Selection of transmit / receive points based on geometric accuracy degradation coefficient for wireless positioning

Abstract

The accuracy of wireless positioning of a user equipment (UE) is affected by the transmitting / receiving points (TRPs) for wireless positioning and the location of the UE. To improve the accuracy of the estimated location, a geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) may be determined for different groups of TRP candidates, where the GDOP indicates a possible positioning error associated with the group of TRP candidates. The UE may determine the GDOP for various combinations of TRP candidates. One or more devices of the wireless network (e.g., a location server and / or a UE for positioning) may select or exclude one or more TRP candidates to be used for wireless positioning of the UE based on the determined GDOP. The exclusion or selection of a TRP candidate for wireless positioning may also be based on a quality measurement result of a PRS (such as RSRP or SNR) or a time length associated with measuring a PRS from the TRP candidate to be selected.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] Cross-reference of related applications This application claims priority and interest in U.S. Nonprovisional Application No. 17 / 218,418, filed on March 31, 2021, entitled "GEOMETRIC DILUTION OF PRECISION BASED TRANSMIT / RECEIVE POINT SELECTION FOR WIRELSS POSITIONING," which has been assigned to the assignee of this application and is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

[0002] The subject matter disclosed herein relates to wireless positioning of user equipment using a received positioning reference signal, and more specifically to the selection of a TRP to be used for wireless positioning based on a geometric accuracy degradation coefficient determined for different groups of transmit / receive point (TRP) candidates. [Background technology]

[0003] The location of user devices (UEs), such as mobile phones, can be useful or essential for many applications, including emergency calls, navigation, route finding, asset tracking, and internet services. The location of a UE can be estimated based on information gathered from various systems. In cellular networks implemented according to 4G (also known as fourth-generation) Long Term Evolution (LTE) radio access or 5G (also known as fifth-generation) "New Radio" (NR), for example, base stations may transmit downlink reference signals, or UEs may transmit sidelink reference signals used for positioning, such as positioning reference signals (PRS). Aiding data is transmitted to the UE to help acquire and measure signals, and, in some implementations, to calculate location estimates from the measurement results. A UE may acquire PRSs transmitted from different base stations or UEs and perform positioning measurements such as reference signal time difference (RSTD), reference signal received power (RSRP), and receive-transmit (RX-TX) time difference measurements, which may be used in various positioning methods such as time to arrival (TDOA), angle of radiation (AoD), and multi-cell round trip time (RTT). A UE may calculate an estimate of its own position using various positioning methods, or it may transmit the positioning measurement results to a network entity, such as a location server, which may calculate the UE's position based on the positioning measurement results. Improvement in positioning accuracy is desired. [Overview of the project] [Means for solving the problem]

[0004] The accuracy of wireless positioning of a user device (UE) is influenced by the location of the transmit / receive point (TRP) used for wireless positioning and localization of the UE. To improve the accuracy of the estimated position for the UE, a geometric precision degradation factor (GDOP) may be determined for different groups of TRP candidates, where the GDOP represents the possible positioning error associated with the group of TRP candidates. The UE may determine a GDOP for various combinations of TRP candidates within its range. One or more devices in the wireless network (e.g., a location server and / or a target UE for positioning) may, based on the determined GDOP, select or exclude one or more TRP candidates for use in wireless positioning. The exclusion or selection of TRP candidates for wireless positioning may also be based on the quality measurement results of the positioning reference signal (PRS) (such as RSRP or SNR) or the time length associated with measuring the PRS from the TRP candidates to be selected.

[0005] In one implementation, a method for wireless positioning of a UE within a wireless network may be performed by the UE. The method includes the step of determining one or more GDOPs, which includes determining the GDOP associated with the combination of TRP candidates for each combination of TRP candidates from a plurality of TRP candidates for wireless positioning. The method also includes the step of providing a marking associated with one or more GDOPs to a network entity within the wireless network. One or more TRP candidates from the plurality of TRP candidates will be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE based on the marking.

[0006] In one implementation, a UE in a wireless network configured for wireless positioning of the UE includes at least one transceiver, at least one memory, and at least one processor coupled to at least one transceiver and at least one memory. The at least one transceiver is configured to provide a marking associated with one or more GDOPs to a network entity in the wireless network, and one or more TRP candidates from a plurality of TRP candidates are used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE based on the marking. The at least one processor is configured to determine one or more GDOPs associated with a marking, including determining the GDOP associated with the combination of TRP candidates for each combination of TRP candidates from the plurality of TRP candidates for wireless positioning.

[0007] In one implementation, a non-temporary computer-readable medium stores instructions, and when the instructions are executed by at least one processor of the UE in a wireless network configured for the UE's wireless positioning, the instructions cause the UE to determine one or more GDOPs, including determining a GDOP associated with a combination of TRP candidates for each combination of TRP candidates from a plurality of TRP candidates via at least one processor, and to provide a marking associated with one or more GDOPs to a network entity in the wireless network via at least one transceiver of the UE, where one or more TRP candidates from the plurality of TRP candidates are to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE based on the markings.

[0008] In one implementation, a UE in a wireless network for wireless positioning includes means for determining one or more GDOPs. The means for determining one or more GDOPs includes means for determining the GDOP associated with the combination of TRP candidates for each combination of TRP candidates from a plurality of TRP candidates for wireless positioning. The UE also includes means for providing a marking associated with one or more GDOPs to a network entity in the wireless network, and one or more TRP candidates from the plurality of TRP candidates will be used by the UE for wireless positioning based on the marking.

[0009] Other purposes and advantages relating to the embodiments disclosed herein will become apparent to those skilled in the art based on the accompanying drawings and detailed description.

[0010] The accompanying drawings are provided to aid in describing various aspects of this disclosure and are provided solely for illustrative purposes of aspects, not as an limitation of those aspects. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0011] [Figure 1] This figure shows exemplary wireless communication systems according to various aspects of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] This is a block diagram of a base station and user equipment (UE) design, which could be one of the base stations and one of the user equipment (UE) shown in Figure 1. [Figure 3] This diagram shows a UE (Unified User Interface) capable of supporting positioning services in a wireless network. [Figure 4] This diagram shows a base station capable of supporting positioning services in a wireless network. [Figure 5] This diagram shows a server capable of supporting positioning services in a wireless network. [Figure 6] This figure illustrates an exemplary technique for determining the location of a mobile device using information obtained from multiple base stations. [Figure 7A] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a first location uncertainty of a UE associated with first and second transmit-receive points (TRPs) for wireless positioning. [Figure 7B] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a second location uncertainty of a UE associated with first and third TRPs for wireless positioning. [Figure 8] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flowchart of an exemplary method for wireless positioning of a UE in a wireless network. [Figure 9] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart of an exemplary method for wireless positioning of a UE in a wireless network. [Figure 10] FIG. 6 is a diagram of different exemplary positioning reference signal (PRS) times associated with different base stations for wireless positioning. [Description of Embodiments]

[0012] Aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and associated drawings, which are directed to various examples provided for illustrative purposes. Alternative aspects may be devised without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the present disclosure.

[0013] The words "exemplary" and / or "example" are used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration". Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" and / or "example" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term "aspects of the present disclosure" does not require that all aspects of the present disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage, or mode of operation.

[0014] Those skilled in the art will understand that the information and signals described below can be represented using any of the various different techniques and methods. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the following description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, light fields or optical particles, or any combination thereof, depending in part on the specific application, desired design, corresponding technology, etc.

[0015] Furthermore, many embodiments are described, for example, with respect to a set of actions to be performed by elements of a computing device. It will be recognized that the various actions described herein may be performed by a particular circuit (e.g., an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or a combination of both. In addition, the set of actions described herein, when performed, may be considered to be fully embodied in any form of non-temporary computer-readable storage medium storing a corresponding set of computer instructions that cause or instruct the relevant processor of the device to perform the functions described herein. Thus, the various embodiments of this disclosure may be embodied in several different forms, all of which are intended to fall within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the embodiments described herein, any corresponding form of such embodiment may be described herein, for example, as “logic configured to perform” the described actions.

[0016] As used herein, the terms “User Equipment (UE)” and “Base Station” are not intended to be specific to or otherwise limited to any particular Radio Access Technology (RAT) unless otherwise noted. Generally, a UE may be any wireless communication device used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network (e.g., a cell phone, router, tablet computer, laptop computer, tracking device, wearable (e.g., a smartwatch, glasses, augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) headset, etc.), vehicle (e.g., a car, motorcycle, bicycle, etc.), Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.). A UE may be mobile or stationary (e.g., at some point in time) and may communicate with a Radio Access Network (RAN). As used herein, the terms “UE” may be interchangeably referred to as “Access Terminal” or “AT,” “Client Device,” “Wireless Device,” “Subscriber Device,” “Subscriber Terminal,” “Subscriber Station,” “User Terminal” or “UT,” “Mobile Terminal,” “Mobile Station,” “Mobile Device,” or variations thereof. Generally, a UE can communicate with the core network via the RAN, and through the core network, the UE can connect to external networks such as the internet and to other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms for connecting to the core network and / or the internet are also possible for the UE, such as wired access networks and wireless local area network (WLAN) networks (for example, based on the IEEE 802.11 series of standards).

[0017] A base station may operate according to one of several RATs communicating with the UE, depending on the network in which it is deployed, and may be alternatively referred to as an access point (AP), network node, NodeB, evolved NodeB (eNB), or New Radio (NR) Node B (also known as gNodeB or gNB). In addition, in some systems, the base station may provide pure edge node signaling functionality, and in other systems, it may provide additional control and / or network management functionality. The communication link through which the UE can transmit signals to the base station is called an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., reverse traffic channel, reverse control channel, access channel, etc.). The communication link through which the base station can transmit signals to the UE is called a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., paging channel, control channel, broadcast channel, forward traffic channel, etc.). The communication link through which UEs can transmit signals to and from each other is called a sidelink (SL). As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) may refer to either a UL / reverse traffic channel or a DL / forward traffic channel.

[0018] The term “base station” can refer to a single physical transmission-reception point (TRP, sometimes also called a transmit-receive point), or to multiple physical TRPs, which may or may not be located juxtaposed. For example, when the term “base station” refers to a single physical TRP, that TRP may be the base station’s antenna corresponding to a base station cell. When the term “base station” refers to multiple physical TRPs at the same location, those TRPs may be an array of base station antennas (for example, in a multi-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, or when the base station utilizes beamforming). When the term “base station” refers to multiple physical TRPs that are not at the same location, those TRPs may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transport medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). In some implementations, a TRP may be a UE.

[0019] To support wireless positioning for UEs, two broad classifications of positioning strategies are defined: control plane-based and user plane-based. In relation to control plane (CP) positioning, signaling for positioning and positioning support can be carried over existing network (and UE) interfaces and using existing protocols dedicated to signaling transmission. In relation to user plane (UP) positioning, signaling for positioning and positioning support can be carried as part of other data using protocols such as Internet Protocol (IP), Transmit Control Protocol (TCP), and User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

[0020] The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defines control plane positioning strategies for UEs using radio access compliant with Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) (2G), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) (3G), LTE (4G), and New Radio (NR) for fifth generation (5G). These strategies are defined in 3GPP Technical Specifications (TS) 23.271 and 23.273 (common parts), 43.059 (GSM access), 25.305 (UMTS access), 36.305 (LTE access), and 38.305 (NR access). For UP positioning, release 16 of the 3GPP standard for NR defines the multi-cell round-trip time (RTT), DL radiation angle (AOD), and UL reach angle (AOA) for zenith and azimuth angles. Release 16 also defines UE-based positioning associated with DL-TDOA and DL-AOD, DL positioning reference signals (PRS) (DL-PRS), and sounding reference signals (SRS) for positioning. Release 16 also defines beam-specific PRS operation for mmWave and broadcasting of support data for positioning. Release 17 of the 3GPP standard for NR may define UE-initiated on-demand transmissions of DL-PRS, network-initiated on-demand transmissions of DL-PRS, radio resource control (RRC) inactive DL-only, UL-only, or DL+UL-based positioning, access point (AP) DL-PRS transmissions, and / or aggregation of DL-PRS across multiple frequencies.The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) similarly defines a UP positioning scheme known as Secure User Plane Location (SUPL), which can be used to locate a UE accessing any of several radio interfaces that support IP packet access, such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) using GSM, GPRS using UMTS, or IP access using LTE or NR.

[0021] Both CP-based positioning (also called localization) and UP-based positioning strategies may utilize a location server to support UE positioning. The location server may be part of, or accessible from, a serving network or home network for the UE, or simply accessible via the internet or a local intranet. When UE positioning is required, the location server may initiate a session with the UE (e.g., a localization session or SUPL session) to coordinate the UE's position measurement and the determination of its estimated location. During a location session, the location server may request the UE's positioning capabilities (or the UE may provide them without request), provide the UE with supporting data (for example, if requested by the UE or not), and may request the UE to provide position estimation or position measurement results for various positioning techniques, such as Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA), Angle of Radiation (AoD), Round Trip Time (RTT) or Multi-Cell RTT (Multi-RTT), and / or Enhanced Cell ID (ECID) positioning methods. The supporting data may be used by the UE to acquire and measure GNSS signals and / or PRS signals (for example, by providing expected characteristics of these signals, such as frequency, expected time of arrival, signal coding, signal Doppler, etc.).

[0022] In UE-based operating modes, auxiliary data may be used by the UE to help determine the position estimate from the obtained position measurement results, in addition to, or instead of, satellite ephemeris data in the case of GNSS positioning, or other base station characteristics such as base station position and PRS timing in the case of ground positioning using TDOA, AoD, Multi-RTT, etc., if the auxiliary data provides such information.

[0023] In UE-assisted operating modes, the UE may return position measurement results to a location server, which may determine the estimated position of the UE based on these measurements and, optionally, other known or configured data (e.g., satellite ephemeris data for GNSS positioning, or base station characteristics including base station position and, optionally, PRS timing in the case of ground positioning using, for example, TDOA, AoD, Multi-RTT, etc.).

[0024] In the case of 3GPP CP location determination, the location server may be an enhanced serving mobile location center (E-SMLC) for LTE access, a standalone SMLC (SAS) for UMTS access, a serving mobile location center (SMLC) for GSM access, or a Location Management Function (LMF) for 5G NR access. In the case of OMA SUPL location, the location server may be a SUPL Location Platform (SLP), which may operate as any of the following: (i) a home SLP (H-SLP) if it is in or associated with the UE's home network or provides the UE with a permanent subscription for location services; (ii) a discovered SLP (D-SLP) if it is in or associated with any other (non-home) network or is not associated with any network; (iii) an Emergency SLP (E-SLP) if it assists with location for emergency calls caused by the UE; or (iv) a visited SLP (V-SLP) if it is in or associated with the serving network or current local area for the UE.

[0025] During a location session, the location server and UE may exchange messages defined according to one or more positioning protocols to coordinate the determination of the estimated location. Possible positioning protocols may include, for example, the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) as defined by 3GPP in 3GPP TS 36.355, and the LPP Extensions (LPPe) protocols as defined by OMA in OMA TSs OMA-TS-LPPe-V1_0, OMA-TS-LPPe-V1_1, and OMA-TS-LPPe-V2_0. The LPP and LPPe protocols may be used in combination such that an LPP message contains one embedded LPPe message. The combined LPP and LPPe protocols may be referred to as LPP / LPPe. LPP and LPP / LPPe may also be used to assist 3GPP control plane policies for LTE access or NR access, in which case LPP messages or LPP / LPPe messages are exchanged between the UE and the E-SMLC, or between the UE and the LMF. LPP messages or LPPe messages may be exchanged between the UE and the E-SMLC via the Serving Mobility Management Entity (MME) and Serving eNodeB for the UE. LPP messages or LPPe messages may also be exchanged between the UE and the LMF via the Serving Access and Mobility Management Entity (AMF) and Serving NR Node B (gNodeB or gNB) for the UE. LPP and LPP / LPPe may also be used to help support the OMA SUPL strategy for many types of wireless access (such as LTE, NR, and WiFi) that support IP messaging, in which case LPP messages or LPP / LPPe messages may be exchanged between a SUPL Enabled Terminal (SET), which is the term used for UEs regarding SUPL, and an SLP, and may be carried within SUPL messages such as SUPL POS or SUPL POS INIT messages.

[0026] A location server and a base station (e.g., an eNodeB for LTE access or a gNodeB for NR access) may exchange messages to enable the location server to (i) obtain location measurement results for a specific UE from the base station, or (ii) obtain location information from a base station that is not related to a specific UE, such as antenna position coordinates for the base station, cells supported by the base station (e.g., cell identification information), cell timing for the base station, and / or parameters for signals transmitted by the base station, such as PRS signals. For LTE access, the LPP A (LPPa) protocol may be used to transfer such messages between a base station, which is an eNodeB (eNB), and a location server, which is an E-SMLC. For NR access, the NRPPA protocol may be used to transfer such messages between a base station, which is a gNodeB (gNB), and a location server, which is an LMF. Note that the terms “parameter” and “information element” (IE) are synonymous and are used interchangeably herein.

