Methods, devices, and communication equipment for estimating arrival time delays

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method, apparatus and communication device for estimating arrival time delay, the method includes: obtaining a first time-domain impulse response according to a positioning signal; obtaining a first-pass time-domain sample point from the first time-domain impulse response, the first time-domain sample point being a time-domain sample point corresponding to a first impulse response peak value greater than a first threshold; shifting the first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response, in which a position shift amount of the shifting amount is related to the first-pass time-domain sample point; performing a spectrum peak search on a pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimate of arrival time delay; and obtaining a second estimate of arrival time delay according to the position shift amount and the first estimate.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] (Cross-reference of related applications) This disclosure claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202210195788.0, filed in China on March 1, 2022, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. This disclosure relates to the field of communications technology, and more particularly to methods, apparatus, and communications equipment for estimating arrival time delays. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, the number of devices accessing the internet has been steadily increasing, and various application services based on the Internet of Things (IoT) have brought many conveniences to people's lives. Location information has become one of the important prerequisites for the realization of these application services. Therefore, how to obtain accurate location information in real time and efficiently has become an important problem that needs to be solved urgently in order to promote industrial development. In related technologies, research has been actively conducted on positioning technologies, including time of arrival (TOA) measurement technologies such as multiple signal classification (MUSIC), time delay estimation algorithms, and maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithms. However, all of the time delay estimation algorithms in related technologies suffer from the problem that the matrix dimension is too high when creating and measuring a pseudospectrum, resulting in high algorithmic complexity. [Overview of the project] [Problems that the invention aims to solve]

[0003] The purpose of this disclosure is to provide a method, apparatus, and communication equipment for estimating arrival time delays that solve the problem of the high complexity of time delay estimation algorithms in related technologies. [Means for solving the problem]

[0004] Embodiments of this disclosure are methods for estimating arrival time delays, Acquiring the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal, From the aforementioned first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first pass is obtained, which represents the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value that is greater than the first threshold. The first time-domain impulse response is shifted to obtain a second time-domain impulse response, wherein the amount of positional movement in the shifting process is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass. A spectral peak search is performed on the pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay. The present invention provides a method for estimating arrival time delay, which includes obtaining a second estimated value of the arrival time delay according to the positional displacement and the first estimated value.

[0005] Selectively shifting the aforementioned first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response is possible. This includes shifting the first time-domain impulse response in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0006] Selectively, the first time-domain impulse response is the first time-domain impulse response after normalization based on the maximum value.

[0007] Selectively acquiring the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal described above is possible. To obtain the first frequency domain impulse response of the positioning signal, This includes converting the first frequency domain impulse response into the first time domain impulse response.

[0008] Alternatively, the fact that the amount of position movement in the shift process is related to the time-domain sample value points of the first path means that after performing the shift process on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample value points of the first path after the shift are not negative values.

[0009] Alternatively, obtaining the second time-domain impulse response by selectively performing a shift process on the above-mentioned first time-domain impulse response means performing windowing processing on the first time-domain impulse response based on the time-domain sample value points of the first path using a window function to obtain at least one target time-domain impulse response located within the first window, the at least one target time-domain impulse response including a time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample value points of the first path, and obtaining the second time-domain impulse response by shifting the target time-domain impulse response within the first window in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response.

[0010] Alternatively, the window function is as follows:

Number

Number

Number

[0011] Alternatively, the time-domain sample value points of the first path are calculated by the following formula:

Number

number

[0012] Selectively shifting the target time-domain impulse response within the first window described above in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response is: The positional displacement amount is determined to the first time length according to the time-domain sample value point of the first pass, This includes moving all target time-domain impulse responses within the first window by the first time length in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response, thereby obtaining the second time-domain impulse response. Here, the time-domain sample point corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is not a negative value.

[0013] Selectively shifting all target time-domain impulse responses within the aforementioned first window by the first time length in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response, thereby obtaining the second time-domain impulse response, is: The calculation of the second time-domain impulse response is performed using the following formula,

number

number

number

[0014] Selectively, by performing a spectral peak search on the pseudo-spectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response described above, to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay, Converting the aforementioned second time-domain impulse response into a second frequency-domain impulse response, Determining the pseudospectral function according to the second frequency domain impulse response, This includes performing a spectral peak search on the pseudospectral function to obtain a spectral peak of the pseudospectral function whose value is the first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0015] Selectively obtaining a second estimate of the arrival time delay according to the aforementioned positional displacement and first estimate is: This includes adding the aforementioned positional movement amount and the first estimated value to obtain the second estimated value, Here, the positional displacement amount and the first estimated value have the same units.

[0016] An embodiment of the present disclosure is a communication device including a memory, a transceiver, and a processor, Memory is for storing computer programs, and the transceiver is for sending and receiving data under the control of the processor, and the processor reads the computer programs in the memory, The operation of acquiring the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal, The operation of obtaining the first time-domain sample point from the first time-domain impulse response, which represents the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value that is greater than the first threshold, An operation to obtain a second time-domain impulse response by shifting the first time-domain impulse response, wherein the amount of positional movement in the shifting operation is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass, The operation involves performing a spectral peak search on the pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay, The present invention provides a communication device for performing the operation of obtaining a second estimated value of the arrival time delay according to the aforementioned positional movement amount and the aforementioned first estimated value.

[0017] Selectively, the processor reads a computer program from the memory, This operation involves shifting the first time-domain impulse response in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response in order to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0018] Selectively, the first time-domain impulse response is the first time-domain impulse response after normalization based on the maximum value.

[0019] Selectively, the processor reads a computer program from the memory, The operation of acquiring the first frequency domain impulse response of the positioning signal, This is for performing the operation of converting the first frequency domain impulse response into the first time domain impulse response.

[0020] Selectively, the positional displacement amount of the shift process being related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass means that, after performing the shift process on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first pass after the shift is not a negative value.

[0021] Selectively, the processor reads a computer program from the memory, An operation to obtain at least one target time-domain impulse response that is located within the first window and includes a time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample point of the first pass, by performing a windowing operation on the first time-domain impulse response using a window function based on the time-domain sample point of the first pass, This is for performing an operation to obtain the second time-domain impulse response by shifting the target time-domain impulse response in the first window in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response.

[0022] Selectively, the window function is as follows:

number

number

number

[0023] Selectively, the time-domain sample point of the first pass is calculated by the following formula:

number

number

[0024] Selectively, the processor reads a computer program from the memory, The operation of determining the positional displacement amount to the first time length according to the time domain sample value point of the first pass, This is for performing the operation of moving all target time-domain impulse responses within the first window by the first time length in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response, thereby obtaining the second time-domain impulse response. Here, the time-domain sample point corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is not a negative value.

[0025] Selectively, the processor reads a computer program from the memory, The following formula is used to perform the operation of calculating the second time-domain impulse response:

number

number

number

[0026] Selectively, the processor reads a computer program from the memory, The operation of converting the second time-domain impulse response into a second frequency-domain impulse response, The operation of determining the pseudospectral function according to the second frequency domain impulse response, This is for performing a spectral peak search on the pseudo-spectral function to obtain a spectral peak of the pseudo-spectral function whose value is the first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0027] Selectively, the processor reads a computer program from the memory, This is for performing the operation of adding the aforementioned positional movement amount and the first estimated value to obtain the second estimated value. Here, the positional displacement amount and the first estimated value have the same units.

