Communication method and related apparatus

Abstract

A communication method and a related apparatus. The method comprises: when there are at least two satellites having different orbits among positioning satellites of a terminal device, determining the position of the terminal device on the basis of uplink positioning information of the terminal device from access network devices corresponding to the positioning satellites; when all satellites among positioning satellites have the same orbit, determining the position of a terminal device on the basis of information of a neighbor cell of a serving cell of the terminal device and uplink positioning information of the terminal device from access devices corresponding to the positioning satellites, wherein the positioning satellites include a serving satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, the neighbor positioning satellite being a neighbor satellite of the service satellite. The present application is beneficial to improving the positioning efficiency and further improving the positioning accuracy.

Description

Communication method and related device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on December 5, 2023, with application number 202311666439.3 and application name “Communication Methods and Related Devices”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and related devices. Background Art

[0003] With the development of satellite communication technology, terminal devices can access networks via satellite (e.g., access network devices via satellite). Currently, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) supports satellite-based positioning, which uses multiple round-trip time (RTT) measurements to determine the location of terminal devices. However, this positioning method is time-consuming and inefficient. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The present application provides a communication method and related devices, which are conducive to improving positioning efficiency.

[0005] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method. Optionally, the execution subject of the method can be a location management function, or a component or device (such as a processor, chip, or chip system) applied to the location management function, or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the location management function. The method includes:

[0006] Receiving uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to a positioning satellite of the terminal device, wherein the positioning satellite includes a service satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, and the neighbor positioning satellite is a neighbor satellite of the service satellite;

[0007] Determine the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0008] In this application, positioning a terminal device based on multiple satellites is beneficial for improving positioning efficiency. Specifically, the access network devices corresponding to multiple positioning satellites, including the terminal device's serving satellite and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, can simultaneously send uplink positioning information of the terminal device to the location management function. The location management function then determines the terminal device's location based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0009] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0010] receiving information from a serving access network device corresponding to the serving satellite or an access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite of an access and mobility management function;

[0011] According to the information of the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite, a first message is sent to the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the service access network device, wherein the first message is used to trigger the acquisition of the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0012] In this implementation, the serving access network device or the access and mobility management function can select neighboring positioning satellites to participate in terminal device positioning and send information about the access network devices corresponding to the determined neighboring positioning satellites to the location management function. This allows the location management function to subsequently request uplink positioning information for the terminal device from multiple access network devices, including the access network devices corresponding to the neighboring positioning satellites. This implementation, in which the serving access network device or the access and mobility management function selects neighboring positioning satellites for positioning, helps reduce the computational complexity of the location management function.

[0013] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0014] Capability information is received from the terminal device, where the capability information indicates whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

[0015] Under this implementation method, the terminal device can also report its own capability information to the location management function to indicate whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites. This is conducive to the location management function to use a method based on multiple satellites to locate the terminal device when it determines that the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

[0016] In a possible implementation, determining the location of the terminal device according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device includes:

[0017] In the case where the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0018] In a possible implementation, at least two of the positioning satellites have different orbits.

[0019] In this implementation mode, the terminal device is positioned based on multiple satellites with different orbits, which is conducive to improving positioning accuracy.

[0020] In a possible implementation, the orbits of all the positioning satellites are the same.

[0021] In a possible implementation, determining the location of the terminal device according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device includes:

[0022] The location of the terminal device is determined based on the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0023] In this implementation mode, when the orbits of all positioning satellites are the same, in order to avoid mirroring problems in the positioning of terminal devices, the location management function can combine the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device to jointly determine the location of the terminal device, thereby improving the accuracy of positioning.

[0024] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0025] In the case that the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined according to the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the service access network device corresponding to the service satellite.

[0026] Under this implementation mode, when the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, the location management function can determine the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device and the information of the neighboring area reported by the service access network device corresponding to a single satellite (usually a service satellite), which is conducive to improving the positioning accuracy of the terminal device when positioning with a single satellite.

[0027] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0028] When it is determined based on the satellite ephemeris information and beam information that there is a mirror image problem in the positioning of the terminal device, obtaining the information of the neighboring area; or

[0029] Receive first indication information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and obtain information about the neighboring area based on the first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates that there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device.

[0030] In this implementation, when there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device, positioning is performed in combination with information of neighboring cells, which is conducive to improving the positioning accuracy of the terminal device.

[0031] In a possible implementation, the acquiring the information of the neighboring cell includes:

[0032] requesting the neighboring cell information from the service access network device, and receiving the neighboring cell information from the service access network device; or

[0033] Request the terminal device for the information of the neighboring area, and receive the information of the neighboring area from the terminal device.

[0034] In this implementation mode, the service access network device or the terminal device can feed back the neighboring cell information to the location management function based on the request sent by the location management function. This request-response implementation mode is simple and highly applicable.

[0035] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0036] receiving the neighboring area information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite; or

[0037] Receive information about the neighboring area from the terminal device.

[0038] In this implementation mode, the service access network device or the terminal device can also actively send the information of the neighboring cells to the location management function, which has strong operability.

[0039] In a possible implementation, the neighboring cell information includes one or more of the following information:

[0040] The identifier of the neighboring cell, the information of the reference signal of the neighboring cell, or the information of the beam of the neighboring cell.

[0041] In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method. Optionally, the execution subject of the method can be a location management function, or a component or device (such as a processor, chip, or chip system) applied to the location management function, or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the location management function. The method includes:

[0042] In a case where at least two of the positioning satellites of the terminal device have different orbits, determining the position of the terminal device based on uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to the positioning satellites; and / or

[0043] When all the satellites in the positioning satellites have the same orbit, determining the location of the terminal device according to information about neighboring cells of a serving cell of the terminal device and uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite;

[0044] The positioning satellites include a service satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, and the neighbor positioning satellite is a neighbor satellite of the service satellite.

[0045] In the present application, the location management function itself can determine multiple satellites for terminal device positioning, and achieve positioning based on multiple satellites to improve the terminal device positioning efficiency. Specifically, when there are at least two satellites with different orbits among the terminal device's positioning satellites, the location management function can determine the terminal device's location based on the terminal device's uplink positioning information from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite. This can improve positioning efficiency on the one hand, and also help improve positioning accuracy on the other hand. When all satellites in the positioning satellites have the same orbit, the location management function can determine the terminal device's location based on the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite. This can improve positioning efficiency and also help improve positioning accuracy.

[0046] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0047] Capability information is received from the terminal device, where the capability information indicates whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

[0048] In a possible implementation, when at least two of the positioning satellites of the terminal device have different orbits, determining the position of the terminal device according to uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite includes:

[0049] When there are at least two satellites with different orbits among the positioning satellites of the terminal device and the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite.

[0050] In a possible implementation, determining the location of the terminal device according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite includes:

[0051] The location of the terminal device is determined based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device and the downlink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0052] In this implementation mode, the location management function can specifically determine the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device and the downlink positioning information of the terminal device, which is conducive to improving positioning accuracy.

[0053] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0054] In the case that the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined according to the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the service access network device corresponding to the service satellite.

[0055] Under this implementation mode, when the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, the location management function can determine the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device and the information of the neighboring area reported by the service access network device corresponding to a single satellite (usually a service satellite), which is conducive to improving the positioning accuracy of the terminal device when positioning with a single satellite.

[0056] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0057] The positioning satellite of the terminal device is determined according to first information, where the first information includes ephemeris information and / or coverage information of the satellite.

[0058] In this implementation, the location management function can specifically determine at least one neighbor positioning satellite of the terminal device based on the satellite's ephemeris information and / or coverage information, which has strong operability.

[0059] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0060] Receive uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite.

[0061] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0062] A second message is sent to the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite, where the second message is used to trigger the acquisition of uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0063] In this implementation mode, the location management function can trigger the acquisition of uplink positioning information of the terminal device through a request-response implementation mode, which is easy to implement and conducive to forward compatibility of the protocol.

[0064] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0065] When it is determined based on the satellite ephemeris information and beam information that there is a mirror image problem in the positioning of the terminal device, obtaining the information of the neighboring area; or

[0066] Receive first indication information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and obtain information about the neighboring area based on the first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates that there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device.

[0067] In a possible implementation, the acquiring the information of the neighboring cell includes:

[0068] requesting the neighboring cell information from the service access network device, and receiving the neighboring cell information from the service access network device; or

[0069] Request the terminal device for the information of the neighboring area, and receive the information of the neighboring area from the terminal device.

[0070] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0071] receiving the neighboring area information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite; or

[0072] Receive information about the neighboring area from the terminal device.

[0073] In a possible implementation, the neighboring cell information includes one or more of the following information:

[0074] The identifier of the neighboring cell, the information of the reference signal of the neighboring cell, or the information of the beam of the neighboring cell.

[0075] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method. Optionally, the execution subject of the method can be a first network device (for example, the first network device can be a service access network device, or an access and mobility management function), or a component or device applied to the first network device (for example, a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the first network device. The method includes:

[0076] Acquire information of an access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite of a terminal device, where the neighbor positioning satellite is a neighbor satellite of a service satellite of the terminal device;

[0077] The information of the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite is sent to the location management function.

[0078] In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0079] The positioning satellite of the terminal device is determined according to first information, where the first information includes ephemeris information and / or coverage information of the satellite.

[0080] In a possible implementation, the orbits of at least two satellites among the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the service satellite of the terminal device are different.

[0081] In one possible implementation, the orbits of the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and all of the serving satellites are the same.

[0082] In a possible implementation, the first network device is a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and the method further includes:

[0083] When it is determined that there is a mirror problem in the positioning of the terminal device based on the satellite's ephemeris information and beam information, information about the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell or first indication information is sent to the location management function, where the first indication information indicates that there is a mirror problem in the positioning of the terminal device.

[0084] In a possible implementation, the first network device is a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and the method further includes:

[0085] receiving a request message from the location management function for requesting information of the neighboring cell;

[0086] Based on the request message, information about neighboring cells of the service cell of the terminal device is sent to the location management function.

[0087] In a possible implementation, the neighboring cell information includes one or more of the following information:

[0088] The identifier of the neighboring cell, the information of the reference signal of the neighboring cell, or the information of the beam of the neighboring cell.

[0089] In a possible implementation, the first network device is a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and the method further includes:

[0090] receiving a first message from the location management function, where the first message is used to trigger acquisition of uplink positioning information of the terminal device;

[0091] Acquire uplink positioning information of the terminal device according to the first message;

[0092] Send uplink positioning information of the terminal device to the location management function.

[0093] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a location management function or a module within the location management function. The communication device includes:

[0094] a transceiver unit, configured to receive uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to a positioning satellite of the terminal device, wherein the positioning satellite includes a serving satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighboring positioning satellite, and the neighboring positioning satellite is a neighboring satellite of the serving satellite;

[0095] A processing unit is used to determine the position of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0096] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0097] receiving information from a serving access network device corresponding to the serving satellite or an access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite of an access and mobility management function;

[0098] According to the information of the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite, a first message is sent to the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the service access network device, wherein the first message is used to trigger the acquisition of the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0099] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0100] Capability information is received from the terminal device, where the capability information indicates whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

[0101] In a possible implementation, the processing unit is configured to:

[0102] In the case where the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0103] In a possible implementation, at least two of the positioning satellites have different orbits.

[0104] In a possible implementation, the orbits of all the positioning satellites are the same.

[0105] In a possible implementation, the processing unit is configured to:

[0106] The location of the terminal device is determined based on the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0107] In a possible implementation, the processing unit is configured to:

[0108] In the case that the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined according to the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the service access network device corresponding to the service satellite.

