning measurements of downlink, sidelink, or uplink positioning reference signals from the common set of positioning reference signals, e.g., as described in steps 13A and 15A of Figure 7. The means for transmitting downlink, sidelink, or uplink positioning reference signals from the common set of positioning reference signals, or performing positioning measurements of combinations thereof from the common set of positioning reference signals, may be, for example, the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the positioning measurement unit 826 of the UE 800.

[0180]

[0191] In some implementations, for example, as described in step 5A or 6 of FIG. 7, the UE may receive a message from the location server, the message comprising configuration information for a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals, a plurality of uplink positioning reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, from which a common set of positioning reference signals is selected by one or more UEs in the plurality of UEs. Identification information of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are included in the joint positioning session may be, for example, in the message. The means for receiving the message from the location server, the message comprising configuration information for a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals, a plurality of uplink positioning reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, from which a common set of positioning reference signals is selected by one or more UEs in the plurality of UEs, may be, for example, the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the message unit 824 of the UE 800.

[0181]

[0192] In some implementations, for example, as described in step 8 of Figure 7, the UE may further receive a recommendation from at least one other UE in the plurality of UEs for downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals. For example, as described in step 8 of Figure 7, the UE may determine the downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the recommendation received from the at least one other UE. For example, as described in step 8 of Figure 7, the UE may send the common set of positioning reference signals to each other UE. The means for receiving a recommendation from at least one other UE in the plurality of UEs for a downlink positioning reference signal, an uplink positioning reference signal, a sidelink positioning reference signal, or a combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals may be, for example, the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the common PRS unit 822 of the UE 800. The means for determining a downlink positioning reference signal, an uplink positioning reference signal, a sidelink positioning reference signal, or a combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the recommendation received from the at least one other UE may be, for example, the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the common PRS unit 822 of the UE 800. The means for sending the common set of positioning reference signals to each other UE may be, for example, a wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820 such as a memory 804 and / or a common PRS unit 822 of the UE 800.

[0182]

[0193] In some implementations, the UE may further send, to at least one other UE in the plurality of UEs, a first recommendation for downlink, uplink, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals, e.g., as described in step 8 of Figure 7. For example, as described in step 8 of Figure 7, the UE may receive, from at least one other UE in the plurality of UEs, a second recommendation for downlink, uplink, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals, the common set of positioning reference signals being determined by consensus of the plurality of UEs. The means for sending to at least one other UE in the plurality of UEs a first recommendation for downlink, uplink, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals may be, for example, the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the common PRS unit 822 of the UE 800. The means for receiving from at least one other UE in the plurality of UEs a second recommendation for downlink, uplink, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals, where the common set of positioning reference signals is determined by consensus of the plurality of UEs, may be, for example, the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the common PRS unit 822 of the UE 800.

[0183]

[0194] In one implementation, the UE may send a location information report comprising positioning measurements of downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof to a location server, e.g., as described in step 16 of FIG. 7. The means for sending a location information report comprising positioning measurements of downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof to a location server may be, e.g., the wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 with dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820, such as the memory 804 and / or the reporting unit 828 of the UE 800. In one example, e.g., as described in step 19 of FIG. 7, the UE may further receive, from the location server, a position estimate for the UE that is jointly determined using position estimates for other UEs in the plurality of UEs based on the location information report and location information reports received from at least one of the other UEs and one or more base stations, or a combination thereof. The means for receiving a position estimate for the UE from the location server may be, for example, a wireless transceiver 810 and one or more processors 802 having dedicated hardware or implementing executable code or software instructions in a medium 820 such as memory 804 and / or a position unit 830 of the UE 800.

[0184]

[0195] Substantial variations may be made according to particular needs. For example, customized hardware may also be used, and / or particular elements may be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software such as applets), or both. Furthermore, connection to other computing devices, such as network input / output devices, may be employed.

[0185]

[0196] The configurations may be described as processes shown as flow diagrams or block diagrams. While each operation may be described as a sequential process, many of the operations may be performed in parallel or simultaneously. Additionally, the order of operations may be rearranged. A process may have additional steps not included in the diagram. Furthermore, the method examples may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware, or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as a storage medium. A processor may perform the described tasks.