[0028] An embodiment of the present disclosure is an arrival time delay estimation device, A first acquisition unit that acquires the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal, A second acquisition unit for obtaining the first pass time-domain sample point, which represents the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value that is greater than the first threshold, from the first time-domain impulse response, A first processing unit for shifting the first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response, wherein the positional movement amount of the shifting process is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass, A second processing unit for obtaining a first estimate of the arrival time delay by performing a spectral peak search on a pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response, An arrival time delay estimation device is provided, which includes a third acquisition unit for obtaining a second estimated value of the arrival time delay according to the positional movement amount and the first estimated value.

[0029] Embodiments of this disclosure provide a processor-readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein when the computer program is executed by the processor, the steps of the above-described method for estimating arrival time delay are realized. [Effects of the Invention]

[0030] The beneficial effects of the above-mentioned technical proposal in this disclosure are as follows: According to the embodiments of this disclosure, after receiving a positioning signal, the receiving end obtains a first time-domain impulse response of the positioning signal, obtains a time-domain sample point from the first pass of the first time-domain impulse response, and shifts the first time-domain impulse response according to the time-domain sample point to obtain a second time-domain impulse response. When TOA estimation is performed, the second time-domain impulse response is used to perform a spectral peak search, and the obtained estimated value is restored. Because the first time-domain impulse response is shifted, the dimensionality of the van der Mond matrix is ​​significantly reduced, the complexity of the calculation process is reduced, and after the spectral peak search is completed, a backoff calculation is performed according to the position shift amount, and as a result, the finally estimated TOA value is output, effectively reducing the complexity of the peak value search in such a TOA measurement algorithm. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0031] [Figure 1] This is a schematic flowchart of the method for estimating arrival time delay according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] This is a schematic diagram of the time-domain impulse response before shift processing according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 3] This is a schematic diagram of the time-domain impulse response after shift processing according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 4] This is the second flowchart illustrating the method for estimating arrival time delay according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 5] This is the third schematic flowchart of the method for estimating arrival time delay according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 6] This is the fourth schematic flowchart of the method for estimating arrival time delay according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 7] This is the fifth schematic flowchart of the method for estimating arrival time delay according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 8]This is a schematic diagram of the structure of an arrival time delay estimation device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 9] This is a structural block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0032] To further clarify the problems, technical solutions, and advantages that this disclosure aims to solve, a detailed description will be provided below with reference to the drawings and specific examples. The following description provides specific details of the configurations and components to aid in a full understanding of the embodiments of this disclosure. Therefore, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made to the embodiments described herein without departing from the scope or spirit of this disclosure. Furthermore, for clarity and conciseness, descriptions of known functions and structures have been omitted.

[0033] Furthermore, the terms "one embodiment" or "one example" used throughout the specification mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic related to an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of this disclosure. Therefore, the terms "in one embodiment" or "in one example" used in different parts of the specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. In addition, these particular features, structures, or characteristics can be incorporated into one or more embodiments in any and appropriate manner.

[0034] In each embodiment of this disclosure, the numbering of the processes described below does not indicate the order of execution, but rather the execution order of each process is determined by its function and inherent logic, and should be understood as not limiting the implementation process according to the embodiments of this disclosure.

[0035] In the embodiments of this disclosure, the term "and / or" merely expresses a correlation between related objects, indicating that there may be three possible relationships. For example, A and / or B could represent three cases: A exists alone, both A and B exist, and B exists alone. The symbol " / " generally indicates an "or" relationship between the related objects before and after it.

[0036] In the embodiments of this disclosure, the term “plural” means two or more, and the same applies to other quantifiers.

[0037] The technical concepts in the embodiments of this disclosure will be described clearly and completely below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of this disclosure, but it is clear that the embodiments described are only some, not all, embodiments of this disclosure. Any other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative work based on the embodiments of this disclosure are all within the scope of the protection of the present invention.

[0038] Specifically, the embodiments of this disclosure provide a method, apparatus, and communication equipment for estimating arrival time delays that solve the problem of the high complexity of time delay estimation algorithms in related technologies.

[0039] As shown in Figure 1, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for estimating arrival time delay, which specifically includes the following steps 101-105.

[0040] Step 101 is to obtain the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal.

[0041] In this embodiment, a positioning signal is transmitted from a transmitting end to a receiving end, and the receiving end measures the channel impulse response of the received positioning signal to estimate the arrival time delay. The transmitting end and the receiving end may be terminals or network-side equipment (e.g., base stations). For example, the transmitting end is a terminal and the receiving end is a base station, and a positioning signal is transmitted from the terminal to the base station, and the positioning signal is, for example, a sounding reference signal (SRS), and the base station receives the SRS and measures the impulse response of the SRS to estimate the TOA, or the transmitting end is a base station and the receiving end is a terminal, and a positioning signal is transmitted from the base station to the terminal, and the positioning signal is, for example, a positioning reference signal (PRS), and the terminal receives the PRS and measures the impulse response of the PRS to estimate the TOA.

[0042] The first time-domain impulse response may be one or more time-domain impulse responses related to the positioning signal.

[0043] Step 102 is to obtain the first pass time-domain sample point from the first time-domain impulse response, which represents the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value that is greater than the first threshold.

[0044] The first pass is the first impulse response that reaches a peak value. In this embodiment, a first threshold is set for the first time-domain impulse response, all first time-domain impulse responses are traversed, and all first time-domain impulse responses are compared with the first threshold to obtain the first peak value greater than the first threshold. The time-domain sample point corresponding to this first peak value becomes the time-domain sample point of the first pass. The first pass may be a line-of-sight (LOS) path. The receiving end obtains the time-domain sample point of the first pass used to shift the first time-domain impulse response from a plurality of first time-domain impulse responses. The first threshold can be set according to the TOA measurement requirements.

[0045] Of these, the position of the initial pass is related to the dimension of the van der Mond matrix that needs to be constructed during spectral peak search.

[0046] Step 103 involves shifting the first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response, wherein the amount of positional movement during the shifting process is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass.

[0047] Shifting the first time-domain impulse response may mean moving the first time-domain impulse response in the time domain position, and after the movement obtaining a second time-domain impulse response which differs from the first time-domain impulse response only in its time domain position and has the same other related parameters.

[0048] Selectively, the shifting process may move the first time-domain impulse response forward (i.e., in a direction smaller than the current time-domain position) by a predetermined time-domain length relative to its current time-domain position. When the first time-domain impulse response is selectively shifted, the amount of positional movement is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass.

[0049] Step 104 is to perform a spectral peak search on the pseudo-spectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay.

[0050] By shifting the first time-domain impulse response and obtaining a second time-domain impulse response, and then processing the second time-domain impulse response with a pseudospectral function and performing a spectral peak search, the obtained spectral peak becomes the first estimate of the arrival time delay.

[0051] Step 105 is to obtain a second estimate of the arrival time delay according to the positional displacement and the first estimate.

[0052] The first estimate is inaccurate because it is calculated after a shift operation has been performed on the first time-domain impulse response. The final estimate of the arrival time delay (i.e., the second estimate) is calculated according to the positional displacement of the shift operation and the first estimate. Optionally, the first estimate may be repositioned according to the positional displacement of the shift operation, thereby obtaining a true TOA estimate.

[0053] According to the embodiments of this disclosure, after receiving a positioning signal, the receiving end obtains a first time-domain impulse response of the positioning signal, obtains a time-domain sample point from the first pass of the first time-domain impulse response, and shifts the first time-domain impulse response according to the time-domain sample point to obtain a second time-domain impulse response. When TOA estimation is performed, the second time-domain impulse response is used to perform a spectral peak search, and the obtained estimated value is restored. Because the first time-domain impulse response is shifted, the dimensionality of the van der Mond matrix is ​​significantly reduced, the complexity of the calculation process is reduced, and after the spectral peak search is completed, a backoff calculation is performed according to the position shift amount, and as a result, the finally estimated TOA value is output, effectively reducing the complexity of the peak value search in such a TOA measurement algorithm.