[0109] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0110] When it is determined based on the satellite ephemeris information and beam information that there is a mirror image problem in the positioning of the terminal device, obtaining the information of the neighboring area; or

[0111] Receive first indication information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and obtain information about the neighboring area based on the first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates that there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device.

[0112] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0113] requesting the neighboring cell information from the service access network device, and receiving the neighboring cell information from the service access network device; or

[0114] Request the terminal device for the information of the neighboring area, and receive the information of the neighboring area from the terminal device.

[0115] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0116] receiving the neighboring area information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite; or

[0117] Receive information about the neighboring area from the terminal device.

[0118] In a possible implementation, the neighboring cell information includes one or more of the following information:

[0119] The identifier of the neighboring cell, the information of the reference signal of the neighboring cell, or the information of the beam of the neighboring cell.

[0120] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a location management function or a module within the location management function. The communication device includes:

[0121] a processing unit, configured to determine the position of the terminal device based on uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to the positioning satellites, when at least two of the positioning satellites of the terminal device have different orbits; and / or

[0122] The processing unit is configured to determine the position of the terminal device based on information about neighboring cells of a serving cell of the terminal device and uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite, when all satellites in the positioning satellites have the same orbit;

[0123] The positioning satellites include a service satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, and the neighbor positioning satellite is a neighbor satellite of the service satellite.

[0124] In a possible implementation, the communication device further includes a transceiver unit, where the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0125] Capability information is received from the terminal device, where the capability information indicates whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

[0126] In a possible implementation, the processing unit is configured to:

[0127] When there are at least two satellites with different orbits among the positioning satellites of the terminal device and the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite.

[0128] In a possible implementation, the processing unit is configured to:

[0129] The location of the terminal device is determined based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device and the downlink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0130] In a possible implementation, the processing unit is configured to:

[0131] In the case that the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined according to the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the service access network device corresponding to the service satellite.

[0132] In a possible implementation, the processing unit is configured to:

[0133] The positioning satellite of the terminal device is determined according to first information, where the first information includes ephemeris information and / or coverage information of the satellite.

[0134] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0135] Receive uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite.

[0136] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0137] A second message is sent to the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite, where the second message is used to trigger the acquisition of uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0138] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0139] When it is determined based on the satellite ephemeris information and beam information that there is a mirror image problem in the positioning of the terminal device, obtaining the information of the neighboring area; or

[0140] Receive first indication information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and obtain information about the neighboring area based on the first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates that there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device.

[0141] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0142] requesting the neighboring cell information from the service access network device, and receiving the neighboring cell information from the service access network device; or

[0143] Request the terminal device for the information of the neighboring area, and receive the information of the neighboring area from the terminal device.

[0144] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0145] receiving the neighboring area information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite; or

[0146] Receive information about the neighboring area from the terminal device.

[0147] In a possible implementation, the neighboring cell information includes one or more of the following information:

[0148] The identifier of the neighboring cell, the information of the reference signal of the neighboring cell, or the information of the beam of the neighboring cell.

[0149] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a first network device or a module in the first network device. For example, the first network device may be a service access network device or an access and mobility management function. The communication device includes:

[0150] A processing unit, configured to obtain information about an access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite of a terminal device, where the neighbor positioning satellite is a neighbor satellite of a service satellite of the terminal device;

[0151] The transceiver unit is configured to send information about the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite to the location management function.

[0152] In a possible implementation, the processing unit is configured to:

[0153] The positioning satellite of the terminal device is determined according to first information, where the first information includes ephemeris information and / or coverage information of the satellite.

[0154] In a possible implementation, the orbits of at least two satellites among the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the service satellite of the terminal device are different.

[0155] In one possible implementation, the orbits of the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and all of the serving satellites are the same.

[0156] In a possible implementation, the first network device is a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0157] When it is determined that there is a mirror problem in the positioning of the terminal device based on the satellite's ephemeris information and beam information, information about the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell or first indication information is sent to the location management function, where the first indication information indicates that there is a mirror problem in the positioning of the terminal device.

[0158] In a possible implementation, the first network device is a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and the transceiver unit is configured to:

[0159] receiving a request message from the location management function for requesting information of the neighboring cell;

[0160] Based on the request message, information about neighboring cells of the service cell of the terminal device is sent to the location management function.

[0161] In a possible implementation, the neighboring cell information includes one or more of the following information:

[0162] The identifier of the neighboring cell, the information of the reference signal of the neighboring cell, or the information of the beam of the neighboring cell.

[0163] In a possible implementation, the first network device is a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, wherein:

[0164] The transceiver unit is configured to receive a first message from the location management function, where the first message is used to trigger acquisition of uplink positioning information of the terminal device;

[0165] The processing unit is configured to obtain uplink positioning information of the terminal device according to the first message;

[0166] The transceiver unit is used to send the uplink positioning information of the terminal device to the location management function.

[0167] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which includes a processor, and the processor is used to execute a computer program so that the communication device executes any method described in any one of the first to third aspects.

[0168] In one possible design, the communication device may be a chip that implements the method of any one of the first to third aspects or a device including a chip.

[0169] In one possible design, the communication device further includes a transceiver, and the processor is coupled to the transceiver.

[0170] In one possible design, the communication device further includes a memory. The processor and the memory are coupled, the memory stores a computer program, and the processor is further configured to call the computer program in the memory. For example, the processor and the memory may be integrated.

[0171] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which includes a processor, and the processor is used to implement any method as described in any one of the first to third aspects through a logic circuit or execution code instructions.

[0172] Optionally, the communication device further includes an interface circuit, which is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit the signals to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device.

[0173] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a computer, the method described in any one of the first to third aspects is implemented.

[0174] In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product. When a computer reads and executes the computer program product, the computer executes any one of the methods described in any one of the first to third aspects.

[0175] In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which includes a communication device for implementing the method described in any one of the first or second aspects above, and a communication device for implementing the method described in any one of the third aspects above.

[0176] The beneficial effects of the third to eleventh aspects can be referred to the beneficial effects of the first and second aspects, and will not be repeated here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0177] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system used in an embodiment of the present application;

[0178] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of an NTN-based RAN architecture applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

[0179] FIG3 is a schematic diagram showing the mirror image problem when positioning using a single satellite;

[0180] FIG4 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0181] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of a scene of a positioning satellite provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0182] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0183] FIG7 is another interactive flow diagram of the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0184] FIG8 is another flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0185] FIG9 is another interactive flow diagram of the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0186] FIG10 is a schematic structural diagram of a possible communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0187] FIG11 is a schematic structural diagram of a possible communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0188] The specific embodiments of the present application are further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0189] The terms "first" and "second" and the like in the specification, claims, and drawings of this application are used to distinguish between different objects, not to describe a particular order. Furthermore, the terms "including" and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product, or apparatus comprising a series of steps or elements is not limited to the listed steps or elements, but may optionally include steps or elements not listed, or may optionally include other steps or elements inherent to the process, method, product, or apparatus.

[0190] References herein to "embodiments" mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments may be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The appearance of this phrase in various places in the specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, nor does it constitute an independent or alternative embodiment that is mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It is understood, both explicitly and implicitly, by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein may be combined with other embodiments.

[0191] In this application, "at least one (item)" refers to one or more, "more than one" refers to two or more, "at least two (items)" refers to two or three and more than three, and "and / or" is used to describe the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, "A and / or B" can mean: only A exists, only B exists, and A and B exist at the same time, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following items" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b or c can mean: a, b, c, "a and b", "a and c", "b and c", or "a and b and c", where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0192] In this application, "sending information to... (e.g., a terminal)" can be understood as the destination of the information being the terminal. This can include sending information to the terminal directly or indirectly. "Receiving information from... (e.g., a terminal)" or "receiving information from... (e.g., a terminal)" can be understood as the source of the information being the terminal, which can include receiving information from the terminal directly or indirectly. The information may undergo necessary processing between the source and destination of the information, such as format changes, but the destination can understand the valid information from the source. Similar expressions in this application can be understood similarly and will not be repeated here.

[0193] To better understand the embodiments of the present application, the following first introduces the system architecture involved in the embodiments of the present application:

[0194] The technical solution of the present application can be applied to non-terrestrial networks (NTN) or scenarios where NTN and terrestrial networks (TN) are integrated. NTN systems can be, for example, satellite communication systems, high altitude platform station (HAPS) communication systems, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), etc. TN systems can be, for example, fourth-generation (4G) communication systems (for example, long-term evolution (LTE) systems), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication systems, fifth-generation (5G) communication systems (for example, new radio (NR) systems), and future mobile communication systems.

[0195] The communication system provided in this application may include one or more network devices and one or more terminals.

[0196] The following is an exemplary explanation using the system architecture shown in Figure 1. Please refer to Figure 1, which is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the communication system used in the embodiments of the present application. As shown in Figure 1, the communication system 1000 includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network (CN) 200. Exemplarily, the communication system 1000 may also include the Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one network device (such as 110a and 110b in Figure 1, collectively referred to as 110) and at least one terminal (such as 120a-120j in Figure 1, collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in Figure 1). The terminal 120 is connected to the network device 110 via a wireless method. The network device 110 is connected to the core network 200 via a wireless or wired method. The core network device in the core network 200 and the network device 110 in the RAN 100 may be different physical devices, or may be the same physical device that integrates core network logical functions and radio access network logical functions.

[0197] It should be noted that RAN 100 can be a cellular system related to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), for example, a 4G or 5G mobile communication system, or an evolved system after 5G. RAN 100 can also be an open access network (open RAN, O-RAN or ORAN), a cloud radio access network (CRAN), etc. RAN 100 can also be a communication system that is a fusion of two or more of the above systems. It should be stated that the number of network devices and terminals in Figure 1 is only for illustration and should not be regarded as a specific limitation of this application. The terminals and network devices involved in the system architecture are described in detail below.

[0198] 1. Terminal

[0199] A terminal can also be referred to as a terminal device, user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), mobile terminal, mobile equipment (ME), access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or user device, or a device used to provide voice or data connectivity to users, or an IoT device. For example, terminal devices include handheld devices with wireless connectivity and in-vehicle devices. Currently, terminal devices can be: mobile phones, tablets, laptops, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MIDs), wearable devices (such as smart watches, smart bracelets, pedometers, etc.), vehicle-mounted equipment (such as cars, bicycles, electric vehicles, airplanes, ships, trains, high-speed trains, etc.), satellite terminal equipment, virtual reality (VR) equipment, augmented reality (AR) equipment, smart point of sale (POS) machines, customer-premises equipment (CPE), wireless terminal devices in industrial control, smart home devices (such as refrigerators, televisions, air conditioners, electricity meters, etc.), intelligent robots, robotic arms, workshop equipment, wireless terminal devices in unmanned driving, wireless terminal devices in telemedicine, wireless terminal devices in smart grids, wireless terminal devices in transportation safety, wireless terminal devices in smart cities, or wireless terminal devices in smart homes, flying equipment (such as intelligent robots, hot air balloons, drones, airplanes), etc. The terminal device may also be other devices having terminal device functions. For example, the terminal device may also be a device serving as a terminal device in D2D communication.

[0200] In addition, the terminal devices involved in the embodiments of the present application are terminal devices that support NTN access technology or have NTN capabilities.

[0201] The embodiments of this application do not limit the device form factor of the terminal device. The device used to implement the functions of the terminal device can be the terminal device; it can also be a device that supports the terminal device to implement the functions, such as a chip system. The device can be installed in the terminal device or used in conjunction with the terminal device. In the embodiments of this application, the chip system can be composed of a chip or include a chip and other discrete components.