[0027] During positioning using signaling in LTE and 5G NR, the UE typically acquires a dedicated positioning signal, such as a positioning reference signal (PRS), transmitted by a base station, which is used to generate the desired measurement result for the supported difference technique. For 5G NR positioning, the PRS is defined to enable the UE to detect and measure signals from one or more base stations that can function as transmit / receive points (TRPs). For example, the UE may receive and measure one or more measures related to downlink (DL) PRS from a serving base station (sometimes called a reference base station) and one or more neighboring stations. Based on the time to arrive (TOA) of the PRS from the serving base station and neighboring base stations, the UE may generate a DL reference signal time difference (RSTD) for DL ​​TDOA positioning, sometimes called the observed time to arrive difference (OTDOA). In a similar process, the UE may transmit an uplink reference signal for positioning, called a sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS), to the serving base station and neighboring base stations. The Time of Arrival (TOA) of SRS at the serving station and neighboring stations can be used to generate the UL RSTD for UL TDOA positioning, sometimes referred to as the Uplink Time of Arrival (UTDOA).

[0028] As described above, a base station can be a transmit / receive point (TRP) to be used for UE positioning. For example, a base station may provide a PRS via a UP interface (referred to as a Uu interface, such as LTE-Uu or NR-Uu). In addition, or instead, a base station may provide a PRS via a CP interface (such as those described above). At least three base stations may be required as TRPs for two-dimensional (2D) wireless positioning (not related to height) of a target UE, or at least four base stations may be required as TRPs for three-dimensional (3D) wireless positioning of a target UE, and more than three base stations (for 2D positioning) or more than four base stations (for 3D positioning) that can be used for wireless positioning (referred to herein as TRP candidates) may be within range of the target UE. For wireless positioning of a target UE, one or more TRP candidates may be selected or excluded, and the selected TRP candidates may be configured as TRPs to transmit PRS or perform other positioning signaling, and the target UE may be configured to detect PRS from the configured TRPs, and the measurement results of the PRS are used to determine the location of the target UE. Some of the following examples may illustrate aspects of the disclosure in relation to 2D positioning for clarity, but this disclosure also applies to any number of TRPs to be used for 3D positioning or wireless positioning.

[0029] The TRP candidates to be selected or excluded for wireless positioning of one or more UEs may be based on the locations of the TRP candidates. For example, if three TRPs are used to estimate the 2D position of a target UE that is within the range of three TRPs, or if four TRPs are used to estimate the 3D position of a target UE that is within the range of four TRPs, the accuracy or possible error of the estimated 2D or 3D position may depend on the locations of the TRPs for each UE and the target UE. If the target UE is within the range of more than three TRP candidates for 2D positioning, or more than four TRP candidates for 3D positioning, different subsets of TRP candidates may be associated with different accuracy of the estimated 2D or 3D position of the target UE. A subset of TRP candidates may be selected for wireless positioning to reduce the possible error in the estimated position of the UE. The possible error may also be measured by determining a geometric precision degradation factor (GDOP) for multiple subsets of TRP candidates, which is described in more detail below with reference to Figures 7A and 7B.

[0030] In some implementations, a GDOP may be determined for different groups of TRP candidates, and the GDOP represents the possible error associated with the group of TRP candidates. For example, a UE may determine a GDOP for various combinations of TRP candidates within the UE's range. One or more devices in the wireless network (e.g., a location server and / or a target UE for positioning) may, based on the determined GDOP, select or exclude one or more TRP candidates for use in wireless positioning. For example, a UE may narrow down a group of TRP candidates based on the GDOP (i.e., remove or exclude one or more TRP candidates from a group of TRP candidates), and the location server may select a final TRP from the remaining TRP candidates in the group. In another example, a UE may determine one or more preferred TRP candidates based on the GDOP, and the location server may select a final TRP based on the preferred TRP candidates from the UE. In yet another example, the location server may determine a final TRP based on the GDOP indicated by the UE to the location server (via base stations and core networks, etc.). Exemplary implementations for determining the GDOP, signaling indicators associated with the determined GDOP, and / or selecting or excluding TRP candidates based on the determined GDOP are described in more detail below.

[0031] Figure 1 shows an exemplary wireless communication system 100. The wireless communication system 100 (sometimes also called a wireless wide area network (WWAN) or wireless network, such as a cellular network) may include various base stations 102 and various UEs 104, one or more of the base stations 102 and / or UEs 104 may be referred to herein as TRPs 102 or 104. The base stations 102 may include macrocell base stations (high-power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low-power cellular base stations). In some embodiments, the macrocell base station may include an eNB if the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network, or a gNB if the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to a 5G network, or a combination of both, and the small cell base station may include a femtocell, picocell, microcell, etc.

[0032] The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an Advanced Packet Core (EPC) or Next Generation Core (NGC)) via a backhaul link 122, and with a location server 172 which may include one or more location servers via the core network 170. In addition to other functions, the base stations 102 may perform functions related to the transfer of user data, encryption and decryption of radio channels, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection setup and release, load balancing, delivery of non-access layer (NAS) messages, selection of NAS nodes, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of alert messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via EPC / NGC) via a backhaul link 134 which may be wired or wireless.

[0033] Base station 102 may communicate wirelessly with UE 104. Each base station 102 may provide communication coverage to its respective geographical coverage area 110. In some embodiments, one or more cells may be supported by base stations 102 in each coverage area 110. A “cell” is a logical communication entity used for communication with a base station (over several frequency resources, e.g., carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, band, etc.) and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., physical cell identifier (PCID), virtual cell identifier (VCID)) to distinguish cells operating over the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine-type communications (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or others) that may provide access for different types of UEs. In some cases, the term “cell” may also refer to a base station’s geographical coverage area (e.g., sector) insofar as carrier frequencies can be detected and used for communication within several parts of the geographical coverage area 110.

[0034] The geographical coverage areas 110 of adjacent macrocell base stations 102 may partially overlap (for example, in handover areas), but some of the geographical coverage areas 110 may significantly overlap with larger geographical coverage areas 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' may have a coverage area 110' that significantly overlaps with the coverage areas 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell base stations and macrocell base stations may be known as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a home eNB (HeNB), which may serve a limited group known as a limited subscriber group (CSG).

[0035] The communication link 120 between base station 102 and UE 104 may include UL (also called reverse link) transmission from UE 104 to base station 102, and / or downlink (DL) (also called forward link) transmission from base station 102 to UE 104. The communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna technology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 may be over one or more carrier frequencies. Carrier allocation may be asymmetric with respect to DL and UL (for example, more or fewer carriers may be allocated for DL ​​than for UL).

[0036] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a WLAN access point (AP) 150 communicating with a wireless local area network (WLAN) station (STA) 152 via a communication link 154 in the unlicensed frequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in the unlicensed frequency spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) before communication to determine whether the channel is available.

[0037] The small cell base station 102' may operate in the licensed frequency spectrum and / or the unlicensed frequency spectrum. When operating in the unlicensed frequency spectrum, the small cell base station 102' may employ LTE or 5G technology and use the same 5GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum used by the WLAN AP150. The small cell base station 102' employing LTE / 5G in the unlicensed frequency spectrum can extend coverage to the access network and / or increase the capacity of the access network. LTE in the unlicensed spectrum is sometimes referred to as LTE-unlicensed (LTE-U), licensed assisted access (LAA), or MulteFire.

[0038] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a mmW base station 180 that can operate in millimeter-wave (mmW) and / or quasi-mmW frequencies communicating with the UE 182. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is a part of RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has wavelengths between 30 GHz and 300 GHz and between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters. Radio waves in this band are sometimes called millimeter waves. Quasi-mmW may extend downwards to frequencies as low as 3 GHz, with wavelengths of 100 millimeters. The very high frequency (SHF) band, also called centimeter waves, extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz. Communication using the mmW / quasi-mmW radio frequency bands has high path loss and relatively short distances. The mmW base station 180 and UE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmit and / or receive) over the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short distances. Furthermore, in alternative configurations, it will be understood that one or more base stations 102 may also transmit using mmW or quasi-mmW and beamforming. Therefore, it will be understood that the above examples are merely illustrative and should not be construed as limiting the various embodiments disclosed herein.

[0039] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing RF signals in a specific direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts that signal in all directions (omnidirectionally). With transmit beamforming, a network node can determine where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and emit a stronger downlink RF signal in that specific direction, thereby providing a faster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal to the receiving device. To change the directivity of an RF signal when transmitting, a network node can control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of the one or more transmitters broadcasting the RF signal. For example, a network node may use an array of antennas (also called a "phased array" or "antenna array") that creates a beam of RF waves that can be "steered" to point in different directions without actually moving the antennas. Specifically, RF currents from the transmitters are supplied to individual antennas in the correct phase relationship so that the radio waves from separate antennas combine to increase radiation in the desired direction and cancel out radiation in the undesired direction.

[0040] In receive beamforming, a receiver uses a received beam to amplify an RF signal detected on a given channel. For example, a receiver can amplify an RF signal received from a particular direction (e.g., increase its gain level) by increasing the gain setting of an antenna array in that direction and / or adjusting the phase setting. Therefore, when a receiver is said to be beamforming in a certain direction, it means that the beam gain in that direction is higher than the beam gain along other directions, or that the beam gain in that direction is the highest compared to the beam gain in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal intensity or quality (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal-to-interference + noise ratio (SINR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), etc.) of the RF signal received from that direction.

[0041] In 5G, the frequency spectrum on which wireless nodes (e.g., base stations 102 / 180, UE104 / 182) operate is divided into multiple frequency ranges: FR1 (450MHz to 6000MHz), FR2 (24250MHz to 52600MHz), FR3 (above 52600MHz), and FR4 (between FR1 and FR2). In multi-carrier systems such as 5G, one of the carrier frequencies is called the "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell," while the remaining carrier frequencies are called "secondary carriers" or "secondary serving cells" or "SCells." In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is the carrier operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by UE104 / 182 and on the cell where UE104 / 182 is either performing the initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiating the RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common control channels and UE-specific control channels. The secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2) that can be configured once an RRC connection is established between the UE104 and the anchor carrier, and can be used to provide additional radio resources. Since both the primary uplink and primary downlink carriers are typically UE-specific, the secondary carrier may only contain the necessary signaling information and signals; for example, UE-specific signaling information and signals may not be present in the secondary carrier. This means that different UE104 / 182s within a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same applies to the uplink primary carrier. The network can change the primary carrier of any UE104 / 182 at any time. This is done, for example, to distribute the load across different carriers.Since a "serving cell" (whether PCell or SCell) corresponds to the carrier frequency / component carrier through which some base station communicates, terms such as "cell," "serving cell," "component carrier," and "carrier frequency" can be used interchangeably.

[0042] For example, still referring to Figure 1, one of the frequencies used by the macrocell base station 102 may be the anchor carrier (or "PCell"), and the other frequencies used by the macrocell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers ("SCell"). Simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers allows UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rates. For example, aggregated two 20MHz carriers in a multicarrier system theoretically doubles the data rate (i.e., to 40MHz) compared to what would be achieved with a single 20MHz carrier.

[0043] The wireless communication system 100 may further include one or more UEs, such as UE190, that indirectly connect to one or more communication networks via one or more sidelinks (SLs), such as device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links. In the example in Figure 1, UE190 has a D2D P2P link 192 through which one of the UEs 104 is connected to one of the base stations 102 (for example, through which UE190 can indirectly obtain cellular connectivity) and a D2D P2P link 194 through which WLAN STA152 is connected to WLAN AP150 (through which UE190 can indirectly obtain WLAN-based internet connectivity). In one example, D2D P2P links 192 and 194 may be supported using any well-known D2D RAT, such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), or Bluetooth®. In this example, UE190 may be a relay UE between the UE and the base station 102. One or more UEs may be relay UEs between the device and the base station.

[0044] The wireless communication system 100 may further include a UE 164 that communicates with a macrocell base station 102 via a communication link 120 and / or with an mmW base station 180 via an mmW communication link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0045] A target UE 104 for wireless positioning may be within the wireless range of several base stations 102 (which may be TRP candidates 102 for wireless positioning of the target UE 104). A TRP or TRP candidate may also be called an anchor base station. An anchor base station may transmit a PRS over a DL (DL-PRS) to one or more target UEs, and the PRS may be measured at one or more target UEs to determine one or more measures used in estimating the location of one or more target UEs. As described, wireless positioning is generally based on signaling between several base stations 102 (such as gNBs for NR access) in a wireless network 100 and one or more target UEs 104.

[0046] Figure 2 shows a block diagram of design 200 of base station 102 and UE 104, which may be one of the base stations and one of the UEs in Figure 1. Base station 102 may be equipped with T antennas 234a to 234t, and UE 104 may be equipped with R antennas 252a to 252r, where generally T≧1 and R≧1.

[0047] At base station 102, the transmitting processor 220 may receive data for one or more UEs from data source 212, select one or more modulation and coding schemes (MCS) for each UE based at least partly on channel quality indicators (CQI) received from the UEs, process (e.g., encode and modulate) the data for each UE based at least partly on the MCS selected for the UEs, and provide data symbols to all UEs. The transmitting processor 220 may also process system information and control information (e.g., CQI requests, authorizations, upper-layer signaling, etc.) (e.g., semi-static resource partitioning information (SRPI), etc.) and provide overhead symbols and control symbols. The transmitting processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., cell-specific reference signals (CRS)) and synchronization signals (e.g., primary synchronization signals (PSS) and secondary synchronization signals (SSS)). The transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may, where applicable, perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on ​​data symbols, control symbols, overhead symbols, and / or reference symbols, and provide T output symbol streams to T modulators (MODs) 232a-232t. Each modulator 232 may process its respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator 232 may further process the output sample stream (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) to obtain a downlink signal. The T downlink signals from modulators 232a-232t may each be transmitted via T antennas 234a-234t. According to various embodiments described in more detail below, a synchronization signal may be generated using position coding to convey additional information.

[0048] In UE104, antennas 252a to 252r may each receive downlink signals from base station 102 and / or other base stations, and may provide the received signals to demodulators (DEMODs) 254a to 254r. Each demodulator 254 may adjust the received signals (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) to obtain input samples. Each demodulator 254 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 256 may acquire symbols received from all R demodulators 254a to 254r, and, where applicable, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols and provide the detected symbols. A receiving processor 258 may process the detected symbols (e.g., demodulate and decode), provide the decoded data for UE104 to the data sink 260, and provide the decoded control information and system information to the controller / processor 280. The channel processor may determine the reference signal received power (RSRP), the received signal strength indicator (RSSI), the reference signal received quality (RSRQ), the channel quality indicator (CQI), and so on. In some embodiments, one or more components of the UE104 may be contained within a housing.

[0049] On the uplink, at UE104, the transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from data source 262 and control information (for reporting, e.g., RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, etc.) from controller / processor 280. The transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for one or more reference signals. The symbols from the transmit processor 264 may, if applicable, be precoded by TX MIMO processor 266, further processed by modulators 254a-254r (for example, DFT-s-OFDM, CP-OFDM, etc.), and transmitted to base station 102. At base station 102, uplink signals from UE104 and other UEs may be received by antenna 234, processed by demodulator 232, detected by MIMO detector 236 if applicable, and further processed by receive processor 238 to obtain the decoded data and control information transmitted by UE104. The receiving processor 238 may provide the decoded data to the data sink 239 and the decoded control information to the controller / processor 240. The base station 102 may include a communication unit 244 and communicate with the network controller 289 via the communication unit 244. The network controller 289 may include a communication unit 294, a controller / processor 290, and memory 292. The network controller may be included in the location server 172 (or core network component) or may be communicatively coupled to it.

[0050] The controller / processor 240 of base station 102, the controller / processor 280 of UE 104, the controller 290 of network controller 289 which may be included in location server 172, and / or any other components in Figure 2 may perform one or more techniques relating to supporting positioning services for UE, as will be described in more detail elsewhere in this specification. For example, the controller / processor 240 of base station 102, the controller 290 of network controller 289, the controller / processor 280 of UE 104, and / or any other components in Figure 2 may perform or instruct, for example, the processes shown in the figure and the operations described herein. Memories 242, 282, and 292 may store data and program code for base station 102, UE 104, and network controller 289, respectively. In some embodiments, memory 242 and / or memory 282 and / or memory 292 may include non-temporary computer-readable media for storing one or more instructions for wireless communication. For example, one or more instructions, when executed by one or more processors of the base station 102, the network controller 289, and / or the UE 104, may perform or instruct the operation of the processes described herein. The scheduler 246 may schedule the UEs for data transmission on the downlink and / or uplink.

[0051] The location server 172 (which may include a network controller 289) may be configured to exclude or select TRPs for wireless positioning, determine and instruct resources to be used for wireless positioning (such as specific RS resources or PRS formats), determine the location of one or more UEs in the wireless network, store positioning information for one or more UEs, or perform other operations related to the wireless positioning of one or more UEs in the wireless network 100. The positioning information may be used for a variety of operations, such as cell selection, handover, beamforming, or localization, or other aspects of the wireless network 100.

[0052] As shown above, Figure 2 is provided as an example. Other examples may differ from those described with respect to Figure 2. For example, Figure 2 shows communication between base station 102 and UE 104, but communication may take place between two UE 104 via a sidelink. In this way, the UE 104 design shown in Figure 2 and another UE 104 design may communicate with each other via a sidelink. For example, to communicate one or more GDOP markings, preferred TRP candidates for wireless positioning, or other information directed at location server 172, UE 104 may communicate information to a relay UE, the relay UE may relay the information to base station 102, and base station 102 relays the information to location server 172.