[0054] Selectively, the first time-domain impulse response is the first time-domain impulse response after normalization based on the maximum value.

[0055] In this embodiment, when TOA estimation is performed, the receiving end measures the time-domain impulse response of the positioning signal after receiving the positioning signal and performs a normalization process on the time-domain impulse response. The normalization process may be performed using the following formula.

number

number

[0056] As one selective embodiment, obtaining a first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal described above includes obtaining a first frequency-domain impulse response of the positioning signal and converting the first frequency-domain impulse response into the first time-domain impulse response.

[0057] In this embodiment, after receiving a positioning signal, the receiving end can measure the positioning signal to obtain a frequency-domain impulse response vector of the positioning signal, and then transform the frequency-domain impulse response vector using an inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) to obtain the corresponding time-domain impulse response, i.e., the first time-domain impulse response. The method for obtaining the frequency-domain impulse response will be explained below with an example.

[0058] Selectively, the signal model employed in the embodiments of this disclosure may be an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) wireless communication signal, the received signal being represented by the following equation. y(t)=h(t)*s(t)+n(t) Here, y(t) represents the received signal at the receiving end, s(t) represents the transmitted signal at the transmitting end, n(t) represents additive white Gaussian noise, h(t) represents the channel impulse response, and "*" represents time-domain convolution processing. In a multipath environment, h(t) can be expressed as follows:

Equation

[0059] In an OFDM system containing K subcarriers, the modulated time-domain OFDM symbol can be expressed as follows:

Equation

[0060] According to the above formula, the time-domain signal after the OFDM passes through the channel can be obtained as follows:

Equation

[0061] After the above received signal y(t) is transformed by the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), the estimated frequency-domain impulse response on the kth subcarrier is as follows:

number

number

[0062] According to the above calculations, the time delay can be further estimated using a signal estimation algorithm (e.g., the MUSIC algorithm or the maximum likelihood estimation algorithm). In the analysis of the embodiments of this disclosure, the subscript t is ignored because, in some OFDM symbols, the radio channel is considered to be a semi-static channel.

[0063] According to the above calculation, the frequency-domain impulse response of the positioning signal can be obtained, and by performing an IDFT transformation on the frequency-domain impulse response, the corresponding time-domain impulse response can be obtained.

[0064] As one selective embodiment, obtaining a second time-domain impulse response by shifting the first time-domain impulse response as described above includes shifting the first time-domain impulse response in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0065] In this embodiment, shifting the first time-domain impulse response may also mean moving the first time-domain impulse response forward relative to its current time-domain position (i.e., moving it in a direction that is smaller than the current time-domain position). This advances the time-domain position of the peak value (i.e., the first pass), reducing the dimensionality of the van der Mond matrix that needs to be constructed during spectral peak retrieval, thereby reducing the complexity of peak value retrieval in such a TOA measurement algorithm.

[0066] As one selective embodiment, the first time-domain impulse response described above is shifted to obtain a second time-domain impulse response. The process includes: applying a windowing operation to the first time-domain impulse response using a window function based on the time-domain sample point of the first pass to obtain at least one target time-domain impulse response located within the first window, which includes a time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample point of the first pass; and shifting the target time-domain impulse response within the first window in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0067] Selectively, the window function is as follows:

number

number

number

number

[0068] In this embodiment, the length of the first window for windowing can be set according to the TOA estimation requirements. Of these, Q may be half the length of the first window, or Q may be equal to 1. The windowing process involves using the set window length to search for such impulse responses in the corresponding time domain, so that the signals of time domain sample points within the window are preserved, and the rest are set to zero. An advantage of this method is that it can reduce the associated effects of noise and multipath.

[0069] By performing a windowing operation around the time-domain sample value point of the first pass, multiple target time-domain impulse responses located within the first window, including the first pass, can be obtained, and the target time-domain impulse response is the first time-domain impulse response located within the first window. The time-domain sample value point of the first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the first peak value within the first window that is greater than the first threshold becomes the time-domain sample value point of the first pass.

[0070] Selectively, the time-domain sample point of the first pass is calculated by the following formula:

number

number

[0071] In this embodiment, according to the above formula, an initial time-domain impulse response peak value greater than the first threshold can be obtained, and the time-domain sample point corresponding to this peak value becomes the time-domain sample point M of the first pass.

[0072] In this embodiment, after performing a windowing process on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain impulse response within the first window may be shifted; that is, only the time-domain impulse response within the first window may be moved in a direction smaller than its current time-domain position to obtain a second time-domain impulse response.

[0073] It should be explained that for the first type of TOA estimation algorithm (e.g., the maximum likelihood time delay algorithm), the above windowing operation can be used, while for the second type of TOA estimation algorithm (e.g., the MUSIC algorithm), the above windowing step can be skipped. For example, when performing TOA estimation with the maximum likelihood time delay algorithm, the windowing step using the above window function may be performed to shift the target time-domain impulse response located within the first window. If TOA estimation is performed using the MUSIC algorithm, in order to avoid the influence of the noise subspace built up by feature decomposition in the MUSIC calculation process on the accuracy of the time delay estimation, the windowing step may be ignored and all first time-domain impulse responses may be shifted directly. The advantage of the above windowing is that it can reduce the associated effects of such noise and multipath.

[0074] Selectively, the positional displacement of the shift operation is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass, meaning that after performing the shift operation on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first pass after the shift is not negative. In this embodiment, since the position of the time-domain sample point of the first pass is related to the dimension of the van der Mond matrix that needs to be constructed during spectral peak retrieval, the time-domain sample point of the first pass must not be negative after the shift, so as to ensure a reduction in the complexity of the time delay estimation algorithm.

[0075] Selectively shifting the target time-domain impulse response within the first window described above in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response is: The positional displacement amount is determined to the first time length according to the time-domain sample value point of the first pass, This includes moving all target time-domain impulse responses within the first window by the first time length in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response, thereby obtaining the second time-domain impulse response. Here, the time-domain sample point corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is not a negative value.

[0076] Selectively shifting all target time-domain impulse responses within the aforementioned first window by the first time length in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response, thereby obtaining the second time-domain impulse response, is: The calculation of the second time-domain impulse response is performed using the following formula,

number

number

number

[0077] In this embodiment, when shifting the first time-domain impulse response, in order to avoid the influence on the measurement values ​​of the TOA estimation algorithm caused by shifting only one impulse response, all time-domain impulse responses within a single predetermined time-domain range may be shifted. For example, if windowing was performed when determining the time-domain sample value points of the first pass, all first time-domain impulse responses within the first window (i.e., the target time-domain impulse response) may be shifted forward in the time domain by a first time length. It should be explained that each first time-domain impulse response within the first window is shifted forward in the time domain by a first time length relative to its current time-domain position. If windowing was not performed, the time-domain range for shifting may be the time-domain range corresponding to all first time-domain impulse responses corresponding to the positioning signal, that is, all first time-domain impulse responses corresponding to the positioning signal may be shifted forward in the time domain by a first time length, and each first time-domain impulse response may be shifted by a first time length relative to its current time-domain position. The time domain range corresponding to the first time domain impulse response requiring shift processing can be customized.

[0078] Selectively, the amount of positional movement in the shift process is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass, i.e., the first time length is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass. In this embodiment, after the first time-domain impulse response has moved by the first time length in a direction smaller than its current time-domain position, the time-domain sample point of the first pass after the shift is not negative. In this embodiment, since the first time-domain impulse response is windowed before the shift, the first time length must satisfy the condition that none of the second time-domain impulse responses obtained by shifting the target time-domain impulse response within the first window are negative.