[0202] 2. Network Equipment

[0203] A network device is a node in a radio access network (RAN), and can also be referred to as an access network device or a RAN node (or device). A network device is used to help terminal devices achieve wireless access. The multiple network devices 110 in the communication system 1000 can be nodes of the same type or different types. In some scenarios, the roles of the network device 110 and the terminal 120 are relative. For example, the network element 120i in Figure 1 can be a helicopter or a drone, which can be configured as a mobile base station. For the terminal 120j that accesses the RAN 100 through the network element 120i, the network element 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, the network element 120i is a terminal device. The network device 110 and the terminal 120 are sometimes referred to as communication devices. For example, the network elements 110a and 110b in Figure 1 can be understood as communication devices with base station functions, and the network elements 120a-120j can be understood as communication devices with terminal device functions.

[0204] In one possible scenario, the network device may be a device with base station functions, such as an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmitting and receiving point (TRP), a transmitting point (TP), a next generation NodeB (gNB), a next generation base station in a future mobile communication system, and an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node.

[0205] In one possible scenario, the network device may also be a non-terrestrial network device in the NTN, for example, a device deployed on a high-altitude platform, such as a satellite. The network device may also be a macro base station (such as 110a in Figure 1), a micro base station or an indoor station (such as 110b in Figure 1), a relay node or a donor node, or a wireless controller in a CRAN scenario. The network device may also be a device that acts as a base station in device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, drone communication, and machine communication. Exemplarily, the network device may also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or an on-board device, etc. For example, the network device in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology may be a road side unit (RSU).

[0206] All or part of the functions of the network device in this application may also be implemented through software functions running on hardware, or through virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (such as a cloud platform). The network device in this application may also be a logical node, logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the network device functions.

[0207] In another possible scenario, multiple network devices collaborate to assist the terminal device in achieving wireless access, and different network devices respectively implement part of the functions of the base station. For example, the network device may include a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU). The CU and DU may be set separately, or may be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or radio frequency unit, such as a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH). It is understandable that the network device may be a CU node, a DU node, or a device including a CU node and a DU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into a network device in the access network RAN, or the CU may be divided into a network device in the core network CN, without limitation here.

[0208] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in the ORAN system, CU may also be called O-CU (Open CU), DU may also be called O-DU, CU-CP may also be called O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be called O-CU-UP, and RU may also be called O-RU. For the convenience of description, this application uses CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU as examples for description. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0209] Optionally, CN 200 may include one or more network function entities (also referred to as core network elements, logical network elements, network elements, or entities, etc.), such as access and mobility management function (AMF), location management function (LMF), application function (AF), etc., which are not limited in this application.

[0210] In the embodiments of the present application, the form of the network device is not limited. The device for implementing the function of the network device can be the network device, or a device that can support the network device to implement the function, such as a chip system. The device can be installed in the network device or used in conjunction with the network device.

[0211] In order to facilitate understanding of the contents of this solution, some of the terms involved in the embodiments of this application are explained below to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art. This part is only for ease of understanding and cannot be regarded as a specific limitation of this application.

[0212] 1. NTN

[0213] NTN, or non-terrestrial network, is a general term for networks involving flying objects, including satellite communication networks, high altitude platform systems (HAPS) and air-to-ground networks.

[0214] HAPS is carried on airborne platforms, mainly including aircraft, balloons and airships, and uses the high-altitude platform station as a mobile communication base station to provide mobile services using the same frequency band as the ground mobile network. In other words, by deploying base stations or part of the base station functions on non-ground network equipment (such as ships, high-altitude platforms, drones or satellites), seamless communication coverage is provided for terminal equipment to improve the reliability of the communication system. It should be noted that, for ease of understanding, the following text only uses the example of the non-ground network equipment in NTN being a satellite, which should not be regarded as a specific limitation of this application.

[0215] Satellite communication networks rely on onboard platforms, primarily including low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO), and geostationary Earth orbit (GEO). Based on the relationship between satellites and base stations, these networks can be categorized into the following architectures:

[0216] For example, see Figure 2, which is a schematic diagram of an NTN-based RAN architecture applicable to embodiments of the present application. As shown in Figure 2, the NTN-based RAN architecture may include terminal devices, RAN (or NG-RAN), core network equipment, and a data network (or the Internet).

[0217] Figure 2 (a) shows a transparent satellite architecture. The RAN can include remote radio units (RRUs) and network equipment. The RRUs can include satellites and NTN gateways. Terminal devices and network equipment communicate via the user-universal terrestrial radio access network (Uu) interface. Satellites enable transparent payload transmission between users and network equipment. Satellites and NTN gateways can be considered remote radio units (RRUs) of network equipment, enabling transparent signal forwarding. Specifically, the satellite supports functions such as RF filtering, frequency conversion, and amplification, while maintaining the same signal waveform. Satellite forwarding is transparent to terminal devices. The satellite primarily serves as a Layer 1 (L1) relay, regenerating physical layer signals (i.e., processing radio frequency filtering, frequency conversion, and amplification) without any higher protocol layers. Among them, network devices and core network devices can communicate through the next generation network (NG) interface, and interact with the core network's non-access stratum (NAS) signaling and terminal device service data through the NG interface.

[0218] Figure 2(b) shows a regenerative satellite architecture without inter-satellite links. The RAN consists of satellites and NTN gateways. The satellites function as network devices (e.g., base stations) and have base station processing capabilities. The satellites communicate with the NTN gateways via the satellite radio interface (SRI). Terminal devices communicate with network devices via the Uu interface, while network devices and core network devices communicate via the NG interface. Core network NAS signaling and terminal device service data are exchanged via the NG interface.

[0219] Figure 2 (c) shows a regenerative satellite with inter-satellite link architecture. The RAN consists of satellites and NTN gateways. The satellites function as network devices (e.g., base stations) and have base station processing capabilities. Satellites communicate with the NTN gateway via the SRI. Satellites can communicate with each other via the Xn interface on the inter-satellite link (ISL). Terminal devices communicate with network devices via the Uu interface, while network devices and core network devices communicate via the NG interface. The NG interface exchanges core network NAS signaling and terminal device service data.

[0220] Figure 2 (d) shows a regenerative satellite architecture with the DU processing capabilities of a base station. The satellite acts as a DU and possesses DU processing capabilities. The CU and DU can jointly perform the functions of a network device (e.g., a base station). Communication between the CU and DU occurs via the F1 interface, while communication between the DU and the NTN gateway occurs via the F1 interface on the SRI. Terminal devices communicate with the DU via the Uu interface, while communication between the CU and core network devices occurs via the NG interface. Core network NAS signaling and terminal device service data can be exchanged via the NG interface.

[0221] For example, in another satellite architecture with integrated access and backhaul (IAB) functionality, the satellite serves as an IAB node. The IAB node provides wireless backhaul services to nodes (e.g., terminal devices) that wirelessly access wireless backhaul nodes. Wireless backhaul services refer to data and / or signaling backhaul services provided via wireless backhaul links.

[0222] 2. Satellite coverage information

[0223] Satellite coverage information includes orbital parameter information or operational information that can be used to predict satellite position, speed, beam direction, beam coverage position, etc., or includes information indicating the time or moment of satellite coverage for certain geographic locations and corresponding base station ID or CellID. Alternatively, satellite coverage information may also be referred to as satellite coverage availability information or satellite operational information, etc., which is not limited in this application.

[0224] 3. Ephemeris Information

[0225] Each satellite has ephemeris information, also known as satellite ephemeris. This information may include information related to the satellite's operation, such as a trajectory table and / or orbital parameters (such as altitude, speed, inclination, and heading). For example, it may include one or more of the following: the inclination of the satellite's orbital plane, the right ascension of the ascending node, the semi-major axis of the orbital ellipse, the eccentricity of the orbital ellipse, the perigee angle, and the time at which the satellite passes perigee.

[0226] Currently, 3GPP supports a positioning method that uses the movement of a single satellite to perform multiple RTT measurements to obtain the terminal device's location. Generally speaking, the distance between the satellite and the terminal device can be calculated based on the RTT obtained each time and combined with the speed of light. Based on at least three measurements, the terminal device's location can be estimated. Specifically, as shown in Figure 3, for satellite 1, three RTT measurements are performed at times t1, t2, and t3, and circles are drawn with the position of satellite 1 at these three times as the center and the distance between satellite 1 and the terminal device. The intersection of the three circles can be used as the terminal device's location. However, this method of achieving terminal device positioning based on a single satellite, on the one hand, requires multiple RTT measurements as the single satellite moves, which makes it take longer to complete a single positioning. On the other hand, it may also result in the presence of two located terminal device positions (i.e., there is a mirror problem), such as points A and B in Figure 3, making it impossible to accurately locate the terminal device position.

[0227] Based on this, the present application proposes a communication method that is conducive to improving positioning efficiency and can also improve positioning accuracy.

[0228] The communication method and communication device provided by this application are described in detail below:

[0229] Please refer to Figure 4, which is a flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 4, the communication method may include the following steps S401 to S402. The execution subject of the method shown in Figure 4 may be a location management function, or a chip in the location management function. For the convenience of description, this application is mainly explained with the location management function as the execution subject. It should be understood that Figure 4 is a schematic flow chart of an embodiment of the method of the present application, which shows the detailed communication steps or operations of the method, but these steps or operations are only examples. The embodiment of the present application can also perform other operations or variations of the various operations in Figure 4. In addition, the various steps in Figure 4 can be executed in a different order from that presented in Figure 4, and it may not be necessary to execute all the operations in Figure 4. Among them:

[0230] S401. A location management function receives uplink positioning information of a terminal device from an access network device corresponding to a positioning satellite of the terminal device.

[0231] It should be understood that, in this application, the positioning satellite of a terminal device may refer to a satellite used for positioning the terminal device. For example, in one case, the positioning satellite of the terminal device may include the terminal device's serving satellite and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, wherein the neighbor positioning satellite may refer to a neighbor satellite of the serving satellite, that is, a satellite that is adjacent to the serving satellite; in another case, the positioning satellite of the terminal device may include the terminal device's serving satellite.

[0232] Optionally, the relationship between the positioning satellite and the access network equipment corresponding to the positioning satellite (such as a base station) can be understood as the following two types: in a transparent satellite architecture, the positioning satellite can be considered as a remote wireless unit of the base station, used to achieve transparent forwarding of signals, and the base station has processing functions; in a regenerative satellite architecture, the positioning satellite can be used as a base station and have the processing functions of a base station. Therefore, the access network equipment corresponding to the positioning satellite is equivalent to a device / module with processing functions in the positioning satellite.

[0233] Further optionally, there are at least two satellites in the positioning satellites with different orbits, or all satellites in the positioning satellites have the same orbit. The orbit of the satellite may refer to the running orbit of the satellite.

[0234] Optionally, the location management function may send a first message to an access network device and a serving access network device corresponding to at least one neighboring positioning satellite. The first message is used to trigger acquisition of uplink positioning information of the terminal device, or the first message is used to request uplink measurement or uplink positioning measurement. Accordingly, the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite may perform uplink measurement based on the received first message to obtain uplink positioning information of the terminal device, and feedback the obtained uplink positioning information of the terminal device to the location management function. There is a one-to-one correspondence between satellites and access network devices.

[0235] Among them, when the positioning satellites of the terminal device include the service satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, one possible scenario is that there are at least two satellites in the positioning satellites of the terminal device with different orbits, and another possible scenario is that the orbits of all satellites in the positioning satellites are the same. The different situations will be explained separately below.