[0053] A base station may broadcast, unicast, or groupcast one or more PRSs in a wireless network (such as a cellular network including LTE and / or 5G technologies). In the frequency domain, the available bandwidth may be divided into orthogonal subcarriers (also called “tones” or “bins”) at equal intervals. For example, using a 15 kHz interval, for example, for a cyclic prefix (CP) of normal length, the subcarriers may be grouped into groups of 12 subcarriers. A resource of one OFDM symbol length in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain may be called a resource element (RE). In this example, each grouping of 12 subcarriers and 14 OFDM symbols is called a resource block (RB), and in the example above, the number of subcarriers in a resource block is:

number

number

number

[0054] A base station may transmit radio frames or other physical layer signaling sequences that support PRS (i.e., downlink (DL)PRS) according to a frame configuration similar to the example above, which may be measured and used for location estimation of a target UE. Other types of wireless nodes in a wireless network (e.g., distributed antenna systems (DAS), remote radio heads (RRH), UEs, APs, etc.) may also be configured to transmit PRS configured in a manner similar to (or identical to) those described above.

[0055] A collection of resource elements used for transmitting PRS is called a "PRS resource." A collection of resource elements can extend across multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and across N (e.g., one or more) consecutive symbols within a slot in the time domain. A "PRS resource set" is a set of PRS resources used for transmitting a PRS signal, and each PRS resource has a PRS resource identifier (ID). In addition, PRS resources within a PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP. A PRS resource ID within a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam transmitted from a single TRP (a TRP may transmit one or more beams). Note that this does not imply that the TRPs and beams transmitted from the signal are known to the UE.

[0056] PRS may be transmitted in a special positioning subframe that is grouped into positioning opportunities. A PRS opportunity is one instance of a regularly repeating time window (e.g., a series of slots) in which a PRS is expected to be transmitted. Each regularly repeating time window may contain a group of one or more consecutive PRS opportunities. Each PRS opportunity is N PRSIt may include a series of consecutive positioning subframes. PRS positioning opportunities for a cell supported by a base station or UE may occur periodically at intervals. Multiple PRS opportunities may be associated with the same PRS resource configuration, in which case each such opportunity may be referred to as a "PRS resource opportunity," etc.

[0057] PRS can be transmitted with constant power. PRS can also be transmitted with zero power (i.e., muted). Muting, which turns off periodically scheduled PRS transmissions, can be useful when PRSs between different cells overlap by occurring simultaneously or nearly simultaneously. In this case, PRSs from some cells may be muted, while PRSs from other cells are transmitted (e.g., with constant power). Muting can help the UE to acquire signals from unmuted PRSs and measure the time to arrival (TOA) and reference signal time difference (RSTD) (by eliminating interference from muted PRSs). Muting can be seen as not transmitting a PRS for a given positioning opportunity for a particular cell. Muting patterns (also called muting sequences) can be signaled to the UE using bit strings (e.g., using the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP)). For example, if the bit at location j is set to "0" in a bit string signaled to indicate a muting pattern, the UE can infer that the PRS will be muted for the j-th positioning opportunity.

[0058] To further enhance the audibility of PRS, positioning subframes may be low-interference subframes transmitted without a user data channel. As a result, in an ideally synchronized network, PRS may be subject to interference from PRSs of other cells with the same PRS pattern index (i.e., the same frequency shift), but may not experience interference to data transmission. Frequency shifts affect the PRS ID of a cell or other transmission point (TP).

number

number

[0059] To improve the audibility of PRS (for example, when the PRS bandwidth is limited, such as when there are only six resource blocks corresponding to a 1.4 MHz bandwidth), the frequency band for consecutive PRS positioning opportunities (or consecutive PRS subframes) may be changed in a known and predictable manner via frequency hopping. In addition, a cell supported by a base station or UE may support more than one PRS configuration, in which case each PRS configuration may have a separate frequency offset (vshift), separate carrier frequency, separate bandwidth, separate code sequence, and / or a certain number of subframes (N) per positioning opportunity. PRS ) and a specific period (T PRS This may include separate sequences of PRS positioning opportunities accompanied by ). In some implementations, one or more of the PRS configurations supported in the cell may be for directional PRS, which may have additional distinct characteristics such as separate transmission directions, separate horizontal angle ranges, and / or separate vertical angle ranges.

[0060] A PRS configuration, including a PRS transmission / muting schedule as described above, is signaled to the UE to enable it to perform PRS positioning-related measurements. In this scheme, the UE may not be expected to perform PRS configuration discovery indiscriminately. For example, location server 172 may determine one or more PRS configurations for one or more TRPs (or TRP candidates), and the configurations may be signaled to the UE via base stations (and optionally one or more relay UEs). The UE may use the configurations to discover the PRS from the base stations for the UE's wireless positioning. Using the DL PRS received from a base station acting as a TRP candidate, the target UE may perform various measurements to determine the GDOP for different groups of base stations within the target UE's range. Other metrics that may be determined by the target UE include link quality metrics, such as SNR or RSRP.

[0061] Figure 3 shows a UE300 capable of supporting positioning services in a wireless network such as wireless network 100, which is an example of UE104. The UE300 includes a computing platform comprising at least one processor 310, a memory 311 containing software (SW) 312, one or more sensors 313, a transceiver interface 314 for a transceiver 315, a user interface 316, a satellite positioning system (SPS) receiver 317, a camera 318, and a place device (PD) 319. The processor 310, memory 311, sensors 313, transceiver interface 314, user interface 316, SPS receiver 317, camera 318, and place device 319 can be communicatively coupled to one another by a bus 320 (which may be configured for optical and / or telecommunications, for example). One or more of the devices shown (e.g., camera 318, SPS receiver 317, and / or one or more of sensors 313) may be omitted from the UE300. The processor 310 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 310 may include multiple processors, including an application processor 330, a digital signal processor (DSP) 331, a modem processor 332, a video processor 333, and / or a sensor processor 334. One or more of the processors 330-334 may include multiple devices (e.g., multiple processors). For example, the sensor processor 334 may include a processor for radar, ultrasound, and / or lidar, etc. The modem processor 332 may support dual SIM / dual connectivity (or even more SIMs). For example, a SIM (Subscriber Identification Module or Subscriber Identification Module) may be used by an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), and a different SIM may be used by the UE300's end user for connectivity.Memory 311 is a non-temporary storage medium that may include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, disk memory, and / or read-only memory (ROM). Memory 311 stores software 312, which may be processor-readable processor-executable software code containing instructions, which, when executed, cause processor 310 to operate as a dedicated computer programmed to perform the various functions described herein. Alternatively, software 312 may not be directly executable by processor 310, but may, for example, be compiled and executed, cause processor 310 to operate as a dedicated computer for performing the various functions described herein. This description may refer only to processor 310 performing a function, which includes other implementations such as processor 310 executing software and / or firmware. This description may refer to processor 310 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more of processors 330-334 (and / or place device (PD) 319) performing a certain function. This description may refer to the UE300 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more suitable components of the UE300 performing that function. The processor 310 may include, and / or alternatively, memory containing stored instructions, in addition to memory 311.

[0062] The configuration of the UE300 shown in Figure 3 is an example of the present disclosure, including the claims, and is not limited thereto; other configurations may be used. For example, an exemplary configuration of the UE includes one or more of the processors 330-334 of the processor 310, memory 311, and wireless transceiver 340. Other exemplary configurations include the processor 310, memory 311, wireless transceiver 340, one or more of the sensors 313, user interface 316, SPS receiver 317, camera 318, PD 319, or wired transceiver 350. As used herein, at least one transceiver of the UE300 may refer to one or more of the wireless transceiver 340 or the wired transceiver 350.

[0063] The UE300 may include a modem processor 332 that may be capable of performing baseband processing on signals received and downconverted by transceiver 315 and / or SPS receiver 317. The modem processor 332 may perform baseband processing on signals so that they are upconverted for transmission by transceiver 315. In addition, or instead, baseband processing may be performed by processor 330 and / or DSP 331. However, other configurations may be used to perform baseband processing. Although the modem processor 332 is illustrated as being included in processor 310, baseband processing may be referred to herein as being included in at least one processor or wireless transceiver of the UE300 (or other suitable device in the wireless network).

[0064] The UE300 may include a sensor 313 which may include one or more sensors of various types, such as one or more inertial sensors, one or more barometric pressure sensors, one or more magnetometers, one or more environmental sensors, one or more optical sensors, one or more weight sensors, and / or one or more radio frequency (RF) sensors. The inertial measuring unit (IMU) may include, for example, one or more accelerometers (for example, collectively corresponding to the acceleration of the UE300 in three dimensions), and / or one or more gyroscopes capable of detecting motion, including the rotation of the UE300. The sensor 313 may include one or more magnetometers for determining orientation (for example, relative to magnetic north and / or true north), which can be used for any of a variety of purposes, such as supporting one or more compass applications. The environmental sensors may include, for example, one or more temperature sensors, one or more barometric pressure sensors, one or more ambient light sensors, one or more camera imagers, and / or one or more microphones. The sensor 313 may generate analog and / or digital signals, which may be stored in the memory 311 and processed by the DSP 331 and / or processor 330 to support one or more applications, such as applications targeting positioning and / or navigation operations.

[0065] Sensor 313 may be used for relative position measurement, relative position determination, motion determination, etc. Information detected by Sensor 313 may be used for motion detection, relative displacement, autonomous navigation, sensor-based position determination, and / or sensor-assisted position determination. Sensor 313 may be useful in determining whether UE300 is stationary or moving, including rotation, and / or whether it should report any useful information regarding the UE300's mobility. For example, based on information acquired / measured by the sensor, UE300 may notify / report that UE300 has detected motion or that UE300 has moved, and may report relative displacement / distance (e.g., via autonomous navigation, or sensor-based or sensor-assisted position determination enabled by Sensor 313). In another example, for relative positioning information, a sensor / IMU may be used to determine the angle and / or bearing of another device relative to UE300, etc.

[0066] The IMU may be configured to provide measurements of the direction and / or speed of motion of the UE300, and these measurements may be used in relative position determination. For example, one or more accelerometers and / or one or more gyroscopes of the IMU may detect the linear acceleration and rotational velocity of the UE300, respectively. The measurements of the linear acceleration and rotational velocity of the UE300 may be integrated over time to determine the instantaneous direction and displacement of motion of the UE300. The instantaneous direction and displacement of motion may be integrated to track the position of the UE300. For example, the reference position of the UE300 may be determined for a given moment using, for example, the SPS receiver 317 (and / or by some other means), and the measurements from the accelerometers and gyroscopes obtained after this moment may be used in autonomous navigation to determine the current position of the UE300 based on the motion (direction and distance) of the UE300 compared to the reference position.

[0067] The magnetometer can determine the magnetic field strength in different directions, which can be used to determine the orientation of the UE300. For example, orientation may be used to provide a digital compass for the UE300. The magnetometer may be a two-dimensional magnetometer configured to detect and provide a representation of the magnetic field strength in two orthogonal dimensions. Alternatively, the magnetometer may be a three-dimensional magnetometer configured to detect and provide a representation of the magnetic field strength in three orthogonal dimensions. The magnetometer may provide means for detecting the magnetic field and providing a representation of the magnetic field to, for example, the processor 310.

[0068] The pressure sensor may determine atmospheric pressure, which may be used to determine the altitude of the UE300 or the current floor in the building. For example, differential pressure measurements may be used to detect when the floor on which the UE300 is located changes, and to detect the changed floor. The pressure sensor may detect atmospheric pressure and provide means to, for example, the processor 310, to provide an indication of atmospheric pressure.

[0069] The transceiver 315 may include one or both of a wireless transceiver 340 or a wired transceiver 350, each configured to communicate with other devices via wireless and wired connections. For example, the wireless transceiver 340 may include a transmitter 342 and a receiver 344 coupled to one or more antennas 346 for transmitting (e.g., over one or more uplink channels and / or one or more sidelink channels) and / or receiving (e.g., over one or more downlink channels and / or one or more sidelink channels). In some implementations, the wireless signal 348 may be converted to and from a wired (e.g., electrical and / or optical) signal, and the wired signal may be converted to the wireless signal 348. Thus, the transmitter 342 may include multiple transmitters, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components, and / or the receiver 344 may include multiple receivers, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components. The Wireless Transceiver 340 can be configured to communicate signals (for example, with a TRP candidate or a TRP and / or one or more other devices) according to various Radio Access Technologies (RATs), such as 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobiles), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), LTE (Long-Term Evolution), LTE Direct (LTE-D), 6GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE 802.11 (including IEEE 802.11p), WiFi, WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, and Zigbee. New Radio may use mm wave frequencies and / or sub-6GHz frequencies.If UE300 is to include a wired transceiver, the wired transceiver 350 may include a transmitter 352 and a receiver 354 configured for wired communication. The transmitter 352 may include multiple transmitters, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components, and / or the receiver 354 may include multiple receivers, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components. The wired transceiver 350 may be configured, for example, for optical communication and / or telecommunications. The transceiver 315 may be communicatively coupled to the transceiver interface 314, for example, by optical and / or electrical connections. The transceiver interface 314 may be integrated with the transceiver 315 at least partially.

[0070] Antenna 346 may include an antenna array. The antenna array may transmit or receive beamforming by, for example, increasing the gain setting of the antenna array in a particular direction and / or adjusting the phase setting to amplify the RF signal received from that direction (e.g., increasing its gain level). Antenna 346 may further include a plurality of antenna panels, each of which is beamforming capable. Antenna 346 is adaptable, for example, selectable, one or more antennas to control the reception of the beam transmitted from the base station. For example, fewer beams or a single beam may be selected for receiving a wide-angle beam to reduce power consumption, but more antennas in the antenna array may be selected when the transmit beam is relatively narrow.

[0071] The user interface 316 may include one or more of several devices, such as a speaker, microphone, display device, vibration device, keyboard, and touchscreen. The user interface 316 may include two or more of these devices. The user interface 316 may be configured to allow the user to interact with one or more applications hosted by the UE300. For example, the user interface 316 may store analog and / or digital signal indications in memory 311 so that they are processed by the DSP331 and / or processor 330 in response to user actions. Similarly, an application hosted on the UE300 may store analog and / or digital signal indications in memory 311 to present output signals to the user. The user interface 316 may include an audio input / output (I / O) device, for example, comprising a speaker, microphone, digital-analog circuitry, analog-digital circuitry, amplifier, and / or gain control circuitry (including two or more of these devices). Other configurations of the audio I / O device may be used. In addition, or instead, the user interface 316 may include, for example, one or more touch sensors that respond to contact and / or pressure on the keyboard and / or touchscreen of the user interface 316.

[0072] An SPS receiver 317 (for example, a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver) may be capable of receiving and acquiring an SPS signal 360 via an SPS antenna 362. The antenna 362 may be configured to convert the wireless signal 360 into a wired signal, such as an electrical or optical signal, and may be integrated with an antenna 346. The SPS receiver 317 may be configured to process the acquired SPS signal 360, either entirely or partially, to estimate the position of the UE 300. For example, the SPS receiver 317 may be configured to use the SPS signal 360 to determine the position of the UE 300 by trilateration. A processor 330, memory 311, DSP 331, PE 319, and / or one or more additional special processors (not shown) may be used in conjunction with the SPS receiver 317 to process the acquired SPS signal, either entirely or partially, and / or to calculate the estimated position of the UE 300. Memory 311 may store indications (e.g., measurement results) of the SPS signal 360 and / or other signals (e.g., signals obtained from the wireless transceiver 340) for use when performing positioning operations. The general-purpose processor 330, DSP 331, PE 319, and / or one or more additional special processors, and / or memory 311, may provide or support a position engine for use when processing the measurement results to estimate the position of the UE300. In addition to, or instead of, using the SPS receiver 317 for positioning the UE300, the UE300 may be configured for wireless positioning using signals transmitted and / or received via the wireless transceiver 340.

[0073] The UE300 may include a camera 318 for capturing still images or video. The camera 318 may include, for example, an imaging sensor (e.g., a charge-coupled device or CMOS imager), a lens, analog-digital circuitry, a frame buffer, and the like. Additional processing, adjustment, encoding, and / or compression of the signal representing the captured image may be performed by a general-purpose processor 330 and / or DSP 331. In addition, or instead, a video processor 333 may perform adjustment, encoding, compression, and / or manipulation of the signal representing the captured image. The video processor 333 may decode / decompress the stored image data for presentation on a display device (not shown) of the user interface 316, for example.

[0074] The location device (PD) 319 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 300, the movement of the UE 300, and / or the relative location of the UE 300, and / or the time. For example, the PD 319 may communicate with and / or include some or all of the SPS receiver 317 and the wireless transceiver 340. The PD 319 may, as necessary, work in conjunction with the processor 310 and memory 311 to perform at least a portion of one or more positioning methods, but the description herein may refer only to the PD 319 of the processor 310 being configured to perform, or performing, according to a positioning method. The PD 319 may be configured to determine the position of the UE 300 using ground-based signals (e.g., at least some of signals 348) for trilateration of the wireless positioning of the UE 300. In addition, or instead, the PMD319 may be configured to use one or more other techniques for determining the location of the UE300 (e.g., relying on the UE's self-reported location (e.g., part of the UE's location beacon)), or a combination of techniques (e.g., SPS signals and ground positioning signals) to determine the location of the UE300. The PD319 may include one or more sensors 313 (e.g., gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, etc.) that can detect the orientation and / or motion of the UE300 and provide indications of orientation and / or motion which can be configured for use by the processor 310 (e.g., processor 330 and / or DSP331) to determine the motion of the UE300 (e.g., velocity vectors and / or acceleration vectors). The PD319 may also be configured to provide indications of uncertainty and / or error in the determined location and / or motion. For example, the PD319 may be configured for the PRS to determine and indicate a GDOP for one or more groups of TRP candidates received from it.