[0186]

[0197] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly or usually understood. As used herein, the articles "a" and "an" refer to one or more than one (i.e., at least one) of the grammatical object of the article. By way of example, "an" means one element or more than one element. As used herein, "about" and / or "approximately" when referring to a measurable value such as an amount, duration, etc., encompasses ±20%, ±10%, ±5%, or +0.1% variation from the particular value, when such variation is appropriate in the context of the systems, devices, circuits, methods, and other implementations described herein. As used herein, "substantially" when referring to a measurable value such as an amount, duration, physical attribute (such as frequency), etc., also encompasses ±20%, ±10%, ±5%, or +0.1% variation from the particular value, when such variation is appropriate in the context of the systems, devices, circuits, methods, and other implementations described herein.

[0187]

[0198] As used herein, including the claims, "or" used in a list of items ending with "at least one of" or "one or more of" indicates a disjunctive list, such as, for example, a list of "at least one of A, B, or C" means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C), or any combination of two or more features (e.g., AA, AAB, ABBC, etc.). Also, as used herein, unless expressly stated otherwise, a statement that a function or operation is "based on" an item or state means that the function or operation is based on the stated item or state, and may be based on one or more items and / or states in addition to the stated item or state.

[0188]

[0199] As used herein, a mobile device, user equipment (UE), or mobile station (MS) refers to a device such as a cellular or other wireless communication device, smartphone, tablet, personal communication system (PCS) device, personal navigation device (PND), personal information manager (PIM), personal digital assistant (PDA), laptop, or other suitable mobile device capable of receiving wireless communication and / or navigation signals, such as navigation positioning signals. The term "mobile station" (or "mobile device," "wireless device," or "user equipment") is also intended to include devices that communicate with a personal navigation device (PND), such as by short-range wireless, infrared, wireline, or other connection, regardless of whether satellite signal reception, assistance data reception, and / or position-related processing occurs on the device or the PND. Additionally, a "mobile station" or "user equipment" is intended to include all devices, including wireless communication devices, computers, laptops, tablet devices, etc., capable of communicating with a server, such as via the Internet, WiFi, or other network, for communicating with one or more types of nodes, regardless of whether satellite signal reception, assistance data reception, and / or location-related processing occurs on the device, at a server, or at another device or node associated with the network. Any operable combination of the above is also considered a "mobile station" or "user equipment." A mobile device or user equipment (UE) may also be referred to as a mobile terminal, terminal, device, secure user plane location-enabled terminal (SET), target device, target, or some other name.

[0189]

[0200] In one embodiment, a first exemplary independent claim may include a method for supporting location of a user equipment (UE) at a first wireless node, comprising receiving a first request for broadcast of an increased amount of location-related information, the broadcast using a wireless access type based on a wireless access type for the first wireless node, and broadcasting the increased amount of location-related information based on the first request.

[0190]

[0201] While some of the techniques, processes, and / or implementations presented herein may comply with all or part of one or more standards, such techniques, processes, and / or implementations may, in some embodiments, not comply with all or part of such one or more standards.

[0191]

[0202] Example implementations are described in the following numbered clauses.

[0192]

[0203] 1. A method for supporting joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) performed by a location server, comprising:

[0204] selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0205] sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0206] receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, wherein the location information comprises downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof, generated based on an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0207] jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; A method comprising:

[0193]

[0208] 2. The method of clause 1, further comprising selecting multiple UEs for joint positioning before selecting a common set of positioning reference signals.

[0194]

[0209] 3. Selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurements

[0210] determining location estimates for a plurality of UEs;

[0211] determining downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, included in a common set of positioning reference signals based on location estimates for the plurality of UEs and UEs included in the plurality of UEs; 3. The method of claim 1 or 2, comprising:

[0195]

[0212] 4. Selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurements

[0213] receiving, from one or more UEs from a plurality of UEs, recommendations for downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or combinations thereof, to be included in a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0214] determining downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, to be included in a common set of positioning reference signals based on recommendations received from one or more UEs; 4. The method of any of clauses 1 to 3, comprising:

[0196]

[0215] 5. Selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurements

[0216] receiving location measurement reports from one or more UEs from a plurality of UEs;

[0217] determining downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, included in a common set of positioning reference signals based on location measurement reports received from one or more UEs; 5. The method of any of clauses 1 to 4, comprising:

[0197]

[0218] 6. The method of any of clauses 1 to 5, further comprising scheduling with one or more base stations downlink positioning reference signals included in a common set of positioning reference signals.