[0236] Generally speaking, the at least one neighbor positioning satellite can be selected by the service access network device or the access and mobility management function of the terminal device. Specifically, the service access network device or the access and mobility management function can determine the at least one neighbor positioning satellite of the terminal device based on the first information. The first information may include the satellite's ephemeris information and / or coverage information, etc., which is not limited in this application.

[0237] Generally speaking, after the serving access network device or the access and mobility management function determines the at least one neighbor positioning satellite, the serving access network device or the access and mobility management function may send information about the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite to the location management function. Furthermore, based on the received information about the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite, the location management function may send the first message to the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the serving access network device. This will not be further described.

[0238] Optionally, the information of the access network device may be identification information of the access network device, such as an NR cell global identifier (NCGI), a global access network identifier (Global RAN ID) of the access network device, or a medium access control (MAC) address of the access network device, etc., which is not limited here.

[0239] Optionally, in one implementation, the uplink positioning information of the terminal device involved in the present application includes the first transmission and reception time difference of the access network device (i.e., the difference between the time when the access network device receives the uplink signal from the terminal device and the time when the access network device sends the downlink signal to the terminal device), or the uplink positioning information of the terminal device may include the time when the access network device receives the uplink signal from the terminal device, and the time when the access network device sends the downlink signal to the terminal device, which is not limited here.

[0240] Optionally, in another implementation, the uplink positioning information of the terminal device involved in the present application may include a third transmission and reception time difference, which is the difference between the time when the access network device receives the uplink signal from the terminal device and the time when the terminal device sends the uplink signal, or the uplink positioning information of the terminal device may include the time when the access network device receives the uplink signal from the terminal device, and the time when the terminal device sends the uplink signal.

[0241] S402. The location management function determines the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0242] In a feasible implementation, when the time between the terminal device and the access network device is synchronized, the location management function can determine the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device. Exemplarily, the location management function can determine the third transmission and reception time difference based on the uplink positioning information, and then determine the distance value of the terminal from the satellite in combination with the speed of light. It can be understood that based on multiple uplink positioning information fed back by multiple access network devices corresponding to multiple positioning satellites, multiple distance values ​​can be determined in combination with the speed of light, and the location of the terminal device can be finally determined based on the multiple distance values. For example, with the position of each satellite when measured as the center of the circle, a circle is drawn with the distance value between each satellite and the terminal device, and the intersection of the multiple circles can be used as the location of the terminal device. Optionally, the location of the terminal device can be the absolute position or relative position of the terminal device. For example, the absolute position of the terminal device can be longitude and latitude information, and for another example, the relative position of the terminal device can be the position of the terminal device relative to the service satellite.

[0243] In another feasible implementation, the location management function determines the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device, which can be specifically understood as follows: the location management function determines the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device and the downlink positioning information of the terminal device. The downlink positioning information of the terminal device involved in this application includes the third transmission and reception time difference of the terminal device (i.e., the difference between the time when the terminal device sends an uplink signal to the access network device and the time when the terminal device receives the downlink signal from the access network device), or the downlink positioning information of the terminal device may include the time when the terminal device sends an uplink signal to the access network device, and the time when the terminal device receives the downlink signal from the access network device, which is not limited here.

[0244] In one possible implementation, the location management function can determine the first transceiver time difference of the access network device based on the received uplink positioning information, and determine the third transceiver time difference of the terminal device based on the received downlink positioning information. By subtracting the third transceiver time difference from the first transceiver time difference, the round-trip delay (or round-trip time) can be obtained, and then based on the round-trip delay combined with the speed of light, the distance value of the terminal from the satellite can be determined. It can be understood that based on the multiple uplink positioning information fed back by multiple access network devices corresponding to multiple positioning satellites and the downlink positioning information fed back by the terminal device, combined with the speed of light, multiple distance values ​​can be obtained, and the position of the terminal device can be ultimately determined based on the multiple distance values. For example, with the position of each satellite when measuring as the center of the circle, a circle is drawn with the distance value between each satellite and the terminal device, and the intersection of the multiple circles can be used as the location of the terminal device. Optionally, the location of the terminal device can be the absolute position or relative position of the terminal device. For example, the absolute position of the terminal device can be longitude and latitude information, and for another example, the relative position of the terminal device can be the position of the terminal device relative to the service satellite.

[0245] It is understandable that the multiple uplink positioning information involved in this application refers to three or more uplink positioning information. Generally speaking, when the number of positioning satellites is 1 (for example, the 1 positioning satellite is a service satellite), the service satellite needs to perform three uplink measurements at at least three different times to obtain multiple uplink positioning information; when the number of positioning satellites is 2 (for example, a service satellite and a neighbor positioning satellite 1), at least one of the service satellite and the neighbor positioning satellite 1 needs to perform two or more uplink measurements to obtain multiple uplink positioning information; when the number of positioning satellites is 3 or more, these positioning satellites can perform uplink measurements at the same time to obtain multiple uplink positioning information.

[0246] Optionally, the method further includes: the location management function sending a second message to the terminal device, where the second message is used to trigger acquisition of downlink positioning information of the terminal device, or the second message is used to request downlink measurement or downlink positioning measurement. Accordingly, after receiving the second message, the terminal device may perform a downlink measurement based on the received second message to obtain the downlink positioning information of the terminal device, and feed back the obtained downlink positioning information of the terminal device to the location management function.

[0247] Optionally, the terminal device may send capability information to the location management function, where the capability information indicates whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites. Accordingly, the location management function may determine whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites based on the capability information from the terminal device. Wherein, multiple satellites may refer to two or more satellites.

[0248] In another feasible implementation, step S402 may specifically include: when the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites, the location management function determines the location of the terminal device according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0249] Optionally, the method further includes: if the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, determining the location of the terminal device based on information about neighboring cells of the terminal device's serving cell and uplink positioning information of the terminal device from a serving access network device corresponding to the serving satellite. Generally speaking, if the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, the location management function may specifically determine the location of the terminal device based on information about neighboring cells of the terminal device's serving cell and multiple uplink positioning information from a serving access network device corresponding to the serving satellite.

[0250] In another feasible implementation, step S402 may specifically include determining the location of the terminal device based on information about neighboring cells of the terminal device's serving cell and uplink positioning information of the terminal device. The neighboring cell information includes one or more of the following: a neighboring cell identifier, reference signal information about the neighboring cell, or beam information about the neighboring cell. For ease of understanding, the following description will primarily use the neighboring cell identifier as an example for illustrative purposes.

[0251] In one implementation, since the adjacent cells of different mirror points are different, the location management function can specifically determine the location of the terminal device in the candidate locations that are mirror images of each other based on the relative positional relationship between the adjacent cells and the serving cell. For example, assuming that the adjacent cell of the serving cell is Cell ID#11, since the position of the cell Cell ID#11 relative to the serving cell is to the north of it, the candidate position to the north of the mirror point can be determined as the location of the terminal device. The relative position relationship here is only given in the form of east, south, west and north for example, and there may be other forms, which are not limited in this application. It should be understood that the candidate position can be determined based on uplink positioning information, or based on uplink positioning information and downlink positioning information.

[0252] Optionally, this implementation can be applied in the following two cases: Case 1, the positioning satellite of the terminal device includes the service satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, and the orbits of all satellites in the positioning satellites are the same; Case 2, the positioning satellite of the terminal device only includes the service satellite of the terminal device; Case 3, the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites. In these three cases, there may be a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device. To avoid the mirroring problem, the location management function can determine the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device, combined with the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell, or the location management function can determine the location of the terminal device based on the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell, the uplink positioning information of the terminal device, and the downlink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0253] It should be noted that, when all positioning satellites have the same orbit, the uplink positioning information of the terminal device is the uplink positioning information of the terminal device fed back by the access network devices corresponding to all positioning satellites; when the positioning satellites only include the terminal device's serving satellite, the uplink positioning information of the terminal device is the uplink positioning information of the terminal device fed back by the serving access network device corresponding to the serving satellite. Here, the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's serving cell (hereinafter referred to as neighboring cell information or neighboring cell information) can be sent to the location management function by the serving access network device or the terminal device.

[0254] The location management function can obtain information about neighboring cells of the terminal device's serving cell in the following ways:

[0255] In one implementation, the service access network device or the terminal device may proactively send the neighboring cell information to the location management function, and the location management function accordingly receives the neighboring cell information.

[0256] In another implementation, the location management function requests the service access network device or the terminal device for the information of the neighboring area, and accordingly, the service access network device or the terminal device can send the information of the neighboring area to the location management function based on the request. For example, when the location management function determines that there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device based on the satellite's ephemeris information and beam information (such as angle information), the location management function requests the service access network device or the terminal device for the information of the neighboring area. For another example, when the service access network device or the access and mobility management function determines that there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device based on the satellite's ephemeris information and beam information, the service access network device or the access and mobility management function can send a first indication message to the location management function, and the first indication message indicates that there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device. Therefore, the location management function can request the service access network device or the terminal device for the information of the neighboring area based on the first indication message.

[0257] Optionally, the above-mentioned location management function requests the service access network device or terminal device for information about neighboring cells, which can be understood as: the location management function sends a request for obtaining neighboring cell information to the service access network device or terminal device (or sends an indication to report neighboring cell information), and the service access network device or terminal device sends the neighboring cell information to the location management function based on the request / instruction.

[0258] It should be pointed out that the above-mentioned feasible implementation methods can be combined with each other without limitation.

[0259] The present application is further supplemented below with reference to specific scenarios. Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the scenario of the positioning satellite provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 5 (a), the positioning satellite of the terminal device includes satellite 1 (i.e., a service satellite), satellite 2, and satellite 3, wherein the orbit of satellite 2 is different from the orbit of satellite 3. As shown in Figure 5 (b), the positioning satellite of the terminal device includes satellite 1 (i.e., a service satellite), satellite 2, and satellite 3, wherein the orbits of all satellites in the positioning satellites are the same, i.e., the orbits of satellite 1, satellite 2, and satellite 3 are the same. It should be understood that in this application, the same orbit means the same orbit (i.e., the orbit and the orbital height are the same), and different orbits in this application mean different orbits, which is not limited to whether the orbital heights are consistent. For example, the height of orbit 1 of the service satellite is H0, and there is another orbit 2 (also H0) and orbit 3 (H1) that are different from orbit 1, wherein orbit 1, orbit 2, and orbit 3 can be considered to be different orbits.

[0260] It is understandable that, as described above, the service access network device corresponding to the serving satellite or the access and mobility management function may select at least one neighbor positioning satellite and provide the location management function with information of the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite. Therefore, the following will respectively describe these two cases in detail with reference to FIG6 and FIG7:

[0261] FIG6 shows a solution in which the serving access network device selects at least one neighbor positioning satellite. RAN1 shown in FIG6 is the access network device (i.e., serving access network device) corresponding to satellite 1 (i.e., serving satellite), RAN2 is the access network device corresponding to satellite 2, and RAN3 is the access network device corresponding to satellite 3.

[0262] S601: A UE, AF, or client may send a positioning request to an AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF may receive a positioning request from the UE, AF, or client.

[0263] Here, the positioning request is a request for positioning the UE position.

[0264] S602: The AMF sends a location request to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the location request from the AMF.

[0265] In some feasible implementations, the AMF may send a positioning request to the LMF based on the received positioning request, where the positioning request sent by the AMF includes information about the UE's serving cell, such as an identifier of the serving cell.