[0075] Memory 311 may store software 312, which, when executed by processor 310, can cause processor 310 to operate as a dedicated computer programmed to perform the functions disclosed herein. As shown, memory 311 may include one or more components or modules that can be implemented by processor 310 to perform the functions disclosed. A component or module is shown as software 312 in memory 311 that is executable by processor 310, but it should be understood that a component or module may be stored in another computer-readable medium or may be dedicated hardware either in or outside of processor 310. Several software modules and data tables may reside in memory 311 or be available to processor 310 to manage both the communications and functions described herein. It should be understood that the organization of contents of memory 311 as shown is merely an example, and therefore the functions of modules and / or data structures may be combined, separated, and / or structured in different ways depending on the implementation.

[0076] For example, memory 311 may include a wireless positioning session module 372, which, when implemented by one or more processors 310, configures one or more processors 310 to be involved in a session to be used to determine one or more GDOPs, the GDOPs may be used to determine one or more TRPs for wireless positioning of the UE 300, as described herein. For example, one or more processors (or PD 319) may be configured to determine a first GDOP for a first combination of TRP candidates based on PRS received from the first combination of TRP candidates, a second GDOP for a second combination of TRP candidates based on PRS received from the second combination of TRP candidates, and so on. The GDOPs may be used by the UE 300 to determine one or more preferred TRP candidates for wireless positioning, to narrow down a group of TRP candidates for wireless positioning, and / or to generate indications associated with the GDOPs to be provided to a network entity (e.g., a gNB or relay UE that forwards indications to the location server 172). In some implementations, the location server 172 may determine the final TRP to be used for wireless positioning (which may be based on preferences from the UE, a group of TRP candidates after filtering by the UE, and / or the GDOP indicated by the UE). Although the wireless positioning session module 372 is shown as software contained in memory 311, the wireless positioning session module 372 may be a hardware module, a software module, or a combination of hardware and software. For example, the module may include one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), executable code, or a combination of both.

[0077] Figure 4 shows a base station 400 capable of supporting positioning services in a wireless network (such as wireless network 100), which is an example of base station 102. Base station 400 includes a computing platform including at least one processor 410, memory 411 containing software (SW) 412, and transceiver 415. The processor 410, memory 411, and transceiver 415 may be coupled to each other communicatively by a bus 420 (which may be configured for, for example, optical and / or telecommunications). One or more of the devices shown may be omitted from base station 400, or base station 400 may include one or more devices not shown. The processor 410 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 410 may include multiple processors (for example, one or more application processors, DSPs, modem processors, video processors, and / or sensor processors, similar to those shown in Figure 3). Memory 411 is a non-temporary storage medium that may include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, disk memory, and / or read-only memory (ROM). Memory 411 stores software 412, which may be processor-readable processor-executable software code containing instructions, which, when executed, cause the processor 410 to operate as a dedicated computer programmed to perform the various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 412 may not be directly executable by the processor 410, but may, for example, be compiled and executed, cause the processor 410 to operate as a dedicated computer for performing the various functions described herein. This description may refer only to the processor 410 performing functions, but this includes other implementations, such as the processor 410 executing software and / or firmware.This description may refer to processor 410 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more of the processors included in processor 410 performing that function. This description may refer to base station 400 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more suitable components of base station 400 performing that function. Processor 410 may include, in addition to and / or instead of, memory 411, memory containing stored instructions.

[0078] The transceiver 415 may include a wireless transceiver 440 and a wired transceiver 450, respectively, configured to communicate with other devices via wireless and wired connections. For example, the wireless transceiver 440 may include a transmitter 442 and a receiver 444 coupled to one or more antennas 446 to transmit and / or receive a wireless signal 448 (for example, over one or more uplink channels and / or one or more downlink channels) and to convert the signal from the wireless signal 448 to a wired (for example, electrical and / or optical) signal and from the wired (for example, electrical and / or optical) signal to the wireless signal 448. The antennas 446 are one or more antenna arrays that are beamforming and capable of transmitting and receiving beams, including beams used when transmitting or receiving signals for positioning services (including PRS). In addition, or instead, the signal may be transmitted omnidirectional. The transmitter 442 may include multiple transmitters, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components, and / or the receiver 444 may include multiple receivers, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components. The wireless transceiver 440 may be configured to communicate signals (for example, with UE400, one or more other UEs, and / or one or more other devices) in accordance with various radio access technologies (RATs) such as 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobiles), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), LTE (Long-Term Evolution), LTE Direct (LTE-D), 6GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE 802.11 (including IEEE 802.11p), WiFi, WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, Zigbee, etc.The wired transceiver 450 may include a transmitter 452 and a receiver 454 configured for wired communication to, for example, transmit communications to and receive communications from the location server 172. The transmitter 452 may include multiple transmitters, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components, and / or the receiver 454 may include multiple receivers, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components. The wired transceiver 450 may be configured for, for example, optical communication and / or telecommunications. As used herein, at least one transceiver of the base station 400 may refer to one or more wired transceivers 440 or wired transceivers 450.

[0079] The configuration of the base station 400 shown in Figure 4 is an example of the present disclosure, including the claims, and is not limited thereto; other configurations may be used. For example, the description herein discusses that the base station 400 is configured to perform, or performs, several functions, one or more of which may be performed by the location server 172 and / or UE300.

[0080] Memory 411 may store software 412, which, when executed by processor 410, can cause processor 410 to operate as a dedicated computer programmed to perform the functions disclosed herein. As shown, memory 411 may include one or more components or modules that can be implemented by processor 410 to perform the functions disclosed. A component or module is shown as software 412 in memory 411 that is executable by processor 410, but it should be understood that a component or module may be stored in another computer-readable medium or may be dedicated hardware either in or outside of processor 410. Several software modules and data tables may reside in memory 411 or be available to processor 410 to manage both the communications and functions described herein. It should be understood that the organization of contents of memory 411 as shown is merely an example, and therefore the functions of modules and / or data structures may be combined, separated, and / or structured in different ways depending on the implementation.

[0081] For example, memory 411 may include a wireless positioning session module 472, which, when implemented by processor 410, configures processor 410 to assist in wireless positioning for one or more UEs in a wireless network. For example, one or more processors 410 may configure base station 400 to relay information between location server 172 and UE 104 in a wireless network, transmit one or more PRSs for wireless positioning, and / or transmit PRS-assisted data to be used for wireless positioning. Although wireless positioning session module 472 is shown as software included in memory 411, wireless positioning session module 472 may be a hardware module, a software module, or a combination of hardware and software. For example, the module may include one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), executable code, or a combination of both.

[0082] Figure 5 shows a server 500 capable of supporting positioning services in a wireless network (such as wireless network 100), which is an example of location server 172. Server 500 includes a computing platform including at least one processor 510, memory 511 containing software (SW) 512, and transceivers 515. The processor 510, memory 511, and transceivers 515 may be coupled to communicate with each other by a bus 520 (which may be configured, for example, for optical and / or telecommunications). One or more of the devices shown (e.g., wireless interfaces) may be omitted from server 500. Processor 510 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. Processor 510 may include multiple processors (for example, at least one of an application processor, a DSP, a modem processor, a video processor, and / or a sensor processor, similar to those shown in Figure 3). Memory 511 is a non-temporary storage medium that may include random access memory (RAM), flash memory, disk memory, and / or read-only memory (ROM). Memory 511 stores software 512, which may be processor-readable processor-executable software code containing instructions, which, when executed, cause the processor 510 to operate as a dedicated computer programmed to perform the various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 512 may not be directly executable by the processor 510, but may, for example, be compiled and executed, cause the processor 510 to operate as a dedicated computer for performing the various functions described herein. This description may refer only to the processor 510 performing functions, but this includes other implementations, such as the processor 510 executing software and / or firmware.This description may refer to processor 510 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more of the processors included in processor 510 performing that function. This description may refer to server 500 performing a function as an abbreviation for one or more appropriate components of server 500 performing that function. Processor 510 may include, in addition to and / or instead of memory 511, memory containing stored instructions.

[0083] The transceiver 515 may include one or both of a wireless transceiver 540 or a wired transceiver 550, each configured to communicate with other devices via wireless and wired connections, respectively. For example, the wireless transceiver 540 may include a transmitter 542 and a receiver 544 coupled to one or more antennas 546 to transmit and / or receive a wireless signal 548 (for example, over one or more downlink channels) and / or receive it (for example, over one or more uplink channels), and to convert the signal from the wireless signal 548 to a wired (for example, electrical and / or optical) signal and from the wired (for example, electrical and / or optical) signal to the wireless signal 548. Thus, the transmitter 542 may include multiple transmitters, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components, and / or the receiver 544 may include multiple receivers, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components. The wireless transceiver 540 may be configured to communicate signals (for example, with UE300, one or more other UEs, one or more base stations 400, and / or one or more other devices) in accordance with various radio access technologies (RATs) such as 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobiles), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), LTE (Long-Term Evolution), LTE Direct (LTE-D), 6GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE 802.11 (including IEEE 802.11p), WiFi, WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, and Zigbee. The wired transceiver 550 may include a transmitter 552 and a receiver 554 configured for wired communication.The transmitter 552 may include multiple transmitters, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components, and / or the receiver 554 may include multiple receivers, which may be individual components or composite / integrated components. The wired transceiver 550 may be configured, for example, for optical and / or telecommunications. As used herein, at least one transceiver of the server 500 may refer to one or more of the wired transceivers 540 or the wired transceivers 550.

[0084] The configuration of the server 500 shown in Figure 5 is an example of the present disclosure, including the claims, and is not limited thereto; other configurations may be used. For example, the wireless transceiver 540 may be omitted. In addition, or instead, the description herein discusses the server 500 being configured to perform, or performing, several functions, one or more of which may be performed by the base station 400 and / or UE 300.

[0085] Memory 511 may store software 512, which, when executed by processor 510, can cause processor 510 to operate as a dedicated computer programmed to perform the functions disclosed herein. As shown, memory 511 may include one or more components or modules that can be implemented by processor 510 to perform the functions disclosed. A component or module is shown as software 512 in memory 511 that is executable by processor 510, but it should be understood that a component or module may be stored in another computer-readable medium or may be dedicated hardware either in or outside of processor 510. Several software modules and data tables may reside in memory 511 or be available to processor 510 to manage both the communications and functions described herein. It should be understood that the organization of contents of memory 511 as shown is merely an example, and therefore the functions of modules and / or data structures may be combined, separated, and / or structured in different ways depending on the implementation.

[0086] For example, memory 511 may include a wireless positioning session module 572, which, when implemented by processor 510, configures processor 510 to participate in supporting the selection or narrowing of one or more TRP candidates for wireless positioning of one or more UEs in a wireless network, as discussed herein. Although the wireless positioning session module 572 is shown as software contained in memory 511, the wireless positioning session module 572 may be a hardware module, a software module, or a combination of hardware and software. For example, the module may include one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), executable code, or a combination of both.

[0087] In wireless positioning, one or more anchors are used as TRPs for transmitting and / or receiving PRSs to and from a target UE. The distance between the TRP and the target UE may be based on the observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) of one or more signals (called OTDOA positioning), or on any other suitable measurement result used to determine the distance for wireless positioning. OTDOA positioning is based on a multilateration method such that the UE conventionally measures the time of arrival (TOA) of a specific reference RF signal (e.g., PRS, CRS, CSI-RS, etc.) transmitted by different pairs of network nodes (e.g., base station 102, base station 102's antenna, etc.). To determine the reference signal time difference (RSTD) for a node pair, TOAs from several neighbors may be subtracted from the TOA from the reference node. As mentioned above, this time difference may be based on the reference signal (e.g., PRS) transmitted from the anchor to the UE. In some other implementations, the time difference may be based on the signal from the UE to the anchor, or the round-trip time (RTT) from the anchor back to the anchor or neighboring device (the UE relays the PRS). The RSTD may be indicated to another device or used otherwise in determining the distance between the anchor and the UE. In some implementations, the target UE may measure the RSTD between instances of PRS transmitted by other devices in the network. In some implementations, a specific resource of the PRS may be used to measure the RSTD. As used herein, a PRS resource may refer to any suitable part or all of the PRS used for wireless positioning.

[0088] Figure 6 shows an exemplary wireless communication system 600 that performs positioning using the Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) technique. In the example in Figure 6, UE 104 determines the location of UE 104 or assists another entity (e.g., a base station or core network component, another UE, a location server, a third-party application, etc.) in determining the location of UE 104. UE 104 can wirelessly communicate with multiple base stations 102-1, 102-2, and 102-3 (collectively, base stations 102), which may correspond to any combination of base stations 102 in Figure 1, using RF signals and standardized protocols for modulating RF signals and exchanging information packets. By extracting different types of information from the exchanged RF signals and utilizing the layout of the wireless communication system 600 (i.e., the location and geometry of the base stations, etc.), UE 104 can determine the location of UE 104 or assist in determining the location of UE 104 in a predetermined reference coordinate system. In some embodiments, the UE 104 may specify its location using a two-dimensional coordinate system, but the embodiments disclosed herein are not limited thereto and may also be applicable to determining the location using a three-dimensional coordinate system if additional dimensions are desired. In addition, Figure 6 shows one UE 104 and three base stations 102 (for 2D positioning, etc.), but as can be understood, there may be more UE 104s for positioning and more base stations 102 as TRP candidates or anchors.

[0089] Generally, RSTD is measured between a reference network node (such as a serving base station) and one or more neighboring network nodes. In the example shown in Figure 6, base station 102-1 may be the serving base station of UE104 (which could be the reference base station), while base stations 102-2 and 102-3 are neighboring base stations. The reference network node remains the same for all RSTDs measured by UE104 for any single positioning application of OTDOA, and typically corresponds to the serving cell for UE104, or another nearby cell with good signal strength at UE104. In some embodiments, if the network node being measured is a cell supported by a base station, the neighboring network nodes are typically cells supported by a different base station than the base station for the reference cell, and their signal strength at UE104 may be good or bad. RSTD may also be the relative timing difference between two cells, for example, between a reference cell and a neighboring cell, which is determined based on the minimum time difference between two subframe boundaries from two different cells.

[0090] Position calculations can be performed based on measured time differences (e.g., RSTD), as well as knowledge of the network node's location and relative transmission timing (e.g., whether the network nodes are precisely synchronized or whether each network node transmits with some known time difference relative to other network nodes).

[0091] To support positioning operations, location server 172 may provide UE 104 with OTDOA support data for a reference network node (e.g., base station 102-1 in the example of Figure 6, or an anchor UE in another example) and neighboring network nodes to the reference network node (e.g., base stations 102-2 and 102-3 in the example of Figure 6, or one or more other anchors, which may include an anchor UE in another example). For example, the support data may provide the center channel frequency of each network node, various reference RF signal configuration parameters (e.g., number of consecutive positioning subframes, periodicity of positioning subframes, muting sequence, frequency hopping sequence, reference RF signal ID, reference RF signal bandwidth), network node global ID, and / or other cell-related parameters applicable to OTDOA, as described above. The OTDOA support data may also indicate the serving cell for UE 104 as the reference network node. For example, UE104 may obtain one or more NR-DL-PRS Assistance Data (NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData) information elements (IE) related to a TRP used for wireless positioning, or related to a TRP candidate from which a TRP for wireless positioning is selected. One or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs may include, for one or more pairs of TRP (or TRP candidate) PRS resources, an expected reference signal time difference (RSTD) value of NR-DL-PRS (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD) and an uncertainty value of NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD related to the pair of TRP (or TRP candidate) PRS resources (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty). Different time lengths related to the OTDOA positioning method may be determined based on the expected RSTD and uncertainty value.

[0092] In one embodiment, the location server 172 may transmit support data to the UE 104 via one or more base stations 102 and / or relay UEs, but alternatively, the support data may be emitted directly from the base station 102 itself (for example, in periodically broadcast overhead messages). Alternatively, the UE 104 may detect and measure signals from the neighboring network nodes themselves without using support data.

[0093] In the example in Figure 6, the time differences measured between the reference cell of base station 102-1 and the neighboring cells of base stations 102-2 and 102-3 are expressed as τ2-τ1 and τ3-τ1, where τ1, τ2, and τ3 represent the transmission times of the reference RF signal from the transmitting antennas of base stations 102-1, 102-2, and 102-3 to UE104, respectively, including any measurement noise at UE104. UE104 can then convert the TOA measurement results of different network nodes into RSTD measurement results (as defined, for example, in 3GPP TS 36.214, titled "Physical layer; Measurements"). The location of UE104 can be determined (by either UE104 or location server 172) using (i) RSTD measurement results, (ii) known absolute or relative transmission timing of each network node, (iii) known location of the physical transmitting antenna relative to the reference network node and neighboring network nodes, (iv) directional reference RF signal characteristics such as transmission direction, and / or (v) supporting data related to the TRP or TRP candidate.

[0094] For example, TOA T in UE104 for the shortest path from base station i i teeth,

number

number

number

[0095] To determine the TOA of a reference RF signal transmitted by a given network node, UE104 first processes all resource elements (REs) on the channel from which the network node (e.g., base station 102) is transmitting the reference RF signal, and performs an inverse Fourier transform to convert the received RF signal to the time domain. This conversion of the received RF signal to the time domain is called the estimation of the Channel Energy Response (CER). The CER shows the peaks on the channel over time, and therefore the earliest "significant" peak should correspond to the TOA of the reference RF signal. Generally, the UE uses noise-related quality thresholds to remove localized peaks of spurious signals, thereby correctly identifying the potentially significant peaks on the channel. For example, UE104 might choose the TOA estimate to be the earliest maximum value of the CER, which is at least X dB higher than the median of the CER and up to Y dB lower than the main peak on the channel. To determine the TOA of each reference RF signal from different network nodes, UE104 determines the CER for each reference RF signal from each network node.

