Method and apparatus for a positioning signal in a wireless communication system

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A POSITIONING SIGNAL IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

[0001] The present invention relates to wireless communication, and more particularly, to a method performed by a communication device, a method performed by a base station, the communication device and the base station in a wireless communication system.

[0002] 5G mobile communication technologies define broad frequency bands such that high transmission rates and new services are possible, and can be implemented not only in "Sub 6GHz" bands such as 3.5GHz, but also in "Above 6GHz" bands referred to as mmWave including 28GHz and 39GHz. In addition, it has been considered to implement 6G mobile communication technologies (referred to as Beyond 5G systems) in terahertz bands (for example, 95GHz to 3THz bands) in order to accomplish transmission rates fifty times faster than 5G mobile communication technologies and ultra-low latencies one-tenth of 5G mobile communication technologies.

[0003] At the beginning of the development of 5G mobile communication technologies, in order to support services and to satisfy performance requirements in connection with enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), there has been ongoing standardization regarding beamforming and massive MIMO for mitigating radio-wave path loss and increasing radio-wave transmission distances in mmWave, supporting numerologies (for example, operating multiple subcarrier spacings) for efficiently utilizing mmWave resources and dynamic operation of slot formats, initial access technologies for supporting multi-beam transmission and broadbands, definition and operation of BWP (BandWidth Part), new channel coding methods such as a LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code for large amount of data transmission and a polar code for highly reliable transmission of control information, L2 pre-processing, and network slicing for providing a dedicated network specialized to a specific service.

[0004] Currently, there are ongoing discussions regarding improvement and performance enhancement of initial 5G mobile communication technologies in view of services to be supported by 5G mobile communication technologies, and there has been physical layer standardization regarding technologies such as V2X (Vehicle-to-everything) for aiding driving determination by autonomous vehicles based on information regarding positions and states of vehicles transmitted by the vehicles and for enhancing user convenience, NR-U (New Radio Unlicensed) aimed at system operations conforming to various regulation-related requirements in unlicensed bands, NR UE Power Saving, Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) which is UE-satellite direct communication for providing coverage in an area in which communication with terrestrial networks is unavailable, and positioning.

[0005] Moreover, there has been ongoing standardization in air interface architecture / protocol regarding technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for supporting new services through interworking and convergence with other industries, IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul) for providing a node for network service area expansion by supporting a wireless backhaul link and an access link in an integrated manner, mobility enhancement including conditional handover and DAPS (Dual Active Protocol Stack) handover, and two-step random access for simplifying random access procedures (2-step RACH for NR). There also has been ongoing standardization in system architecture / service regarding a 5G baseline architecture (for example, service based architecture or service based interface) for combining Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) for receiving services based on UE positions.

[0006] As 5G mobile communication systems are commercialized, connected devices that have been exponentially increasing will be connected to communication networks, and it is accordingly expected that enhanced functions and performances of 5G mobile communication systems and integrated operations of connected devices will be necessary. To this end, new research is scheduled in connection with eXtended Reality (XR) for efficiently supporting AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), MR (Mixed Reality) and the like, 5G performance improvement and complexity reduction by utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), AI service support, metaverse service support, and drone communication.

[0007] Furthermore, such development of 5G mobile communication systems will serve as a basis for developing not only new waveforms for providing coverage in terahertz bands of 6G mobile communication technologies, multi-antenna transmission technologies such as Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas and large-scale antennas, metamaterial-based lenses and antennas for improving coverage of terahertz band signals, high-dimensional space multiplexing technology using OAM (Orbital Angular Momentum), and RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface), but also full-duplex technology for increasing frequency efficiency of 6G mobile communication technologies and improving system networks, AI-based communication technology for implementing system optimization by utilizing satellites and AI (Artificial Intelligence) from the design stage and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions, and next-generation distributed computing technology for implementing services at levels of complexity exceeding the limit of UE operation capability by utilizing ultra-high-performance communication and computing resources.

[0008] 5th generation (5G) or new radio (NR) mobile communications is recently gathering increased momentum with all the worldwide technical activities on the various candidate technologies from industry and academia. The candidate enablers for the 5G / NR mobile communications include massive antenna technologies, from legacy cellular frequency bands up to high frequencies, to provide beamforming gain and support increased capacity, new waveform (e.g., a new radio access technology (RAT)) to flexibly accommodate various services / applications with different requirements, new multiple access schemes to support massive connections, and so on.

[0009] In order to meet the increasing demand for wireless data communication services since the deployment of 4G communication systems, efforts have been made to develop improved 5G or pre-5G communication systems. Therefore, 5G or pre-5G communication systems are also called "Beyond 4G networks" or "Post-LTE systems".

[0010] In order to achieve a higher data rate, 5G communication systems are implemented in higher frequency (millimeter, mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands. In order to reduce propagation loss of radio waves and increase a transmission distance, technologies such as beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full-dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, analog beamforming and large-scale antenna are discussed in 5G communication systems.

[0011] In addition, in 5G communication systems, developments of system network improvement are underway based on advanced small cell, cloud radio access network (RAN), ultra-dense network, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, mobile network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation, etc.

[0012] In 5G systems, hybrid FSK and QAM modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as advanced access technologies have been developed.

[0013] In line with development of the communication systems, there is a need for efficient method of positioning signal. The technical subjects pursued in the disclosure may not be limited to the above mentioned technical subjects, and other technical subjects which are not mentioned may be clearly understood, through the following descriptions, by those skilled in the art to which the disclosure pertains.

[0014] The invention provides a method performed by a communication device, a method performed by a base station, the communication device and the base station. A method performed by a communication device in a communication system includes receiving configuration information related to positioning, wherein the configuration information includes time domain resource configuration information of a first positioning signal and length information of a first positioning signal transmission window; determining a time reference point of a transmission window of a first positioning signal, wherein the time reference point is related to time domain resource configuration information of the first positioning signal; determining the resource configuration of the transmission window based on the time reference point and the length information; transmitting a first positioning signal within the transmission window.

[0015] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a communication device in a communication system, comprising: receiving configuration information related to positioning, wherein the configuration information includes time domain resource configuration information of a first positioning signal and length information of a first positioning signal transmission window; determining a time reference point of the first positioning signal transmission window, wherein the time reference point is related to time domain resource configuration information of the first positioning signal; determining resource configuration of the transmission window based on the time reference point and the length information; transmitting a first positioning signal within the transmission window.

[0016] In an implementation, the determining resource configuration of the transmission window based on the time reference point and the length information includes at least one of: determining M time domain units earlier than the time reference point in time domain as the resource configuration of the transmission window; determining M time domain units later than the time reference point in time domain as the resource configuration of the transmission window; determining M time domain units earlier than the time reference point in time domain and M time domain units later than the time reference point in time domain as the resource configuration of the transmission window, wherein M is determined based on the length information.

[0017] In an implementation, the method further includes receiving indication information related to positioning; determining a state of the first positioning signal transmission window based on the indication information, wherein the state comprises one of activation or deactivation; and performing or not performing the transmission of the first positioning signal with the transmission window based on the state of the transmission window.

[0018] In an implementation, the indication information includes at least one of: at least a part of the configuration information, information indicating resources of at least one first positioning signal, and a flag indicating whether the first positioning signal transmission window is activated.

[0019] In an implementation, the communication device activates or deactivates the transmission window according to the indication information after N time units after receiving the indication information.