[0266] Optionally, when the AMF needs to obtain the UE location, the AMF itself can initiate a positioning request for the UE and send the positioning request to the LMF. The positioning request carries the information of the UE's serving cell.

[0267] S603: The LMF sends a Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LTE Positioning Protocol, LPP) request to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the LPP request from the LMF.

[0268] The LPP request is used to request the positioning capabilities / methods supported by the UE.

[0269] S604: The UE sends an LPP response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the LPP response from the UE.

[0270] The LPP response includes capability information indicating whether the UE supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

[0271] S605: LMF sends a new radio positioning protocol A (NRPPa) request to RAN1. Correspondingly, RAN1 receives the NRPPa request from LMF.

[0272] The NRPPa request is used to request the UE's uplink sounding reference signal (UL-SRS) configuration information, such as the requested UL-SRS transmission number / duration, bandwidth, resource type, requested SRS resource sets and the number of each SRS resource set, the carrier frequency of the SRS transmission bandwidth, etc. Optionally, the NRPPa request may also include selection indication information for neighbor positioning satellites.

[0273] The following describes the first branch corresponding to the scenario shown in FIG5 (a) and the second branch corresponding to the scenario shown in FIG5 (b) respectively:

[0274] First branch:

[0275] S606a: RAN1 selects at least one neighbor positioning satellite based on the ephemeris information of the serving satellite and the ephemeris information of the satellites surrounding the serving satellite.

[0276] In some feasible implementations, RAN1 can determine whether positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the service satellite based on the above-mentioned selection indication information, combined with the ephemeris information of the service satellite and the ephemeris information of the service satellite's surrounding satellites. If not, positioning is performed based on a single satellite, that is, positioning is performed using the service satellite. If so, at least one neighbor positioning satellite is selected, where the orbits of at least two of the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the service satellite of the terminal device are different. For example, as shown in FIG5 (a), the orbit of satellite 2 is different from the orbit of satellite 3. It should be understood that the first branch is mainly explained based on the situation where positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the service satellite, and the orbits of at least two of the positioning satellites are different.

[0277] S607a: RAN1 configures the UE.

[0278] In some feasible implementations, RAN1 may determine a UL-SRS resource set available for the UE based on the NRPPa request received in S605, and configure the available UL-SRS resource set for the UE.

[0279] S608a: RAN1 sends an NRPPa response to LMF. Correspondingly, LMF receives the NRPPa response from RAN1.

[0280] In some feasible implementations, after completing the UE configuration, the RAN may send an NRPPa response to the LMF. The NRPPa response includes UL-SRS configuration information and information about the access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite selected in step S606a. Alternatively, the UL-SRS configuration information may include information about the access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite. The information about the access network device may be an identifier of the access network device or an NCGI, etc., which is not limited here.

[0281] S609-1a to S609-3a, LMF sends NRPPa measurement requests to RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 respectively. Correspondingly, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 receive the NRPPa measurement requests from LMF.

[0282] In some feasible implementations, the NRPPa measurement request includes TRP measurement request information, including TRP ID, NCGI of the TRP receiving UL-SRS, UE-SRS configuration, measurement period, measurement quality, response time, etc.

[0283] It is understandable that RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 can respectively perform uplink measurement based on the received NRPPa measurement request to obtain uplink positioning information of the UE.

[0284] S6010a: The LMF sends an LPP measurement request to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the LPP measurement request from the LMF.

[0285] In some feasible implementations, the LPP measurement request includes assistance data and a location request, where the assistance data includes data required for the UE to perform downlink positioning reference signal (DL-PRS) measurements, such as NCGI, DL-PRS configuration of candidate TRPs, etc. The location request is used to request the UE to perform downlink measurements.

[0286] It is understandable that the UE may perform downlink measurement based on the LPP measurement request to obtain downlink positioning information of the UE.

[0287] S6011-1a~S6011-3a, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 send NRPPa measurement responses to LMF respectively. Correspondingly, LMF receives NRPPa measurement responses from RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3.

[0288] The NRPPa measurement response includes the uplink positioning information of the UE.

[0289] S6012a: The UE sends an LPP measurement response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the LPP measurement response from the UE.

[0290] The LPP measurement response includes the downlink positioning information of the UE.

[0291] S6013a. LMF determines the UE's location based on the UE's uplink positioning information and downlink positioning information.

[0292] S6014a: The LMF sends a positioning response to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the positioning response from the LMF.

[0293] The positioning response includes the positioning result.

[0294] Second branch:

[0295] S606b: RAN1 selects at least one neighbor positioning satellite based on the ephemeris information of the serving satellite and the ephemeris information of the satellites surrounding the serving satellite.

[0296] In some feasible implementations, RAN1 can determine whether positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the serving satellite based on the above-mentioned selection indication information, combined with the ephemeris information of the serving satellite and the ephemeris information of the surrounding satellites of the serving satellite. If not, positioning is performed based on a single satellite, that is, positioning is performed using the serving satellite. If so, at least one neighbor positioning satellite is selected, where the orbits of all satellites in the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the serving satellite are the same. For example, as shown in FIG5(b), the orbit of satellite 1, the orbit of satellite 2, and the orbit of satellite 3 are the same orbit. It should be understood that this second branch is mainly explained based on the situation where positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the serving satellite, and the orbits of all satellites in the positioning satellites are the same.

[0297] S607b: RAN1 configures the UE.

[0298] In some feasible implementations, RAN1 may determine a UL-SRS resource set available for the UE based on the NRPPa request received in S605, and configure the available UL-SRS resource set for the UE.

[0299] S608b: RAN1 sends an NRPPa response to LMF. Correspondingly, LMF receives the NRPPa response from RAN1.

[0300] In some feasible implementations, after completing the UE configuration, the RAN may send an NRPPa response to the LMF. The NRPPa response includes UL-SRS configuration information and information about the access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite selected in step S606a. Alternatively, the UL-SRS configuration information may include information about the access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite. The information about the access network device may be an identifier of the access network device or an NCGI, etc., which is not limited here.

[0301] Optionally, since mirroring problems may occur when positioning is based on a single satellite or multiple co-orbital satellites, the NRPPa response may also include information about neighboring cells, or first indication information, where the first indication information indicates that there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device. That is, RAN1 can directly send neighboring cell information to LMF when positioning is based on a single satellite or multiple co-orbital satellites, or it can indicate to LMF that there is a mirroring problem, so that LMF can subsequently request neighboring cell information based on RAN1's ​​indication.

[0302] S609-1b to S609-3b, LMF sends NRPPa measurement requests to RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 respectively. Correspondingly, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 receive the NRPPa measurement requests from LMF.

[0303] In some feasible implementations, the NRPPa measurement request includes TRP measurement request information, including TRP ID, NCGI of the TRP receiving UL-SRS, UE-SRS configuration, measurement period, measurement quality, response time, etc.

[0304] Optionally, the NRPPa measurement request sent by LMF to RAN1 may also include an indication requesting reporting of neighboring cell information. Therefore, in addition to reporting the uplink positioning information of the UE, RAN1 should also report the information of the neighboring cells of the UE's serving cell.

[0305] It is understandable that RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 can respectively perform uplink measurement based on the received NRPPa measurement request to obtain uplink positioning information of the UE.

[0306] S6010b: The LMF sends an LPP measurement request to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the LPP measurement request from the LMF.

[0307] In some feasible implementations, the LPP measurement request includes assistance data and a location request, where the assistance data includes data required for the UE to perform downlink positioning reference signal (DL-PRS) measurements, such as NCGI, DL-PRS configuration of candidate TRPs, etc. The location request is used to request the UE to perform downlink measurements.

[0308] Optionally, the LPP measurement request sent by the LMF to the UE may also include an indication requesting reporting of neighboring cell information. Therefore, in addition to reporting the UE's downlink positioning information, the UE should also report information on neighboring cells of the UE's serving cell.

[0309] It is understandable that the UE may perform downlink measurement based on the LPP measurement request to obtain downlink positioning information of the UE.

[0310] S6011-1b~S6011-3b, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 send NRPPa measurement responses to LMF respectively. Correspondingly, LMF receives NRPPa measurement responses from RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3.

[0311] The NRPPa measurement response includes the uplink positioning information of the UE. Optionally, the NRPPa measurement response fed back by RAN1 may also include information about neighboring cells.

[0312] S6012b: The UE sends an LPP measurement response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the LPP measurement response from the UE.

[0313] The LPP measurement response includes the downlink positioning information of the UE. Optionally, the LPP measurement response may also include information about neighboring cells.

[0314] S6013b. LMF determines the UE's location based on the UE's uplink positioning information and downlink positioning information, as well as the information of the neighboring cells.

[0315] S6014b: The LMF sends a positioning response to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the positioning response from the LMF.

[0316] The positioning response includes the positioning result.

[0317] FIG7 shows a solution in which the access and mobility management function selects at least one neighbor positioning satellite. RAN1 shown in FIG7 is the access network device (i.e., the serving access network device) corresponding to satellite 1 (i.e., the serving satellite), RAN2 is the access network device corresponding to satellite 2, and RAN3 is the access network device corresponding to satellite 3. Among them:

[0318] S701: A UE, AF, or client may send a positioning request to an AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF may receive a positioning request from the UE, AF, or client.

[0319] Here, the positioning request is a request for positioning the UE position.

[0320] The following describes the first branch corresponding to the scenario shown in FIG5 (a) and the second branch corresponding to the scenario shown in FIG5 (b) respectively:

[0321] First branch:

[0322] S702a: The AMF selects at least one neighbor positioning satellite based on the ephemeris information of the serving satellite and the ephemeris information of the satellites surrounding the serving satellite.

[0323] In some feasible implementations, the AMF can determine whether positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the serving satellite based on the ephemeris information of the serving satellite and the ephemeris information of the satellites surrounding the serving satellite. If not, positioning is performed based on a single satellite, that is, positioning is performed using the serving satellite. If so, at least one neighbor positioning satellite is selected, where the orbits of at least two of the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the serving satellite of the terminal device are different. For example, as shown in FIG5(a), the orbit of satellite 2 is different from the orbit of satellite 3. It should be understood that the first branch is mainly explained based on the case where positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the serving satellite, and the orbits of at least two of the positioning satellites are different.

[0324] Optionally, the AMF may also determine whether positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the service satellite based on the coverage information of the service satellite and the surrounding satellites of the service satellite. This application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0325] S703a: AMF sends a location request to LMF. Correspondingly, LMF receives the location request from AMF.

[0326] In some feasible implementations, the AMF may send a positioning request to the LMF based on the received positioning request. The positioning request sent by the AMF includes information about the UE's serving cell, such as an identifier of the serving cell. In addition, the positioning request sent by the AMF may also include information about the access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite. The information about the access network device may be an identifier or NCGI of the access network device, etc., which is not limited here.

[0327] Optionally, when the AMF needs to obtain the UE location, the AMF itself can initiate a positioning request for the UE and send the positioning request to the LMF. The positioning request carries the information of the UE's service cell and the information of the access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite.

[0328] S704a: The LMF sends an LPP request to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the LPP request from the LMF.

[0329] The LPP request is used to request the positioning capabilities / methods supported by the UE.

[0330] S705a: The UE sends an LPP response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the LPP response from the UE.

[0331] The LPP response includes capability information indicating whether the UE supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

[0332] S706a: LMF sends an NRPPa request to RAN1. Correspondingly, RAN1 receives the NRPPa request from LMF.