[0096] The TOA measurement performed by UE104 is related to the geographical distance between UE104 and a TRP or TRP candidate (for example, base station 102). In a 2D Cartesian coordinate system, the (known) coordinates of the base station are x i =[x i ,y i T may be denoted, and the (known) coordinates of UE104 are x t =[x t ,y t T may be denoted. The RSTD measurement result may be defined as the time difference between two base stations (modulo 1-subframe (1-ms)), and thus may correspond to the difference in distance between neighboring base station 102-i and reference base station 102-1. The time difference between neighboring base station 102-i and reference base station 102-1 measured at UE104 is given in the following equation (2).

Equation

[0097] (T i -T1) is the transmission time offset between base stations, and is referred to as "real time difference" (RTD). Variables n i and n1 are UE TOA measurement errors. The constant c is the speed of light.

[0098] Measurement results i of at least two neighboring base stations (in addition to the reference base station) may be required for wireless positioning. However, measurement results of more than two neighboring base stations may be used, or may be desirable (such as to increase the accuracy of the estimated location of the UE). The system of equations may be solved by a least squares method or a weighted least squares method. The transmission time offset (T i -T1) should (ideally) be 0 in a synchronized network, and the above equation defines TDOA. Geometrically, each TDOA defines a hyperbola, and the width of the hyperbola corresponds to the TDOA error (n i ​​- Determined by n1). Coordinates of base station 102 and transmission time offset (T i -If T1) is known to location server 172 or UE104, the location of UE104 can be determined.

[0099] Wireless positioning may be assisted by or based on a UE. In UE-assisted positioning, a server 500 (such as location server 172) may determine the location of a target UE. For simplicity, location server 172 is described as performing the operation, but one or more other network entities in the wireless network may perform all or part of the described operation (e.g., base stations, core network components). Location server 172 may also determine the RS resources to be used for positioning (such as a specific PRS format, frequency, time frame, and whether PRS transmission is triggered or periodic). Location server 172 may also select which base station 102 should be used as the TRP for wireless positioning and the settings for the TRP (such as which UE should be supported for wireless positioning). Location server 172 may indicate the determined resources to base station 102 (such as gNB), which may indicate those resources to UE 104, or use those indications to transmit PRS. In some implementations, the location server 172 may exclude or select TRP candidates to be used as TRPs for wireless positioning. This exclusion or selection may be based on the preference of one or more target UEs for TRP candidates. Alternatively, the exclusion or selection may be made independently of any preference from the target UEs. As described herein, the exclusion or selection of TRP candidates may be based on one or more GDOPs determined by one or more target UEs for various combinations of TRP candidates for wireless positioning.

[0100] In wireless positioning, the geometric shapes of the target UE and TRP affect the accuracy or potential errors in estimating the target UE's location. For example, based on the resolution and timing of the PRS, the UE's location may be within a certain distance range from the TRP (such as indicated by the related bands τ3-τ1 or τ2-τ1 in Figure 6). For multiple TRPs, the UE's location may lie within the intersection of the distance ranges of the multiple TRPs. This intersection of ranges represents the location uncertainty of the UE when multiple TRPs are used for wireless positioning. Adjusting the TRP's location can adjust the shape and magnitude of this location uncertainty, which can affect the accuracy in determining the UE's location.

[0101] Figure 7A is a figure 700 showing the location uncertainty 710 of a UE associated with a first TRP 702 and a second TRP 704 for wireless positioning. Based on the timing and resolution of the PRS, the location of the UE may be determined to be within the range 706 of TRP 702. Similarly, based on the timing and resolution of the PRS, the location of the UE may be determined to be within the range 708 of TRP 704. In this way, the UE may be located within the intersection of the two ranges 706 and 708, which is shown as location uncertainty 710. The positions of TRPs 702 and 704 affect the dimensions and magnitude of location uncertainty 710. Also, although not shown, the number of TRPs to be used may affect the dimensions and magnitude of location uncertainty 710. For example, increasing the number of TRPs may decrease the magnitude of location uncertainty 710. While 2D uncertainty is shown in Figure 7A (and Figure 7B), in 3D positioning, location uncertainty can be 3D. Thus, there may also be uncertainty in the altitude of the UE. The examples and explanations relate to 2D location uncertainty (such as Location Uncertainty 710) for clarity, but this disclosure also applies to 3D location uncertainty.

[0102] Figure 7B is Figure 701 showing the location uncertainty 716 of the UE associated with the first TRP 702 and the third TRP 712 for wireless positioning. The location of the UE can be determined to be within the range 714 of TRP 712. The locations of the second TRP 704 and the third TRP 712 are different from each other. As a result, the intersection of range 706 and range 714 may result in a location uncertainty of a different dimension than the location uncertainty 710. As shown, range 706 and range 714 are associated with the location uncertainty 716. The magnitude of the location uncertainty 716 is greater than the magnitude of the location uncertainty 710, and the UE is located somewhere within each location uncertainty. As a result, the error that may occur in the estimation of the UE's location is greater when using base stations 702 and 712 as TRPs compared to when using base stations 702 and 704 as TRPs. The intersection of ranges (such as uncertainty errors 710 or 716) may be referred to herein as the GDOP.

[0103] As shown above in relation to Figures 7A and 7B, the UE's position relative to the TRP's location for wireless positioning affects the potential errors in UE position estimation. For example, if the UE is in the central area of ​​the overlapping coverage areas of base stations (e.g., gNB) for wireless positioning, the GDOP may be smaller if the UE is in an area outside the overlapping coverage areas of base stations (e.g., gNB) for wireless positioning. If the UE's position relative to a TRP candidate is known, a specific TRP candidate may be selected as the TRP for wireless positioning to reduce the GDOP related to UE position estimation. However, the UE's position should be determined using the selected TRP for wireless positioning, and the UE's position may not be known before selecting the TRP to be used for wireless positioning. The UE may determine its position using non-RAT means. For example, the UE may determine its position using trilateration of GNSS signals. In this way, the UE's position may be known before selecting a TRP candidate. However, many devices may be unable to determine their location using non-RAT means (such as devices without GNSS or GPS receivers), or users may have privacy concerns about providing their precise location. In some implementations, the UE may determine GDOPs for different combinations of TRP candidates, and these GDOPs may be used when determining which TRP candidates should be used for the UE's wireless positioning. In this way, no non-RAT means are required for location determination, and providing the UE's precise location to a network component (such as a location server 172) is not required to perform wireless positioning.

[0104] GDOP can be calculated using any suitable method based on the type of positioning method used (e.g., TOA-based positioning). For example, GDOP can be calculated using the least squares method (n1-n as described above with respect to equation (1)). iThe standard deviation (σ) of the measurement error (e.g., across a Cartesian coordinate system) (for example, the square root of the sum of the squared standard deviation of the error along the x-axis and the squared standard deviation of the error along the y-axis) can be the ratio of the standard deviation of the measurement error (e.g., across a Cartesian coordinate system). An exemplary means for calculating the GDOP is provided in equation (3) below.

number

number

number

number

[0105] The matrix G can be determined using any known method. For example, in a TOA-based positioning method, the matrix G based on three TRPs (for 2D positioning, etc.) can be determined as given in equation (5) below.

number

[0106] As shown above in equations (3) and (4), the GDOP may be a value determined for the combination of base stations from which the PRS is obtained, and this value may indicate the magnitude of the location uncertainty associated with the combination of base stations in determining the location of the UE. In this way, a smaller GDOP may indicate smaller location uncertainty, which may indicate smaller errors that may occur in the estimation of the UE's location. Different combinations of TRP candidates may be compared with each other for their eligibility to be a TRP for wireless positioning, based on the GDOP associated with each combination. For example, the UE may determine a first GDOP for a first combination of TRP candidates, and the UE may determine a second GDOP for a second combination of TRP candidates. Note that different combinations or subsets of TRP candidates from multiple TRPs may overlap with one or more TRP candidates, or may be mutually exclusive. In addition, or instead, the number of TRP candidates in a group or combination may be adjustable. In this way, the first group of TRP candidates may have more, fewer, or the same number of TRP candidates as the second group of TRP candidates from multiple TRP candidates. A smaller GDOP may indicate which group of TRP candidates yields a more accurate localization of the UE.

[0107] In UE-assisted positioning (where the location server 172 can determine the UE's location), the UE may narrow down a group of TRP candidates before the location server 172 determines the final TRP to be used for wireless positioning. For example, the UE may indicate one or more preferred TRPs, or one or more TRPs to be excluded from use for the UE's wireless positioning. In addition, or instead, the UE may indicate a GDOP, and the location server 172 may determine the TRP candidates to be used for wireless positioning based on the GDOP determined by the UE for different groups of TRP candidates. In UE-based positioning (where the UE determines its location), the UE may determine the TRP to be used for wireless positioning. The UE may indicate which TRPs are selected so that TRPs can be pruned to remove any unselected TRPs (for example, by configuring base stations not selected not to transmit PRSs, or by differently muting PRSs from unselected base stations). In some implementations, the location server 172 may still indicate a final TRP based on the overall TRP to be used for wireless positioning of multiple UEs in the wireless network 100. In some implementations, TRP candidates excluded from wireless positioning for a UE may still support wireless positioning for one or more other UEs in the wireless network 100. Thus, a first TRP may support wireless positioning for a first subset of UEs, while a second TRP may support wireless positioning for a second subset of UEs in the wireless network.

[0108] Using GDOP when selecting or excluding TRP candidates may also allow for a reduction in the number of TRPs used for wireless positioning. For example, if a combination of four TRP candidates produces a GDOP similar to (within a threshold amount) that of a combination of five TRP candidates, then four TRP candidates, rather than five, may be used for wireless positioning. Assuming that a fifth TRP candidate should not be used for wireless positioning of other UEs in the wireless network 100, fewer base stations 102 may be required to transmit PRSs or perform other wireless positioning operations, and the UE may only need to detect fewer PRSs from fewer TRPs to determine the location of the UE (or other UE), which can save processing resources for the wireless network and the UE itself.

[0109] Figure 8 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method 800 for wireless positioning of a UE in a wireless network. The exemplary method 800 may be performed by a UE in a wireless network for which wireless positioning is to be performed, such as UE104 shown in Figure 1 or UE300 shown in Figure 3, in a manner consistent with the disclosed implementation. Although the UE is described herein as performing method 800, any other suitable device or component may perform one or more operations of method 800. A device capable of performing one or more operations of method 800 (or any other described method such as method 900 in Figure 9) may include at least one transceiver (one or more wireless transceivers and / or one or more wired transceivers), at least one memory, and at least one processor coupled to at least one transceiver and at least one memory. Referring to UE300 as an exemplary device, at least one transceiver may include transceiver 315 or wireless transceiver 340, at least one memory may include memory 311, and at least one processor may include one or more processors 310, one or more processors 330 to 334, or place device 319. Referring to base station 400 as an exemplary device, at least one transceiver may include all or part of transceiver 415, at least one memory may include memory 411, and at least one processor may include processor 410. Referring to server 500 as an exemplary device (e.g., location server), at least one transceiver may include all or part of transceiver 515, at least one memory may include memory 511, and at least one processor may include processor 510.

[0110] In block 802, the UE determines one or more GDOPs. Determining one or more GDOPs includes determining the GDOP associated with the combination of TRP candidates for each combination of TRP candidates from a plurality of TRP candidates for wireless positioning. The means for determining one or more GDOPs may include at least one processor of the UE. In some implementations, at least one processor of the UE is configured to determine the GDOP for each combination of TRP candidates. For example, one or more processors 330 to 334 of UE 300 or place device 319 (or any other suitable component) may determine the GDOPs.

[0111] To determine one or more GDOPs, the UE may select a first combination of TRP candidates from multiple TRP candidates within the UE's range, and the UE may determine a first GDOP for the first combination of TRP candidates. The UE may select a second combination of TRP candidates from multiple TRP candidates within the UE's range, and the UE may determine a second GDOP for the second combination of TRP candidates. The UE may select any number of combinations of TRP candidates. The number of TRP candidates can be any number (e.g., three or more TRP candidates for 2D positioning, or four or more TRP candidates for 3D positioning). In some implementations, the UE may determine the number of TRP candidates in a combination (up to the maximum number of TRP candidates) to balance the processing resources required for wireless positioning with the accuracy associated with any estimated position using the combination of TRP candidates for wireless positioning. Determining the GDOP for the selected combination of TRP candidates can be done in any suitable manner (e.g., as described above for TOA-based positioning methods).

[0112] The selection of different combinations of TRP candidates can be performed in any suitable manner. In one example, the UE determines a predetermined number of combinations. In another example, the UE determines additional combinations of TRP candidates when none of the existing combinations are associated with a GDOP below a GDOP threshold. In yet another example, the UE determines combinations of TRP candidates and their associated GDOPs for a given length of time. In yet another example, the UE determines its motion state (e.g., determining the UE's velocity or displacement based on one or more IMU measurements), and the UE may adjust the number of combinations that should be determined based on the UE's motion. For example, when the UE is moving, the selection of different TRP candidates may occur more frequently as a result of the UE's movement. Since the combinations of TRPs (e.g., TRPs to be used for wireless positioning of a re-selected UE) may be adjusted more frequently as a result of the UE's movement over the wireless network, the UE may reduce the number of combinations to reduce immediate processing resources. If the motion state of the UE falls below a threshold (for example, if the displacement or velocity of the UE falls below a threshold), the UE may increase the number of combinations to be determined in an attempt to improve the accuracy of the UE's position estimation. For example, the UE may use any combination of one or more of the above examples when selecting a combination of TRP candidates to determine the GDOP.

[0113] In addition to determining the number of combinations to be selected, or instead, the UE may determine the number of TRP candidates that should be included in each combination. In this way, the number of TRP candidates that should be included in a combination of TRP candidates is adjustable. For example, the UE may limit the number of TRP candidates to a set maximum number of TRP candidates. The UE may determine any number of combinations that are associated with an allowable number of TRP candidates (such as those described above). In some implementations, the number of TRP candidates that should be included in a combination is based on the UE's operating state. For example, the number of TRP candidates per combination may decrease as the UE's speed or rate increases. In addition to or instead of the above examples, any other appropriate actions may be taken to adjust the number of TRP candidates per combination.

[0114] For each combination of TRP candidates determined by the UE, the UE determines the GDOP for that combination of TRP candidates. Estimating / determining the GDOP may be performed in any appropriate manner. For example, the UE may use any conventional statistical method for estimating the GDOP (such as those described above with respect to TOA-based positioning methods). In addition, or instead, the UE may use one or more machine learning models to estimate the GDOP. For example, the input to one or more machine learning models may include expected RSTDs contained in the supporting data, determined RSTDs from PRSs obtained from TRP candidates, or other information obtained from other devices in the wireless network or determined by the UE. In some implementations, a comparison of the expected RSTD with the determined RSTD may be used as training data to train a machine learning model to estimate the GDOP. In some implementations, the GDOP determined after TRP selection may be compared with a GDOP determined before selection, and the results of the comparison may be provided as feedback when training the machine learning model. The locations of base stations are known and may be used to determine the known GDOPs associated with different subsets of base stations. In some implementations, the machine learning model may be trained in a controlled environment (training may be supervised or unsupervised), and the trained model may be deployed by the UE104 in the wireless network 100 to estimate the GDOP for combinations of TRP candidates.

[0115] In block 804, the UE provides a network entity in the wireless network with one or more GDOP-related markings, and one or more TRP candidates from a plurality of TRP candidates will be used by the UE for wireless positioning based on the markings. Means for providing markings may include at least one transceiver of the UE. For example, the UE may provide a report (which may be any appropriate packet or data frame) containing a marking to a network entity via at least one transceiver. In some implementations, the wireless transceiver is configured to provide markings to network entities in the wireless network. For example, the wireless transceiver 340 of UE 300 may be configured to provide markings to a base station (e.g., a gNB) serving UE 300. In another example, the wireless transceiver 340 of UE 300 may be configured to provide markings to a relay UE between the base station and UE 300. The markings may be provided to the location server 172 through the wireless network 100, including through the core network 170. This indication may be used by the location server 172 when determining one or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE. Alternatively, the indication may show one or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE (the UE may, in some cases, select one or more TRP candidates based on one or more GDOPs). The location server 172 may also determine and provide settings for the selected TRP and UE to support wireless positioning.Although not shown, location server 172 may determine, based on the indication, one or more TRP candidates that should not be used for wireless positioning of the UE, and / or location server 172 may determine the settings that should be used to remove unselected TRP candidates from being used for wireless positioning of the UE (this may include muting the PRS from the unselected TRPs, or configuring the unselected TRPs to support wireless positioning of the UE in a different way).

[0116] In some implementations, the indication from the UE to the network entity includes one or more GDOPs determined by the UE. Thus, the UE 104 may determine one or more GDOPs (as described above), and the UE 104 may indicate one or more GDOPs to the location server 172 (e.g., via a report to a base station or relay UE of the wireless network 100). As stated above, the indication may be included in any appropriate report to a base station or relay UE between the base station and the UE, and the base station may provide the indication to the location server 172 (e.g., via the core network 170). The indication may also indicate a combination of TRP candidates associated with each GDOP. Thus, the location server 172 may determine a combination of TRP candidates associated with a GDOP from the indication.