[0020] In an implementation, if the first positioning signal collides with other signals in the N time units, if the first positioning signal transmission window is determined to be activated based on the indication information, transmitting or receiving the other signals in the N time units; if the first positioning signal transmission window is determined to be deactivated based on the indication information, transmitting the first positioning signal in the N time units.

[0021] In an implementation, the first positioning signal includes all positioning signal, one or multiple or all repetitions of positioning signal, hop of positioning signal within a first time period, wherein the first time period includes at least one of: a time unit, a configuration period, a measurement period, a measurement gap, a measurement window and a positioning signal processing window.

[0022] In an implementation, the indication information is received through DCI or MAC CE.

[0023] In an implementation, transmitting the first positioning signal within the transmission window further comprises transmitting hops in the hop cycle of the first positioning signal using the same timing advance TA value.

[0024] In an implementation, transmitting the first positioning signal within the transmission window further comprises transmitting hops in a hop cycle of the first positioning signal based on the same transmission beam configuration.

[0025] In an implementation, transmitting the first positioning signal within the transmission window further comprises transmitting hops in a hop cycle of the first positioning signal using transmission power determined based on the same parameters or using the same transmission power or using transmission power determined based on path loss determined based on the same downlink reference signal.

[0026] In an implementation, the transmitting of the first positioning signal within the transmission window further comprises, if information related to adjustment of at least one of TA, power or beam is received, the communication device does not apply the adjusted TA, transmission beam or transmission power in the hop cycle of the first positioning signal.

[0027] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a communication device in a communication system, including receiving configuration information of resources of positioning signal and configuration information of window; receiving positioning signal based on the configuration information of resources of positioning signal and configuration information of window, wherein receiving positioning signal includes receiving positioning signal if any of instances of the positioning signal is within time domain resource configuration of the window, wherein the instances of the positioning signal are determined based on the configuration information of the resources of positioning signal, and the time domain resource configuration of the window is determined based on the configuration information of window.

[0028] In an implementation, receiving the positioning signal includes not receiving the positioning signal if any of the instances of positioning signal is not within time domain resource configuration of the window.

[0029] In an implementation, the configuration information of window includes a bit map indicating activated windows among a plurality of configured windows, and the time domain resource configuration of the window includes at least one activated window or the time span occupied by the start of the first window to the end of the last window in the at least one activated window.

[0030] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a communication device in a communication system, including receiving one or more hops of a positioning signal to obtain a measurement result; reporting the measurement result and indication information related to the one or more hops, wherein the indication information is reported using a hop index or a hop bitmap.

[0031] In an implementation, the hop index is a logical index in a hop cycle.

[0032] In an implementation, the hop index includes different hop indexes corresponding to the one or more hops.

[0033] In an implementation, if at least one of the following conditions is met, the indication information is reported using a hop bitmap: the number of hops associated with the measurement result or the ratio of the associated hops to the total number of hops is not less than a first threshold value; the number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using a hop bitmap is not greater than the number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using a hop index; the first number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using hop bitmap is not greater than the second number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using hop index, and the difference between the first number of bits and the second number of bits is not less than a second threshold value.

[0034] In an implementation, the communication device is a UE or a positioning reference unit PRU.

[0035] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a base station in a communication system, comprising: transmitting configuration information related to positioning, wherein the configuration information includes time domain resource configuration information of a first positioning signal and length information of the first positioning signal transmission window; receiving a first positioning signal transmitted within a transmission window, wherein the resource configuration of the transmission window is determined based on a time reference point and the length information, and the time reference point is related to the time domain resource configuration information of the first positioning signal.

[0036] In an implementation, the resource configuration of the transmission window includes at least one of: M time domain units later than the time reference point in time domain; M time domain units earlier than the time reference point in time domain; M time domain units earlier than the time reference point in time domain and M time domain units later than the time reference point in time domain, wherein M is determined based on the length information.

[0037] In an implementation, the method further includes sending indication information related to positioning; wherein the indication information is used to determine state of the first positioning signal transmission window, the state comprising: one of activation or deactivation, and the state of the transmission window is used to determine whether to transmit the first positioning signal with the transmission window.

[0038] In an implementation, the indication information includes at least one of: at least a part of the configuration information, information indicating resources of at least one first positioning signal, and a flag indicating whether the first positioning signal transmission window is activated.

[0039] In an implementation, the first positioning signal includes all positioning signal, one or multiple or all repetitions of positioning signal, and hops of positioning signal in a first time period, wherein the first time period includes at least one of: a time unit, a configuration period, a measurement period, a measurement gap, a measurement window and a positioning signal processing window.

[0040] In an implementation, the indication information is sent through DCI or MAC CE.

[0041] In an implementation, hops in a hop cycle of the first positioning signal is transmitted using the same timing advance TA value.

[0042] In an implementation, hops in a hop cycle of the first positioning signal is transmitted based on the same transmit beam configuration.

[0043] In an implementation, hops in a hop cycle of the first positioning signal is transmitted using transmission power determined based on the same parameters or using the same transmission power or using transmission power determined based on the path loss determined based on the same downlink reference signal.

[0044] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a base station in a communication system, including: transmitting one or more hops of a positioning signal; receiving a measurement result related to the positioning signal and indication information related to the one or more hops, wherein the indication information is reported by using a hop index or a hop bitmap.

[0045] In an implementation, the hop index is a logical index in a hop cycle.

[0046] In an implementation, the hop index includes different hop indexes corresponding to the one or more hops.

[0047] In an implementation, if at least one of the following conditions is met, the indication information is reported using a hop bitmap: the number of hops associated with the measurement result or the ratio of the associated hops to the total number of hops is not less than a first threshold value; the number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using a hop bitmap is not greater than the number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using a hop index; the first number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using hop bitmap is not greater than the second number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using hop index, and the difference between the first number of bits and the second number of bits is not less than a second threshold value.

[0048] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication device including a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals; a controller configured to control the communication device to perform the method according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0049] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a base station including a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals; a controller configured to control the base station to perform the method according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0050] The present disclosure provides an effective and efficient method for a positioning signal. Advantageous effects obtainable from the disclosure may not be limited to the above mentioned effects, and other effects which are not mentioned may be clearly understood, through the following descriptions, by those skilled in the art to which the disclosure pertains.

[0051] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0052] FIGs. 2a and 2b illustrate example wireless transmission and reception paths according to the present disclosure;

[0053] FIG. 3a shows an example user equipment according to the present disclosure and FIG. 3b shows an example base station according to the present disclosure;

[0054] FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of an SRSpos transmission window (STW) according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0055] FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram showing an example location of time windows and resources of positioning signal according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0056] FIG. 6 shows a structural schematic diagram of a communication device according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0057] FIG. 7 shows a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0058] The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure defined by the claims and their equivalents. This description includes various specific details to facilitate understanding but should only be considered as exemplary. Therefore, those skilled in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications can be made to the various embodiments described herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, for the sake of clarity and conciseness, descriptions of well-known functions and structures may be omitted.

[0059] The terms and expressions used in the following specification and claims are not limited to their dictionary meanings, but are only used by the inventors to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Therefore, it should be obvious to those skilled in the art that the following descriptions of various embodiments of the present disclosure are provided for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the purposes of the present disclosure as defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0060] It should be understood that singular forms of "a", "an" and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Thus, for example, a reference to a "component surface" includes a reference to one or more such surfaces.

[0061] The terms "include" or "may include" refer to the existence of a corresponding disclosed function, operation or component that can be used in various embodiments of the present disclosure, and do not limit the existence of one or more additional functions, operations or features. In addition, the terms "including" or "having" can be interpreted as indicating certain characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof, but should not be interpreted as excluding the possibility of the existence of one or more other characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof.