[0333] Among them, the NRPPa request is used to request the UE's UL-SRS configuration information, such as the requested UL-SRS transmission number / duration, bandwidth, resource type, requested SRS resource sets and the number of each SRS resource set, the carrier frequency of the SRS transmission bandwidth, etc.

[0334] S707a: RAN1 configures the UE.

[0335] In some feasible implementations, RAN1 may determine a UL-SRS resource set available for the UE based on the NRPPa request received in S706a, and configure the available UL-SRS resource set for the UE.

[0336] S708a: RAN1 sends an NRPPa response to LMF. Correspondingly, LMF receives the NRPPa response from RAN1.

[0337] In some feasible implementations, after completing UE configuration, the RAN may send an NRPPa response to the LMF, where the NRPPa response includes UL-SRS configuration information.

[0338] S709-1a to S709-3a and LMF send NRPPa measurement requests to RAN1, RAN2, and RAN3 respectively. Correspondingly, RAN1, RAN2, and RAN3 receive the NRPPa measurement requests from LMF.

[0339] In some feasible implementations, the NRPPa measurement request includes TRP measurement request information, including TRP ID, NCGI of the TRP receiving UL-SRS, UE-SRS configuration, measurement period, measurement quality, response time, etc.

[0340] It is understandable that RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 can respectively perform uplink measurement based on the received NRPPa measurement request to obtain uplink positioning information of the UE.

[0341] S7010a: The LMF sends an LPP measurement request to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the LPP measurement request from the LMF.

[0342] In some feasible implementations, the LPP measurement request includes assistance data and a location request, wherein the assistance data includes data required by the UE to perform DL-PRS measurement, such as NCGI, DL-PRS configuration of candidate TRPs, etc. The location request is used to request the UE to perform downlink measurement.

[0343] It is understandable that the UE may perform downlink measurement based on the LPP measurement request to obtain downlink positioning information of the UE.

[0344] S7011-1a~S7011-3a, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 send NRPPa measurement responses to LMF respectively. Correspondingly, LMF receives NRPPa measurement responses from RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3.

[0345] The NRPPa measurement response includes the uplink positioning information of the UE.

[0346] S7012a: The UE sends an LPP measurement response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the LPP measurement response from the UE.

[0347] The LPP measurement response includes the downlink positioning information of the UE.

[0348] S7013a. LMF determines the UE's location based on the UE's uplink positioning information and downlink positioning information.

[0349] S7014a: The LMF sends a positioning response to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the positioning response from the LMF.

[0350] The positioning response includes the positioning result.

[0351] Second branch:

[0352] S702b: The AMF selects at least one neighbor positioning satellite based on the ephemeris information of the serving satellite and the ephemeris information of the satellites surrounding the serving satellite.

[0353] In some feasible implementations, the AMF can determine whether positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the serving satellite based on the ephemeris information of the serving satellite and the ephemeris information of the surrounding satellites of the serving satellite. If not, positioning is performed based on a single satellite, that is, positioning is performed using the serving satellite. If so, at least one neighbor positioning satellite is selected, where the orbits of all satellites in the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the serving satellite are the same. For example, as shown in FIG5(b), the orbit of satellite 1, the orbit of satellite 2, and the orbit of satellite 3 are the same orbit. It should be understood that the second branch is mainly explained based on the case where positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the serving satellite, and the orbits of all satellites in the positioning satellites are the same.

[0354] Optionally, the AMF may also determine whether positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the service satellite based on the coverage information of the service satellite and the surrounding satellites of the service satellite. This application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0355] Optionally, since mirroring problems may occur when positioning based on a single satellite or multiple co-orbital satellites, the AMF can also determine whether there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device based on the satellite's ephemeris information and beam information.

[0356] S703b: AMF sends a location request to LMF. Correspondingly, LMF receives the location request from AMF.

[0357] In some feasible implementations, the AMF may send a positioning request to the LMF based on the received positioning request. The positioning request sent by the AMF includes information about the UE's serving cell, such as an identifier of the serving cell. In addition, the positioning request sent by the AMF may also include information about the access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite. The information about the access network device may be an identifier or NCGI of the access network device, etc., which is not limited here.

[0358] Optionally, when the AMF needs to obtain the UE location, the AMF itself can initiate a positioning request for the UE and send the positioning request to the LMF. The positioning request carries the information of the UE's service cell and the information of the access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite.

[0359] Optionally, when the AMF determines that there is a mirror image problem in the positioning of the terminal device based on the satellite's ephemeris information and beam information, the AMF may also carry first indication information in the positioning request, where the first indication information indicates that there is a mirror image problem in the positioning of the terminal device. Therefore, the LMF can subsequently request information about the neighboring cell based on the AMF's indication.

[0360] S704b: The LMF sends an LPP request to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the LPP request from the LMF.

[0361] The LPP request is used to request the positioning capabilities / methods supported by the UE.

[0362] S705b: The UE sends an LPP response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the LPP response from the UE.

[0363] The LPP response includes capability information indicating whether the UE supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

[0364] S706b: LMF sends an NRPPa request to RAN1. Correspondingly, RAN1 receives the NRPPa request from LMF.

[0365] Among them, the NRPPa request is used to request the UE's UL-SRS configuration information, such as the requested UL-SRS transmission number / duration, bandwidth, resource type, requested SRS resource sets and the number of each SRS resource set, the carrier frequency of the SRS transmission bandwidth, etc.

[0366] S707b: RAN1 configures the UE.

[0367] In some feasible implementations, RAN1 may determine a UL-SRS resource set available for the UE based on the NRPPa request received in S706b, and configure the available UL-SRS resource set for the UE.

[0368] S708b: RAN1 sends an NRPPa response to LMF. Correspondingly, LMF receives the NRPPa response from RAN1.

[0369] In some feasible implementations, after completing UE configuration, the RAN may send an NRPPa response to the LMF, where the NRPPa response includes UL-SRS configuration information.

[0370] S709-1b to S709-3b, LMF sends NRPPa measurement requests to RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 respectively. Correspondingly, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 receive the NRPPa measurement requests from LMF.

[0371] In some feasible implementations, the NRPPa measurement request includes TRP measurement request information, including TRP ID, NCGI of the TRP receiving UL-SRS, UE-SRS configuration, measurement period, measurement quality, response time, etc.

[0372] Optionally, in the event of a mirroring problem, the NRPPa measurement request sent by LMF to RAN1 may also include an indication requesting reporting of neighboring cell information. Therefore, in addition to reporting the UE's uplink positioning information, RAN1 should also report information on neighboring cells of the UE's serving cell.

[0373] It is understandable that RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 can respectively perform uplink measurement based on the received NRPPa measurement request to obtain uplink positioning information of the UE.

[0374] S7010b: The LMF sends an LPP measurement request to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the LPP measurement request from the LMF.

[0375] In some feasible implementations, the LPP measurement request includes assistance data and a location request, wherein the assistance data includes data required by the UE to perform DL-PRS measurement, such as NCGI, DL-PRS configuration of candidate TRPs, etc. The location request is used to request the UE to perform downlink measurement.

[0376] Optionally, in the event of a mirroring problem, the LPP measurement request sent by the LMF to the UE may also include an indication requesting reporting of neighboring cell information. Therefore, in addition to reporting the UE's downlink positioning information, the UE should also report information on the neighboring cells of the UE's serving cell.

[0377] It is understandable that the UE may perform downlink measurement based on the LPP measurement request to obtain downlink positioning information of the UE.

[0378] S7011-1b~S7011-3b, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 send NRPPa measurement responses to LMF respectively. Correspondingly, LMF receives NRPPa measurement responses from RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3.

[0379] The NRPPa measurement response includes the uplink positioning information of the UE. Optionally, the NRPPa measurement response fed back by RAN1 may also include information about neighboring cells.

[0380] S7012b: The UE sends an LPP measurement response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the LPP measurement response from the UE.

[0381] The LPP measurement response includes the downlink positioning information of the UE. Optionally, the LPP measurement response may also include information about neighboring cells.

[0382] S7013b, LMF determines the UE's location based on the UE's uplink positioning information and downlink positioning information, as well as the information of the neighboring cells.

[0383] S7014b: The LMF sends a positioning response to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the positioning response from the LMF.

[0384] The positioning response includes the positioning result.

[0385] It should be noted that in this embodiment, the service access network device or access and mobility management function corresponding to the service satellite can select at least one neighbor positioning satellite and provide the location management function with information about the access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite. Therefore, the subsequent location management function can simultaneously trigger the acquisition of uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network devices corresponding to multiple positioning satellites including the service satellite and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, so as to determine the location of the terminal device, thereby improving positioning efficiency, that is, reducing positioning delay. In addition, if the orbits of at least two satellites in the service satellite and at least one neighbor positioning satellite are different, the occurrence of the mirror problem can be avoided, which is conducive to improving positioning accuracy; if the orbits of all satellites in the service satellite and at least one neighbor positioning satellite are the same, the location management function can further combine the neighboring area information of the service cell of the terminal device to finally determine the location of the terminal device, which can solve the problem of inaccurate positioning caused by the mirror problem.

[0386] Please refer to Figure 8, which is another flow chart of the communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 8, the communication method includes the following steps S801 to S803. The execution subject of the method shown in Figure 8 can be a location management function, or a chip in the location management function. For the convenience of description, this application is mainly explained with the location management function as the execution subject. It should be understood that Figure 8 is a schematic flow chart of an embodiment of the method of the present application, which shows the detailed communication steps or operations of the method, but these steps or operations are only examples. The embodiment of the present application can also perform other operations or variations of the various operations in Figure 8. In addition, the various steps in Figure 8 can be executed in a different order from that presented in Figure 8, and it may not be necessary to execute all the operations in Figure 8. Among them:

[0387] S801. The location management function determines the positioning satellite of the terminal device.

[0388] In one feasible implementation, the location management function may determine the terminal device's positioning satellites based on the first information. In another feasible implementation, step S801 is optional. For example, another device / network element (e.g., a service access network device or an AMF) may determine the terminal device's positioning satellites based on the first information.

[0389] Here, for understanding the positioning satellite of the terminal device, reference may be made to the relevant description in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 , which will not be elaborated here.

[0390] The first information may include ephemeris information and / or coverage information of the satellite.

[0391] Among them, when the positioning satellites of the terminal device include the service satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, one possible scenario is that there are at least two satellites in the positioning satellites of the terminal device with different orbits, and another possible scenario is that the orbits of all satellites in the positioning satellites are the same. The different situations will be explained separately below.

[0392] Optionally, after determining the positioning satellite of the terminal device, the location management function may respectively send a first message to the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite, where the first message is used to trigger the acquisition of the uplink positioning information of the terminal device, or the first message is used to request an uplink measurement or an uplink positioning measurement. Accordingly, after receiving the first message, the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite may perform an uplink measurement based on the received first message to obtain the uplink positioning information of the terminal device, and feedback the obtained uplink positioning information of the terminal device to the location management function. Optionally, the location management function may also send a second message to the terminal device, where the second message is used to trigger the acquisition of the downlink positioning information of the terminal device, or the second message is used to request a downlink measurement or a downlink positioning measurement. Accordingly, after receiving the second message, the terminal device may perform a downlink measurement based on the received second message to obtain the downlink positioning information of the terminal device, and feedback the obtained downlink positioning information of the terminal device to the location management function.

[0393] Optionally, for understanding of the uplink positioning information and the downlink positioning information, reference may be made to the relevant description in the embodiment shown in FIG4 , which will not be repeated here.

[0394] S802. When at least two of the positioning satellites of the terminal device have different orbits, the location management function determines the location of the terminal device based on uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite.