[0079] The shift process will now be explained. Taking the case where windowing is performed on the first time-domain impulse response as an example, as shown in Figures 2 and 3, Figure 2 shows the first time-domain impulse response in the first window before movement, and the time-domain sample point M of the first pass is the point (31,1) shown in Figure 2. Figure 3 is a schematic diagram after the entire first time-domain impulse response in the first window has been moved forward by a first time length L (i.e., in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response in Figure 2). After movement, a second time-domain impulse response corresponding to the first time-domain impulse response is obtained, and the time-domain sample point of the first pass corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is ML, i.e., the point (10,1) shown in Figure 3. The time-domain sample point ML of the first pass after movement is not a negative value.

[0080] Of these, the first time length is a configurable predefined parameter, where T is the time unit of the length of one sample value point. S1 Therefore, the time-domain sample value point (i.e., spectral peak) of the first pass shown in Figure 2 is 10T forward in the time domain. S1 Move it to the position shown in Figure 3. This parameter is configurable, and 10T S1 5T is one of the possible values, depending on the actual situation. S1 Alternatively, it can be changed to other values. It should be noted that, considering the impact of base station TA adjustments on the measurement algorithm, it is not recommended to move to a position where the time-domain sample point becomes zero.

[0081] In this embodiment, the obtained first time-domain impulse response is moved in a direction smaller than its current time-domain position before obtaining the second time-domain impulse response. As a result, the spectral peak search is performed during TOA estimation and then restored, advancing the time-domain position of the peak value (i.e., the first pass). Consequently, the dimensionality of the van der Mond matrix that needs to be constructed during spectral peak search is reduced, thereby reducing the complexity of the peak value search in such a TOA measurement algorithm.

[0082] As one selective embodiment, a spectral peak search is performed on the pseudo-spectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response described above to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay. This includes converting the second time-domain impulse response into a second frequency-domain impulse response, determining a pseudospectral function according to the second frequency-domain impulse response, and performing a spectral peak search on the pseudospectral function to obtain a spectral peak of the pseudospectral function whose value is the first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0083] In this embodiment, the second time-domain impulse response obtained after the shift is subjected to an FFT transformation to obtain a new frequency-domain impulse response.

number

[0084] What needs to be explained is that when performing a spectral peak search on a pseudo-spectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response, the spectral peaks obtained by the spectral peak search are estimated values ​​corresponding to the time-domain sample points of the first pass in the second time-domain impulse response (i.e., time-domain sample points after shifting forward). For example, if a windowing process is performed on the first time-domain impulse response using a window function, all first time-domain impulse responses within the window corresponding to the windowing process are shifted forward, and a predetermined estimation algorithm (e.g., a maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm) is used to process the frequency-domain impulse responses corresponding to all the shifted second time-domain impulse responses, and a spectral peak search is performed to obtain the first estimated value. If a windowing process is not performed when obtaining the time-domain sample points of the first pass, all first time-domain impulse responses in the time domain may be shifted forward, and a predetermined estimation algorithm (e.g., a MUSIC algorithm) may be used to process the frequency-domain impulse responses corresponding to all the shifted second time-domain impulse responses, and a spectral peak search is performed to obtain the first estimated value.

[0085] The following explains how to calculate TOA1 using the maximum likelihood estimation algorithm and the MUSIC algorithm as examples.

[0086] Example 1: If TOA estimation is performed using the MUSIC algorithm, obtaining the first estimated arrival time delay TOA1 by performing a spectral peak search on the pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response described above may include the following steps 31 to 34.

[0087] Step 31 is the estimation of the covariance matrix, which in a real-world scenario is the covariance matrix R of the frequency-domain impulse response estimate vector in the true channel frequency domain. XX This cannot be obtained directly and is usually obtained in the form of multiple measurements, resulting in a new frequency-domain impulse response estimate.

number

number

number

[0088] Step 32 is feature decomposition. After obtaining multiple sets of frequency-domain impulse responses, the above covariance matrix can be matrix-decomposed to obtain a signal feature matrix consisting of signal feature value vectors and a noise feature matrix consisting of noise feature vectors. The feature decomposition process is as follows.

number

number

number

number

[0089] Step 33 is spectral peak search, and the pseudo-spectral function of the MUSIC time delay algorithm is defined as follows:

number

[0090] Step 34 allows us to determine the propagation time delay τ, i.e., TOA1, based on the maximum value of the searched pseudospectral function.

[0091] Example 2: If TOA estimation is performed using the maximum likelihood algorithm, obtaining the first estimated value of arrival time delay TOA1 by performing spectral peak search on the pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response may include the following steps 41-42.

[0092] Step 41, based on the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, yields the likelihood function of τ as follows:

number

number

number

[0093] Step 42 involves performing a spectral peak search on the maximum likelihood function described above, and the algorithm time delay τ in the case of multipath time delay can be simplified as follows.

number

[0094] It should be explained that the method for obtaining the first estimate of arrival time delay using the spectral peak search described above is merely illustrative; other algorithms could also be used for calculation, but this explanation does not limit the possibilities.

[0095] As one selective embodiment, obtaining a second estimate of the arrival time delay according to the above-described positional displacement and first estimate is: This includes adding the positional displacement amount and the first estimated value to obtain the second estimated value, wherein the positional displacement amount and the first estimated value have the same units.

[0096] In this embodiment, after obtaining the first estimated value, the obtained first estimated value can be reconstructed using the positional movement amount from the previous shift process, thereby obtaining the reconstructed time delay estimated value TOA2 = TOA1 + L, where L is the positional movement amount.

[0097] What needs to be explained here is that addition and subtraction between the positional displacement and the TOA can only be performed after the units have been unified. For example, the basic unit of both TOA2 and TOA1 is 1 ns, and the unit of L is T S1 By converting to 1ns to obtain L1, it becomes possible to obtain the value of TOA2.

[0098] When the receiving end of this disclosure receives a positioning signal, it processes the frequency-domain impulse response vector of the signal using a MUSIC algorithm or a maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm and searches for spectral peaks in the pseudo-spectral function. This allows the corresponding peak value and estimated initial time value to be obtained. As the peak value is advanced, the dimension of the van der Mond matrix is ​​significantly reduced. After the spectral peak search is complete, the amount of time advance is added to output the estimated TOA value, and then the time-domain impulse response can be returned to its original position.

[0099] The embodiments of this disclosure reduce the complexity of peak value retrieval in a TOA measurement algorithm by obtaining a time-domain sample value point of the first pass, moving the obtained first time-domain impulse response toward a position smaller than the current time-domain position, and then restoring it after spectral peak retrieval using a TOA measurement algorithm. This method is applicable to both user equipment (UE) positioning methods based on downlink reference signals and UE positioning methods based on uplink reference signals, where the uplink and downlink flows are similar, differing only in the transmitting and receiving ends of the reference signals.

[0100] For measuring the Time of Arrow (TOA) of the downlink reference signal UE, both the MUSIC algorithm and the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm are suitable. Both require processing the channel frequency domain response estimate vector and performing a spectral peak search operation on the pseudospectrum. The MUSIC algorithm involves constructing a full-rank covariance matrix, then decomposing the covariance matrix into feature values ​​to separate the matrix into a signal subspace and a noise subspace, and finally constructing the corresponding pseudospectral function to search for spectral peak values. The searched spectral peak values ​​represent the propagation time delay. On the other hand, the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm involves constructing the corresponding likelihood function, performing a spectral peak search, and then restoring the time to the correct value. Below, a low-complexity TOA measurement scheme is introduced using the MUSIC algorithm as an example.