[0062] The term "or" used in various embodiments of the present disclosure includes any of the listed terms and all combinations thereof. For example, "a or b" may include a, may include b, or may include both a and b.

[0063] Unless defined differently, all terms (including technical terms or scientific terms) used in this disclosure have the same meaning as those understood by those skilled in the art in this disclosure. Common terms, as defined in dictionaries, are interpreted as having meanings consistent with the context in the relevant technical fields, and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal way unless explicitly defined in this disclosure.

[0064] The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) system, code division multiple access (CDMA), CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, 5th generation (5G) system or new radio (NR), etc. In addition, the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to future-oriented communication technologies.

[0065] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network 100 shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wireless network 100 can be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0066] The wireless network 100 includes a gNodeB (gNB) 101, a gNB 102, and a gNB 103. gNB 101 communicates with gNB 102 and gNB 103. gNB 101 also communicates with at least one Internet Protocol (IP) network 130, such as the Internet, a private IP network, or other data networks.

[0067] Depending on a type of the network, other well-known terms such as "base station" or "access point" can be used instead of "gNodeB" or "gNB". For convenience, the terms "gNodeB" and "gNB" are used in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that provide wireless access for remote terminals. And, depending on the type of the network, other well-known terms such as "mobile station", "user station", "remote terminal", "wireless terminal" or "user apparatus" can be used instead of "user equipment" or "UE". For convenience, the terms "user equipment" and "UE" are used in this patent document to refer to remote wireless devices that wirelessly access the gNB, no matter whether the UE is a mobile device (such as a mobile phone or a smart phone) or a fixed device (such as a desktop computer or a vending machine).

[0068] gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a first plurality of User Equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 of gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs include a UE 111, which may be located in a Small Business (SB); a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi Hotspot (HS); a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence (R); a UE 115, which may be located in a second residence (R); a UE 116, which may be a mobile device (M), such as a cellular phone, a wireless laptop computer, a wireless PDA, etc. GNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 of gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs include a UE 115 and a UE 116. In some embodiments, one or more of gNBs 101-103 can communicate with each other and with UEs 111-116 using 5G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-A, WiMAX or other advanced wireless communication technologies.

[0069] The dashed lines show approximate ranges of the coverage areas 120 and 125, and the ranges are shown as approximate circles merely for illustration and explanation purposes. It should be clearly understood that the coverage areas associated with the gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120 and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending on configurations of the gNBs and changes in the radio environment associated with natural obstacles and man-made obstacles.

[0070] As will be described in more detail below, one or more of gNB 101, gNB 102, and gNB 103 include a 2D antenna array as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, one or more of gNB 101, gNB 102, and gNB 103 support codebook designs and structures for systems with 2D antenna arrays.

[0071] Although FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the wireless network 100, various changes can be made to FIG. 1. The wireless network 100 can include any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement, for example. Furthermore, gNB 101 can directly communicate with any number of UEs and provide wireless broadband access to the network 130 for those UEs. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 can directly communicate with the network 130 and provide direct wireless broadband access to the network 130 for the UEs. In addition, gNB 101, 102 and / or 103 can provide access to other or additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data networks.

[0072] FIGs. 2a and 2b illustrate example wireless transmission and reception paths according to the present disclosure. In the following description, the transmission path 200 can be described as being implemented in a gNB, such as gNB 102, and the reception path 250 can be described as being implemented in a UE, such as UE 116. However, it should be understood that the reception path 250 can be implemented in a gNB and the transmission path 200 can be implemented in a UE. In some embodiments, the reception path 250 is configured to support codebook designs and structures for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0073] The transmission path 200 includes a channel coding and modulation block 205, a Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 210, a size N Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) block 215, a Parallel-to-Serial (P-to-S) block 220, a cyclic prefix addition block 225, and an up-converter (UC) 230. The reception path 250 includes a down-converter (DC) 255, a cyclic prefix removal block 260, a Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 265, a size N Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) block 270, a Parallel-to-Serial (P-to-S) block 275, and a channel decoding and demodulation block 280.

[0074] In the transmission path 200, the channel coding and modulation block 205 receives a set of information bits, applies coding (such as Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) coding), and modulates the input bits (such as using Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) or Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)) to generate a sequence of frequency-domain modulated symbols. The Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 210 converts (such as demultiplexes) serial modulated symbols into parallel data to generate N parallel symbol streams, where N is a size of the IFFT / FFT used in gNB 102 and UE 116. The size N IFFT block 215 performs IFFT operations on the N parallel symbol streams to generate a time domain output signal. The Parallel-to-Serial block 220 converts (such as multiplexes) parallel time domain output symbols from the Size N IFFT block 215 to generate a serial time domain signal. The cyclic prefix addition block 225 inserts a cyclic prefix into the time domain signal. The up-converter 230 modulates (such as up-converts) the output of the cyclic prefix addition block 225 to an RF frequency for transmission via a wireless channel. The signal can also be filtered at a baseband before switching to the RF frequency.

[0075] The RF signal transmitted from gNB 102 arrives at UE 116 after passing through the wireless channel, and operations in reverse to those at gNB 102 are performed at UE 116. The down-converter 255 down-converts the received signal to a baseband frequency, and the cyclic prefix removal block 260 removes the cyclic prefix to generate a serial time domain baseband signal. The Serial-to-Parallel block 265 converts the time domain baseband signal into a parallel time domain signal. The Size N FFT block 270 performs an FFT algorithm to generate N parallel frequency-domain signals. The Parallel-to-Serial block 275 converts the parallel frequency-domain signal into a sequence of modulated data symbols. The channel decoding and demodulation block 280 demodulates and decodes the modulated symbols to recover the original input data stream.

[0076] Each of gNBs 101-103 may implement a transmission path 200 similar to that for transmitting to UEs 111-116 in the downlink, and may implement a reception path 250 similar to that for receiving from UEs 111-116 in the uplink. Similarly, each of UEs 111-116 may implement a transmission path 200 for transmitting to gNBs 101-103 in the uplink, and may implement a reception path 250 for receiving from gNBs 101-103 in the downlink.

[0077] Each of the components in FIGs. 2a and 2b can be implemented using only hardware, or using a combination of hardware and software / firmware. As a specific example, at least some of the components in FIGs. 2a and 2b may be implemented in software, while other components may be implemented in configurable hardware or a combination of software and configurable hardware. For example, the FFT block 270 and IFFT block 215 may be implemented as configurable software algorithms, in which the value of the size N may be modified according to the implementation.

[0078] Furthermore, although described as using FFT and IFFT, this is only illustrative and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. Other types of transforms can be used, such as Discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) functions. It should be understood that for DFT and IDFT functions, the value of variable N may be any integer (such as 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), while for FFT and IFFT functions, the value of variable N may be any integer which is a power of 2 (such as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.).

[0079] Although FIGs. 2a and 2b illustrate examples of wireless transmission and reception paths, various changes may be made to FIGs. 2a and 2b. For example, various components in FIGs. 2a and 2b can be combined, further subdivided or omitted, and additional components can be added according to specific requirements. Furthermore, FIGs. 2a and 2b are intended to illustrate examples of types of transmission and reception paths that can be used in a wireless network. Any other suitable architecture can be used to support wireless communication in a wireless network.

[0080] FIG. 3a illustrates an example UE 116 according to the present disclosure. The embodiment of UE 116 shown in FIG. 3a is for illustration only, and UEs 111-115 of FIG. 1 can have the same or similar configuration. However, a UE has various configurations, and FIG. 3a does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any specific implementation of the UE.