[0395] In one feasible implementation, the terminal device may send capability information to the location management function, where the capability information indicates whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites. Accordingly, the location management function may determine whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites based on the capability information from the terminal device.

[0396] Optionally, when the location management function determines that there are at least two satellites with different orbits among the positioning satellites of the terminal device, and the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites, the location management function may determine the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite. Optionally, determining the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite may include: determining the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device and the downlink positioning information of the terminal device. Here, for the implementation method of determining the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information, or determining the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information and the downlink positioning information, reference may be made to the relevant description in the embodiment shown in FIG4 above, which will not be elaborated here.

[0397] S803. When the orbits of all positioning satellites are the same, the location management function determines the location of the terminal device based on the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite.

[0398] In a feasible implementation manner, when the positioning satellite includes a service satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, and the orbits of all satellites in the positioning satellite are the same, the location management function determines the location of the terminal device based on the information of the neighboring cells of the service cell of the terminal device and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite. This can be understood as: when the location management function determines that the orbits of all satellites in the positioning satellite are the same, and the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites, the location management function determines the location of the terminal device based on the information of the neighboring cells of the service cell of the terminal device and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite.

[0399] Optionally, the above-mentioned determination of the location of the terminal device based on the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite includes: determining the location of the terminal device based on the information of the neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell, the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite, and the downlink positioning information of the terminal device. For the implementation method of determining the location of the terminal device based on the information of the neighboring cells, the uplink positioning information, and the downlink positioning information, reference can be made to the relevant description in the embodiment shown in Figure 4 above, and no further details are given here.

[0400] Optionally, the above method also includes: when the positioning satellite only includes the service satellite of the terminal device, and / or when the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, the location management function determines the location of the terminal device based on the information of the neighboring cells of the service cell of the terminal device and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the service access network device corresponding to the service satellite.

[0401] Optionally, it should be noted that the location management function can further combine the downlink positioning information of the terminal device when determining the location of the terminal device, and this application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0402] In addition, the information of the neighboring cells of the service cell of the above-mentioned terminal device can be specifically referred to the relevant description in the embodiment shown in Figure 4, and will not be repeated here.

[0403] Optionally, the present application will be further supplemented with reference to the different scenarios shown in FIG5 .

[0404] FIG9 shows a solution in which the location management function selects at least one neighbor positioning satellite. RAN1 shown in FIG9 is the access network device (i.e., the serving access network device) corresponding to satellite 1 (i.e., the serving satellite), RAN2 is the access network device corresponding to satellite 2, and RAN3 is the access network device corresponding to satellite 3.

[0405] S901: A UE, AF, or client may send a positioning request to an AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF may receive the positioning request from the UE, AF, or client.

[0406] Here, the positioning request is a request for positioning the UE position.

[0407] S902: The AMF sends a location request to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the location request from the AMF.

[0408] In some feasible implementations, the AMF may send a positioning request to the LMF based on the received positioning request, where the positioning request sent by the AMF includes information about the UE's serving cell, such as an identifier of the serving cell.

[0409] Optionally, when the AMF needs to obtain the UE location, the AMF itself can initiate a positioning request for the UE and send the positioning request to the LMF. The positioning request carries the information of the UE's serving cell.

[0410] S903: The LMF sends an LPP request to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the LPP request from the LMF.

[0411] The LPP request is used to request the positioning capabilities / methods supported by the UE.

[0412] S904: The UE sends an LPP response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the LPP response from the UE.

[0413] The LPP response includes capability information indicating whether the UE supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

[0414] S905: LMF sends an NRPPa request to RAN1. Correspondingly, RAN1 receives the NRPPa request from LMF.

[0415] Among them, the NRPPa request is used to request the UE's UL-SRS configuration information, such as the requested UL-SRS transmission number / duration, bandwidth, resource type, requested SRS resource sets and the number of each SRS resource set, the carrier frequency of the SRS transmission bandwidth, etc.

[0416] S906. RAN1 configures the UE.

[0417] In some feasible implementations, RAN1 may determine a UL-SRS resource set available for the UE based on the NRPPa request received in S905 , and configure the available UL-SRS resource set for the UE.

[0418] S907: RAN1 sends an NRPPa response to LMF. Correspondingly, LMF receives the NRPPa response from RAN1.

[0419] In some feasible implementations, after completing UE configuration, the RAN may send an NRPPa response to the LMF, where the NRPPa response includes UL-SRS configuration information.

[0420] The following describes the first branch corresponding to the scenario shown in FIG5 (a) and the second branch corresponding to the scenario shown in FIG5 (b) respectively:

[0421] First branch:

[0422] S908a: The LMF selects at least one neighbor positioning satellite based on the ephemeris information of the serving satellite and the ephemeris information of the satellites surrounding the serving satellite.

[0423] In some feasible implementations, the LMF can determine whether positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the service satellite based on the locally stored ephemeris information of the service satellite and the ephemeris information of the service satellite's surrounding satellites. If not, positioning is performed based on a single satellite, that is, positioning is performed using the service satellite. If so, at least one neighbor positioning satellite is selected, wherein the orbits of at least two of the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the service satellite of the terminal device are different. For example, as shown in FIG5 (a), the orbit of satellite 2 is different from the orbit of satellite 3. It should be understood that the first branch is mainly explained based on the situation where positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the service satellite, and the orbits of at least two of the positioning satellites are different.

[0424] Optionally, LMF can also determine whether positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the service satellite based on the coverage information of the service satellite and the surrounding satellites of the service satellite. This application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0425] S909-1a~S909-3a, LMF sends NRPPa measurement requests to RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 respectively. Correspondingly, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 receive the NRPPa measurement requests from LMF.

[0426] In some feasible implementations, the NRPPa measurement request includes TRP measurement request information, including TRP ID, NCGI of the TRP receiving UL-SRS, UE-SRS configuration, measurement period, measurement quality, response time, etc.

[0427] It is understandable that RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 can respectively perform uplink measurement based on the received NRPPa measurement request to obtain uplink positioning information of the UE.

[0428] S9010a: The LMF sends an LPP measurement request to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the LPP measurement request from the LMF.

[0429] In some feasible implementations, the LPP measurement request includes assistance data and a location request, wherein the assistance data includes data required by the UE to perform DL-PRS measurement, such as NCGI, DL-PRS configuration of candidate TRPs, etc. The location request is used to request the UE to perform downlink measurement.

[0430] It is understandable that the UE may perform downlink measurement based on the LPP measurement request to obtain downlink positioning information of the UE.

[0431] S9011-1a~S9011-3a, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 send NRPPa measurement responses to LMF respectively. Correspondingly, LMF receives NRPPa measurement responses from RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3.

[0432] The NRPPa measurement response includes the uplink positioning information of the UE.

[0433] S9012a: The UE sends an LPP measurement response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the LPP measurement response from the UE.

[0434] The LPP measurement response includes the downlink positioning information of the UE.

[0435] S9013a. LMF determines the UE's location based on the UE's uplink positioning information and downlink positioning information.

[0436] S9014a: The LMF sends a positioning response to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the positioning response from the LMF.

[0437] The positioning response includes the positioning result.

[0438] Second branch:

[0439] S908b: The LMF selects at least one neighbor positioning satellite based on the ephemeris information of the serving satellite and the ephemeris information of the satellites surrounding the serving satellite.

[0440] In some feasible implementations, the LMF can determine whether positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the service satellite based on the locally stored ephemeris information of the service satellite and the ephemeris information of the surrounding satellites of the service satellite. If not, positioning is performed based on a single satellite, that is, positioning is performed using the service satellite. If so, at least one neighbor positioning satellite is selected, wherein the orbits of all satellites in the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the service satellite are the same. For example, as shown in FIG5(b), the orbit of satellite 1, the orbit of satellite 2, and the orbit of satellite 3 are the same orbit. It should be understood that the second branch is mainly explained based on the situation where positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the service satellite, and the orbits of all satellites in the positioning satellites are the same.

[0441] Optionally, LMF can also determine whether positioning can be performed using two or more satellites including the service satellite based on the coverage information of the service satellite and the surrounding satellites of the service satellite. This application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0442] Optionally, since positioning based on a single satellite or multiple co-orbital satellites may present a mirroring problem, the LMF may also determine whether the terminal device's positioning is subject to a mirroring problem based on locally stored satellite ephemeris information and beam information. Alternatively, the satellite ephemeris information and beam information may also be obtained from RAN1, without limitation.

[0443] S909-1b to S909-3b, LMF sends NRPPa measurement requests to RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 respectively. Correspondingly, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 receive the NRPPa measurement requests from LMF.

[0444] In some feasible implementations, the NRPPa measurement request includes TRP measurement request information, including TRP ID, NCGI of the TRP receiving UL-SRS, UE-SRS configuration, measurement period, measurement quality, response time, etc.

[0445] Optionally, in the event of a mirroring problem, the NRPPa measurement request sent by LMF to RAN1 may also include an indication requesting reporting of neighboring cell information. Therefore, in addition to reporting the UE's uplink positioning information, RAN1 should also report information on neighboring cells of the UE's serving cell.

[0446] It is understandable that RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 can respectively perform uplink measurement based on the received NRPPa measurement request to obtain uplink positioning information of the UE.

[0447] S9010b: The LMF sends an LPP measurement request to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the LPP measurement request from the LMF.

[0448] In some feasible implementations, the LPP measurement request includes assistance data and a location request, wherein the assistance data includes data required by the UE to perform DL-PRS measurement, such as NCGI, DL-PRS configuration of candidate TRPs, etc. The location request is used to request the UE to perform downlink measurement.

[0449] Optionally, in the event of a mirroring problem, the LPP measurement request sent by the LMF to the UE may also include an indication requesting reporting of neighboring cell information. Therefore, in addition to reporting the UE's downlink positioning information, the UE should also report information on the neighboring cells of the UE's serving cell.

[0450] It is understandable that the UE may perform downlink measurement based on the LPP measurement request to obtain downlink positioning information of the UE.

[0451] S9011-1b~S9011-3b, RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3 send NRPPa measurement responses to LMF respectively. Correspondingly, LMF receives NRPPa measurement responses from RAN1, RAN2 and RAN3.

[0452] The NRPPa measurement response includes the uplink positioning information of the UE. Optionally, the NRPPa measurement response fed back by RAN1 may also include information about neighboring cells.

[0453] S9012b: The UE sends an LPP measurement response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the LPP measurement response from the UE.

[0454] The LPP measurement response includes the downlink positioning information of the UE. Optionally, the LPP measurement response may also include information about neighboring cells.

[0455] S9013b. LMF determines the UE's location based on the UE's uplink positioning information and downlink positioning information, as well as the information of the neighboring cells.

[0456] S9014b: The LMF sends a positioning response to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the positioning response from the LMF.

[0457] The positioning response includes the positioning result.

[0458] It should be noted that in this embodiment, the location management function itself can select at least one neighbor positioning satellite and trigger the acquisition of uplink positioning information of the terminal device of the access network device corresponding to multiple positioning satellites including the serving satellite and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, so as to determine the location of the terminal device, thereby facilitating improved positioning efficiency, i.e., reduced positioning delay. In addition, if the orbits of at least two satellites in the serving satellite and at least one neighbor positioning satellite are different, the occurrence of the mirror image problem can be avoided, which is conducive to improving positioning accuracy. If the orbits of all satellites in the serving satellite and at least one neighbor positioning satellite are the same, the location management function can further combine the neighboring cell information of the terminal device's service cell to finally determine the terminal device's location, thereby resolving the problem of inaccurate positioning caused by the mirror image problem.

