Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

A communication method and apparatus, relating to the technical field of communications. In the method, a terminal is positioned on the basis of a first reference measurement quantity corresponding to a plurality of sub-regions comprised in a first region at at least one moment and a first measurement result of the terminal in a region where the terminal is located. Compared with the prior art in which measurement information at at least three moments (generally, long time intervals need to be provided between the at least three moments) needs to be acquired for terminal positioning, the present application can improve positioning efficiency. In addition, the accuracy of positioning the terminal is related to the granularity of dividing the first region. By dividing the first region into fine-grained sub-regions, improvement of the positioning accuracy is facilitated.

Description

Communication method and apparatus

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application No. 202411101057.0, filed on August 9, 2024, and entitled “Communication method and apparatus”, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus. BACKGROUND

[0003] Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) such as satellite communication have the advantages of global coverage, long-distance transmission, flexible networking, easy deployment, and no restriction by geographical conditions, and have been widely used in many fields such as maritime communication, positioning and navigation, disaster relief, scientific experiments, video broadcasting, and earth observation. In the satellite communication scenario, the position information of the terminal is very important. For example, in some scenarios, the network needs to know the position of the terminal to achieve time and frequency synchronization between the satellite and the terminal, beam management and scheduling, network resource allocation, etc.; in some scenarios, the terminal needs to obtain its own position to obtain timing advance (TA) and uplink synchronization with the satellite, frequency offset compensation, and mobility judgment. The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning is widely used at present, but in some scenarios, it is difficult to obtain accurate positioning results using GNSS technology, such as no GNSS signal coverage, weak GNSS signal coverage, or some terminals do not have or do not open GNSS function. One possible solution is to use low-orbit satellites for positioning, but due to the small coverage range of low-orbit satellites and the limited deployment density, most of them cannot meet the fourfold coverage, so the multi-time positioning technology of single / dual / triple satellites is usually used. Taking the use of a single satellite (such as a low earth orbiting (LEO) satellite) for positioning as an example, it is usually necessary to obtain the measurement information of a single satellite at different times (such as four times) to estimate the position of the terminal. However, since the positioning accuracy is strongly dependent on the geometry of the satellite at different times, and the service time of the satellite is usually short (such as a few minutes), it is difficult to achieve fast and accurate positioning within the service time of a single satellite. SUMMARY

[0004] The present application provides a communication method and apparatus, which is beneficial to improve the positioning efficiency and accuracy.

[0005] The application will be described from different aspects below. It should be understood that the implementation and benefits of different aspects below can be referred to each other.

[0006] In a first aspect, the application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a terminal side, such as a terminal or a communication module in the terminal, or a circuit or chip responsible for communication function in the terminal (such as a Modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a system on chip (SoC) chip or a system in package (SIP) chip containing a modem core). Taking the case where the method is applied to a terminal, in the method, the terminal determines or obtains first information, which includes the position information of K regions, where K is an integer greater than or equal to 1. The terminal obtains a first reference measurement corresponding to M time instants of at least one sub-region. The terminal determines a first measurement result corresponding to N time instants based on the measurement of a downlink reference signal. Wherein the first measurement result and the first reference measurement are used to determine the position information of the terminal, and the at least one sub-region belongs to a first region, and the first region is one of the K regions. M is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0007] In the present application, the positioning is performed based on the first reference measurement corresponding to at least one time instant of the multiple sub-regions contained in the first region and the first measurement result of the terminal in the current region, compared with the prior art which needs to obtain measurement information at multiple time instants (usually, a long time interval is needed between each two time instants in the multiple time instants) for terminal positioning, the present application can improve the efficiency of positioning. In addition, the positioning accuracy of the terminal is related to the granularity of the division of the first region, and the positioning accuracy is improved by dividing the first region into sub-regions with finer granularity.

[0008] In a possible implementation, K is equal to 1, and the first information is associated with the first region.

[0009] Exemplarily, the first information can be region-level information, or the granularity of the first information is region. Alternatively, the first information can also be referred to as positioning assistance information or positioning assistance data or auxiliary information or auxiliary data. That is, the first information sent for different regions can be different, or the first information received by the terminal located in different regions can be different. For example, the region is a wave position or a beam coverage region. In this scenario, the first information received by the terminal located in different wave positions or beam coverage regions can be different, or when the wave position or beam coverage region where the terminal is located changes, the terminal needs to receive the first information again or update the content of the first information. This implementation can be applied to terminals with low mobility, or terminals with slow moving speed, which is beneficial to improve the positioning accuracy.

[0010] In a possible implementation, the K is an integer greater than 1, and the first information is associated with the K regions.