[0117] In some implementations, the indication may include TRP candidates selected by the UE for wireless positioning. In this way, the UE can exclusively determine the TRP candidates to be used for wireless positioning and indicate the selection to the wireless network 100. The location server 172 may obtain the indication of the selection, configure the selected TRPs for wireless positioning, and indicate the configuration to the wireless network 100 (to base stations, etc., to provide the configuration to the UE for wireless positioning). In some implementations, based on the selection by the UE (and / or selections by other UEs in the wireless network), the location server 172 may prune the TRPs to be used for wireless positioning to those indicated by one or more UEs in the wireless network 100.

[0118] Instead of the UE selecting the TRP candidates to be used for wireless positioning, the location server 172 may select one or more TRP candidates for the UE's wireless positioning. In some implementations, the marking includes all GDOPs determined by the UE. For example, if the UE selects five combinations of TRP candidates and determines five GDOPs, the UE may include five GDOPs in its report to the base station. Based on the acquired GDOPs, the location server 172 may select one or more TRP candidates to be used for the UE's wireless positioning. In some other implementations, the marking includes only a subset of GDOPs determined by the UE (the location server 172 selects one or more TRP candidates to be used for wireless positioning based on the acquired GDOPs). For example, the UE may determine multiple combinations of TRP candidates (multiple combinations include one or more combinations of TRP candidates), and the UE may determine the GDOPs for each of the multiple combinations. One or more GDOPs to be included in the marking may be selected by the UE based on GDOP thresholds.

[0119] For example, a UE may indicate one or more combinations of TRP candidates that should be included or considered for selection as a TRP for wireless positioning. A combination of TRP candidates to be considered may be associated with a GDOP below a GDOP threshold. As mentioned above, the GDOP may also be associated with the accuracy of the UE's position estimation, with a smaller GDOP corresponding to a smaller potential error in the position estimation. In this way, any GDOP greater than the GDOP threshold may be excluded from the indication. When excluding a GDOP, a combination of TRP candidates associated with the excluded GDOP may be excluded from being considered as a combination of TRPs to be used for the UE's wireless positioning.

[0120] In another example, a UE may indicate one or more TRP candidates that should be excluded from use for the UE's wireless positioning (e.g., excluded from selection by the location server). Excluded TRP candidates may be associated with GDOPs greater than a GDOP threshold. As mentioned above, GDOP may also be associated with the accuracy of the UE's position estimation, where a larger GDOP corresponds to a greater potential error in the position estimation. Thus, any GDOP smaller than the GDOP threshold may be excluded from the indication. The location server 172 may exclude from consideration any combination of TRP candidates associated with a GDOP included in the indication, and the location server 172 may select a TRP for wireless communication from any remaining combination. When excluding a GDOP from what the UE reports to the location server 172, the combination of TRP candidates associated with the excluded GDOP may remain under consideration for the UE's wireless positioning. By reducing the number of GDOPs to be reported to those related to combinations of TRP candidates that should be excluded from consideration when determining the final TRP, or should be included, the UE can reduce the signaling overhead when indicating GDOPs to network entities (which forward the indications to location server 172).

[0121] In some implementations, one or more GDOP-related markings include markings for one or more preferred TRPs for wireless positioning. In this way, the location server 172 may select one or more TRPs for wireless positioning of the UE based on the one or more preferred TRPs indicated by the UE.

[0122] Figure 9 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method 900 for wireless positioning of a UE in a wireless network. Method 900 may be an exemplary implementation of Method 800 in Figure 8, in which the selection of one or more TRPs for wireless positioning is based on the marking of one or more preferred TRPs from the UE (and optionally, information from other UEs in the wireless network). The exemplary method 900 may be performed by a UE in the wireless network in which wireless positioning for it is to be performed, such as UE104 shown in Figure 1 or UE300 shown in Figure 3, in a manner consistent with the disclosed implementation. Although the UE is described herein as performing Method 900, any other suitable device or component may perform one or more operations of Method 900. A device capable of performing one or more operations of Method 900 may include at least one transceiver (such as one or more wireless transceivers and / or one or more wired transceivers), at least one memory, and at least one processor coupled to at least one transceiver and at least one memory. Referring to UE300 as an exemplary device, at least one transceiver may include transceiver 315 or wireless transceiver 340, at least one memory may include memory 311, and at least one processor may include one or more processors 310, one or more processors 330 to 334, or place device 319. Referring to base station 400 as an exemplary device, at least one transceiver may include all or part of transceiver 415, at least one memory may include memory 411, and at least one processor may include processor 410. Referring to server 500 as an exemplary device (e.g., location server), at least one transceiver may include all or part of transceiver 515, at least one memory may include memory 511, and at least one processor may include processor 510.

[0123] In block 902, the UE determines a GDOP associated with one or more combinations of TRP candidates. The means for determining one or more GDOPs may include at least one processor of the UE. One or more operations of block 902 may be the same as the operations of block 802 in method 800 described above.

[0124] In block 904, the UE determines one or more preferred TRPs from a plurality of TRP candidates based on one or more GDOPs. The means for determining one or more preferred TRPs may include at least one processor of the UE. In some implementations, the UE may indicate one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates based on the determined GDOPs. For example, the UE may indicate one or more combinations associated with GDOPs below a GDOP threshold. In another example, the UE may indicate a combination associated with the lowest GDOP among all determined GDOPs. The indication may show preferred TRPs as a combination of TRP candidates associated with GDOPs, or the indication may show preferred TRPs as a list of TRPs that may not be associated with a particular combination of TRP candidates.

[0125] In addition to determining one or more preferred TRPs based on one or more GDOPs, the UE may determine one or more preferred TRPs based on one or more quality measurements of the PRS from one or more TRP candidates. For example, in block 906, the UE may optionally determine one or more quality measurements of the PRS from one or more TRP candidates, and the determination of one or more preferred TRPs is also based on one or more quality measurements. Means for determining one or more quality measurements of the PRS from one or more TRP candidates may include at least one processor and / or at least one transceiver of the UE (collectively referred to as at least one processor of the UE). Exemplary quality measurements may include one or more reference signal received power (RSRP) or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the PRS received at the UE. In addition, or instead, other quality measurements may be used, such as the signal-to-noise ratio (SINR) of the PRS, the reference signal reception quality (RSRQ) related to the PRS and noise, the Doppler shift or Doppler spread related to the PRS, or other appropriate quality measurements. While the quality measurements of the PRS are described, quality measurements of any appropriate signal from the TRP candidate, such as other reference signals or data signals from the TRP candidate, may be determined and used.

[0126] Quality measurement results may indicate whether it would be difficult for the UE to successfully decode the PRS from the TRP candidate. For example, if the RSRP is less than the RSRP threshold, or if the SNR is less than the SNR threshold associated with a signal threshold level below which PRS acquisition and / or decoding may become inaccurate, the associated TRP candidate may be a poor candidate for the UE's wireless positioning. In some implementations, the UE may determine one or more quality metrics associated with the TRP candidate (such as the RSRP and / or SNR of the PRS), compare one or more quality metrics to one or more thresholds (such as comparing the determined RSRP to the RSRP threshold, and / or comparing the determined SNR to the SNR threshold), and based on the comparison (such as the determined RSRP being less than the RSRP threshold, or the determined SNR being less than the SNR threshold), exclude the TRP candidate from being selected for the UE's wireless positioning.

[0127] In some implementations, the UE may narrow down a group of TRP candidates in a two-step process (e.g., excluding TRP candidates). The first step may involve narrowing down multiple TRP candidates based on one or more GDOPs (e.g., based on comparing GDOPs with GDOP thresholds). For example, if a TRP candidate is among a combination of TRP candidates associated with GDOPs below a GDOP threshold, the UE may exclude the TRP candidate from consideration. In another example, a particular combination of TRP candidates associated with GDOPs below a GDOP threshold may be excluded from consideration (however, the TRP candidate may still be included in a different combination that could be selected for wireless positioning).

[0128] After narrowing down multiple TRP candidates based on one or more GDOPs, a second step of narrowing down multiple TRP candidates may include the UE narrowing down the multiple TRP candidates (already narrowed down in the first step) based on one or more quality measurement results. For example, if the RSRP of the PRS from a TRP candidate (which is still among the multiple TRP candidates) is less than the RSRP threshold, the TRP candidate may be excluded from consideration. As used herein, narrowing down may mean removing or excluding one or more objects from a group. For example, narrowing down multiple TRP candidates may mean excluding one or more TRP candidates from among the multiple TRP candidates to be used for the UE's wireless positioning.

[0129] In block 908, the UE provides network entities in the wireless network with markings for one or more preferred TRPs. Means for providing the markings may include at least one transceiver of the UE. In some implementations, the markings for one or more preferred TRPs may include markings for TRPs that are excluded based on GDOP and / or quality measurement results. In some other implementations, the markings for one or more preferred TRPs may include markings for remaining TRP candidates after narrowing down by the UE.

[0130] Although not shown, the location server 172 may acquire markings and, based on these markings, select a TRP to be used for wireless positioning of the UE. Referring back to Figure 1, there may be multiple UEs 104 in the wireless network 100, and the wireless network 100 may be configured to support wireless positioning for multiple UEs 104. In this way, the location server 172 may determine a TRP that should be used not only for wireless positioning of one UE 104 (such as the UE mentioned above in Figures 8 and 9), but also for wireless positioning of multiple UEs 104. In this way, the selected TRP may be used for wireless positioning of one or more UEs 104 in the wireless network. Other UEs 104 may indicate preferred TRPs for wireless positioning, and the selection of one or more of the multiple TRP candidates for wireless positioning of the UE may also be based on one or more markings of preferred TRPs from one or more other UEs 104 in the wireless network 100.

[0131] In some implementations, preferred combinations of TRPs may be obtained by the location server 172 from multiple UEs. From the preferred combinations of TRPs, the location server 172 may determine the smallest subset of TRPs that should be used for all wireless positioning of the intended UE 104 in the wireless network 100. In addition, or instead, the location server 172 may determine combinations of TRPs that may not be the most preferred combination for a particular UE, but may be a suitable combination for multiple UEs. The above example is given to illustrate the aspects of this disclosure, and any other suitable methods may be employed in determining the final TRPs to be used for wireless positioning.

[0132] Instead of using one or more quality measurement results in determining one or more preferred TRPs, or in addition to them, determining one or more preferred TRPs may be based on power saving by the UE. For example, a PRS may be transmitted at a dedicated time from a TRP candidate, which may be determined by the location server 172. If one or more TRP candidates are excluded from wireless positioning for the UE, the UE may put one or more radio frequency (RF) chains of the UE into low-power mode for the time during which the excluded TRPs would transmit a PRS. For example, UE 300 may reduce or eliminate power to one or more components of the wireless transceiver 340. In some implementations, all RF chains may be put into low-power mode. In addition, or instead, UE 300 may reduce or eliminate power to the baseband processing system (which may include one or more UE components configured for baseband processing) for the time during which the excluded TRPs transmit a PRS. Conversely, the UE may put one or more RF chains (and / or baseband processing system) into active mode for the time associated with the remaining TRPs in order to transmit a PRS. For example, the modem processor 332 or other components of the UE300 (such as one or more components of the transceiver 315) may be included in or configured to implement the baseband processing system.

[0133] Selecting TRPs (Transmission Timers) whose transmission times for PRSs are temporally close to each other can reduce the length of time one or more RF chains (and baseband processing systems) will have to remain in active mode to acquire and process PRSs from the selected TRPs. Conversely, if their times are further apart, the length of time one or more RF chains (and baseband processing systems) will have to remain in active mode to acquire and process PRSs from the selected TRPs may increase. In some implementations, the UE may also determine preferred TRPs based on the time lengths associated with when PRSs (or other suitable signals for wireless positioning) are transmitted by those preferred TRPs.

[0134] Figure 10 shows different exemplary PRS times 1012–1018 associated with different base stations 1002–1008 for wireless positioning. As used herein, PRS time may refer to the time during which a UE obtains a PRS from a base station. For example, base station 1002 is the serving (reference) base station of the UE. The UE may obtain a PRS from reference base station 1002 during PRS time 1012 of slot 1010. PRS times between slots may refer to possible symbols of a slot during which a PRS may occupy that slot. The UE may obtain a PRS from neighbor base station 1004 during PRS time 1014 of slot 1010, the UE may obtain a PRS from neighbor base station 1006 during PRS time 1016 of slot 1010, and the UE may obtain a PRS from neighbor base station 1008 during PRS time 1018 of slot 1010. One or more of the UE's RF chains (and baseband processing systems) should remain in active mode during the PRS time associated with the base station selected as the TRP for the UE's wireless positioning. The time during which one or more RF chains (and baseband processing systems or other components) should remain in active mode in relation to measuring the PRS from the combination of TRP candidates is called the time length (which can be between slots). Time length 1020 corresponds to base stations 1002, 1004, and 1008 being selected as TRPs for the UE (base station 1006 is excluded from the TRPs). The time length between slots can refer to a possible combination of symbols in which one or more PRSs from the selected TRPs may occupy the slots in between. As illustrated for time length 1020, one or more of the UE's RF chains may enter low-power mode for at least a portion of the PRS time 1016, since the UE should not be listening for the PRS from the neighboring base station 1006. Time length 1022 corresponds to at least base stations 1004 and 1006 being selected as TRPs for the UE. As shown, PRS time 1014 is temporally further from PRS time 1016 than PRS time 1018, so it can be longer than time length 1020.In this way, the UE may be required to be in active mode for a longer or shorter time duration based on the TRP selected for the UE's wireless positioning. Although not shown, the time duration may correspond to the selection of a combined PRS time of 1012, 1016, and 1018 for base stations 1002, 1006, and 1008 as the TRP for the UE (base station 1004 is excluded from the TRP).

[0135] As stated above, the location server 172 may indicate which TRPs should be configured for wireless positioning for the UE. The UE may obtain a designation of one or more selected TRP candidates, one or more of the selected TRPs should transmit a PRS during a first part of time (for example, during the relevant time length shown in Figure 10). The UE may put one or more RF chains of the wireless transceiver into active mode during the first part of time to measure a PRS from one or more selected TRPs, and the UE may put one or more RF chains from active mode into low-power mode during a second part of time (for example, outside the time length associated with the selected TRPs). The second part of time may be a time when one or more selected TRPs do not transmit a PRS. For example, the second part of time may be associated with one or more unselected TRPs transmitting a PRS. In some implementations, all RF chains and baseband processing systems may be in low-power mode during the second part of time, which may prevent the UE from measuring a PRS from one or more unselected TRPs.

[0136] In some implementations, the selection of one or more TRP candidates for wireless positioning may be based on reducing the time length associated with measuring the PRS from one or more TRP candidates to be selected. In addition to, or instead of, the UE determining one or more quality measurement results (the selection of one or more preferred TRPs is based on one or more quality measurement results), the UE may determine, for each of one or more combinations of TRP candidates, the time length associated with measuring the PRS from the TRP candidates. For example, determining one or more preferred TRPs includes determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates (this may be based on one or more of the GDOP, quality measurement results, or time lengths associated with the combination). The marking to the network entity may indicate the time length determined for each of one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. Thus, the UE's selection of one or more TRP candidates to be used for wireless positioning (for example, by the location server 172 obtaining the indicated time lengths for preferred combinations) may be based on reducing the time length associated with measuring the PRS from one or more TRP candidates to be selected for wireless positioning. For example, location server 172 may select a combination of TRP candidates related to the shortest time length or a time length below a threshold. Location server 172 may also consider time lengths for multiple UEs (as well as other measures such as GDOP and / or quality measurement results) to determine the final group of TRPs to be used for wireless positioning of the UE. As stated above, location server 172 may provide the UE with selections and additional information (such as PRS timing and PRS frequency).

[0137] As described above, determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates may be based on one or more time lengths determined by the UE. For example, the UE may narrow down the combinations of TRP candidates based on the time lengths being smaller than a threshold. For example, when narrowing down the combinations of TRP candidates, the UE may determine a first time length for a first combination of TRP candidates associated with a first GDOP. The UE may also determine a second time length for a second combination of TRP candidates associated with a second GDOP. In some implementations, the second GDOP may be within the tolerance of the first GDOP. Thus, the first and second GDOPs may be similar enough that, based on GDOPs alone, either the first or second combination of TRP candidates is acceptable for wireless positioning. In some implementations, both GDOPs may be smaller than the GDOP threshold used to narrow down the combinations of TRP candidates based on GDOPs.

[0138] When comparing the first time length with the second time length, the second time length may be greater than the first time length. Thus, if the second combination of TRP candidates is selected, one or more components of the UE must remain in active mode longer than if the second combination of TRP candidates were selected, increasing the processing and power requirements of the UE. In some implementations, the UE may select the first combination of TRP candidates rather than the second combination of TRP candidates for one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates, based on the fact that the first time length is less than the second time length. In some implementations, the UE may determine whether the first time length is less than the second time length by a time of tolerance or threshold length. In some other implementations, the UE may exclude a combination of TRP candidates if the relevant time length is greater than the threshold time length.