[0198]

[0219] 7. The method of any of clauses 1 to 6, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof.

[0199]

[0220] 8. The method of any of clauses 1 to 7, further comprising sending a corresponding location estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs.

[0200]

[0221] 9. A location server configured to support joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs), comprising:

[0222] a communication interface configured to communicate with entities in a wireless network;

[0223] at least one memory;

[0224] at least one processor coupled to the communication interface and to the at least one memory; and wherein at least one processor

[0225] selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0226] sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs via the communications interface, the message comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0227] receiving, via a communications interface, location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, wherein the location information comprises downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof, generated based on indications of a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0228] jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; a location server configured to:

[0201]

[0229] 10. The location server of clause 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to select multiple UEs for joint positioning before selecting a common set of positioning reference signals.

[0202]

[0230] 11. At least one processor:

[0231] determining location estimates for a plurality of UEs;

[0232] determining downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, included in a common set of positioning reference signals based on location estimates for the plurality of UEs and UEs included in the plurality of UEs; 11. The location server of clause 9 or 10, configured to select a common set of positioning reference signals for measurements by being configured to perform:

[0203]

[0233] 12. At least one processor:

[0234] receiving, via a communications interface, from one or more UEs from a plurality of UEs, recommendations for downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, to be included in a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0235] determining downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, to be included in a common set of positioning reference signals based on recommendations received from one or more UEs; 12. The location server of any of clauses 9 to 11, configured to select a common set of positioning reference signals for measurements by being configured to perform:

[0204]

[0236] 13. At least one processor:

[0237] receiving, via a communications interface, location measurement reports from one or more UEs from a plurality of UEs;

[0238] determining downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, included in a common set of positioning reference signals based on location measurement reports received from one or more UEs; 13. The location server of any of clauses 9 to 12, configured to select a common set of positioning reference signals for measurements by being configured to perform:

[0205]

[0239] 14. The location server of any of clauses 9 to 13, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to schedule, with one or more base stations, downlink positioning reference signals included in the common set of positioning reference signals.

[0206]

[0240] 15. The location server of any of clauses 9 to 14, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof.

[0207]

[0241] 16. The location server of any of clauses 9 to 15, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to send the corresponding position estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs via the communications interface.

[0208]

[0242] 17. A location server configured to support joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs), comprising:

[0243] means for selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0244] means for sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0245] means for receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof, generated based on an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0246] means for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; A location server comprising:

[0209]

[0247] 18. A non-transitory storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a location server to support joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs);

[0248] program code for selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0249] program code for sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0250] program code for receiving location information from one or more of each UE in a plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof, generated based on an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0251] program code for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; A non-transitory storage medium comprising:

[0210]

[0252] 19. A method for supporting joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs), the method being performed by a first UE among the plurality of UEs, the method comprising:

[0253] sending a recommendation to a location server for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof;

[0254] receiving a message from a location server comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE;

[0255] and transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals. A method comprising:

[0211]

[0256] 20. The method of clause 19, wherein multiple UEs for joint positioning are selected by a location server.

[0212]

[0257] 21. The method of clause 19 or 20, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof.

[0213]

[0258] twenty two.

[0259] sending a location information report to a location server comprising positioning measurements of the downlink positioning reference signals, the sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof; 22. The method of any of clauses 19 to 21, further comprising:

[0214]

[0260] 23. The method of clause 22, wherein the location server jointly determines a position estimate for each UE in the plurality of UEs based on location information reports and location information reports received from at least one of other UEs and one or more base stations, or a combination thereof.

[0215]

[0261] 24. The method of clause 23, further comprising receiving a position estimate for the first UE from a location server.

[0216]

[0262] 25. A first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of UEs configured to support joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, comprising:

[0263] a wireless transceiver configured to communicate with entities in a wireless network;

[0264] at least one memory;

[0265] at least one processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and to the at least one memory; and wherein at least one processor

[0266] sending, via the wireless transceiver, to a location server a recommendation for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE among the plurality of UEs for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE among the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs among the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof;

[0267] receiving, via the wireless transceiver, a message from a location server comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE;

[0268] and transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals. a first UE configured to:

[0217]

[0269] 26. The first UE according to clause 25, wherein the plurality of UEs for joint positioning are selected by the location server.