[0081] UE 116 includes an antenna 305, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 310, a transmission (TX) processing circuit 315, a microphone 320, and a reception (RX) processing circuit 325. UE 116 also includes a speaker 330, a processor / controller 340, an input / output (I / O) interface 345, an input device(s) 350, a display 355, and a memory 360. The memory 360 includes an operating system (OS) 361 and one or more applications 362.

[0082] The RF transceiver 310 receives an incoming RF signal transmitted by a gNB of the wireless network 100 from the antenna 305. The RF transceiver 310 down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is transmitted to the RX processing circuit 325, where the RX processing circuit 325 generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. The RX processing circuit 325 transmits the processed baseband signal to speaker 330 (such as for voice data) or to processor / controller 340 for further processing (such as for web browsing data).

[0083] The TX processing circuit 315 receives analog or digital voice data from microphone 320 or other outgoing baseband data (such as network data, email or interactive video game data) from processor / controller 340. The TX processing circuit 315 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The RF transceiver 310 receives the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuit 315 and up-converts the baseband or IF signal into an RF signal transmitted via the antenna 305.

[0084] The processor / controller 340 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute an OS 361 stored in the memory 360 in order to control the overall operation of UE 116. For example, the processor / controller 340 can control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of backward channel signals through the RF transceiver 310, the RX processing circuit 325 and the TX processing circuit 315 according to well-known principles. In some embodiments, the processor / controller 340 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0085] The processor / controller 340 is also capable of executing other processes and programs residing in the memory 360, such as operations for channel quality measurement and reporting for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. The processor / controller 340 can move data into or out of the memory 360 as required by an execution process. In some embodiments, the processor / controller 340 is configured to execute the application 362 based on the OS 361 or in response to signals received from the gNB or the operator. The processor / controller 340 is also coupled to an I / O interface 345, where the I / O interface 345 provides UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices such as laptop computers and handheld computers. I / O interface 345 is a communication path between these accessories and the processor / controller 340.

[0086] The processor / controller 340 is also coupled to the input device(s) 350 and the display 355. An operator of UE 116 can input data into UE 116 using the input device(s) 350. The display 355 may be a liquid crystal display or other display capable of presenting text and / or at least limited graphics (such as from a website). The memory 360 is coupled to the processor / controller 340. A part of the memory 360 can include a random access memory (RAM), while another part of the memory 360 can include a flash memory or other read-only memory (ROM).

[0087] Although FIG. 3a illustrates an example of UE 116, various changes can be made to FIG. 3a. For example, various components in FIG. 3a can be combined, further subdivided or omitted, and additional components can be added according to specific requirements. As a specific example, the processor / controller 340 can be divided into a plurality of processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processing units (GPUs). Furthermore, although FIG. 3a illustrates that the UE 116 is configured as a mobile phone or a smart phone, UEs can be configured to operate as other types of mobile or fixed devices.

[0088] FIG. 3b illustrates an example gNB 102 according to the present disclosure. The embodiment of gNB 102 shown in FIG. 3b is for illustration only, and other gNBs of FIG. 1 can have the same or similar configuration. However, a gNB has various configurations, and FIG. 3b does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any specific implementation of a gNB. It should be noted that gNB 101 and gNB 103 can include the same or similar structures as gNB 102.

[0089] As shown in FIG. 3b, gNB 102 includes a plurality of antennas 370a-370n, a plurality of RF transceivers 372a-372n, a transmission (TX) processing circuit 374, and a reception (RX) processing circuit 376. In certain embodiments, one or more of the plurality of antennas 370a-370n include a 2D antenna array. gNB 102 also includes a controller / processor 378, a memory 380, and a backhaul or network interface 382.

[0090] RF transceivers 372a-372n receive an incoming RF signal from antennas 370a-370n, such as a signal transmitted by UEs or other gNBs. RF transceivers 372a-372n down-convert the incoming RF signal to generate an IF or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is transmitted to the RX processing circuit 376, where the RX processing circuit 376 generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. RX processing circuit 376 transmits the processed baseband signal to controller / processor 378 for further processing.

[0091] The TX processing circuit 374 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, network data, email or interactive video game data) from the controller / processor 378. TX processing circuit 374 encodes, multiplexes and / or digitizes outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. RF transceivers 372a-372n receive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from TX processing circuit 374 and up-convert the baseband or IF signal into an RF signal transmitted via antennas 370a-370n.

[0092] The controller / processor 378 can include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the overall operation of gNB 102. For example, the controller / processor 378 can control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of backward channel signals through the RF transceivers 372a-372n, the RX processing circuit 376 and the TX processing circuit 374 according to well-known principles. The controller / processor 378 can also support additional functions, such as higher-level wireless communication functions. For example, the controller / processor 378 can perform a Blind Interference Sensing (BIS) process such as that performed through a BIS algorithm, and decode a received signal from which an interference signal is subtracted. A controller / processor 378 may support any of a variety of other functions in gNB 102. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 378 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0093] The controller / processor 378 is also capable of executing programs and other processes residing in the memory 380, such as a basic OS. The controller / processor 378 can also support channel quality measurement and reporting for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 378 supports communication between entities such as web RTCs. The controller / processor 378 can move data into or out of the memory 380 as required by an execution process.

[0094] The controller / processor 378 is also coupled to the backhaul or network interface 382. The backhaul or network interface 382 allows gNB 102 to communicate with other devices or systems through a backhaul connection or through a network. The backhaul or network interface 382 can support communication over any suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when gNB 102 is implemented as a part of a cellular communication system, such as a cellular communication system supporting 5G or new radio access technology or NR, LTE or LTE-A, the backhaul or network interface 382 can allow gNB 102 to communicate with other gNBs through wired or wireless backhaul connections. When gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, the backhaul or network interface 382 can allow gNB 102 to communicate with a larger network, such as the Internet, through a wired or wireless local area network or through a wired or wireless connection. The backhaul or network interface 382 includes any suitable structure that supports communication through a wired or wireless connection, such as an Ethernet or an RF transceiver.

[0095] The memory 380 is coupled to the controller / processor 378. A part of the memory 380 can include an RAM, while another part of the memory 380 can include a flash memory or other ROMs. In certain embodiments, a plurality of instructions, such as the BIS algorithm, are stored in the memory. The plurality of instructions are configured to cause the controller / processor 378 to execute the BIS process and decode the received signal after subtracting at least one interference signal determined by the BIS algorithm.

[0096] As will be described in more detail below, the transmission and reception paths of gNB 102 (implemented using RF transceivers 372a-372n, TX processing circuit 374 and / or RX processing circuit 376) support aggregated communication with FDD cells and TDD cells.

[0097] Although FIG. 3b illustrates an example of gNB 102, various changes may be made to FIG. 3b. For example, gNB 102 can include any number of each component shown in FIG. 3a. As a specific example, the access point can include many backhaul or network interfaces 382, and the controller / processor 378 can support routing functions to route data between different network addresses. As another specific example, although shown as including a single instance of the TX processing circuit 374 and a single instance of the RX processing circuit 376, gNB 102 can include multiple instances of each (such as one for each RF transceiver).

[0098] The time domain unit (also called time unit) in this application can be: an OFDM symbol, an OFDM symbol group (composed of multiple OFDM symbols), a time slot, a time slot group (composed of multiple time slots), a subframe, a subframe group (composed of multiple subframes), a system frame and a system frame group (composed of multiple system frames); it can also be an absolute time unit, such as 1 millisecond, 1 second, etc. A time unit can also be a combination of various granularities, such as N1 time slots plus N2 OFDM symbols.