[0139] The duration can be determined based on supporting data. For example, one or more gNBs may provide NR-DL-PRS for wireless positioning. A serving base station (e.g., a serving gNB) or one or more neighboring base stations (e.g., gNBs) may provide one or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs. One or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs may include, for one or more pairs of TRP PRS resource candidates (for a serving gNB and neighboring gNBs, etc.), an expected RSTD value for NR-DL-PRS (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD) and an uncertainty value for NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD related to the pair of TRP PRS resource candidates (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty). The supporting data may indicate the duration or possible symbols during which the PRS may occupy a slot for a pair of TRPs, and such information may be used in determining the duration for a combination of TRPs (based on supporting data for each pair of serving gNBs and neighboring gNBs in the combination, etc.). In this way, the UE may determine the time length (such as the first and second time lengths from the example above) based on one or more NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD and NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty values. Exemplary supporting data provided to the UE is described in release 16 of the 3GPP standards. In some implementations, the supporting data may identify a pair of base stations (TRPs). In addition, or instead, the supporting data may include NR-DL-PRS configurations from one or both of the base station pair to assist the UE in listening to or measuring PRS from the base station pair.

[0140] In some implementations, the UE may provide a marker to the network entity once, and the TRP is selected for the UE's future wireless positioning. For example, if the UE is static (e.g., does not move beyond a threshold distance), the selected TRP may remain suitable for the UE's wireless positioning. However, the UE (e.g., a cell phone) may move within the wireless network. Thus, the previously selected TRP for wireless positioning may no longer be suitable for wireless positioning if the UE moves within the wireless network (which can change the geometric arrangement of the TRP and the UE and affect the GDOP associated with the selected TRP).

[0141] In some implementations, the wireless network 100 may be configured to adjust the TRPs that should be used for the wireless positioning of the UE. For example, the location server 172 may adjust (e.g., reselect) which TRPs should be used for the wireless positioning of the UE. This adjustment may be performed at any appropriate time. For example, the adjustment (or the decision of whether an adjustment should be performed) may be periodic. In addition, or instead, the adjustment may be trigger-based. As used herein, TRP adjustment may mean one or more of excluding one or more previously selected TRPs, or including one or more previously selected TRPs. Adjusting the TRP may mean remaking a previously selected combination of TRPs for wireless positioning, or selecting a new combination of TRPs for wireless positioning based on updated GDOP or other information indicated by the UE (or one or more other UEs in the wireless network).

[0142] If adjustments may be periodic, the UE may periodically provide indications to network entities. For example, as described above, the UE may periodically perform method 800. As stated above, the movement of the UE may affect the GDOP determined by the UE. In some implementations, the period for providing indications to network entities (such as the period for performing method 800) may be based on the movement of the UE. For example, the UE may determine its movement based on one or more IMU measurements or based on the inheritance of the UE's location determined using wireless positioning. If the movement is greater than a threshold (such as displacement being greater than a threshold, speed being greater than a threshold, or any other appropriate measure of the UE's movement), the UE may lengthen the period for providing indications to network entities (indications may be provided to the location server 172 to determine whether to adjust the selection of TRPs for the UE). In one example, lengthening the period may be a number of steps related to the increase in the UE's speed or displacement, a linear function, or another correlation between the UE's movement and when to provide indications to network entities. Several examples are given for determining the period for providing the indicator, but any suitable method may be used when determining the period.

[0143] If providing a marking can be triggered, the trigger may be based on the movement of the UE, a request from the location server 172, or another suitable trigger. For example, if the UE determines that its speed or displacement is greater than a threshold, the UE may perform method 800 and provide a marking to the network entity, and the location server 172 may determine a new TRP for the UE's wireless positioning based on the marking. In another example, the UE may receive a request from the network entity to provide a marking. For example, the location server 172 may determine that a marking will be requested by the UE. The location server 172 may send the request to a serving gNB via the core network 170, and the serving gNB may provide the request to the UE. Based on having received the request, the UE may provide a marking to the network entity (for example by performing method 800). The marking may be forwarded by the network entity (e.g., the gNB) to the location server 172, and the location server 172 may select a new TRP for the UE's wireless positioning. When the location server 172 may request a location can be determined in any suitable manner, such as periodically or by determining that the UE has moved based on the UE's previously determined location. As stated above, once a TRP is selected for wireless positioning and the UE and the selected TRP are configured, the UE may determine its location during UE-based positioning. In addition, or instead, the location server 172 may determine the UE's location during UE-assisted positioning.

[0144] Throughout this specification, references to “one example,” “some example,” “some examples,” or “exemplary implementations” mean that any particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in relation to a feature and / or example may be included in at least one feature and / or example of the claimed subject matter. Therefore, occurrences of phrases such as “one example,” “some example,” “some examples,” or “in some implementations” or other similar phrases in various places throughout this specification do not necessarily all refer to the same feature, example, and / or limitation. Furthermore, any particular feature, structure, or characteristic may be combined in one or more examples and / or features.

[0145] Some portions of the detailed descriptions contained herein are presented with respect to algorithms or symbolic representations of operations on binary digital signals stored in the memory of a particular apparatus or dedicated computing device or platform. In the context of this particular specification, the term "particular apparatus, etc." includes general-purpose computers that, once programmed, perform specific operations according to instructions from program software. An algorithmic description or symbolic representation is an example of a technique used by those skilled in the art to communicate the nature of their work to others skilled in the art. In this specification, an algorithm is also generally considered to be a self-consistent set of operations or similar signal operations that produce a desired result. In this context, an operation or operation involves the physical manipulation of a physical quantity. While not always the case, such quantities usually take the form of electrical or magnetic signals that can be stored, transferred, combined, compared, or otherwise manipulated. It has been found that it is sometimes convenient to refer to such signals as bits, data, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, digits, numerical values, etc., mainly because they are common usage. However, it should be understood that all of these terms or similar terms should be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient designations. Unless otherwise stated, as will be apparent from the descriptions herein, any use of terms such as “process,” “calculate,” “calculate,” and “determine” throughout this specification should be understood to refer to actions or processes of a specific device, such as a dedicated computer, dedicated computing device, or similar dedicated electronic computing device. Therefore, in the context of this specification, a dedicated computer or similar dedicated electronic computing device is capable of manipulating or converting signals that are typically represented as physical electronic or magnetic quantities within the memory, registers, or other information storage devices, transmitting devices, or display devices of the dedicated computer or similar dedicated electronic computing device.

[0146] The detailed description above includes numerous specific details to give a complete understanding of the claimed subject matter. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the claimed subject matter can be practiced without these specific details. In other cases, methods and apparatus that would be known to those skilled in the art are not described in detail so as not to obscure the claimed subject matter.

[0147] As used herein, the terms “and,” “or,” and “and / or” may have a variety of meanings, which are also expected to depend at least partially on the context in which such terms are used. Typically, when “or” is used to relate an enumeration such as A, B, or C, it is intended to mean A, B, and C in an inclusive sense, as well as A, B, or C in an exclusive sense. In addition, as used herein, the term “one or more” may be used to describe any singular feature, structure, or characteristic, or to describe multiple features, structures, or characteristics, or any other combination of features, structures, or characteristics. However, it should be noted that these are merely illustrative examples, and the claimed subject matter is not limited to these examples.

[0148] While exemplary features and those currently considered to be exemplary are illustrated and described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various other modifications may be made and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the claimed subject matter. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt specific situations to the teachings of the claimed subject matter without departing from the central concepts described herein.

[0149] Examples of implementation forms are described in the following numbered clauses. 1. A method performed by a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless network for wireless positioning of a User Equipment (UE), A step of determining one or more geometric precision degradation factors (GDOPs), The process includes the step of determining the GDOP associated with each combination of TRP candidates for one or more combinations of TRP candidates from a plurality of transmit / receive point (TRP) candidates for wireless positioning, Steps and A method comprising the steps of providing a network entity in a wireless network with one or more GDOP-related markings, wherein one or more TRP candidates of a plurality of TRP candidates will be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE based on the markings. 2. The method of Clause 1, wherein the marking includes one or more GDPRs determined by the UE. 3. This is a step in determining multiple GDPs, The process includes the step of determining the GDOP associated with the combination of TRP candidates for each combination of TRP candidates from multiple TRPs for wireless positioning, wherein the multiple combination of TRP candidates includes one or more combinations of TRP candidates. Steps and The method of Clause 2 further includes the step of selecting one or more GDOPs from a plurality of GDOPs determined by the UE, wherein the selection is based on a GDOP threshold. 4. The method of Clause 3, wherein the step of selecting one or more GDOPs is based on the fact that each of the one or more GDOPs is greater than the GDOP threshold. 5. The method of Clause 3, wherein the step of selecting one or more GDOPs is based on the fact that each of the one or more GDOPs is less than the GDOP threshold. 6. The method of Clause 1, further comprising the step of determining one or more preferred TRPs from a plurality of TRP candidates based on one or more GDOPs, wherein the marking indicates one or more preferred TRPs. 7. The method of Clause 6, further comprising the step of determining one or more quality measurement results of a positioning reference signal (PRS) from at least one of a plurality of TRP candidates, wherein determining one or more preferred TRPs is also based on one or more quality measurement results. 8. One or more quality measurement results, Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or Reference signal received power (RSRP) The method of Clause 7, which includes one or more of the following. 9. The step of determining one or more preferred TRPs is: A step of narrowing down multiple TRP candidates based on one or more GDPs, The method of Clause 7, comprising the step of narrowing down a plurality of TRP candidates based on one or more quality measurement results. 10. The method of Clause 6, wherein one or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE are also based on one or more indications of preferred TRPs from one or more other UEs in the wireless network. 11. A step of obtaining indications of one or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE, wherein one or more TRP candidates will transmit a positioning reference signal (PRS) during a first part of time; The steps include: activating one or more radio frequency (RF) chains of the UE for a first part of time in order to measure PRS from one or more TRP candidates; The method of Clause 6 further includes the step of switching one or more RF chains of the UE from active mode to low-power mode during a second portion of the time in which one or more TRP candidates are not transmitting a PRS. 12. During the second part of the time, further include the step of putting all RF chain and baseband processing systems of the UE into low-power mode, The second part of the time is associated with one or more unselected TRPs sending PRS, The method of Clause 11, wherein the RF chain and baseband processing system are put into low-power mode, preventing the UE from measuring PRS from one or more unselected TRPs. 13. For each combination of TRP candidates, one or more combinations of TRP candidates, the step further includes determining the time length associated with measuring PRS from the combination of TRP candidates, The step of determining one or more preferred TRPs includes the step of determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates, and the one or more combinations of TRP candidates include one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. The markings indicate the time duration for each preferred combination of TRP candidates, for one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. The method of Clause 6, wherein one or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE are based on time length markings for each preferred combination of TRP candidates. 14. The step of determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates is the method of Clause 13, based on one or more time lengths. 15. The step of determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates is: A step of determining a first time length for a first combination of TRP candidates associated with a first GDOP, A step of determining a second time length for a second combination of TRP candidates related to a second GDOP that is within the tolerance of a first GDOP, wherein the second time length is greater than the first time length. The method of clause 14, comprising the step of selecting a first combination of TRP candidates over a second combination of TRP candidates based on the fact that a first time length is less than a second time length. 16. Further includes the step of obtaining one or more new radio (NR) downlink (DL) PRS assistance data (NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData) information elements (IE) related to the TRP candidate, One or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs include, for each pair of TRP PRS resource candidates, the expected reference signal time difference value for NR-DL-PRS (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD) and the uncertainty value of NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD related to the pair of TRP PRS resource candidates (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty), The method of Clause 15, wherein the first and second time lengths are determined based on the NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD value and NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty value of one or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs. 17. The method of Clause 1, wherein the number of TRP candidates to be included in the combination of TRP candidates is adjustable. 18. The method of Clause 1, further comprising the step of obtaining a request from a network entity to provide a marking, and the UE providing the marking to the network entity based on having obtained the request. 19. The method of Clause 1, wherein the step of providing a marking to a network entity includes the step of periodically providing a new marking to the network entity. 20. The method of Clause 19, where the period is based on the movement of the UE. 21. The method of Clause 1, wherein the network entity is a base station that serves the UE. 22. A UE in a wireless network configured for wireless positioning of user equipment (UEs), At least one transceiver configured to provide a marking associated with one or more geometric precision degradation factors (GDOPs) to a network entity in a wireless network, wherein one or more TRP candidates of a plurality of transmit / receive point (TRP) candidates will be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE based on the marking, At least one memory, It includes at least one transceiver and at least one processor coupled to at least one memory, the at least one processor is For each combination of TRP candidates, one or more combinations of TRP candidates from multiple TRP candidates for wireless positioning, the GDOP associated with the combination of TRP candidates is determined. A UE configured to determine one or more GDOPs related to the markings. 23. The UE of Clause 22, which includes one or more GDPRs determined by the UE. 24. At least one processor further, This involves determining multiple GDPs, For each combination of TRP candidates from multiple TRPs for wireless positioning, the method includes determining the GDOP associated with the combination of TRP candidates, wherein the multiple combination of TRP candidates includes one or more combinations of TRP candidates. To make a decision, The UE of Clause 23 is configured to select one or more GDPRs from a set of GDPRs determined by the UE, where the selection is based on GDPR thresholds. 25. The UE of Clause 24, where the selection of one or more GDOPs is based on the fact that each of the one or more GDOPs is greater than the GDOP threshold. 26. A UE under Clause 24, where the selection of one or more GDOPs is based on the fact that each of the one or more GDOPs is less than the GDOP threshold. 27. The UE of Clause 22, wherein at least one processor is further configured to determine one or more preferred TRPs from a plurality of TRP candidates based on one or more GDOPs, and the marking indicates one or more preferred TRPs. 28. The UE of Clause 27, wherein at least one processor is further configured to determine one or more quality measurement results of a positioning reference signal (PRS) from at least one TRP candidate of a plurality of TRP candidates, and determining one or more preferred TRPs is also based on one or more quality measurement results. 29. One or more quality measurement results, Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or Reference signal received power (RSRP) The UE of Clause 28, including one or more of the following. 30. At least one processor determines one or more preferred TRPs. Based on one or more GDPRs, narrow down the list of TRP candidates. The UE of Clause 28 is configured to narrow down multiple TRP candidates based on one or more quality measurement results. 31. One or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE are also based on one or more markings of preferred TRPs from one or more other UEs in the wireless network, as per Clause 27. 32. At least one transceiver further, The UE obtains indications of one or more TRP candidates to be used, and one or more TRP candidates will transmit a positioning reference signal (PRS) during the first part of time. To measure PRS from one or more TRP candidates, during the first part of time, one or more radio frequency (RF) chains of at least one transceiver are set to active mode. The UE of Clause 27 is configured to move one or more RF chains of at least one transceiver from active mode to low power mode during the second portion of time when one or more TRP candidates are not transmitting a PRS. 33. At least one transceiver is further configured to put all RF chains and baseband processing systems of the UE into low-power mode for the second part of time. The second part of the time is associated with one or more unselected TRPs sending PRS, The UE of Clause 32, where the RF chain and baseband processing system are put into low-power mode, which prevents the UE from measuring PRS from one or more unselected TRPs. 34. At least one processor is further configured to determine, for each combination of TRP candidates of one or more combinations of TRP candidates, the time length associated with measuring PRS from the combination of TRP candidates. At least one processor is further configured to determine one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates in order to determine one or more preferred TRPs, wherein one or more combinations of TRP candidates includes one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. The markings indicate the time duration for each preferred combination of TRP candidates, for one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. One or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE, based on the indication of time lengths for each preferred combination of TRP candidates, according to Clause 27 of the UE. 35. The determination of one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates is based on one or more time lengths, as per the UE of Clause 34. 36. At least one processor further determines one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. Determine the first time length for the first combination of TRP candidates associated with the first GDOP, Determine the second time length for a second combination of TRP candidates related to the second GDOP that is within the tolerance of the first GDOP, and if the second time length is greater than the first time length, The UE of clause 35 is configured to select the first combination of TRP candidates over the second combination of TRP candidates based on the fact that the first time length is less than the second time length. 37. At least one transceiver is further configured to acquire one or more new radio (NR) downlink (DL) PRS assistance data (NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData) information elements (IE) related to the TRP candidate, One or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs include, for each pair of TRP PRS resource candidates, the expected reference signal time difference value for NR-DL-PRS (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD) and the uncertainty value of NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD related to the pair of TRP PRS resource candidates (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty), The UE of Clause 36 determines the first and second time lengths based on the NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD value and NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty value of one or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs. 38. The number of TRP candidates to be included in a combination of TRP candidates is adjustable, as per the UE of Clause 22. 39. The UE of Clause 22, wherein at least one transceiver is further configured to receive a request from a network entity to provide a marking, and the UE will provide a marking to the network entity based on having received the request. 40. The UE of Clause 22, wherein at least one transceiver is further configured to periodically provide new indications to network entities. 41. The UE of clause 40, whose period is based on the movement of the UE. 42. A UE under Clause 22, which is a base station that serves a UE. 43. A non-temporary computer-readable medium for storing instructions, wherein when an instruction is executed by at least one processor of a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless network configured for wireless positioning of the UE, Determining one or more geometric precision degradation factors (GDOPs), For each combination of TRP candidates, one or more combinations of TRPs from multiple transmit / receive point (TRP) candidates for wireless positioning, the GDOP associated with the TRP candidate combination is determined via at least one processor. This includes making a decision, A non-temporary computer-readable medium that causes a network entity in a wireless network to provide one or more GDOP-related markings via at least one transceiver of the UE, and one or more TRP candidates of a plurality of TRP candidates will be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE based on the markings. 44. Computer-readable media of Clause 43, including one or more GDPRs determined by the UE. 45. UE, This involves determining multiple GDPs, The process involves determining the GDOP associated with the combination of TRP candidates for each combination of TRP candidates from a plurality of TRPs for wireless positioning, wherein the plurality of combinations of TRP candidates includes one or more combinations of TRP candidates. To make a decision, The computer-readable medium of Clause 44 further includes instructions for causing the UE to select one or more GDOPs from a plurality of GDOPs determined by the UE, wherein the selection is based on a GDOP threshold. 46. ​​A computer-readable medium of Clause 45 in which the selection of one or more GDPs is based on the fact that each of the GDPs is greater than the GDP threshold. 47. A computer-readable medium of Clause 45 in which the selection of one or more GDOPs is based on the fact that each of the one or more GDOPs is less than the GDOP threshold. 48. A computer-readable medium of Clause 43, further comprising instructions for causing the UE to determine one or more preferred TRPs from a plurality of TRP candidates based on one or more GDOPs, wherein the markings indicate one or more preferred TRPs. 49. A computer-readable medium of Clause 48 further includes instructions for causing the UE to determine one or more quality measurement results of a positioning reference signal (PRS) from at least one of a plurality of TRP candidates, wherein the determination of one or more preferred TRPs is also based on one or more quality measurement results. 50. One or more quality measurement results, Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or Reference signal received power (RSRP) Computer-readable media of Clause 49, including one or more of the following. 51. To determine one or more preferred TRPs, a computer-readable medium further provides the UE with: Based on one or more GDOPs, narrow down the list of TRP candidates. Narrow down the multiple TRP candidates based on one or more quality measurement results. Computer-readable media of Article 49, including instructions for the purpose of. 52. One or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE, based on one or more markings of preferred TRPs from one or more other UEs in the wireless network, in a computer-readable medium of Clause 48. 53. UE, Acquiring, via at least one transceiver, an indication of one or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE, wherein one or more TRP candidates will transmit a positioning reference signal (PRS) during a first part of time; To measure PRS from one or more TRP candidates, one or more radio frequency (RF) chains of at least one transceiver are set to active mode for a first portion of time, During the second portion of the time when one or more TRP candidates are not transmitting PRS, one or more RF chains of at least one transceiver are switched from active mode to low power mode. A computer-readable medium of Article 48, further including instructions for performing the actions. 54. Further instructions to the UE to put all of the UE's RF chain and baseband processing systems into low-power mode during the second part of time, The second part of the time is associated with one or more unselected TRPs sending PRS, The computer-readable media of Clause 53, which states that the RF chain and baseband processing system being put into low-power mode prevents the UE from measuring PRS from one or more unselected TRPs. 55. The UE further includes instructions for determining the time length associated with measuring PRS from the combination of TRP candidates for each combination of TRP candidates, one or more combinations of TRP candidates. To determine one or more preferred TRPs, the computer-readable medium further includes instructions for the UE to determine one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates, where one or more combinations of TRP candidates includes one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. The markings indicate the time duration for each preferred combination of TRP candidates, for one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. A computer-readable medium of Clause 48, on which one or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE are indicated, based on time length markings for each preferred combination of the TRP candidates. 56. A computer-readable medium of Clause 55, in which the determination of one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates is based on one or more time lengths. 57. In order to determine one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates, a computer-readable medium is further provided to the UE. Determine the first time length for the first combination of TRP candidates associated with the first GDOP. Determine the second time length for a second combination of TRP candidates related to the second GDOP that is within the tolerance of the first GDOP, and if the second time length is greater than the first time length, A computer-readable medium of Clause 56, including instructions for causing the system to select the first combination of TRP candidates over the second combination of TRP candidates based on the fact that the first time length is less than the second time length. 58. The instruction further includes causing the UE to obtain one or more new radio (NR) downlink (DL) PRS assistance data (NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData) information elements (IE) related to a TRP candidate via at least one transceiver, One or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs include, for each pair of TRP PRS resource candidates, the expected reference signal time difference value for NR-DL-PRS (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD) and the uncertainty value of NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD related to the pair of TRP PRS resource candidates (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty), The computer-readable media of Clause 57, which determines the first and second time lengths based on the NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD values ​​and NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty values ​​of one or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs. 59. A computer-readable medium of Clause 43 in which the number of TRP candidates to be included in a combination of TRP candidates is adjustable. 60. A computer-readable medium of Clause 43, further including instructions causing the UE to obtain a request from a network entity to provide a marking via at least one transceiver, and the UE providing the marking to the network entity based on having obtained the request. 61. A computer-readable medium of Clause 43, further including instructions for the UE to periodically provide new markings to network entities via at least one transceiver. 62. A computer-readable medium of Clause 61, whose period is based on the movement of the UE. 63. A computer-readable medium of Clause 43, which is a base station that a network entity serves to a UE. 64. A UE in a wireless network for wireless positioning of user equipment (UE), A means for determining one or more geometric precision degradation factors (GDOPs), For each combination of TRP candidates, of one or more combinations of TRP candidates from a plurality of transmit / receive point (TRP) candidates for wireless positioning, means for determining the GDOP associated with the combination of TRP candidates, means and A UE comprising means for providing a network entity in a wireless network with one or more GDOP-related markings, wherein one or more TRP candidates of a plurality of TRP candidates will be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE based on the markings. 65. A UE under Clause 64, whose designation includes one or more GDPRs determined by the UE. 66. A means for determining multiple GDPs, For each combination of TRP candidates of multiple combinations of TRP candidates from multiple TRPs for wireless positioning, means for determining the GDOP associated with the combination of TRP candidates, wherein the multiple combinations of TRP candidates include one or more combinations of TRP candidates. means and The UE of Clause 65 further includes means for selecting one or more GDPs from a plurality of GDPs determined by the UE, wherein the selection is based on a GDP threshold. 67. The UE of Clause 66, which selects one or more GDOPs on the basis that each of the one or more GDOPs is greater than the GDOP threshold. 68. The UE of Clause 66, which selects one or more GDOPs on the basis that each of the one or more GDOPs is less than the GDOP threshold. 69. The UE of Clause 64 further includes means for determining one or more preferred TRPs from a plurality of TRP candidates based on one or more GDOPs, wherein the marking indicates one or more preferred TRPs. 70. The UE of Clause 69 further includes means for determining one or more quality measurement results of a positioning reference signal (PRS) from at least one TRP candidate of a plurality of TRP candidates, wherein determining one or more preferred TRPs is also based on one or more quality measurement results. 71. One or more quality measurement results, Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or Reference signal received power (RSRP) The UE of Clause 70, including one or more of the following. 72. Means for determining one or more preferred TRPs, A means for narrowing down multiple TRP candidates based on one or more GDPs, The UE of Clause 70 includes means for narrowing down a plurality of TRP candidates based on one or more quality measurement results. 73. One or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE are also based on one or more markings of preferred TRPs from one or more other UEs in the wireless network, as per Clause 69. 74. Means for obtaining indications of one or more TRP candidates to be used by a UE for wireless positioning of the UE, wherein one or more TRP candidates will transmit a positioning reference signal (PRS) during a first portion of time; Means for activating one or more radio frequency (RF) chains of the UE during a first part of time in order to measure PRS from one or more TRP candidates, The UE of Clause 69 further includes means for switching one or more RF chains of the UE from active mode to low-power mode during a second portion of the time when one or more TRP candidates are not transmitting a PRS. 75. The means for putting all RF chain and baseband processing systems of the UE into low-power mode during the second part of the time, The second part of the time is associated with one or more unselected TRPs sending PRS, The UE of Clause 74, where the RF chain and baseband processing system being put into low-power mode prevents the UE from measuring PRS from one or more unselected TRPs. 76. For each combination of TRP candidates, one or more combinations of TRP candidates, the method further includes means for determining the time length associated with measuring PRS from the combination of TRP candidates. Means for determining one or more preferred TRPs include means for determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates, and one or more combinations of TRP candidates include one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. The markings indicate the time duration for each preferred combination of TRP candidates, for one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. One or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE, based on the indication of time lengths for each preferred combination of the TRP candidates, according to Clause 69 of the UE. 77. Determine one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates based on one or more time lengths, UE of Clause 76. 78. Means for determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates, A means for determining a first time length for a first combination of TRP candidates related to a first GDOP, A means for determining a second time length for a second combination of TRP candidates related to a second GDOP that is within the tolerance of a first GDOP, wherein the second time length is greater than the first time length. The UE of Clause 77 includes means for selecting a first combination of TRP candidates over a second combination of TRP candidates based on the fact that a first time length is less than a second time length. 79. Further includes means for obtaining one or more new radio (NR) downlink (DL) PRS assistance data (NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData) information elements (IE) related to TRP candidates, One or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs include, for each pair of TRP PRS resource candidates, the expected reference signal time difference value for NR-DL-PRS (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD) and the uncertainty value of NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD related to the pair of TRP PRS resource candidates (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty), The UE of Clause 78 determines the first and second time lengths based on the NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD values ​​and NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty values ​​of one or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs. 80. The number of TRP candidates to be included in a combination of TRP candidates is adjustable, UE of Clause 64. 81. The UE of Clause 64, further including means for obtaining a request from a network entity to provide a marking, and the UE providing the marking to the network entity based on having obtained the request. 82. The UE of Clause 64, wherein the means for providing a marking to a network entity includes means for periodically providing a new marking to the network entity. 83. The UE of Clause 82, whose period is based on the movement of the UE. 84. A UE under Clause 64, which is a base station that serves a UE.