[0011] Exemplarily, the first information can be region-range level / cell level information, or the granularity of the first information is a region range / cell. That is, the first information transmitted for different region ranges / cells can be different, or the first information received by a terminal located in different region ranges / cells can be different. One region range / cell includes a plurality of regions. For example, the region is a wave position or a beam coverage region, and the region range / cell can include one or more wave positions or beam coverage regions. In this scenario, the first information received by a terminal located in different region ranges / cells can be different, or when the region range / cell where the terminal is located changes, the terminal needs to re-receive the first information or update the content of the first information. This implementation can be applied to a terminal with high mobility, or a terminal with high moving speed, so that the first information does not need to be frequently updated, which is beneficial to reducing the implementation complexity of the network side.

[0012] In a possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0013] determining the first region according to the information of the first beam, and the terminal is located in the first region.

[0014] In this implementation, the first beam can be a synchronization signal block (SSB) beam or a service beam, and the information of the first beam can be information such as an index of the beam or a direction of the beam. Exemplarily, there is a mapping relationship between the first beam and the first region, so that the terminal can determine in which region it is located based on the information of the beam, which is beneficial to reducing the implementation complexity. In a possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0015] obtaining a second reference measurement corresponding to W time instants of Q regions, the K regions and the Q regions have a non-empty intersection, and the Q regions include the first region; and obtaining a second measurement result corresponding to R time instants. The second reference measurement and the second measurement result are used to determine the first region, the terminal is located in the first region, the Q is an integer greater than or equal to 1, the W is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and the R is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0016] In this implementation, the terminal or other network entity can determine in which region of the Q regions or K regions the terminal is located by comparing the closeness between the real measurement (i.e., the second measurement result) and the reference measurement (i.e., the second reference measurement), which is operable and simple to compare. It should be understood that the second measurement result is the measurement result corresponding to the R time instants determined by the terminal based on the downlink reference signal measurement.

[0017] It should be noted that the above two implementations can be combined or implemented separately, and are not limited. In an example of combined implementation, the first region can be determined according to the information of the first beam, and the first region can also be determined according to the first measurement result and the second reference measurement. The two methods are used together, which helps to improve the accuracy of determining the first region.

[0018] In a possible implementation, the obtaining of the first reference measurement corresponding to the M time instants of the at least one sub-region comprises:

[0019] Determining the first reference measurement corresponding to the M time instants of the at least one sub-region based on ephemeris information and position information of the at least one sub-region.

[0020] In this implementation, the terminal can calculate the first reference measurement by itself, which helps to reduce signaling interaction with the network side and reduce complexity and overhead.

[0021] In a possible implementation, the obtaining of the first reference measurement corresponding to the M time instants of the at least one sub-region comprises:

[0022] Receiving the first reference measurement corresponding to the M time instants of the at least one sub-region.

[0023] In this implementation, the network side (such as a positioning network element or an access network device) can calculate the first reference measurement and send the first reference measurement to the terminal, which helps to reduce the calculation complexity of the terminal.

[0024] In a possible implementation, the method further comprises:

[0025] Determining the position information of the terminal according to the first measurement result and the first reference measurement, and the terminal is located in a sub-region in the first region.

[0026] In this implementation, the measurement and positioning calculation can be completed locally at the terminal, which helps to reduce signaling interaction with the network side and reduce overhead and complexity. It can be applied to a scenario where the terminal wants to obtain its own position.

[0027] In a possible implementation, the method further comprises:

[0028] transmit the first measurement result and / or the first reference measurement quantity.

[0029] In this implementation, the terminal can also transmit the first measurement result and / or the first reference measurement quantity to the network side, for example, a positioning network element, for positioning calculation, which is beneficial to reduce the calculation complexity of the terminal. This can be applied to a scenario where the network side wants to obtain the terminal position.

[0030] In a possible implementation, the determining the first information comprises:

[0031] receiving the first information.

[0032] In this implementation, the access network device can transmit the first information to the terminal, which is beneficial to the network to update the first information. Alternatively, the first information can also be pre-configured or pre-defined, which can reduce the signaling overhead. The present application does not limit this.

[0033] In a possible implementation, the first information is carried in a broadcast message or a unicast message.

[0034] In this implementation, for a terminal in an unconnected state, the access network device can distribute the first information through a broadcast message; for a terminal in a connected state, the access network device can distribute the first information through a unicast message or a broadcast message, which is highly applicable.

[0035] In a possible implementation, the N time instants and the M time instants have a non-empty intersection. In a possible implementation, the N time instants are equal to the M time instants, or the N time instants belong to the M time instants. This implementation can minimize the measurement power consumption of the terminal. In a possible implementation, the M time instants belong to the N time instants, which is beneficial to obtain additional measurement information and improve positioning accuracy. In a possible implementation, the M time instants and the N time instants can have no subordinate relationship, but have a non-empty intersection, which is more flexible.