[0099] The frequency domain unit (also called frequency unit) in this application can be: a subcarrier, a subcarrier group (composed of multiple subcarriers), a resource block (RB), which can also be called a physical resource block (PRB), a resource block group (composed of multiple RBs), a bandwidth part, BWP), BWP. It can also be an absolute frequency domain unit, such as 1 Hz, 1 kHz, etc. The frequency domain unit can also be a combination of multiple granularities, such as M1 PRBs plus M2 subcarriers.

[0100] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0101] Text and drawings are provided as examples only to help readers understand the present disclosure. They are not intended and should not be construed to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the disclosure herein, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0102] It can be understood by those skilled in the art that the singular forms "a", "an", "the" and "the" used herein can also include plural forms unless specifically stated. It should be further understood that the word "comprising" used in the specification of this application refers to the presence of said features, integers, steps, operations, elements and / or components, but does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and / or groups thereof. It should be understood that when we say that an element is "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element, or intervening elements may also exist. Furthermore, "connected" or "coupled" as used herein may include wireless connection or wireless coupling. As used herein, the phrase "and / or" includes all or any unit and all combinations of one or more associated listed items.

[0103] It can be understood by those skilled in the art that unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical terms and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs. It should also be understood that terms, such as those defined in general dictionaries, should be understood to have meanings consistent with those in the context of the prior art, and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless they are specifically defined as here.

[0104] It can be understood by those skilled in the technical field that the "terminal" and "terminal equipment" used here include both the equipment of wireless signal receiver, which only has the equipment of wireless signal receiver without transmission capability, and the equipment of receiving and transmitting hardware, which has the equipment of receiving and transmitting hardware capable of bidirectional communication on the bidirectional communication link. Such devices may include a cellular or other communication device having a single-line display or a multi-line display or a cellular or other communication device without a multi-line display; PCs (Personal Communications Service), which can combine voice, data processing, fax and / or data communication capabilities; PDA(Personal Digital Assistant), which may include RF receiver, pager, Internet / Intranet access, web browser, notepad, calendar and / or GPS(Global Positioning System) receiver; a conventional laptop and / or palmtop computer or other device having and / or including a radio frequency receiver. As used herein, "terminal" and "terminal equipment" can be portable, transportable, installed in vehicles (air, sea and / or land), or suitable and / or configured to operate locally, and / or operate in any other location on the earth and / or space in a distributed form. The "terminal" and "terminal equipment" used here can also be communication terminals, internet terminals and music / video playing terminals, such as PDA, mobile internet device (Mobile Internet Device) and / or mobile phone with music / video playing function, as well as smart TV, set-top box and other devices.

[0105] Without departing from the scope of the present invention, the term "send" in the present invention can be used interchangeably with "transmission", "report" and "notification".

[0106] Text and drawings are provided as examples only to help readers understand the present disclosure. They are not intended and should not be construed to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the disclosure herein, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0107] The transmission link of wireless communication system mainly includes: downlink communication link from 5G gNB to User Equipment, UE) and uplink communication link from UE to network.

[0108] Nodes used for positioning measurement in wireless communication systems, such as current wireless communication systems, include: UE that initiates positioning request message, Location Management Function (LMF) that is used for UE positioning and sending positioning assistance data, gNB or transmission-reception point (TRP) that broadcasts positioning assistance data and performs uplink positioning measurement, and UE that is used for downlink positioning measurement. In addition, the method of the present invention can also be extended to other communication systems, such as automobile communication (V2X), that is, sidelink communication, in which the transmitting and receiving point or UE can be any device in V2X.

[0109] In an embodiment of the present invention, a method and device for signal sending and receiving for positioning proposed by the present invention will be introduced. In a wireless communication system, different UEs may have different capabilities, for example, some UEs support a large bandwidth, some UEs can only support a limited bandwidth, or some UEs are configured with a small bandwidth in a single frequency band; and these UEs may not be able to directly measure and / or send signals with large bandwidth; therefore, through the method provided by the invention, such UE can perform the measurement of sending and / or receiving large-bandwidth signals. In the present invention, the meanings of the signal for positioning and / or the reference signal for positioning and / or the positioning signal and / or the positioning reference signal are interchangeable, and include combinations of one or more of the following:

[0110] ● SSB (synchronization signal and PBCH block).

[0111] ● PRS (Positioning Reference Signal)

[0112] ● CSI-RS (Channel State Information Reference Signal)

[0113] ● TRS (tracking Reference Signal)

[0114] ● SRSpos (sounding reference signal for positioning).

[0115] ● SRS for MIMO

[0116] In the present invention, in case where the UE sends a positioning signal, the positioning signal is explained by taking SRSpos as an example; in case where the UE receives a positioning signal, the positioning signal is explained by taking PRS as an example.

[0117] When the UE receives and / or transmits positioning signal according to the requirements of positioning services, the operations performed include at least one or a combination of the following:

[0118] ● Receiving configuration information of positioning signal; the configuration information of positioning signal includes at least one of:

[0119] ■ A configuration index including configuration information of a positioning signal;

[0120] ■ An index of a positioning signal

[0121] ■ Time domain configuration information of a positioning signal, including at least one of:

[0122] ◆ The number of time domain units occupied by a positioning signal,

[0123] ◆ The time interval between the start location of the time domain units occupied by a positioning signal and a reference time point, the reference time point can be SFN 0, the start of the time domain unit where the positioning signal is located, or the time reference location configured by other nodes (such as network device);

[0124] ◆ Configuration period size, that is, M time domain units; it indicates that the location and size of one or more positioning signal in each time domain configuration period are the same in time domain and / or frequency domain, that is, occurs repeatedly;

[0125] ◆ The number of repetitions of a positioning signal, optionally within a certain time period;

[0126] ◆ Muting pattern of one or more positioning signal; the muting pattern indicates one or more positioning signal that are not sent and / or do not need to be received within a certain time period;

[0127] ■ The frequency domain configuration information of a positioning signal, including at least one of:

[0128] ◆ The frequency domain start location of a positioning signal, including the start frequency domain unit index and / or the start frequency domain unit determined according to the interval of N frequency domain units relative to a frequency domain reference point; optionally, the frequency domain start location of a positioning signal also includes the frequency domain start location within a certain frequency domain range;

[0129] ◆ The number and / or location of frequency domain units occupied by a positioning signal; optionally, the number of frequency domain units occupied also includes the number and / or location of frequency domain units occupied within a certain frequency domain range, such as the number and / or location of REs (or subcarriers) occupied within a PRB;

[0130] ◆ Frequency hopping indication (and / or configuration) information and / or frequency hopping pattern configuration information of a positioning reference signal,

[0131] ◆ The frequency domain reference point may be an absolute frequency domain reference point A(point A) and / or a frequency domain start location StartPRB of a bandwidth part; optionally, the bandwidth part is a frequency domain location determined according to the frequency hopping pattern, such as a hop bandwidth part and / or a hop resource block set;

[0132] ◆ The certain frequency domain range can be a frequency domain unit, a set of hop resource blocks of a positioning signal and a hop bandwidth part of a positioning signal;

[0133] ■ Related configuration information of first positioning signal transmission window (for example, but not limited to the SRSpos Tx Window (STW), which will be described below with STW as an example of the first positioning signal transmission window), for example, in the case of SRSpos transmission with hopping, the STW-related configuration information can better ensure the transmission integrity of the SRSpos, thereby effectively protecting the reception performance of the SRSpos; the related configuration information of STW may include at least one of the following, for example:

[0134] ◆ The time domain start location (or referred to as reference position, time reference point) of STW, including time domain unit offset (for example, X time domain units) from the time domain reference point, which can be the start of SFN0, the start of a time slot; optionally, the time domain start location of STW can be determined according to the time domain unit locations of one or more SRSpos to be sent, wherein the time domain unit locations of the one or more SRSpos to be sent include the time units occupied by the one or more SRSpos to be sent, and the center location, start location or end location of the time unit;

[0135] ◆ Time domain location of STW (e.g., number and / or location of occupied time domain units),

[0136] ▷ Optionally, the extended time domain length of STW can also be received, for example, X time units, (thus, the time domain length of an STW can be determined according to the extended time domain length and a certain rule), and the specific operation mode includes: the extended time domain length at least earlier than or later than the time domain start location of STW in time domain , corresponds to the location (or called resource allocation or resource configuration, and "location" is used throughout this disclosure for convenience and easy understanding) of an STW in time domain, or the extended time domain length later than the time domain start location of STW and the extended time domain length earlier than the time domain start location of STW in time domain correspond to the location of an STW in time domain; for example, as shown in FIG. 4, there are two SRSpos, and the extended time domain length is 4 symbols. In case 1, the start location of STW in time domain is the end location of the two SRSpos, determine the extended time domain length, namely 4 symbols, earlier than the start location of STW, and the four symbols and their locations are also determined as the time domain length and location of the STW. In case 2, the start location of STW in time domain is the start location of the two SRSpos, then determine the extended time domain length, namely four symbols, later than the start location of STW, and the four symbols and their locations are also determined as the time domain length and location of the STW; in case 3, the start location of STW in time domain is the centre location of the two SRSpos, and the eight symbols obtained by the total of four symbols determined earlier than the start location of STW and four symbols determined later than the start location of STW are also determined as the time domain length and location of the STW.

[0137] ◆ The period of STW, for example, a STW occurs repeatedly in Y time domain units;

[0138] ◆ When the transmission of SRSpos collides or overlaps with other non-positioning signal, the transmission of SRSpos is prioritize.

[0139] ▷ The colliding or overlapping between the SRSpos and other non-positioning signal includes

[0140] ■ The time domain units occupied by the SRSpos overlap or collide with those occupied by other non-positioning signal; or

[0141] ■ The time domain units occupied by SRSpos with a certain preparation time added before or after the SRSpos overlap or collide with those occupied by other non-positioning signal; and / or

[0142] ■ Optionally, the time domain units occupied by STW overlap or collide with the time domain units occupied by other non-positioning signal; or the time domain units occupied by STW with a certain preparation time added before or after STW overlap or collide with the time domain units occupied by other non-positioning signal; and / or

[0143] ■ Optionally, the time domain unit occupied by the first SRSpos in STW overlaps or collides with the time domain units occupied by other non-positioning signal; or the time domain units occupied by the first SRSpos with a certain preparation time added before or after the first SRSpos in STW overlaps or collides with the time domain units occupied by other non-positioning signal; and / or

[0144] ■ Alternatively, the occupied time domain unit can be replaced with the start or the end of the occupied time domain unit;

[0145] ◆ Wherein, the certain time period can be: a time unit; a configuration period, and / or a measurement period, and / or a Measurement gap, and / or a measurement window, and / or a positioning signal prs processing window (PPW);

[0146] ◆ Optionally, the positioning signal is a positioning signal actually received or actually sent; for example, a positioning signal is not subject to frequency hopping related operation when the positioning signal cannot be received and / or transmitted due to collision with other signals, such as signals related to uplink transmission or downlink reception or sidelink reception or transmission, for example, the PDCCH to be detected by the UE, the control resource set CORESET and / or search space (SS) where the PDCCH is to detected, SSB, CSI-RS, PUCCH, SL-SSB, PSCCH, PSSCH, PSFCH and the like.

[0147] ◆ Wherein, the expression of a positioning signal can be replaced by multiple positioning signals or all positioning signals within the certain time period, and / or can be replaced by one, multiple, or all repetition of the one or more positioning signal, and / or a hop of a positioning signal.

[0148] ■ Optionally, the activated and / or deactivated state of the SRSpos transmission window is determined, and the UE can transmit the SRSpos in the activated STW; when the STW is in the inactivated state, the UE does not transmit the SRSpos in the STW; the specific operation of determining the activation and / or deactivation state of the SRSpos transmission window includes at least one of:

[0149] ◆ Receiving STW activation indication information sent by other devices (network devices or other receiving devices of SRSpos), for example, the activation indication information can be transferred through an activation indication message, optionally, wherein

[0150] ▷ The activation indication information may include all or part of the configuration information related to the STW; and / or

[0151] ▷ The activation indication information can be received through downlink control information (DCI) or MAC CE; and / or

[0152] ▷ The activation indication information may be an indication of the resources of one or more SRSpos, that is, when receiving the indication of the resources of one or more SRSpos, the UE considers that the STW is activated; the UE determines the STW time domain start location according to the time domain unit locations of the one or more SRSpos to be transmitted, and the specific method is as described above;

[0153] ▷ Optionally, the activation indication information further includes an STW activation indication identifier / flag; for example, 1 bit, 1 stands for activating STW and 0 stands for deactivating STW; that is, in this case, the UE determines the time domain location of STW by combination of the STW activation indication and the received resource indication of one or more SRSpos, to send the corresponding SRSpos; or when the STW activation indication identifier is received to indicate the deactivation of STW, the transmission of SRSpos is stopped;

[0154] ▷ Optionally, the UE actually activates the first STW or deactivates the first STW (or ends the last activated STW) after N time units from receiving the activation indication information. Alternatively, in these N time units, if the SRSpos collides or overlaps with other signals (signals related to uplink transmission or downlink reception or sidelink reception or transmission, for example, the PDCCH to be detected by the UE, the control resource set CORESET and / or search space (SS) where the PDCCH is to detected, SSB, CSI-RS, PUCCH, SL-SSB, PSCCH, PSSCH, PSFCH and the like), the UE may:

[0155] ■ If the STW activation indication information is received to activate N time units after STW, the UE gives priority to the transmission or reception of other signals, and / or is not required the transmission of the SRSpos; and / or

[0156] ■ If the STW activation indication information is received to deactivate N time units after STW, the UE gives priority to the sending or receiving of SRSpos, and / or is not required to send or receive other signals;

[0157] ▷ Optionally, the positioning signal is a positioning signal actually received or actually sent; for example, when the positioning signal collides with other signals and cannot be received and / or transmitted, the positioning signal does not perform frequency hopping related operation;

[0158] ▷ Wherein, the expression of a / the positioning signal can be replaced by multiple positioning signals or all positioning signals within the certain time period, and / or can be replaced by one, multiple, or all repetitions of the one or more positioning signals, and / or a hop of a positioning signal.

[0159] ● Determining the information related to the transmission of the positioning signal, including at least one of:

[0160] ■ In a complete SRSpos hop cycle, the UE determines to use the same TA value and / or the same configuration related to transmit beam and / or the same downlink reference signal to calculate the path loss and / or use the same P0 and alpha to determine the transmit power and / or use the same transmit power; among them, a complete hop cycle contains all hop parts of a positioning signal;

[0161] ■ Optionally, when the UE receives the TA adjustment indication (such as TA command, TA adjustment) or power adjustment indication or beam indication information, the UE does not change the TA or adjust the power or adjust the transmit beam configuration parameters in a complete hop cycle, or the UE does not apply the adjusted TA, transmit beam or transmission power in the hop cycle of the positioning signal, for example, the UE does not change the used TA value, transmit beam configuration, power in a hop cycle.