[0150] Therefore, it is intended that the claimed subject matter is not limited to the specific examples disclosed, but may also include all embodiments and their equivalents that fall within the scope of the attached claims. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0151] 100 Wireless Communication Systems 102 BS 104 UE 110 Geographic Coverage Areas 120 Communication Links 122 Backhaul Link 134 Backhaul Link 150 AP 152 UE 154 Communication Links 164 UE 180 mmW BS 182 UE 184 mmW communication link 190 UE 192 D2D P2P Link 194 D2D P2P Links 170 Core Network 172 Location Server 212 data sources 220 Transmitting Processors 230 TX MIMO Processor 232 Modulator 234 Antenna 236 MIMO detector 238 receiving processors 239 Data Sync 240 Controllers / Processors 242 memory 244 Communication Unit 246 Scheduler 252 Antenna 254 Demodulator 256 MIMO detector 258 receiving processors 260 Data Sync 262 data sources 264 Transmitting Processors 266 TX MIMO processor 280 Controllers / Processors 282 memory 290 Controllers / Processors 292 memory 294 Communication Unit 300 user devices 311 memory 312 Software 313 Sensor 314 Transceiver Interface 315 Transceiver 316 User Interface 317 SPS receiver 318 Camera 319 Location Devices 320 bus 330 Application Processors 331 DSP 332 Modem Processors 333 Video Processors 334 Sensor Processors 340 Wire Restaurant Seaba 342 Transmitter 344 Receiver 346 Antenna 348 Wireless Signals 350 Wired Transceiver 352 Transmitter 354 Receiver 360 SPS signal 362 SPS antenna 372 Wireless Positioning Session Module 400 base stations 410 Processor 411 memory 412 Software 415 Transceiver 420 bus 440 Wire Restaurant Seaba 442 Transmitter 444 Receiver 446 Antenna 448 Wireless Signals 450 Wired Transceiver 452 Transmitter 454 Receiver 472 Wireless Positioning Session Module 500 servers 510 Processor 511 memory 512 Software 515 Transceiver 520 Bus 540 Wire Restaurant Seaba 542 Transmitter 544 Receiver 546 Antenna 548 Wireless Signals 550 Wired Transceiver 552 Transmitter 554 Receiver 572 Wireless Positioning Session Module 702 TRP1 704 TRP2 706 range 708 range 710 Location uncertainty 712 TRP3 714 range 716 Location uncertainty 1002 Reference BS 1004 Neighboring BS 1006 Neighboring BS 1008 Neighborhood BS 1010 slots 1012 PRS hours 1014 PRS hours 1016 PRS hours 1018 PRS hours 1020 hours 1022 hours

Claims

1. A method performed by a user device (UE) in a wireless network for wireless positioning of the UE, A step of determining one or more geometric precision degradation factors (GDOPs), The step includes determining the GDOP associated with each combination of TRP candidates for one or more combinations of TRP candidates from a plurality of transmit / receive point (TRP) candidates for wireless positioning, Steps and The steps include determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates from one or more combinations of TRP candidates based on the one or more GDOPs that have been determined, A method comprising the steps of providing a network entity in the wireless network with a marking related to the one or more GDOPs, wherein the marking indicates one or more preferred combinations of the TRP candidates, and one or more of the TRP candidates will be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE based on the marking.

2. The marking includes one or more GDOPs determined by the UE, The method described above is This is a step in determining multiple GDPs, A step of determining a GDOP associated with a combination of TRP candidates for each combination of TRP candidates from a plurality of TRPs for wireless positioning, wherein the plurality of combinations of TRP candidates includes one or more combinations of TRP candidates. A step of selecting one or more GDOPs from a plurality of GDOPs determined by the UE, wherein the selection is based on a GDOP threshold. Furthermore, The method according to claim 1, wherein the selection of one or more GDOPs is based on the fact that each of the one or more GDOPs is greater than or less than the GDOP threshold.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of determining one or more preferred TRPs from the plurality of TRP candidates based on the one or more GDOPs, wherein the marking indicates the one or more preferred TRPs.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of determining one or more quality measurement results of a positioning reference signal (PRS) from at least one of the plurality of TRP candidates, wherein the determination of the one or more preferred TRPs is also based on the one or more quality measurement results.

5. The one or more quality measurement results mentioned above Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and Reference signal received power (RSRP) Including one or more of the following: Furthermore / or, The step of determining the one or more preferred TRPs is, A step of narrowing down the plurality of TRP candidates based on one or more GDOPs, The method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of narrowing down the selected TRP candidates based on one or more quality measurement results.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein the one or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE are also based on one or more markings of preferred TRPs from one or more other UEs in the wireless network.

7. The aforementioned method, A step of obtaining an indication of one or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE, wherein the one or more TRP candidates will transmit a positioning reference signal (PRS) during a first portion of time; The steps of activating one or more radio frequency (RF) chains of the UE for a first portion of time in order to measure the PRS from one or more TRP candidates, The steps include: during a second portion of the time when the one or more TRP candidates are not transmitting a PRS, switching the one or more RF chains of the UE from the active mode to the low-power mode; Furthermore, The aforementioned method, During the second part of the time, the step is to put all RF chains and baseband processing systems of the UE into the low-power mode, The aforementioned second portion of time is associated with one or more unselected TRPs transmitting a PRS, The RF chain and the baseband processing system being put into the low-power mode prevents the UE from measuring the PRS from one or more unselected TRPs, step The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

8. For each combination of TRP candidates, one or more combinations of TRP candidates, the further step is to determine the time length associated with measuring a positioning reference signal (PRS) from the combination of TRP candidates. The step of determining one or more preferred TRPs includes the step of determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates, and the one or more combinations of TRP candidates includes the one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. The marking indicates the time duration for each of the preferred combinations of the TRP candidates, which is one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates. The one or more TRP candidates to be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE are, based on the indication of the time length for each preferred combination of the TRP candidates, The step of determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates is based on the one or more time lengths, The step of determining one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates is: A step of determining a first time length for a first combination of TRP candidates associated with a first GDOP, A step of determining a second time length for a second combination of TRP candidates related to a second GDOP that is within the tolerance of the first GDOP, wherein the second time length is greater than the first time length. The step of selecting the first combination of TRP candidates from the second combination of TRP candidates based on the fact that the first time length is smaller than the second time length. Includes, The method further comprises the step of obtaining one or more new radio (NR) downlink (DL) PRS assistance data (NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData) information elements (IE) related to the TRP candidate, The one or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IE includes, for each pair of TRP PRS resource candidates of one or more pairs of TRP PRS resource candidates, an expected reference signal time difference (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD) value for NR-DL-PRS and an uncertainty (NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty) value for the NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD related to the pair of TRP PRS resource candidates, The method according to claim 3, wherein the first time length and the second time length are determined based on the NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD value and the NR-DL-PRS-ExpectedRSTD-Uncertainty value of one or more NR-DL-PRS-AssistanceData IEs.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the number of TRP candidates to be included in the combination of TRP candidates is adjustable.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of obtaining a request from the network entity to provide the marking, and providing the marking to the network entity based on the UE having obtained the request.

11. The step of providing the marking to the network entity includes the step of periodically providing a new marking to the network entity. The method according to claim 1, wherein the period of providing the new marking is based on the movement of the UE.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the network entity is a base station that serves the UE.

13. A user equipment (UE) used in a wireless network configured for wireless positioning of the UE, At least one transceiver configured to provide a marking related to one or more geometric precision degradation factors (GDOPs) to a network entity in the wireless network, wherein one or more TRP candidates of a plurality of transmit / receive point (TRP) candidates will be used by the UE for wireless positioning of the UE based on the marking, At least one memory, The system comprises at least one transceiver and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor Determining one or more GDOPs related to the aforementioned markings, Determining, which includes determining the GDOP associated with the TRP candidate for each combination of TRP candidates among one or more combinations of TRP candidates from the plurality of TRP candidates for wireless positioning, Based on the one or more GDOPs determined, one or more preferred combinations of TRP candidates are determined from one or more combinations of the TRP candidates. A UE configured to perform such a function, wherein the marking indicates one or more preferred combinations of the TRP candidates.

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

15. A computer program, which, when executed by at least one processor of a user device (UE) in a wireless network configured for wireless positioning of the UE, causes the UE to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12.

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