[0036] In a possible implementation, the W time instants and the R time instants have a non-empty intersection. In a possible implementation, the R time instants are equal to the W time instants, or the R time instants belong to the W time instants. This implementation can minimize the measurement power consumption of the terminal. In a possible implementation, the W time instants belong to the R time instants, which is beneficial to obtain additional measurement information and improve positioning accuracy. In a possible implementation, the W time instants and the R time instants can have no subordinate relationship, but have a non-empty intersection, which is more flexible.

[0037] In a possible implementation, the position information of the area comprises one or more of the following information:

[0038] The center position information of the area, the range information of the area, the vertex position information of the area, the identification information of the area, the arrangement information of the area, or the wave bit number information of the area; wherein the identification information of the area and the position information of the area have a correlation relationship.

[0039] In a possible implementation, the area is a wave bit or a beam coverage area.

[0040] In a possible implementation, the area is a plurality of wave bits or beam coverage areas, or a cell, or a self-defined area range.

[0041] In this implementation, by dividing the earth's surface into a plurality of geographical areas, for example, some area-approximate grids, each grid can be referred to as a wave bit. One beam coverage area can include one or more wave bits, which facilitates network management.

[0042] In a possible implementation, the first reference measurement or the first measurement includes one or more of the following:

[0043] Doppler shift measurement, time measurement, carrier phase measurement, or signal strength.

[0044] For example, the first reference measurement or the first measurement can include one of the above. Alternatively, the above scheme can be used in combination with other positioning technologies. In this implementation, when the first reference measurement and the first measurement are Doppler shift measurements, the above scheme can be used in combination with Doppler shift-based positioning technology. For another example, when the first reference measurement and the first measurement are time measurements, for example, time difference of arrival (TDOA), the above scheme can be used in combination with TDOA-based positioning technology, which can further improve the positioning accuracy.

[0045] For another example, the first reference measurement or the first measurement can include a plurality of the above. This implementation including multiple dimensions of information is conducive to combining multiple positioning technologies, and further improves the positioning accuracy.

[0046] In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a network side, for example, an access network device or a component (for example, a circuit, a chip or a chip system, etc.) in the access network device. Taking the case where the method is applied to the access network device, in the method, the access network device transmits first information and a downlink reference signal, wherein the first information comprises position information of K areas, and the downlink reference signal is used to determine first measurement results corresponding to N time instants, and the first measurement results and a first reference measurement quantity are used to determine position information of a terminal. The first reference measurement quantity is a reference measurement quantity corresponding to M time instants of at least one sub-area, the at least one sub-area belongs to a first area, the first area is one of the K areas, M is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and K is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0047] In the present application, the access network device transmits the first information and the downlink reference signal for terminal positioning, which is conducive to improving positioning efficiency and positioning accuracy.

[0048] In a possible implementation, the K is equal to 1, and the first information is associated with the first area.

[0049] In a possible implementation, the K is an integer greater than 1, and the first information is associated with the K areas.

[0050] In a possible implementation, the method further comprises:

[0051] determining, based on ephemeris information and position information of the at least one sub-area, the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the M time instants of the at least one sub-area.

[0052] In a possible implementation, the method further comprises:

[0053] transmitting the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the M time instants of the at least one sub-area.

[0054] In a possible implementation, the method further comprises:

[0055] determining the first area according to the first reference measurement quantity.

[0056] In a possible implementation, the first information is carried in a broadcast message or a unicast message.

[0057] In a possible implementation, the N time instants and the M time instants have a non-empty intersection.

[0058] In a possible implementation, the position information of the area comprises one or more of the following information:

[0059] the center position information of the region, the range information of the region, the vertex position information of the region, the identification information of the region, the arrangement information of the region, or the wave bit number information of the region; wherein the identification information of the region and the position information of the region have a correlation relationship.

[0060] In a possible implementation, the region is a wave bit or a beam coverage region.

[0061] In a possible implementation, the first reference measurement quantity or the first measurement result includes one or more of the following:

[0062] a Doppler shift measurement quantity, a time measurement quantity, a carrier phase measurement quantity, or a signal strength.

[0063] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a network side, such as a positioning network element or a component (such as a circuit, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) in the positioning network element, and such as an access network device or a component (such as a circuit, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) in the access network device. For the convenience of description, the method is taken as an example applied to a positioning network element. In the method, the positioning network element determines first information, the first information including position information of K geographic regions, K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; the positioning network element determines or obtains a first reference measurement quantity corresponding to M time instants of at least one sub-region, the at least one sub-region belonging to a first geographic region, the first geographic region being one of the K geographic regions, M being an integer greater than or equal to 1; the positioning network element receives a first measurement result corresponding to N time instants, N being an integer greater than or equal to 1; and the positioning network element determines position information of the terminal according to the first measurement result and the first reference measurement quantity.