[0218]

[0270] 27. The first UE of clause 25 or 26, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof.

[0219]

[0271] 28. At least one processor:

[0272] Sending location information reports to a location server via the wireless transceiver, the location information reports comprising positioning measurements of the downlink positioning reference signals, the sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof. 28. The first UE of any of clauses 25 to 27, further configured to:

[0220]

[0273] 29. The first UE of clause 28, wherein the location server jointly determines a position estimate for each UE in the plurality of UEs based on the location information report and location information reports received from other UEs.

[0221]

[0274] 30. The first UE of clause 29, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive a position estimate for the first UE from a location server via the wireless transceiver.

[0222]

[0275] 31. A first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of UEs configured to support joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, comprising:

[0276] means for sending to a location server a recommendation for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, and the common set of positioning reference signals comprises the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof;

[0277] means for receiving a message from a location server comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE;

[0278] means for transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, based on the indication of a common set of positioning reference signals; a first UE comprising:

[0223]

[0279] 32. A non-transitory storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a first UE among a plurality of user equipments (UEs) to support joint positioning of the plurality of UEs;

[0280] and program code for sending to a location server a recommendation for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, and the common set of positioning reference signals comprises the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof.

[0281] program code for receiving, from a location server, a message comprising an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE;

[0282] and program code for transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, based on instructions from a common set of positioning reference signals, and A non-transitory storage medium comprising:

[0224]

[0283] 33. A method for supporting joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) performed by a location server, comprising:

[0284] receiving an indication from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0285] receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, wherein the location information comprises downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof generated from a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0286] jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; A method comprising:

[0225]

[0287] 34. The method of clause 33, further comprising: sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising configuration information for a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals, a plurality of uplink positioning reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, from which a common set of positioning reference signals is selected by one or more UEs.

[0226]

[0288] 35. The method of clause 34, further comprising scheduling the plurality of downlink positioning reference signals with one or more base stations prior to receiving the common set of positioning reference signals.

[0227]

[0289] 36. The method of clause 34, further comprising, after receiving the common set of positioning reference signals, scheduling downlink positioning reference signals with one or more base stations.

[0228]

[0290] 37.

[0291] selecting a plurality of UEs for joint positioning;

[0292] sending, to each UE in the plurality of UEs, identification information of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are to be included in the joint positioning session; 37. The method of any of clauses 33 to 36, further comprising:

[0229]

[0293] 38. The method of any of clauses 33 to 37, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof.

[0230]

[0294] 39. The method of any of clauses 33-38, further comprising sending a corresponding position estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs.

[0231]

[0295] 40. A location server configured to support joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs), comprising:

[0296] a communication interface configured to communicate with entities in a wireless network;

[0297] at least one memory;

[0298] at least one processor coupled to the communication interface and to the at least one memory; and wherein at least one processor

[0299] receiving an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs via the communications interface, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0300] receiving, via a communications interface, location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, wherein the location information comprises downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof, generated from a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0301] jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; a location server configured to:

[0232]

[0302] 41. The location server of clause 40, further comprising: sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising configuration information for a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals, a plurality of uplink positioning reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, from which a common set of positioning reference signals is selected by one or more UEs.

[0233]

[0303] 42. The location server of clause 41, further comprising scheduling the plurality of downlink positioning reference signals with one or more base stations prior to receiving the common set of positioning reference signals.

[0234]

[0304] 43. The location server of clause 41, further comprising, after receiving the common set of positioning reference signals, scheduling downlink positioning reference signals with one or more base stations.

[0235]

[0305] 44.

[0306] selecting a plurality of UEs for joint positioning;

[0307] sending, to each UE in the plurality of UEs, identification information of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are to be included in the joint positioning session; 44. The location server of any of clauses 40 to 43, further comprising:

[0236]

[0308] 45. The location server of any of clauses 40 to 44, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof.

[0237]

[0309] 46. ​​The location server of any of clauses 40 to 45, further comprising sending a corresponding position estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs.