[0101] 1. The low-complexity TOA measurement scheme based on the MUSIC algorithm includes two schemes: a downlink and an uplink scheme, each of which will be explained below.

[0102] (1) Downlink: Let's take downlink as an example. When using the MUSIC algorithm to estimate the TOA of the downlink link reference signal, the flow of the positioning method using a low-complexity TOA measurement scheme is as shown in Figure 4.

[0103] Step 1: A transmitting end, such as a base station (BS), is configured to transmit conventional PRS signals and reports the PRS configuration information to the positioning server.

[0104] Step 2: The positioning server notifies the receiving end (UE) of the PRS configuration information.

[0105] Step 3: The transmitting end (BS) transmits the PRS according to the PRS configuration information.

[0106] Step 4: The receiving end (UE) receives the PRS according to the given PRS configuration information and measures the frequency domain impulse response vector of such positioning signal.

[0107] Step 5: The receiving end processes the frequency-domain impulse response and converts the frequency-domain signal to a time-domain signal using an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) to obtain a time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value greater than the first threshold, shifts all time-domain impulse responses in the time domain forward, and shifts the first impulse response peak value forward by 10T S1 Move within 10T, and the parameter is configurable. S1 5T is one of the possible values, depending on the actual situation. S1 Alternatively, it can be changed to another value, and after the shifting process, the time-domain impulse response obtained after the shift is converted into a frequency-domain signal by a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).

[0108] Step 6: Process the frequency-domain impulse response using the MUSIC algorithm and find the spectral peaks of the pseudospectrum using the pseudospectral function of the MUSIC algorithm. For details, please refer to Steps 31 to 34, which will not be repeated here.

[0109] Step 7: After finding the spectral peak of the pseudospectrum, reconstruct it using the previously shifted Ts value to obtain the estimated TOA measurement.

[0110] The receiving end reports the TOA measurement results to the positioning server, which can traverse all locations and obtain and store a set of TOA measurement values ​​for the reference signals of each base station corresponding to all locations. After receiving the measurement results, the positioning server determines the most likely location of the UE according to predetermined rules, and that location is considered the final positioning result.

[0111] (2) Uplink: Let's take uplink as an example. When using the MUSIC algorithm to estimate the TOA of the downlink reference signal, the flow of the positioning method using a low-complexity TOA measurement scheme is as shown in Figure 5.

[0112] Step 1: The transmitting end (UE) is configured to transmit an SRS signal and reports the SRS configuration information to the positioning server.

[0113] Step 2: The positioning server notifies the receiving end (BS) of the SRS configuration information.

[0114] Step 3: The transmitting end (UE) transmits the SRS according to the SRS configuration information.

[0115] Step 4: The receiving end (BS) receives the SRS according to the given SRS configuration information and measures the frequency domain impulse response vector of such positioning signal.

[0116] Step 5: The receiving end processes the frequency-domain impulse response and converts the frequency-domain signal to a time-domain signal using an IFFT transform to obtain a time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value greater than the first threshold, shifts the impulse response in the time domain, and sets the first impulse response peak value to 10T S1 Move within 10T, and the parameter is configurable. S1 5T is one of the possible values, depending on the actual situation.S1 Alternatively, it can be changed to another value, and then the time-domain impulse response obtained after the shift is converted to a frequency-domain signal by FFT transformation.

[0117] Step 6: Process the frequency-domain impulse response using the MUSIC algorithm and find the spectral peaks of the pseudospectrum using the pseudospectral function of the MUSIC algorithm. For details, please refer to Steps 31 to 34, which will not be repeated here.

[0118] Step 7: After finding the spectral peak of the pseudospectrum, reconstruct it using the previously shifted Ts value to obtain the estimated TOA measurement.

[0119] The receiving end reports the TOA measurement results to the positioning server, which can traverse all locations and obtain and store a set of TOA measurement values ​​for the reference signals of each base station corresponding to all locations. After receiving the measurement results, the positioning server determines the most likely location of the UE according to predetermined rules, and that location is considered the final positioning result.

[0120] Secondly, the low-complexity TOA measurement scheme based on the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm includes two schemes, one for uplink and one for downlink, and each will be explained.

[0121] (A) Taking downlink as an example: When TOA estimation of the downlink reference signal is performed using a maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, the flow of the positioning method using a low-complexity TOA measurement scheme is as shown in Figure 6.

[0122] In step a, the transmitting end (BS) is configured to transmit a conventional PRS and reports the PRS configuration information to the positioning server.

[0123] Step b: The positioning server notifies the receiving end (UE) of the PRS configuration information.

[0124] Step c: The transmitting end (BS) transmits the PRS according to the PRS configuration information.

[0125] Step d: The receiving end (UE) receives the PRS according to the given PRS configuration information and measures the frequency domain impulse response vector of such positioning signal.

[0126] Step e: The receiving end processes the frequency-domain impulse response, converts the frequency-domain signal to a time-domain signal using an IFFT transform, obtains a time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value greater than the first threshold, and based on the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value, performs a windowing operation on all time-domain impulse responses, shifting the time-domain impulse responses within the window forward in the time domain (i.e., moving them in a direction smaller than their current time-domain position), 10T S1 Move within 10T, and the parameter is configurable. S1 5T is one of the possible values, depending on the actual situation. S1 Alternatively, it can be changed to another value, and then the time-domain impulse response after the movement is converted to a frequency-domain signal by performing an FFT transformation.

[0127] Step f: The receiving end processes the frequency-domain impulse response using the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, performs a spectral peak search using the likelihood function of τ applied by the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, finds the spectral peaks of the pseudospectrum, and refers to steps 41 to 42, which will not be repeated here.

[0128] Step g: After finding the spectral peak of the pseudospectrum, it is reconstructed using the previously shifted Ts value to obtain the estimated TOA value.

[0129] The receiving end reports the TOA measurement results to the positioning server, which can traverse all locations and obtain and store a set of TOA measurement values ​​for the reference signals of each base station corresponding to all locations. After receiving the measurement results, the positioning server determines the most likely location of the UE according to predetermined rules, and that location is considered the final positioning result.

[0130] (B) Uplink: Let's take uplink as an example. When TOA estimation of the downlink reference signal is performed using the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, the flow of the positioning method using a low-complexity TOA measurement scheme is as shown in Figure 7.

[0131] In the process, step a: The transmitting end (UE) is configured to transmit an SRS signal and reports the SRS configuration information to the positioning server.

[0132] Step b: The positioning server notifies the receiving end (BS) of the SRS configuration information.

[0133] Step c: The transmitting end (UE) transmits the SRS according to the SRS configuration information.

[0134] Step d: The receiving end (BS) receives the SRS according to the given SRS configuration information and measures the frequency domain impulse response vector of such positioning signal.

[0135] Step e: The receiving end processes the frequency-domain impulse response, converts the frequency-domain signal to a time-domain signal using an IFFT transform, obtains a time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value greater than the first threshold, and based on the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value, performs a windowing operation on all time-domain impulse responses, shifting the time-domain impulse responses within the window forward in the time domain (i.e., moving them in a direction smaller than their current time-domain position), 10T S1 Move within 10T, and the parameter is configurable. S1 5T is one of the possible values, depending on the actual situation. S1 Alternatively, it can be changed to another value, and then the shifted time-domain impulse response is converted to a frequency-domain signal using an FFT transformation.