[0064] In the present application, the positioning network element uses the first reference measurement quantity and the first measurement result corresponding to at least one time instant for terminal positioning, which can improve the positioning efficiency compared with the prior art that needs to obtain measurement information corresponding to multiple time instants for terminal positioning. In addition, the positioning accuracy of the terminal position is related to the granularity of the division of the first region. By dividing the first region into sub-regions, the positioning accuracy can be improved. The first region can be understood as the region where the terminal is located or as the terminal being located in the first region.

[0065] In a possible implementation, the determination of the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to M time instants of the at least one sub-region includes:

[0066] determining the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to M time instants of the at least one sub-region based on ephemeris information and position information of the at least one sub-region.

[0067] In a possible implementation, the obtaining the first reference measurement corresponding to the at least one sub-region at the M time points comprises:

[0068] receiving the first reference measurement corresponding to the at least one sub-region at the M time points.

[0069] In a possible implementation, the method further comprises:

[0070] obtaining second reference measurements corresponding to Q regions at W time points, the K regions and the Q regions have a non-empty intersection, the Q regions include the first region, the second reference measurements are used to determine the first region, the terminal is located in the first region, the Q is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and the W is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0071] In a possible implementation, the determining the first information comprises:

[0072] receiving the first information.

[0073] In a possible implementation, the N time points and the M time points have a non-empty intersection.

[0074] In a possible implementation, the position information of the region comprises one or more of the following information:

[0075] center position information of the region, range information of the region, vertex position information of the region, identification information of the region, arrangement information of the region, or wave position number information of the region; the identification information of the region has a correlation relationship with the position information of the region.

[0076] In a possible implementation, the region is a wave position or a beam coverage region.

[0077] In a possible implementation, the first reference measurement or the first measurement result comprises one or more of the following:

[0078] Doppler shift measurement, time measurement, carrier phase measurement, or signal strength.

[0079] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a terminal side, such as a terminal or a communication module in the terminal, or a circuit or chip (such as a WodeW chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a SoC chip or a SIP chip containing a WodeW core) responsible for communication functions in the terminal. Taking the case where the method is applied to a terminal, in the method, the terminal determines first information, the first information including position information of K regions, K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; the terminal obtains a second reference measurement corresponding to Q regions at W time points, the K regions and the Q regions having a non-empty intersection, Q being an integer greater than or equal to 1, and W being an integer greater than or equal to 1; and the terminal performs measurement of a downlink reference signal to determine a second measurement result corresponding to R time points, the second measurement result and the second reference measurement being used to determine position information of the terminal, R being an integer greater than or equal to 1. It should be understood that the second measurement result is a measurement result corresponding to R time points determined by the terminal based on the measurement of the downlink reference signal.

[0080] In the present application, the terminal can determine which region of the Q regions or the K regions the terminal is in by comparing the closeness of the real measurement (i.e., the second measurement result) and the reference measurement (i.e., the second reference measurement), and the comparison is simple. For example, taking the case of a region as a wave position, the terminal can determine which wave position the terminal is in or located within based on the second measurement result and the second reference measurement, i.e., the position information of the terminal is the wave position where the terminal is located.

[0081] In a possible implementation, the K is equal to 1, and the first information is associated with the first region.

[0082] In a possible implementation, the K is an integer greater than 1, and the first information is associated with the K regions.

[0083] In a possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0084] determining a first region according to the information of the first beam, the terminal being located in the first region, and the first region being one of the Q regions.

[0085] In a possible implementation, the obtaining of the second reference measurement corresponding to the Q regions at the W time points includes:

[0086] determining the second reference measurement corresponding to the Q regions at the W time points based on ephemeris information and position information of the Q regions.

[0087] In a possible implementation, the obtaining of the second reference measurement corresponding to the Q regions at the W time points includes:

[0088] receiving second reference measurement quantities corresponding to the Q regions at W time instants.

[0089] In a possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0090] determining position information of the terminal according to the second measurement result and the second reference measurement quantities, the terminal being located in a first region, the first region being one of the Q regions.

[0091] In a possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0092] sending the second measurement result and / or the second reference measurement quantities.

[0093] In a possible implementation, the determining the first information includes:

[0094] receiving the first information.

[0095] In a possible implementation, there is a non-empty intersection between the R time instants and the W time instants. In a possible implementation, the W time instants are equal to the R time instants, or the W time instants belong to the R time instants. In a possible implementation, the R time instants belong to the W time instants.

[0096] In a possible implementation, the position information of the region includes one or more of the following information:

[0097] center position information of the region, range information of the region, vertex position information of the region, identification information of the region, arrangement information of the region, or wave position number information of the region; wherein the identification information of the region and the position information of the region have a correlation relationship.

[0098] In a possible implementation, the region is a wave position or a beam coverage region.