[0238]

[0310] 47. A location server configured to support joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs), comprising:

[0311] means for receiving, from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs, an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0312] means for receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof generated from a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0313] means for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; A location server comprising:

[0239]

[0314] 48. A non-transitory storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a location server to support joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs);

[0315] program code for receiving, from one or more UEs from a plurality of UEs, an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0316] program code for receiving location information from one or more of each UE in a plurality of UEs, one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof generated from a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0317] program code for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; A non-transitory storage medium comprising:

[0240]

[0318] 49. A method for supporting joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs), the method being performed by a first UE among the plurality of UEs, the method comprising:

[0319] receiving, from a location server, identities of a plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are to be included in a joint positioning session;

[0320] sending an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals to the location server for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0321] transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof from a common set of positioning reference signals; and A method comprising:

[0241]

[0322] 50. The method of clause 49, further comprising receiving a message from a location server, the message comprising configuration information for a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals, a plurality of uplink positioning reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, from which a common set of positioning reference signals is selected by one or more UEs in the plurality of UEs.

[0242]

[0323] 51. The method of clause 50, wherein the message includes identities of the multiple UEs and an indication that the multiple UEs are involved in the joint positioning session.

[0243]

[0324] 52.

[0325] receiving, from at least one other UE among the plurality of UEs, a recommendation for a downlink positioning reference signal, an uplink positioning reference signal, a sidelink positioning reference signal, or a combination thereof, to be included in a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0326] determining downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, to be included in a common set of positioning reference signals based on recommendations received from at least one other UE;

[0327] transmitting a common set of positioning reference signals to each other UE; 52. The method of any of clauses 49 to 51, further comprising:

[0244]

[0328] 53.

[0329] sending, to at least one other UE among the plurality of UEs, a first recommendation for a downlink positioning reference signal, an uplink positioning reference signal, a sidelink positioning reference signal, or a combination thereof, to be included in a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0330] receiving, from at least one other UE in the plurality of UEs, a second recommendation for a downlink positioning reference signal, an uplink positioning reference signal, a sidelink positioning reference signal, or a combination thereof, to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals;

[0331] wherein the common set of positioning reference signals is determined by consensus of multiple UEs; 53. The method of any of clauses 49 to 52, further comprising:

[0245]

[0332] 54. The method of any of clauses 49 to 53, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof.

[0246]

[0333] 55. The method of any of clauses 49 to 54, further comprising sending a location information report to a location server comprising positioning measurements of downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof.

[0247]

[0334] 56. The method of clause 55, further comprising receiving, from a location server, a location estimate for the first UE that is determined jointly with location estimates for other UEs in the plurality of UEs based on location information reports and location information reports received from at least one of the other UEs and one or more base stations, or a combination thereof.

[0248]

[0335] 57. A first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of user equipments (UEs) configured to support joint positioning of the plurality of UEs,

[0336] a wireless transceiver configured to communicate with entities in a wireless network;

[0337] at least one memory;

[0338] at least one processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and to the at least one memory; and wherein at least one processor

[0339] receiving, via the wireless transceiver, from a location server, identities of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are to be included in a joint positioning session;

[0340] sending, via the wireless transceiver, to the location server an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0341] transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals from a common set of positioning reference signals, or performing positioning measurements on combinations thereof from the common set of positioning reference signals; a first UE configured to:

[0249]

[0342] 58. The first UE of clause 57, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive a message from the location server via the wireless transceiver, the message comprising configuration information for a plurality of downlink positioning reference signals, a plurality of uplink positioning reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, from which a common set of positioning reference signals is selected by one or more UEs in the plurality of UEs.

[0250]

[0343] 59. The first UE of clause 58, wherein the message includes identities of the multiple UEs and an indication that the multiple UEs are involved in the joint positioning session.

[0251]

[0344] 60. At least one processor:

[0345] receiving, via a wireless transceiver from at least one other UE among the plurality of UEs, a recommendation for a downlink positioning reference signal, an uplink positioning reference signal, a sidelink positioning reference signal, or a combination thereof, to be included in a common set of positioning reference signals;

[0346] determining downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof, to be included in a common set of positioning reference signals based on recommendations received from at least one other UE;

[0347] sending a common set of positioning reference signals to each other UE via a wireless transceiver; 59. The first UE of any of clauses 57 to 59, further configured to:

[0252]

[0348] 61. At least one processor:

[0349] sending a first recommendation for a downlink positioning reference signal, an uplink positioning reference signal, a sidelink positioning reference signal, or a combination thereof to be included in a common set of positioning reference signals to at least one other UE among the plurality of UEs via the wireless transceiver;

[0350] receiving, via the wireless transceiver from at least one other UE among the plurality of UEs, a second recommendation for a downlink positioning reference signal, an uplink positioning reference signal, a sidelink positioning reference signal, or a combination thereof, to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals;

[0351] The common set of positioning reference signals is determined by consensus of multiple UEs; 61. The first UE of any of clauses 57 to 60, further configured to:

[0253]

[0352] 62. The first UE of any of clauses 57 to 61, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof.