[0136] Step f: The receiving end processes the frequency-domain impulse response using the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, performs a spectral peak search using the likelihood function of τ applied by the maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithm, finds the spectral peaks of the pseudospectrum, and refers to steps 41 to 42, which will not be repeated here.

[0137] Step g: After finding the spectral peak of the pseudospectrum, it is reconstructed using the previously shifted Ts value to obtain the estimated TOA value.

[0138] The receiving end reports the TOA measurement results to the positioning server, which can traverse all locations and obtain and store a set of TOA measurement values ​​for the reference signals of each base station corresponding to all locations. After receiving the measurement results, the positioning server determines the most likely location of the UE according to predetermined rules, and that location is considered the final positioning result.

[0139] The embodiments of this disclosure first perform an IFFT transform on the frequency-domain impulse response vector of the received signal to convert it into a time-domain signal, then obtain a time-domain sample value point corresponding to the first peak value impulse response in the time domain, shift the obtained time-domain impulse response forward, perform a spectral peak search using a positioning algorithm, and then restore the obtained spectral peak, thereby reducing the complexity of the peak value search in such a TOA measurement algorithm. Compared to algorithms in related technologies, both the MUSIC and maximum likelihood time delay estimation algorithms in related technologies require processing the frequency-domain response vector to obtain the corresponding time delay estimate, resulting in a high dimensionality of the van der Mond matrix constructed within the algorithm, a high spatial complexity of the algorithm itself, and a long time required for spectral peak search of pseudo-peaks, resulting in high temporal and spatial complexity of the algorithm. To further reduce the algorithm complexity during spectral peak search, the embodiments of this disclosure shift the peak value forward, further reducing the dimensionality of the van der Mond matrix constructed during the search of such peak values, shortening the search time, and reducing both the temporal and spatial complexity of the algorithm. Furthermore, if a window is used to perform time-domain windowing, no further changes to the window are required after the corresponding impulse response is found at the window.

[0140] According to the embodiments of this disclosure, after receiving a positioning signal, the receiving end obtains a first time-domain impulse response of the positioning signal, obtains a time-domain sample point from the first pass of the first time-domain impulse response, and shifts the first time-domain impulse response according to the time-domain sample point to obtain a second time-domain impulse response. When TOA estimation is performed, the second time-domain impulse response is used to perform a spectral peak search, and the obtained estimated value is restored. Because the first time-domain impulse response is shifted, the dimensionality of the van der Mond matrix is ​​significantly reduced, the complexity of the calculation process is reduced, and after the spectral peak search is completed, a backoff calculation is performed according to the position shift amount, and as a result, the finally estimated TOA value is output, effectively reducing the complexity of the peak value search in such a TOA measurement algorithm.

[0141] The above embodiments have introduced the method for estimating arrival time delays according to the present disclosure. In the following, the corresponding apparatus will be further described with reference to the drawings.

[0142] Specifically, as shown in Figure 8, an embodiment of the present disclosure is an arrival time delay estimation device, A first acquisition unit 810 acquires the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal, A second acquisition unit 820 for obtaining the first pass time-domain sample point, which represents the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value that is greater than the first threshold, from the first time-domain impulse response, A first processing unit for shifting the first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response, comprising a first processing unit 830 in which the positional movement amount of the shifting process is related to the time-domain sample value point of the first pass, A second processing unit 840 performs spectral peak search on a pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay, An arrival time delay estimation device 800 is provided, which includes a third acquisition unit 850 for obtaining a second estimated value of the arrival time delay according to the positional movement amount and the first estimated value.

[0143] Selectively shifting the aforementioned first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response is possible. This includes shifting the first time-domain impulse response in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

[0144] Selectively, the first time-domain impulse response is the first time-domain impulse response after normalization based on the maximum value.

[0145] Selectively, the first acquisition unit is A first acquisition subunit for acquiring the first frequency domain impulse response of the positioning signal, It includes a first conversion subunit for converting the first frequency-domain impulse response into the first time-domain impulse response.

[0146] Selectively, the positional displacement amount of the shift process being related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass means that, after performing the shift process on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first pass after the shift is not a negative value.

[0147] Selectively, the first processing unit, A first processing subunit for obtaining at least one target time-domain impulse response that is located within the first window and includes a time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample point of the first pass, by performing a windowing operation on the first time-domain impulse response using a window function based on the time-domain sample point of the first pass, The system includes a second processing subunit that shifts the target time-domain impulse response within the first window in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response, thereby obtaining the second time-domain impulse response.

[0148] Selectively, the window function is as follows:

number

number

number

[0149] Selectively, the time-domain sample point of the first pass is calculated by the following formula:

number

number

[0150] Selectively, the second processing subunit is, specifically, According to the time-domain sample value points of the first pass, the positional displacement amount is determined to the first time length, This is for obtaining the second time-domain impulse response by shifting all target time-domain impulse responses within the first window by the first time length in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response. Here, the time-domain sample point corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is not a negative value.

[0151] Selectively, the second processing subunit is, specifically, The following formula is used to calculate the second time-domain impulse response:

number

number

number

[0152] Selectively, the second processing unit, A second conversion subunit for converting the second time-domain impulse response into a second frequency-domain impulse response, A first determinative subunit for determining the pseudospectral function according to the second frequency domain impulse response, The system includes a third processing subunit for performing a spectral peak search on the pseudo-spectral function to obtain a spectral peak of the pseudo-spectral function whose value is the first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0153] Selectively, the third acquisition unit is specifically for obtaining the second estimated value by adding the positional movement amount and the first estimated value. Here, the positional displacement amount and the first estimated value have the same units.

[0154] According to the embodiments of this disclosure, when TOA estimation is performed by acquiring a first time-domain impulse response of a positioning signal, obtaining a time-domain sample point of the first pass from the first time-domain impulse response, shifting the first time-domain impulse response according to the time-domain sample point to obtain a second time-domain impulse response, and then performing a spectral peak search using the second time-domain impulse response before restoring the obtained estimated value, the dimensionality of the van der Mond matrix is ​​significantly reduced because the first time-domain impulse response is shifted, the complexity of the calculation process is reduced, and after the spectral peak search is completed, a backoff calculation is performed according to the position shift amount, and as a result the finally estimated TOA value is output, thereby effectively reducing the complexity of the peak value search in such a TOA measurement algorithm.

[0155] It should be noted that the apparatus according to the embodiments of this disclosure can implement all the method steps achieved by the embodiments of the method described above, and can also achieve the same technical effects. However, the same parts and beneficial effects as those of the embodiments of the method described in these embodiments will not be described in detail here.

[0156] It should be noted that the division of units in the embodiments of this disclosure is schematic and merely a division based on logical functions; other division methods may be possible in actual implementation. Furthermore, each functional unit in each embodiment of this disclosure may be integrated into a single processing unit, each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into a single unit. The integrated unit may be implemented in hardware form or in the form of a software functional unit.

[0157] The integrated unit described above may be implemented in the form of a software functional unit and, if sold or used as an independent product, may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, essential parts of the proposed technology of this disclosure, or parts that contribute to related technologies, or all or part of such proposed technology, can be embodied in the form of a software product. Such computer software product is stored on a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) or processor to perform all or part of the steps described in the methods of each embodiment of this disclosure. The storage medium includes a variety of media capable of storing program code, such as USB flash drives, portable hard disks, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0158] As shown in Figure 9, embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a communication device which may be a terminal or a network-side device and includes a memory 920, a transceiver 900, and a processor 910. Memory 920 is for storing computer programs, transceiver 900 is for sending and receiving data under the control of the processor, and processor 910 reads the computer programs in memory, The operation of acquiring the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal, The operation of obtaining the first time-domain sample point from the first time-domain impulse response, which represents the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value that is greater than the first threshold, An operation to obtain a second time-domain impulse response by shifting the first time-domain impulse response, wherein the amount of positional movement in the shifting operation is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass, An operation of performing a spectrum peak search on a pseudo-spectrum function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimated value of the arrival time delay; and an operation of obtaining a second estimated value of the arrival time delay according to the amount of position movement and the first estimated value.