[0099] In a possible implementation, the second reference measurement quantities or the second measurement result includes one or more of the following:

[0100] Doppler shift measurement quantity, time measurement quantity, carrier phase measurement quantity, or signal strength.

[0101] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a network side, such as an access network device or a component (such as a circuit, a chip or a chip system, etc.) in the access network device. Taking the case where the method is applied to an access network device, in the method, the access network device sends first information, the first information including position information of K areas, K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; the access network device sends a downlink reference signal, the downlink reference signal being used to determine second measurement results corresponding to R time instants, the second measurement results and a second reference measurement quantity being used to determine position information of a terminal, the second reference measurement quantity being reference measurement quantities corresponding to W time instants of Q areas, R being an integer greater than or equal to 1, Q being an integer greater than or equal to 1, and W being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0102] In a possible implementation, K equals 1, and the first information is associated with the first area.

[0103] In a possible implementation, K is an integer greater than 1, and the first information is associated with the K areas.

[0104] In a possible implementation, the method further includes:

[0105] determining the second reference measurement quantities corresponding to W time instants of the Q areas based on ephemeris information and the position information of the Q areas.

[0106] In a possible implementation, the R time instants and the W time instants have a non-empty intersection. In a possible implementation, the W time instants equal the R time instants, or the W time instants belong to the R time instants. In a possible implementation, the R time instants belong to the W time instants.

[0107] In a possible implementation, the position information of the area includes one or more of the following:

[0108] center position information of the area, range information of the area, vertex position information of the area, identification information of the area, arrangement information of the area, or wave position number information of the area; the identification information of the area and the position information of the area have an association relationship.

[0109] In a possible implementation, the area is a wave position or a beam coverage area.

[0110] In a possible implementation, the second reference measurement quantity or the second measurement result includes one or more of the following:

[0111] a Doppler shift measurement quantity, a time measurement quantity, a carrier phase measurement quantity, or a signal strength.

[0112] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, which comprises units or modules for performing the method in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect, or the method shown in any possible implementation of any of the aspects.

[0113] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, which comprises a processor. The processor is configured to perform the method in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect, or the method shown in any possible implementation of any of the aspects.

[0114] Optionally, the communication apparatus further comprises a memory in which a computer program is stored; and the processor is configured to invoke the computer program stored in the memory, so that the communication apparatus performs the method in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect, or the method shown in any possible implementation of any of the aspects.

[0115] Optionally, the communication apparatus further comprises a transceiver.

[0116] In a possible design, the communication apparatus can be a chip or device implementing the above method.

[0117] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, which comprises a processor and an interface circuit. The interface circuit is configured to receive a signal from another communication apparatus outside the communication apparatus and transmit the signal to the processor, or transmit a signal from the processor to the other communication apparatus outside the communication apparatus. The processor is configured to implement the method in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect, or the method shown in any possible implementation of any of the aspects, by means of a logic circuit or an execution of code instructions.

[0118] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium, which stores a computer program or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are executed by a computer, the method in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect is implemented, or the method shown in any possible implementation of any of the aspects is implemented.

[0119] In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product. When a computer reads and executes the computer program product, the method in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect is implemented, or the method shown in any possible implementation of any of the aspects is implemented.

[0120] In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which comprises at least one processor and an interface, the processor being configured to read and execute instructions stored in a memory, when the instructions are executed, causing the chip to perform the method according to any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect, or the method according to any possible implementation manner of any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect.

[0121] In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which can comprise a terminal and an access network device. The terminal is configured to perform the method according to any one of the first aspect or the fourth aspect, or the method according to any possible implementation manner of any one of the first aspect to the fourth aspect. The access network device is configured to perform the method according to any one of the second aspect or the third aspect or the fifth aspect, or the method according to any possible implementation manner of any one of the second aspect to the fifth aspect. Optionally, the communication system can comprise a positioning network element, which is configured to perform the method according to the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0122] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applied;

[0123] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an NTN-based RAN architecture to which embodiments of the present application are applied;

[0124] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a wave position provided by embodiments of the present application;

[0125] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of basic parameters of ephemeris information provided by embodiments of the present application;

[0126] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of multiple positioning technologies provided by embodiments of the present application;

[0127] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a flow of a communication method provided by embodiments of the present application;

[0128] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship table between identification information of a region and location information of the region provided by embodiments of the present application;

[0129] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of location information of a region provided by embodiments of the present application;

[0130] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of sub-region division provided by embodiments of the present application;

[0131] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a flow of a UE-based positioning method provided by embodiments of the present application;

[0132] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a flow of a UE-assisted positioning method provided by embodiments of the present application;

[0133] FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a possible communication apparatus provided by embodiments of the present application;

[0134] FIG. 13 is a structural schematic diagram of a possible communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0135] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described in combination with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

[0136] In the description of the present application, "first" and "second" are used only to distinguish different objects, and are not used to describe a specific order. In addition, unless otherwise specified, " / " means "or", for example, A / B can mean A or B. "And / or" in this document is only a description of the association relationship of the associated objects, which means that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B can mean that A exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, "at least one" means one or more, and "multiple" means two or more. "At least one of the following" or the like means any combination of the items, including any combination of single item or multiple 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, and c can be single or multiple.