[0254]

[0353] 63. At least one processor:

[0354] sending a location information report to a location server comprising positioning measurements of the downlink positioning reference signals, the sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof; 63. The first UE of any of clauses 57 to 62, further configured to:

[0255]

[0355] 64. The first UE described in clause 63, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive, via the wireless transceiver, from the location server, a location estimate for the first UE that is jointly determined using location estimates for other UEs in the plurality of UEs based on location information reports and location information reports received from at least one of the other UEs and one or more base stations, or a combination thereof.

[0256]

[0356] 65. A first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of user equipments (UEs) configured to support joint positioning of the plurality of UEs,

[0357] means for receiving, from a location server, identities of the plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are involved in a joint positioning session;

[0358] means for sending to the location server an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0359] means for transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof from a common set of positioning reference signals, and a first UE comprising:

[0257]

[0360] 66. A non-transitory storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of user equipments (UEs) to support joint positioning of the plurality of UEs;

[0361] program code for receiving, from a location server, identities of a plurality of UEs and an indication that the plurality of UEs are involved in a joint positioning session;

[0362] program code for sending to a location server an indication of a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof;

[0363] and program code for transmitting downlink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals from a common set of positioning reference signals, or performing positioning measurements of combinations thereof from the common set of positioning reference signals. A non-transitory storage medium comprising:

[0258]