[0162] ● Determining the positioning signal to be received and / or sent according to the received configuration information of the positioning signal, including at least one of the following operations:

[0163] ■ When the UE or PRU receives the indication from the network equipment that a specific positioning signal needs to be measured, it can determine the positioning signal that needs to be received and / or the positioning signal that does not need to be received by judging the received configuration information related to positioning signal. In this way, PRU and / or UE can accurately and effectively measure PRS resources when the specific PRS resources required to be measured by PRU and / or UE are in a specific time window, for specific positioning methods such as carrier phase positioning (CPP) method. Among them:

[0164] ◆ The configuration information related to positioning signal includes at least one of:

[0165] ▷ Configuration information of time window (e.g., time domain location information indicating the time window and period information) to receive or transmit the positioning signal; optionally, it also includes a time window configuration index, such as time window index; alternatively, the configuration information of time window includes a bit map indicating activated windows among a plurality of configured windows, and the time domain location information of the window includes information indicating the time span occupied by at least one activated window or the start point of the first window to the end point of the last window among the at least one activated window;

[0166] ▷ Configuration information of the positioning signal to be received or sent (for example, indicating the number of occupied time domain units, location, the number of repetitions, etc. of the positioning signal), optionally including the positioning signal resource index, such as PRS resource index;

[0167] ▷ Optionally, the activation information of one or more time windows can be indicated in the form of a bitmap, and the UE can determine the activated and / or deactivated time windows according to this information; for example, there are four configured time windows, and the UE determines by receiving the 4-bit bitmap "0101" that the configurations of the second and fourth time windows is activated; and / or the configuration of the first and third time windows is deactivated;

[0168] ◆ The specific operation of judging includes at least one of:

[0169] ▷ When a time window includes all instances of a positioning signal, the UE determines that the positioning signal needs to be received,

[0170] ▷ When a time window can't include all instances of a positioning signal or only some instances of a positioning signal, the UE is not required to receive the positioning signal;

[0171] ▷ If any instance of the positioning signal is within the time window, receiving the positioning signal;

[0172] ▷ If any instance of the positioning signal is not within the time window, not receiving the positioning signal;

[0173] ▷ As an example shown in FIG. 5, in case 1, the time window 1 can completely include all instances of PRS resource1, but not all the instances of PRS resource2, so the UE receives or is required to receive PRS resource1 and / or does not receive or is not required to receive PRS Resource 2; in case 2, the time window 2 can completely include all the instances of PRS resource2, but it can only include some instances of PRS resource1 instead of all the instances, so the UE is required to receive PRS resource2 and / or is not required to receive PRS Resource 1;

[0174] ▷ Optionally, the UE can be replaced by a PRU;

[0175] ▷ Alternatively, the expression of a time window can be replaced by an activated time window, or a time span occupied by one or more activated time windows.

[0176] ■ Determine the PRS hop to be measured (or received) according to the received configuration information of the positioning signal.

[0177] ■ The determining of the positioning signal to be received includes at least one of:

[0178] ◆ Determining a configuration index of a positioning signal to be received and / or transmitted,

[0179] ◆Determining an index of a positioning signal to be received and / or transmitted

[0180] ◆ Determining time-frequency resources of a positioning signal to be received and / or sent, including determining hops of the positioning signal to be received and / or sent;

[0181] ● Receiving and / or sending positioning signal includes at least one of:

[0182] ■ The receiving includes the reception and / or measurement of signals, and the result obtained by measurement includes at least one of:

[0183] ◆ time domain related, such as TOA, TDOA, and / or

[0184] ◆ Angle related, such as AOA, ZOA, OF Arrival, of Departure; and / or

[0185] ◆ Receive power related, RSRP or RSRPP.

[0186] ◆ Phase related, POA, PDOA, DPOA, etc.

[0187] ■ The receiving can be for a measurement result obtained for a single hop and / or a measurement result obtained for M hops, where M is a positive integer and is obtained through predefining and / or network equipment configuration; optionally, the method of predefining includes through the number of hops within the certain time period and / or the number of hops actually received and / or transmitted;

[0188] ■ Optionally, if the reception of one or more hops is cancelled, the UE reports a cancelled hop index (or logical index in a complete hop group) and / or index of actually received and measured or actually transmitted hops (logical index of hops of a positioning signal that is not cancelled in a complete hop group) in the reporting result; wherein, the expression of hop index can be replaced by other PRS parts that can represent what is measured and received by UE and / or other SRSpos parts that can represent what is sent by UE;

[0189] ■ Optionally, when the gap between two adjacent hops to be transmitted is less than a second threshold value, the transmission of the latter hop is cancelled; the second threshold value is predefined and / or configured by network equipment;

[0190] ● Reporting the measurement result obtained by receiving the positioning signal, wherein when the measurement result is obtained based on one or more hops, the number and / or index of the associated hops are also reported. The specific way includes at least one of:

[0191] ■ method 1, report specific hop indexes. For example, when a measurement result is obtained according to measurements of X hops, the hop indexes corresponding to the X hops are also reported associatively in the report of the measurement result, where

[0192] ◆ The hop index is a logical index in a complete hop cycle; and / or;

[0193] ◆ X hops may include the repetitions of one or more hop indexes, and / or only represent X different hop indexes, that is, multiple repetitions of the same hop index are only regarded as one hop;

[0194] ■ Method 2, reporting a hop bitmap, wherein when there are N hop parts, the UE reports hop parts associated with a measurement result by using an N-bit bitmap, and 1 represents the hop part participating in the measurement result; 0 represents the hop part that does not participate in the measurement result; for example, N=4, then 0101 can represent that the measurement result is obtained through the second and fourth hop parts;

[0195] ■ Optionally, when a certain condition is met, the method 2 is used, otherwise the method 1 is used, wherein the certain condition includes at least one of:

[0196] ◆ When the number of associated hop parts in a measurement result is not less than (or greater than) a first threshold value; and / or when the proportion of the number of associated hop parts in a measurement result to the total number of hop parts is not less than (or greater than) a first threshold value;

[0197] ◆ When the number of bits required for reporting a measurement result by using the method 2 is not greater than or less than that required by using the method 1; that is, in this case, the UE selects the method with the minimum number of bits required to report, and optionally, the UE informs the network equipment of the selected method;

[0198] ◆ Optionally, when the number of bits required for reporting a measurement result using method 2 is not greater than or less than that required by method 1, and the difference is greater than a second threshold;

[0199] ◆ Alternatively, the expression of a measurement result can be replaced by multiple measurement results;

[0200] ◆ Optionally, the UE can be replaced by a PRU;

[0201] FIG. 6 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 600 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 6, the communication device 600 includes a transceiver 601 and a controller 602. The transceiver 601 is configured to transmit data or signals and receive data or signals. The controller 602 is coupled with the transceiver 601 and configured to perform control so that the communication device 600 performs the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. In an implementation, the communication device 600 may further include a memory (not shown) on which computer-executable instructions are stored. When the instructions are performed by the controller 602, the communication device 600 may perform at least one method corresponding to the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, a communication device may be configured to perform a method performed by a UE or a PRU according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0202] FIG. 7 shows a schematic structural diagram of a base station 700 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 7, the base station 700 includes a transceiver 701 and a controller 702. The transceiver 701 is configured to transmit data or signals and receive data or signals. The controller 702 is coupled with the transceiver 701 and configured to perform control so that the base station 700 performs the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. In an implementation, the base station 700 may further include a memory (not shown) on which computer-executable instructions are stored. When the instructions are performed by the controller 702, the base station 700 may perform at least one method corresponding to the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0203] The above is only the preferred embodiment of the invention, and it is not used to limit the invention. Any modification, equivalent substitution, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the invention should be included in the scope of protection of the invention.