[0137] The terms "comprising" and "having" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, product, or device, etc. including a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but can optionally include steps or units not listed, or can optionally include other steps or units inherent to the process, method, product, or device, etc.

[0138] In the present application, the words "exemplary" or "for example" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design scheme described as "exemplary", "for example" or "for instance" in the present application should not be construed as being more preferred or advantageous than other embodiments or design schemes. Rather, the use of "exemplary", "for example" or "for instance" is intended to present concepts in a concrete manner.

[0139] It can be understood that in the present application, "when", "if" and "when" all refer to the device making corresponding processing under certain objective conditions, and are not limited to time, and do not require the device to have a judgment action when implemented, nor does it mean that there are other limitations.

[0140] In the present application, the element expressed by the singular is intended to represent "one or more", and not "one and only one", unless otherwise specified.

[0141] It can be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, “A corresponds to B” means that A and B have a corresponding relationship, and B can be determined according to A. Determining B according to A does not mean that B is determined only according to A, but B can also be determined according to A and / or other information.

[0142] It can be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, “in the case of”, “if”, “when”, “if”, and the like can be used instead. Also, these descriptions all mean that the corresponding processing will be made under certain objective conditions, not limited to time, and also does not require a judgment action when implemented, nor means that there are other limitations.

[0143] It can be understood that some optional features in the embodiments of the present application can not depend on other features in some scenarios, or can be combined with other features in some scenarios, without limitation.

[0144] In order to better understand the embodiments of the present application, first, the system architecture related to the embodiments of the present application will be introduced as follows:

[0145] The technical solutions of the present application can be applied to a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or a scenario in which NTN is integrated with a terrestrial network (TN). The NTN system can be, for example, a satellite communication system, a high altitude platform station (HAPS) communication system, a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), etc. The TN system can be, for example, a fourth generation (4G) communication system (e.g., a long term evolution (LTE) system), a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, a fifth generation (5G) communication system (e.g., a new radio (NR) system), and a future mobile communication system, etc.

[0146] Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applied. It is noted that FIG. 1 is one possible, non-limiting example of a system. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system 10 includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network (CN) 200. Optionally, the communication system 10 can also include the Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (e.g., 110a and 110b in FIG. 1, collectively referred to as 110) and at least one terminal (e.g., 120a-120j in FIG. 1, collectively referred to as 120). Other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in FIG. 1), etc., can also be included in the RAN 100. The terminal 120 is connected to the RAN node 110 in a wireless manner. The RAN node 110 is connected to the core network 200 in a wireless or wired manner. The core network network element (or core network device) in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN 100 can be different physical devices respectively, can be the same physical device integrated with the logical functions of the core network and the logical functions of the radio access network, or can be a physical device integrated with part of the functions of the core network network element and part of the functions of the RAN node 110. The terminals and the terminals, and the RAN nodes 110 and the RAN nodes 110 can be connected to each other in a wired or wireless manner. FIG. 1 is only a schematic diagram, and the communication system can also include other network devices, for example, wireless relay devices and wireless backhaul devices, which are not shown in FIG. 1. For another example, a positioning network element can also be included, for example, the positioning network element can be a location management function (LMF), wherein the LMF is a device or component deployed in the core network to provide positioning functions for the terminal, which is not shown in FIG. 1.

[0147] The RAN 100 can be a 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP)-related cellular system, for example, a 4G, 5G mobile communication system, or a future mobile communication system. The RAN 100 can also be an open radio access network (O-RAN or ORAN), a cloud radio access network (CRAN), or a wireless fidelity (WiFi) system. The RAN 100 can also be a communication system in which two or more of the above systems are integrated.

[0148] The RAN node 110, which can also be referred to as a radio access network device, an access network device, a RAN entity, or an access node, etc., forms part of the communication system, and is configured to facilitate wireless access to the communication system for terminals. The RAN nodes 110 in the communication system 10 can be of the same type or can be of different types. In some scenarios, the roles of the RAN nodes 110 and the terminals 120 are relative, e.g., the network element 120i in Figure 1 can be a helicopter or a drone, which can be configured to move as a mobile base station, and for a terminal 120j accessing the RAN 100 via 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. Both the RAN nodes 110 and the terminals 120 are sometimes referred to as communication devices, e.g., the network elements 110a and 110b in Figure 1 can be understood as communication devices with base station functionalities, and the network elements 120a-120j can be understood as communication devices with terminal functionalities.