[0159] Optionally, the processor reads a computer program in the memory, and performs an operation of obtaining the second time-domain impulse response by shifting the first time-domain impulse response in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response.

[0160] Optionally, the first time-domain impulse response is the first time-domain impulse response after normalization processing based on the maximum value.

[0161] Optionally, the processor reads a computer program in the memory, performs an operation of obtaining a first frequency-domain impulse response of a positioning signal, and an operation of converting the first frequency-domain impulse response into the first time-domain impulse response.

[0162] Optionally, the fact that the amount of position movement of the shift processing is related to the time-domain sample value point of the first path means that after performing the shift processing on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample value point of the first path after the shift is not a negative value. [[ID=​​​An operation to obtain at least one target time-domain impulse response that is located within the first window and includes a time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample point of the first pass, by performing a windowing operation on the first time-domain impulse response using a window function based on the time-domain sample point of the first pass, This is for performing an operation to obtain the second time-domain impulse response by shifting the target time-domain impulse response in the first window in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response.

[0164] Selectively, the processor reads computer programs in the memory and performs the following operations: The aforementioned window function is as follows:

number

number

number

[0165] Selectively, the time-domain sample point of the first pass is calculated by the following formula:

number

number

[0166] Optionally, the processor reads the computer program in the memory, determines the amount of position movement to the first time length according to the time-domain sample value points of the first pass, and moves all the target time-domain impulse responses within the first window by the first time length in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response. It is for executing the operations. Here, the time-domain sample value points corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response are not negative values.

[0167] Optionally, the processor reads the computer program in the memory, is for executing the operation of calculating the second time-domain impulse response by the following formula,

Number

Number

Number

[0168] Optionally, the processor reads the computer program in the memory, The operation of converting the second time-domain impulse response into a second frequency-domain impulse response, The operation of determining the pseudospectral function according to the second frequency domain impulse response, This is for performing a spectral peak search on the pseudo-spectral function to obtain a spectral peak of the pseudo-spectral function whose value is the first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

[0169] Selectively, the processor reads a computer program from the memory, This is for performing an operation to obtain the second estimated value by adding the aforementioned positional movement amount and the first estimated value. Here, the positional displacement amount and the first estimated value have the same units.

[0170] According to the embodiments of this disclosure, after receiving a positioning signal, the receiving end obtains a first time-domain impulse response of the positioning signal, obtains a time-domain sample point from the first pass of the first time-domain impulse response, and shifts the first time-domain impulse response according to the time-domain sample point to obtain a second time-domain impulse response. When TOA estimation is performed, the second time-domain impulse response is used to perform a spectral peak search, and the obtained estimated value is restored. Because the first time-domain impulse response is shifted, the dimensionality of the van der Mond matrix is ​​significantly reduced, the complexity of the calculation process is reduced, and after the spectral peak search is completed, a backoff calculation is performed according to the position shift amount, and as a result, the finally estimated TOA value is output, effectively reducing the complexity of the peak value search in such a TOA measurement algorithm.

[0171] In Figure 9, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, specifically connecting various circuits between one or more processors, represented by processor 910, and memory, represented by memory 920. The bus architecture can also connect various other circuits, such as peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, but these are known in the art and will not be further described herein. The bus interface provides the interface. The transceiver 900 may consist of multiple elements, i.e., it may include a transmitter and a receiver, and provides a means for communicating with various other devices over a transmission medium. Processor 910 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and memory 920 can store data used when operations are performed by processor 910.

[0172] The processor 910 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), and the processor may employ a multi-core architecture.

[0173] It should be explained here that the communication device according to the embodiment of this disclosure can implement all the method steps realized by the embodiment of the method and can also achieve the same technical effects, but the same parts and beneficial effects as those of the embodiment of the method in this embodiment will not be described in detail here.

[0174] Furthermore, a specific embodiment of this disclosure provides a processor-readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein when the program is executed by the processor, the steps of the method for estimating the arrival time delay described above are realized. While the same technical effects can be achieved, they will not be repeated here to avoid duplication. Among these, the readable storage medium may be any available medium or data storage device accessible by the processor, and includes, but is not limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tapes, magneto-optical disks (MO), etc.), optical storage devices (e.g., optical disks (Compact Disk, CD), digital video discs (Digital Versatile Disc, DVD), Blu-ray Discs (Blu-ray® Disc, BD), holographic versatile discs (High-Definition Versatile Disc, HVD), etc.), and semiconductor storage devices (e.g., ROM, Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (Electrically EPROM, EEPROM), non-volatile memory (NAND FLASH), solid state drives (Solid State Disk or Solid State Drive, SSD)), etc.).

[0175] Those skilled in the art will understand that embodiments of the present disclosure may be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Accordingly, the present disclosure may take the form of entirely hardware embodiments, entirely software embodiments, or embodiments combining software and hardware. Moreover, the present disclosure may take the form of computer program products implemented on one or more computer-compatible storage media (including, but not limited to, magnetic disk memory and optical memory) containing computer-compatible program code.

[0176] This disclosure is described with reference to flowcharts and / or block diagrams of methods, devices (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of this disclosure. Each flow and / or block in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and / or blocks in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams, should be understood to be realized by computer-executable instructions. These computer-executable instructions are provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, a embedded processor or other programmable data processing device to form a machine, and the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device form a device for realizing the functions specified in one or more flows of the flowchart and / or one or more blocks of the block diagram.

[0177] These computer-executable instructions may be stored in computer-readable memory that can guide a computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a particular manner, and the instructions stored in said computer-readable memory form a product including an instruction unit. The instruction unit implements functions specified in one or more flows of a flowchart and / or one or more blocks of a block diagram.

[0178] These computer-executable instructions may be loaded into a computer or other programmable data processing device, and by executing a series of operational steps on the computer or other programmable data processing device, they form the processing to be implemented on the computer, and the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable data processing device provide steps to implement the functions specified in one or more flows of a flowchart and / or one or more blocks of a block diagram.

[0179] It should be understood that the above division of each module is merely a division based on logical function, and in actual implementation, all or some of the modules may be integrated into a single physical entity or may be physically separated. Furthermore, these modules may all be implemented by calling software via processing elements, or all by hardware, or some modules may be implemented by calling software via processing elements, while other modules may be implemented by hardware. For example, a deterministic module may be an independently provided processing element, or it may be implemented by integrating it into a chip of the above device. In addition, a deterministic module may be stored in the memory of the above device in the form of program code and executed by being called by a processing element of the above device. The implementation of other modules is the same as that of deterministic modules. Furthermore, these modules may all or some be integrated, or they may be implemented individually. The processing elements described herein may be integrated circuits having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, each step of the above method or each of the above modules may be implemented by using integrated logic circuits of hardware within a processor element, or by using instructions in software form.