[0204] Those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention includes apparatus for perform one or more of the operations described in this application. These devices can be specially designed and manufactured for required purposes, or they can also include known devices in general-purpose computers. These devices have computer programs stored therein, which are selectively activated or reconfigured. Such a computer program may be stored in a device (e.g., a computer) readable medium including but not limited to any type of disk (including floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, CD-ROM, and magneto-optical disk), ROM(Read-Only Memory, Read-only memory), RAM(Random Access Memory), EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory), EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory), flash memory, magnetic card or optical card. That is, a readable medium includes any medium in which information is stored or transmitted by a device (e.g., a computer) in a readable form.

[0205] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that each block in these structural diagrams and / or block diagrams and / or flow diagrams and combinations of blocks in these structural diagrams and / or block diagrams and / or flow diagrams can be implemented by computer program instructions. It can be understood by those skilled in the art that these computer program instructions can be provided to a general-purpose computer, a professional computer or a processor of other programmable data processing methods for implementation, so that the scheme specified in the block or blocks of the structure diagram and / or block diagram and / or flow diagram disclosed in the present invention can be performed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing methods.

[0206] Those skilled in the art can understand that the steps, measures and schemes in various operations, methods and processes discussed in the present invention can be alternated, modified, combined or deleted. Further, other steps, measures and schemes in the various operations, methods and processes already discussed in the present invention can also be alternated, changed, rearranged, decomposed, combined or deleted. Further, steps, measures and schemes in various operations, methods and flows disclosed in the present invention in the prior art can also be alternated, changed, rearranged, decomposed, combined or deleted.

[0207] What has been described above is only part of the implementation of the present invention. It should be pointed out that for those skilled in the art, several improvements and embellishments can be made without departing from the principles of the present invention, and these improvements and embellishments should also be regarded as the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1.A method performed by a communication device in a communication system, comprising:receiving configuration information related to positioning, wherein the configuration information comprises time domain resource configuration information of a first positioning signal and length information of a first positioning signal transmission window;determining a time reference point of the first positioning signal transmission window, wherein the time reference point is related to time domain resource configuration information of the first positioning signal;determining the resource configuration of the transmission window based on the time reference point and the length information;transmitting the first positioning signal within the transmission window.2.The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the resource configuration of the transmission window based on the time reference point and the length information comprises at least one of:determining M time domain units earlier than the time reference point in time domain as the resource configuration of the transmission window;determining M time domain units later than the time reference point in time domain as the resource configuration of the transmission window;determining M time domain units earlier than the time reference point in time domain and M time domain units later than the time reference point in time domain as the resource configuration of the transmission window,wherein M is determined based on the length information, andwherein the communication device is a UE or a positioning reference unit (PRU).3.The method according to claim 1, further comprising:receiving indication information related to positioning;determining a state of the first positioning signal transmission window based on the indication information, wherein the state comprises one of activation or deactivation; andbased on the state of the transmission window, performing or not performing the transmission of the first positioning signal with the transmission window.4.The method according to claim 3, wherein the indication information includes at least one of: at least a part of the configuration information, information indicating resources of at least one first positioning signal, and a flag indicating whether the first positioning signal transmission window is activated, andwherein the indication information is received through DCI or MAC CE.5.The method according to claim 3, wherein the communication device activates or deactivates the transmission window according to the indication information N time units after receiving the indication information,wherein if the first positioning signal collides with other signals within the N time units, then:if the first positioning signal transmission window is determined to be activated based on the indication information, transmitting or receiving the other signals in the N time units;if the first positioning signal transmission window is determined to be deactivated based on the indication information, transmitting the first positioning signal in the N time units, andwherein the first positioning signal includes all positioning signals in a first time period, one or multiple or all repetitions of positioning signal, hops of positioning signal, wherein the first time period includes at least one of: a time unit, a configuration period, a measurement period, a measurement gap, a measurement window and a positioning signal processing window.6.The method according to claim 1, wherein transmitting the first positioning signal within the transmission window further comprises one of:transmitting hops in a hop cycle of the first positioning signal using the same timing advance TA value;transmitting hops in a hop cycle of the first positioning signal based on the same transmission beam configuration;transmitting hops in a hop cycle of the first positioning signal using transmission power determined based on the same parameters or using the same transmission power or using transmission power determined based on path loss determined by the same downlink reference signal, andthat the communication device does not apply adjusted TA, transmit beam or transmission power in a hop cycle of the first positioning signal if information related to adjustment of at least one of TA, power or beam is received.7.A method performed by a communication device in a communication system, comprising:receiving configuration information of resources of positioning signal and configuration information of window;receiving a positioning signal based on the configuration information of resources of positioning signal and the configuration information of window, wherein the receiving of the positioning signal comprises:if any of instances of the positioning signal is within time domain resource configuration of the window, receiving the positioning signal, wherein the instances of the positioning signal is determined based on the configuration information of resources of positioning signal, and the time domain resource configuration of the window is determined based on the configuration information of window.8.The method according to claim 7,wherein receiving the positioning signal comprises, if any of instances of the positioning signal is not within time domain resource configuration of the window, not receiving the positioning signal, andwherein the configuration information of window comprises a bit map indicating activated windows among a plurality of configured windows, and the time domain resource configuration of the window comprises at least one activated window or a time span occupied by start of the first window among the at least one activated window to end of the last window.9.A method performed by a communication device in a communication system, comprising:receiving one or more hops of a positioning signal to obtain a measurement result;reporting the measurement result and indication information related to the one or more hops, wherein the indication information is reported by using a hop index or a hop bitmap.10.The method of claim 9, wherein the hop index is a logical index in a hop cycle.11.The method according to claim 9, wherein the hop index comprises different hop indexes corresponding to the one or more hop, andwherein the indication information is reported using a hop bitmap if at least one of the following conditions is met:the number of hops associated with the measurement result or the ratio of the number of associated hops to the total number of hops is not less than a first threshold value;the number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using a hop bitmap is not greater than the number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using a hop index;the first number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using hop bitmap is not greater than the second number of bits required for reporting the indication information by using hop index, and the difference between the first number of bits and the second number of bits is not less than a second threshold value.12.A method performed by a base station in a communication system, comprising:sending configuration information related to positioning, wherein the configuration information comprises time domain resource configuration information of a first positioning signal and length information of a first positioning signal transmission window;receiving a first positioning signal transmitted within the transmission window,wherein the resource configuration of the transmission window is determined based on a time reference point and the length information, and the time reference point is related to the time domain resource configuration information of the first positioning signal.13.A method performed by a base station in a communication system, comprising:transmitting one or more hops of positioning signal;receiving a measurement result related to the positioning signal and indication information related to the one or more hops, wherein the indication information is reported by using a hop index or a hop bitmap.14.A communication device, comprising:a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals;a controller configured to control the communication device to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-11.15.A base station, comprising:a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals;a controller configured to control the base station to perform the method according to claim 12 or 13.

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