[0149] In a possible scenario, the RAN node 110 can be a base station, an evolved Node B (eNodeB), an access point (AP), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation Node B (gNB), a next generation base station in a future mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system, etc. The RAN node 110 can be a macro base station (e.g., 110a in Figure 1), a micro base station or an indoor station (e.g., 110b in Figure 1), a relay node or a donor node, or a wireless controller in a CRAN scenario. Optionally, the RAN node 110 can also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or a vehicle-mounted device, etc. For example, the RAN node in a vehicle to everything (V2X) technology can be a road side unit (RSU). All or part of the functions of the RAN node 110 in this application can also be implemented by a software function running on hardware, or by a virtualized function instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). The RAN node 110 in this application can also be a logical node, a logical module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the RAN node 110.

[0150] In another possible scenario, a terminal is assisted by multiple RAN nodes 110 to implement wireless access in cooperation, and different RAN nodes 110 respectively implement part of functions of a base station. For example, a RAN node 110 can be a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU), etc. The CU and the DU can be separately arranged, or can also be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or a radio frequency unit, such as a radio remote unit (RRU), an active antenna processing unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH).

[0151] In different systems, the CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU can also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in an ORAN system, the CU can also be referred to as an O-CU (open CU), the DU can also be referred to as an O-DU, the CU-CP can also be referred to as an O-CU-CP, the CU-UP can also be referred to as an O-CU-UP, and the RU can also be referred to as an O-RU. For the convenience of description, the CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU are taken as examples for description in this application. Any one of the 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.

[0152] A terminal can also be referred to as a terminal device, user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. The terminal can be widely applied to various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D), vehicle to everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), internet of things (IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, automatic driving, remote medical treatment, smart power grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, etc. The terminal can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver function, wearable device, vehicle, unmanned aerial vehicle, helicopter, airplane, ship, robot, mechanical arm, smart home device, etc. Embodiments of this application do not limit the device form of the terminal.

[0153] For ease of description, the following describes the base station as an example of the RAN node 110. The base station and the terminal can be fixed in position or mobile. The base station and the terminal can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on water surface; can also be deployed on an airplane, a balloon, and a man-made satellite. Embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios of the base station and the terminal.

[0154] The roles of the base station and the terminal can be relative, for example, the helicopter or the unmanned aerial vehicle 120i in FIG. 1 can be configured as a mobile base station, and for the terminal 120j that accesses the wireless access network 100 through 120i, 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, 120i is a terminal, that is, 110a and 120i communicate through a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, 110a and 120i can also communicate through a base station-to-base station interface protocol, in which case, 120i is also a base station relative to 110a. Therefore, the base station and the terminal can be collectively referred to as a communication device, 110a and 110b in FIG. 1 can be referred to as a communication device with a base station function, and 120a-120j in FIG. 1 can be referred to as a communication device with a terminal function.

[0155] The base station and the terminal, the base station and the base station, and the terminal and the terminal can communicate through a licensed frequency spectrum, can communicate through an unlicensed frequency spectrum, or can communicate through both the licensed frequency spectrum and the unlicensed frequency spectrum; can communicate through a frequency spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), can communicate through a frequency spectrum above 6 GHz, or can communicate through both the frequency spectrum below 6 GHz and the frequency spectrum above 6 GHz. Embodiments of the present application do not limit the frequency spectrum resources used for wireless communication.

[0156] In embodiments of the present application, the functions of the base station can also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the base station or by a control subsystem containing base station functions. The control subsystem containing base station functions herein can be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grid, industrial control, intelligent transportation, and smart city. The functions of the terminal can also be performed by a module (such as a chip or a modem) in the terminal or by a device containing terminal functions.

[0157] In the present application, the base station sends downlink signals or downlink information to the terminal, and the downlink information is carried on the downlink channel; the terminal sends uplink signals or uplink information to the base station, and the uplink information is carried on the uplink channel. In order to communicate with the base station, the terminal needs to establish a wireless connection on the cell controlled by the base station. The cell that establishes a wireless connection with the terminal is called the service cell of the terminal. When the terminal communicates with the service cell, it will also be interfered by signals from neighboring cells.

[0158] In the present application, "sending information to the terminal" can be understood as that the destination of the information is the terminal. It can include directly or indirectly sending information to the terminal. "Receiving information from the terminal" or "receiving information from the terminal" can be understood as that the source of the information is the terminal, and it can include directly or indirectly receiving information from the terminal. The information between the source and the destination of the information transmission can be processed as necessary, such as format change, etc., but the destination can understand the valid information from the source. Similar expressions in the present application can be similarly understood, and will not be repeated here.

[0159] In order to facilitate the understanding of the related content of the embodiments of the present application, the knowledge / terminology needed by some schemes of the present application will be introduced below. It should be noted that these explanations are to make the embodiments of the present application easier to be understood, and should not be regarded as limiting the scope of protection required by the present application.