[0180] For example, each module, unit, subunit, or submodule may be configured as one or more integrated circuits that implement the above method, such as one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), or one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). As another example, if one of the above modules is implemented by calling program code via a processing element, the processing element may be a general-purpose processor such as a central processing unit (CPU), or another processor capable of calling program code. As yet another example, these modules may be integrated together or implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

[0181] The terms “first,” “second,” and so on in the specification and claims of this disclosure are used to distinguish similar objects and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequence. The data used in this manner are interchangeable in appropriate contexts, and it should be understood that the embodiments of this disclosure described herein can be implemented in an order other than that illustrated or described herein. Furthermore, the terms “includes” and “have,” and all their variations, cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a procedure, method, system, product or apparatus including a set of steps or units is not limited to including only those steps or units explicitly listed, but may include other steps or units not explicitly listed, or other steps or units specific to those procedures, methods, products or apparatus. As used in this specification and in the claims, “and / or” means at least one of the connected entities, for example, “A and / or B and / or C” includes seven cases: A only exists, B only exists, C only exists, both A and B exist, both B and C exist, both A and C exist, and all of A, B and C exist. Similarly, as used in this specification and in the claims, “at least one of A and B” should be understood as “A only exists, B only exists, or both A and B exist.”

[0182] Clearly, a person skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations of this disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure. If such modifications and variations of this disclosure fall within the scope of the claims of this disclosure and the equivalent art, then such modifications and variations are also included in this disclosure.

Claims

1. A method for estimating arrival time delays, Acquiring the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal, From the aforementioned first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first pass is obtained, which represents the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value that is greater than the first threshold. The first time-domain impulse response is shifted to obtain a second time-domain impulse response, wherein the amount of positional movement in the shifting process is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass. A spectral peak search is performed on the pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay. This includes obtaining a second estimated value of the arrival time delay according to the aforementioned positional movement amount and the first estimated value, The fact that the positional displacement amount of the shift process is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass means that, after performing the shift process on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first pass after the shift is not a negative value. Shifting the aforementioned first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response is, Based on the time-domain sample points of the first pass, a windowing process is performed on the first time-domain impulse response using a window function to obtain at least one target time-domain impulse response located within the first window, which includes the time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample points of the first pass. This includes shifting the target time-domain impulse response within the first window in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response. Method for estimating arrival time delays.

2. A method for estimating arrival time delay, Acquiring the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal, From the aforementioned first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first pass is obtained, which represents the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value that is greater than the first threshold. The first time-domain impulse response is shifted to obtain a second time-domain impulse response, wherein the amount of positional movement in the shifting process is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass. A spectral peak search is performed on the pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay. This includes obtaining a second estimated value of the arrival time delay according to the aforementioned positional movement amount and the first estimated value, The fact that the positional displacement amount of the shift process is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass means that, after performing the shift process on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first pass after the shift is not a negative value. Shifting the aforementioned first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response is, A method for estimating arrival time delay, comprising shifting the first time-domain impulse response in a direction smaller than the time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first time-domain impulse response is the first time-domain impulse response after normalization based on the maximum value.

4. Obtaining the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal described above is: To obtain the first frequency domain impulse response of the positioning signal, The method according to claim 1, comprising converting the first frequency domain impulse response into the first time domain impulse response.

5. The aforementioned window function is as follows: [Math 1] Here, [Math 2] This represents the normalized first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the nth sample value point. [Math 3] The method according to claim 1, wherein represents the target time-domain impulse response corresponding to the nth sample value point after windowing, M represents the time-domain sample value point of the first pass, and Q represents a predetermined value for the length of the first window.

6. The time-domain sample point of the first pass is calculated using the following formula: [Math 4] Here, P ｔｈ represents the first threshold of the first time-domain impulse response, and M is the time-domain sample point of the first pass. [Math 5] The method according to claim 1, wherein represents the normalized first time-domain impulse response corresponding to the nth sample value point.

7. Shifting the target time-domain impulse response within the first window described above in a direction that makes it smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response is: The positional displacement amount is determined to the first time length according to the time-domain sample value point of the first pass, This includes moving all target time-domain impulse responses within the first window by the first time length in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response, thereby obtaining the second time-domain impulse response. The method according to claim 1, wherein the time-domain sample point corresponding to the second time-domain impulse response is not a negative value.

8. Obtaining the second time-domain impulse response by moving all target time-domain impulse responses within the first window described above by the first time length in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response is: The calculation of the second time-domain impulse response is performed using the following formula, [Math 6] Here, [Number 7] represents all target time-domain impulse responses within the first window, M represents the time-domain sample point of the first pass, and i represents other time-domain sample points within the first window excluding the time-domain sample point of the first pass. [Number 8] The method according to claim 7, wherein L represents the second time-domain impulse response, L represents the first time length, and Q represents a predetermined value of the length of the first window.

9. In accordance with the second time-domain impulse response described above, a spectral peak search is performed on the pseudo-spectral function to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay. Converting the aforementioned second time-domain impulse response into a second frequency-domain impulse response, Determining the pseudospectral function according to the second frequency domain impulse response, The method according to claim 1, further comprising performing a spectral peak search on the pseudospectral function to obtain a spectral peak of the pseudospectral function whose value is the first estimated value of the arrival time delay.

10. A communication device including memory, a transceiver, and a processor, Memory is for storing computer programs, and the transceiver is for sending and receiving data under the control of the processor, and the processor reads the computer programs in the memory, The operation of acquiring the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal, The operation of obtaining the first time-domain sample point from the first time-domain impulse response, which represents the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value that is greater than the first threshold, An operation to obtain a second time-domain impulse response by shifting the first time-domain impulse response, wherein the amount of positional movement in the shifting operation is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass, The operation involves performing a spectral peak search on the pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay, This is for performing the operation of obtaining a second estimated value of the arrival time delay according to the aforementioned positional displacement and the first estimated value, The fact that the positional displacement amount of the shift process is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass means that, after performing the shift process on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first pass after the shift is not a negative value. Shifting the aforementioned first time-domain impulse response to obtain a second time-domain impulse response is, Based on the time-domain sample points of the first pass, a windowing process is performed on the first time-domain impulse response using a window function to obtain at least one target time-domain impulse response located within the first window, which includes the time-domain impulse response corresponding to the time-domain sample points of the first pass. A communication device that includes shifting the target time-domain impulse response in the first window in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the target time-domain impulse response to obtain the second time-domain impulse response.

11. A communication device comprising a memory, a transceiver, and a processor, The memory is for storing computer programs, the transceiver is for sending and receiving data under the control of the processor, and the processor reads the computer programs in the memory. The operation of acquiring the first time-domain impulse response according to the positioning signal, The operation of obtaining the first time-domain sample point from the first time-domain impulse response, which represents the time-domain sample point corresponding to the first impulse response peak value that is greater than the first threshold, An operation to obtain a second time-domain impulse response by shifting the first time-domain impulse response, wherein the amount of positional movement in the shifting operation is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass, The operation involves performing a spectral peak search on the pseudospectral function according to the second time-domain impulse response to obtain a first estimate of the arrival time delay, This is for performing the operation of obtaining a second estimated value of the arrival time delay according to the aforementioned positional displacement and the first estimated value, The fact that the positional displacement amount of the shift process is related to the time-domain sample point of the first pass means that, after performing the shift process on the first time-domain impulse response, the time-domain sample point of the first pass after the shift is not a negative value. The processor further reads the computer program in the memory, A communication device for performing an operation to obtain a second time-domain impulse response by shifting the first time-domain impulse response in a direction that is smaller than the time-domain position of the first time-domain impulse response.

12. The communication device according to claim 10, wherein the first time-domain impulse response is the first time-domain impulse response after normalization processing based on the maximum value.

13. The processor reads the computer program in the memory, The operation of acquiring the first frequency domain impulse response of the positioning signal, The communication device according to claim 10, which is for performing the operation of converting the first frequency domain impulse response into the first time domain impulse response.

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