[0459] The communication device provided in this application will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 .

[0460] It is understood that in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the communication device includes hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. It should be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that, in combination with the units and method steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in this application, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in hardware or in a manner driven by computer software depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0461] Figures 10 and 11 are schematic diagrams of the structures of possible communication devices provided by the embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to implement the functions of the network devices in the above-mentioned method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above-mentioned method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be a network device, or a module (such as a chip) applied to a network device. Exemplarily, the network device can be a location management function, a service access network device, or an access and mobility management function, etc.

[0462] As shown in Figure 10, the communication device 1000 includes a processing unit 1010 and a transceiver unit 1020. The communication device 1000 is used to implement the functions of the network device in the method embodiments shown in Figures 4 to 9 above.

[0463] When the communication device 1000 is used to implement the location management function in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. 9 :

[0464] In one implementation:

[0465] The transceiver unit 1020 is configured to receive uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to a positioning satellite of the terminal device, wherein the positioning satellite includes a serving satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighboring positioning satellite, and the neighboring positioning satellite is a neighboring satellite of the serving satellite;

[0466] The processing unit 1010 is configured to determine the location of the terminal device based on the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

[0467] In another implementation:

[0468] The processing unit 1010 is configured to determine the position of the terminal device based on uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to the positioning satellites when at least two of the positioning satellites of the terminal device have different orbits; and / or

[0469] The processing unit 1010 is configured to determine the location of the terminal device based on information about neighboring cells of a serving cell of the terminal device and uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite, when all satellites in the positioning satellites have the same orbit;

[0470] The positioning satellites include a service satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, and the neighbor positioning satellite is a neighbor satellite of the service satellite.

[0471] When the communication device 1000 is used to implement the service access network device or the access and mobility management function in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. 9 :

[0472] The processing unit 1010 is configured to obtain information about an access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite of a terminal device, where the neighbor positioning satellite is a neighbor satellite of a serving satellite of the terminal device;

[0473] The transceiver unit 1020 is configured to send information about the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite to the location management function.

[0474] For a more detailed description of the processing unit 1010 and the transceiver unit 1020 , reference may be made to the relevant descriptions in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. 9 .

[0475] As shown in FIG11 , the communication device 1100 includes a processor 1110 and a memory 1120 , wherein the processor 1110 is configured to execute instructions in the memory 1120 to implement the functions of the network device in the above method embodiment.

[0476] Among them, the network equipment can be a location management function, or a service access network device, or an access and mobility management function, etc.

[0477] The above-mentioned communication device can be the above-mentioned network device, or can be a chip applied to the network device. The communication device is used to implement the functions of the network device in the above-mentioned method embodiment.

[0478] It is understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or may be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0479] The present application also provides a communication system, which includes a location management function and a service access network device; and may further include an access and mobility management function, etc. The location management function is used to implement the location management function in the above-mentioned method embodiment, the service access network device is used to implement the function of the service access network device in the above-mentioned method embodiment, and the access and mobility management function is used to implement the function of the access and mobility management function in the above-mentioned method embodiment.

[0480] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed by the location management function, it is used to implement the function of the location management function in the above-mentioned method embodiment; when the computer program or instruction is executed by the service access network device, it is used to implement the function of the service access network device in the above-mentioned method embodiment; when the computer program or instruction is executed by the access and mobility management function, it is used to implement the function of the access and mobility management function in the above-mentioned method embodiment.

[0481] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes computer program code, which is used to implement the location management function in the above-mentioned method embodiment when the computer program code runs on the location management function; or, when the computer program code runs on the service access network device, it is used to implement the function of the service access network device in the above-mentioned method embodiment; or, when the computer program code runs on the access and mobility management function, it is used to implement the function of the access and mobility management function in the above-mentioned method embodiment.

[0482] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions that can be executed by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, registers, hard disk, mobile hard disk, CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium well known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. The storage medium can also be an integral part of the processor. The processor and storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a network device. The processor and storage medium can also exist in the network device as discrete components.

[0483] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented using software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable device. The computer program or instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transferred from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, the computer program or instructions may be transferred from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that integrates one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, hard disk, or magnetic tape; an optical medium, such as a digital video disk; or a semiconductor medium, such as a solid-state drive. The computer-readable storage medium may be a volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage media.

[0484] In the various embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or logically conflicting, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced to each other, and the technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships. It is understood that the various numerical numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the sequence number of each of the above processes does not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to the location management function, the method includes: Receiving uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to a positioning satellite of the terminal device, wherein the positioning satellite includes a service satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, and the neighbor positioning satellite is a neighbor satellite of the service satellite; The position of the terminal device is determined according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method further comprises: Receiving information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite or an access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite of an access and mobility management function; According to the information of the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite, a first message is sent to the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the service access network device, wherein the first message is used to trigger the acquisition of the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Capability information is received from the terminal device, where the capability information indicates whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: The determining the position of the terminal device according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device includes: In the case where the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: Among the positioning satellites, at least two satellites have different orbits.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The orbits of all of the positioning satellites are the same.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that The determining the position of the terminal device according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device includes: The location of the terminal device is determined based on the information of the neighboring cells of the service cell of the terminal device and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that: The method further comprises: In the case that the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined according to information of neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and uplink positioning information of the terminal device from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite.

9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that: The method further comprises: In the case where it is determined based on the satellite ephemeris information and beam information that there is a mirror image problem in the positioning of the terminal device, obtaining the information of the neighboring area; or, Receive first indication information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and obtain information about the neighboring area based on the first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates that there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The acquiring the information of the neighboring area includes: requesting the neighboring cell information from the service access network device, and receiving the neighboring cell information from the service access network device; or, Request the terminal device for the information of the neighboring area, and receive the information of the neighboring area from the terminal device.

11. The method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that: The method further comprises: receiving the neighboring area information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite; or, Receive information about the neighboring area from the terminal device.

12. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 11, characterized in that: The neighboring cell information includes one or more of the following information: The identifier of the neighboring cell, the information of the reference signal of the neighboring cell, or the information of the beam of the neighboring cell.

13. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to the location management function, the method includes: In the case where there are at least two satellites with different orbits among the positioning satellites of the terminal device, determining the position of the terminal device according to uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite; and / or, When the orbits of all the satellites in the positioning satellites are the same, determining the position of the terminal device according to the information of the neighboring cells of the service cell of the terminal device and the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite; The positioning satellite includes a service satellite of the terminal device and at least one neighbor positioning satellite, and the neighbor positioning satellite is a neighbor satellite of the service satellite.

14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that The method further comprises: Capability information is received from the terminal device, where the capability information indicates whether the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites.

15. The method according to claim 13 or 14, characterized in that The method of determining the position of the terminal device according to uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite when at least two satellites have different orbits among the positioning satellites of the terminal device comprises: When at least two satellites of the terminal device's positioning satellites have different orbits and the terminal device supports positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined based on uplink positioning information of the terminal device from an access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite.

16. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 15, characterized in that: The determining the position of the terminal device according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite includes: The location of the terminal device is determined according to the uplink positioning information of the terminal device and the downlink positioning information of the terminal device.

17. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 16, characterized in that: The method further comprises: In the case that the terminal device does not support positioning based on multiple satellites, the position of the terminal device is determined according to information of neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell and uplink positioning information of the terminal device from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite.

18. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 17, characterized in that: The method further comprises: The positioning satellite of the terminal device is determined according to first information, where the first information includes ephemeris information and / or coverage information of the satellite.

19. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 18, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Receive uplink positioning information of the terminal device from the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite.

20. The method according to claim 19, characterized in that The method further comprises: A second message is sent to the access network device corresponding to the positioning satellite, where the second message is used to trigger the acquisition of uplink positioning information of the terminal device.

21. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 20, characterized in that: The method further comprises: In the case where it is determined based on the satellite ephemeris information and beam information that there is a mirror image problem in the positioning of the terminal device, obtaining the information of the neighboring area; or, Receive first indication information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and obtain information about the neighboring area based on the first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates that there is a mirroring problem in the positioning of the terminal device.

22. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that The acquiring the information of the neighboring area includes: requesting the neighboring cell information from the service access network device, and receiving the neighboring cell information from the service access network device; or, Request the terminal device for the information of the neighboring area, and receive the information of the neighboring area from the terminal device.

23. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 20, characterized in that: The method further comprises: receiving the neighboring area information from a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite; or, Receive information about the neighboring area from the terminal device.

24. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 23, characterized in that: The neighboring cell information includes one or more of the following information: The identifier of the neighboring cell, the information of the reference signal of the neighboring cell, or the information of the beam of the neighboring cell.

25. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to a first network device, the method comprises: Acquire information of an access network device corresponding to at least one neighbor positioning satellite of a terminal device, where the neighbor positioning satellite is a neighbor satellite of a service satellite of the terminal device; The information of the access network device corresponding to the at least one neighbor positioning satellite is sent to the location management function.

26. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that The method further comprises: The positioning satellite of the terminal device is determined according to first information, where the first information includes ephemeris information and / or coverage information of the satellite.

27. The method according to claim 25 or 26, characterized in that Among the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and the service satellite of the terminal device, at least two satellites have different orbits.

28. The method according to claim 25 or 26, characterized in that The orbits of the at least one neighbor positioning satellite and all of the serving satellites are the same.

29. The method according to claim 28, characterized in that The first network device is a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and the method further includes: When it is determined that there is a mirror problem in the positioning of the terminal device based on the satellite's ephemeris information and beam information, information about neighboring cells of the terminal device's service cell or first indication information is sent to the location management function, and the first indication information indicates that there is a mirror problem in the positioning of the terminal device.

30. The method according to any one of claims 25 to 29, characterized in that: The first network device is a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and the method further includes: receiving a request message from the location management function for requesting information of the neighboring cell; Based on the request message, information about neighboring cells of the service cell of the terminal device is sent to the location management function.

31. The method according to claim 29 or 30, characterized in that The neighboring cell information includes one or more of the following information: The identifier of the neighboring cell, the information of the reference signal of the neighboring cell, or the information of the beam of the neighboring cell.

32. The method according to any one of claims 25 to 31, characterized in that: The first network device is a service access network device corresponding to the service satellite, and the method further includes: Receiving a first message from the location management function, where the first message is used to trigger acquisition of uplink positioning information of the terminal device; Acquire uplink positioning information of the terminal device according to the first message; Send uplink positioning information of the terminal device to the location management function.

33. A communication device, comprising a unit or module for executing the method as described in any one of claims 1-12, or, comprising a unit or module for executing the method as described in any one of claims 13-24, or, comprising a unit or module for executing the method as described in any one of claims 25-32.

34. A communication device, characterized in that: It includes a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device, and the processor is used to implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 12 through a logic circuit or execute code instructions, or to implement the method as described in any one of claims 13 to 24, or to implement the method as described in any one of claims 25 to 32.

35. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The storage medium stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed by the communication device, it implements the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 12, or implements the method as described in any one of claims 13 to 24, or implements the method as described in any one of claims 25 to 32.

36. A computer program product, characterized in that The method comprises a computer program code, which, when executed on a computer, implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, or implements the method according to any one of claims 13 to 24, or implements the method according to any one of claims 25 to 32.

37. A communication system, characterized in that: It comprises a location management function and a first network device, wherein the location management function is used to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, or the method according to any one of claims 13 to 24, and the first network device is used to implement the method according to any one of claims 25 to 32.

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