[0364] While particular embodiments have been disclosed in detail herein, this is done by way of example only for purposes of illustration and is not intended to limit the scope of the following appended claims. Specifically, it is contemplated that various substitutions, changes, and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the claims. Other aspects, advantages, and modifications are contemplated as falling within the scope of the following claims. The claims presented represent the embodiments and features disclosed herein. Other unclaimed embodiments and features are also contemplated. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. The inventions described in the claims of the present application as originally filed are set forth below. [C1] 1. A method for supporting joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) performed by a location server, comprising: selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, the one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or the combination thereof, generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; and A method comprising: [C2] The method of C1, further comprising selecting the plurality of UEs for joint positioning before selecting the common set of positioning reference signals. [C3] Selecting the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements comprises: determining location estimates for the plurality of UEs; and determining, based on the plurality of UEs and the location estimates for the UEs included in the plurality of UEs, the downlink positioning reference signals, the uplink positioning reference signals, the sidelink positioning reference signals, or the combination thereof, included in the common set of positioning reference signals; The method of claim C1, comprising: [C4] Selecting the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements comprises: receiving, from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs, a recommendation for the downlink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals; determining the downlink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the recommendations received from the one or more UEs; The method of claim C1, comprising: [C5] Selecting the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements comprises: receiving location measurement reports from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs; determining the downlink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the location measurement reports received from the one or more UEs; The method of claim C1, comprising: [C6] The method of C1, further comprising scheduling with the one or more base stations the downlink positioning reference signals included in the common set of positioning reference signals. [C7] The method of C1, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof. [C8] The method of C1, further comprising sending a corresponding position estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs. [C9] 1. A location server configured to support joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs), comprising: a communication interface configured to communicate with entities in a wireless network; at least one memory; at least one processor coupled to the communication interface and to the at least one memory; wherein the at least one processor: selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs via the communications interface, the message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, the one or more base stations, or a combination thereof via the communication interface, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or the combination thereof, generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; and a location server configured to: [C10] The location server of C9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to select the plurality of UEs for joint positioning before selecting the common set of positioning reference signals. [C11] The at least one processor: determining location estimates for the plurality of UEs; determining, based on the plurality of UEs and the location estimates for the UEs included in the plurality of UEs, the downlink positioning reference signals, the uplink positioning reference signals, the sidelink positioning reference signals, or the combination thereof, included in the common set of positioning reference signals; 10. The location server of claim 9, wherein the location server is configured to select the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements by being configured to: [C12] The at least one processor: receiving, via the communications interface, from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs, a recommendation for the downlink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals; determining the downlink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the recommendations received from the one or more UEs; 10. The location server of claim 9, wherein the location server is configured to select the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements by being configured to perform: [C13] The at least one processor: receiving location measurement reports from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs via the communication interface; determining the downlink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the location measurement reports received from the one or more UEs; 10. The location server of claim 9, wherein the location server is configured to select the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements by being configured to perform: [C14] The location server of C9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to schedule the downlink positioning reference signals included in the common set of positioning reference signals with the one or more base stations. [C15] 10. The location server of claim 9, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof. [C16] 5. The location server of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to send a corresponding position estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs via the communications interface. [C17] 1. A location server configured to support joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs), comprising: means for selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; means for sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; means for receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, the one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or a combination thereof, generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals. means for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; A location server comprising: [C18] A non-transitory storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a location server to support joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs); program code for selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; program code for sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; and program code for receiving location information from one or more of each UE in the plurality of UEs, the one or more base stations, or a combination thereof, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or the combination thereof, generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals. program code for jointly determining a position estimate for each UE using the received location information; A non-transitory storage medium comprising: [C19] 1. A method for supporting joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs), the method being performed by a first UE among the plurality of UEs, the method comprising: sending a recommendation to a location server for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs; wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof; receiving a message from the location server comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE; transmitting the downlink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; and performing positioning measurements of the downlink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof. A method comprising: [C20] The method of C19, wherein the plurality of UEs for the joint positioning are selected by the location server. [C21] The method of C19, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof. [C22] sending a location information report to the location server comprising the positioning measurements of the downlink positioning reference signals, the sidelink positioning reference signals, or the combination thereof; The method of C19, further comprising: [C23] The method of C22, wherein the location server jointly determines a position estimate for each UE in the plurality of UEs based on the location information report and location information reports received from at least one of other UEs and the one or more base stations, or a combination thereof. [C24] The method of C23, further comprising receiving the position estimate for the first UE from the location server. [C25] a first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of UEs configured to support joint positioning of the UEs, a wireless transceiver configured to communicate with entities in a wireless network; at least one memory; at least one processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and the at least one memory; wherein the at least one processor: sending, via the wireless transceiver, to a location server a recommendation for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs; wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof; receiving, via the wireless transceiver, a message from the location server comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE; transmitting the downlink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; and performing positioning measurements of the downlink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof. a first UE configured to: [C26] The first UE of C25, wherein the plurality of UEs for the joint positioning are selected by the location server. [C27] The first UE of C25, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof. [C28] The at least one processor: sending, via the wireless transceiver, a location information report to the location server comprising the positioning measurements of the downlink positioning reference signals, the sidelink positioning reference signals, or the combination thereof; The first UE of C25, further configured to: [C29] The first UE of C28, wherein the location server jointly determines a position estimate for each UE in the plurality of UEs based on the location information report and location information reports received from other UEs. [C30] The first UE of C29, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive the position estimate for the first UE from the location server via the wireless transceiver. [C31] a first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of UEs configured to support joint positioning of the UEs, means for sending to a location server a recommendation for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof; means for receiving a message from the location server comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE; means for transmitting the downlink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; and a first UE comprising: [C32] A non-transitory storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of UEs to support joint positioning of the UEs; and program code for sending to a location server a recommendation for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, sidelink positioning reference signals, or a combination thereof. program code for receiving from the location server a message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE; -program code for transmitting the downlink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; A non-transitory storage medium comprising:

Claims

1. 1. A method for supporting joint positioning of multiple user equipments (UEs) performed by a location server, comprising: selecting the plurality of UEs for joint positioning; selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising: downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs; uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations; and sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs. sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs, the message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; receiving location information from each UE in the plurality of UEs and one or more of the one or more base stations, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or combinations thereof, generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; jointly determining a position estimate for each UE of the plurality of UEs using the received location information; and A method comprising:

2. Selecting the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements comprises: determining location estimates for the plurality of UEs; determining, based on the plurality of UEs and the location estimates for the UEs included in the plurality of UEs, the downlink positioning reference signals, the uplink positioning reference signals, the sidelink positioning reference signals, or the combination thereof, included in the common set of positioning reference signals; The method of claim 1 , comprising:

3. Selecting the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements comprises: receiving, from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs, a recommendation for the downlink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals; determining the downlink positioning reference signals, the uplink positioning reference signals, the sidelink positioning reference signals, or the combination thereof to be included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the recommendations received from the one or more UEs; The method of claim 1 , comprising:

4. Selecting the common set of positioning reference signals for measurements comprises: receiving location measurement reports from one or more UEs from the plurality of UEs; determining the downlink positioning reference signal, the uplink positioning reference signal, the sidelink positioning reference signal, or the combination thereof included in the common set of positioning reference signals based on the location measurement reports received from the one or more UEs; The method of claim 1 , comprising:

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising scheduling with the one or more base stations the downlink positioning reference signals included in the common set of positioning reference signals.

6. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending a corresponding position estimate to each UE in the plurality of UEs.

8. 1. A location server configured to support joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs), comprising: a communication interface configured to communicate with entities in a wireless network; at least one memory; at least one processor coupled to the communication interface and to the at least one memory; wherein the at least one processor selecting the plurality of UEs for joint positioning; selecting a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising: downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs; uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations; and sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs. sending a message to each UE in the plurality of UEs via the communications interface, the message comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; receiving location information from each UE in the plurality of UEs and one or more of the one or more base stations via the communications interface, the location information comprising downlink positioning reference signal measurements, uplink positioning reference signal measurements, round trip time measurements, sidelink positioning reference signal measurements, or combinations thereof, generated based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; jointly determining a position estimate for each UE of the plurality of UEs using the received location information; and a location server configured to:

9. 9. A location server according to claim 8, further configured to perform the method according to any one of claims 2 to 7.

10. 8. A non-transitory storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a location server to support joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs), the non-transitory storage medium comprising program code for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

11. 1. A method for supporting joint positioning of a plurality of user equipments (UEs), the method being performed by a first UE among the UEs, the method comprising: sending to a location server, for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs, recommendations for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof; wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendations, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, and sidelink positioning reference signals. receiving a message from the location server comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE; performing positioning measurements on the downlink and sidelink positioning reference signals and transmitting the uplink positioning reference signals based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; A method comprising:

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of UEs for the joint positioning are selected by the location server.

13. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the common set of positioning reference signals comprises one or more of a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource identifier (ID), a PRS resource set ID, a transmission point (TRP) ID, a cell ID, a sidelink-PRS ID, a UE ID, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any combination thereof.

14. sending a location information report to the location server, the location information report comprising the positioning measurements of the downlink positioning reference signals and the sidelink positioning reference signals; Furthermore, the location server jointly determines a position estimate for each UE in the plurality of UEs based on the location information report and location information reports received from other UEs and at least one of the one or more base stations; The method of claim 11 , further comprising receiving the position estimate for the first UE from the location server.

15. a first user equipment (UE) among a plurality of UEs configured to support joint positioning of the UEs, the first UE comprising: a wireless transceiver configured to communicate with entities in a wireless network; at least one memory; at least one processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and the at least one memory; wherein the at least one processor and sending, via the wireless transceiver, to a location server a recommendation for downlink positioning reference signals from one or more base stations to be measured by each UE in the plurality of UEs, uplink positioning reference signals from the plurality of UEs to be measured by the one or more base stations, sidelink positioning reference signals from a UE in the plurality of UEs to be measured by other UEs in the plurality of UEs, or a combination thereof, for joint positioning of the plurality of UEs; wherein the location server selects a common set of positioning reference signals for measurement based on the recommendation, the common set of positioning reference signals comprising the selected downlink positioning reference signals, uplink positioning reference signals, and sidelink positioning reference signals. receiving, via the wireless transceiver, a message from the location server comprising an indication of the common set of positioning reference signals for measurement by the first UE; performing positioning measurements on the downlink and sidelink positioning reference signals and transmitting the uplink positioning reference signals based on the indication of the common set of positioning reference signals; a first UE configured to:

16. The first UE of claim 15, further configured to perform the method of any one of claims 12 to 14.

17. 15. A non-transitory storage medium having program code stored thereon, the program code operable to configure at least one processor in a first user equipment (UE) of a plurality of UEs to support joint positioning of the UEs, the non-transitory storage medium comprising program code for performing the method of any one of claims 11 to 14.

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