[0160] 1、NTN

[0161] NTN, which is a general term for networks involving flying objects, includes satellite communication networks, high-altitude platform systems (HAPS) and air-to-ground networks.

[0162] HAPS is carried on an airborne platform, mainly including aircraft, balloons and airships. The high-altitude platform station is used as a mobile communication base station to provide mobile services using the same frequency band as the ground mobile network. That is, by deploying base stations or part of the base station functions on non-ground network devices (such as ships, high-altitude platforms, drones or satellites) to provide seamless communication coverage for terminals, the reliability of the communication system is improved. It should be noted that in order to facilitate understanding, only the non-ground network device in NTN is a satellite in the following description, which should not be regarded as a specific limitation of the present application.

[0163] Satellite communication networks rely on space-borne platforms, mainly including low earth orbiting (LEO), medium earth orbiting (MEO) and geostationary earth orbiting (GEO) satellites. According to the relationship between the satellite and the base station, it can be divided into the following architectures.

[0164] Exemplarily, please refer to FIG. 2, which is a schematic diagram of an NTN-based RAN architecture applicable to the embodiments of the present application. As shown in FIG. 2, the NTN-based RAN architecture can include a terminal, a RAN (or referred to as an NG-RAN), a core network device (or referred to as a core network network element) and a data network (or the Internet).

[0165] In FIG. 2(a), a transparent satellite architecture is shown. The transparent satellite architecture can also be referred to as a transmissive satellite architecture. The RAN can include a remote radio unit (RRU) and a base station. The RRU can include a satellite and an NTN gateway. The terminal communicates with the base station through a user-universal terrestrial radio access network (Uu) interface, and the satellite can realize transparent load transmission between the terminal and the base station. The satellite and the NTN gateway can be considered as a remote radio unit of the base station, realizing transparent forwarding of signals, i.e., the satellite supports functions such as radio frequency filtering, frequency conversion and amplification, and the signal waveform does not change. The satellite's forwarding is transparent to the terminal, i.e., the satellite mainly acts as a layer 1 (L1) relay device (L1 relay) for regenerating physical layer signals (i.e., radio frequency filtering, frequency conversion and amplification processing), and does not have other higher protocol layers. The base station and the core network device can communicate through a next generation (NG) interface, and interact with the non-access stratum (NAS) signaling of the core network and the service data of the terminal through the NG interface.

[0166] Both (b) and (c) in FIG. 2 are regenerative satellite architectures. (b) in FIG. 2 shows a regenerative satellite without inter-satellite link architecture. The RAN includes satellites and NTN gateways, and the satellites act as base stations with the processing functions of base stations. The satellites communicate with the NTN gateways through a satellite radio interface (SRI). The terminal communicates with the base station through the Uu interface, and the base station and the core network device can communicate through the NG interface to exchange NAS signaling of the core network and service data of the terminal.

[0167] (c) in FIG. 2 shows a regenerative satellite with inter-satellite link architecture. The RAN includes satellites and NTN gateways, and the satellites act as base stations with the processing functions of base stations. The satellites communicate with the NTN gateways through the SRI. The satellites and the satellites can communicate through the Xn interface on the inter-satellite link (ISL). The terminal communicates with the base station through the Uu interface, and the base station and the core network device can communicate through the NG interface to exchange NAS signaling of the core network and service data of the terminal.

[0168] (d) in FIG. 2 shows a regenerative satellite architecture with DU processing functions of base stations, and the satellites act as DUs with DU processing functions. The CU and the DU can jointly complete the functions of the base station. The CU and the DU communicate through the F1 interface, and the DU and the NTN gateway communicate through the F1 interface on the SRI. The terminal communicates with the DU through the Uu interface, and the CU and the core network device can communicate through the NG interface to exchange NAS signaling of the core network and service data of the terminal.

[0169] Exemplarily, in another satellite architecture with integrated access and backhaul (IAB) functions, the satellite acts as an IAB node. The IAB node is used to provide wireless backhaul services for nodes (such as terminals) that access wireless backhaul nodes. The wireless backhaul service refers to a data and / or signaling backhaul service provided through a wireless backhaul link.

[0170] 2. UE-based positioning method, UE-assisted / LMF-based positioning method

[0171] UE-based positioning method: UE is responsible for position calculation (with assistance data), and can also provide measurement results.

[0172] UE-assisted / LMF-based positioning method: UE only provides measurement results, does not perform position calculation, and LMF or other network elements (such as base stations) are responsible for position calculation (with assistance data).

[0173] 3, wave position

[0174] By dividing the earth's surface into a plurality of grids, for example, a plurality of square grids with approximately the same area, each square grid can be referred to as a wave position. As shown in FIG. 3, a certain area of the earth's surface is divided into wave positions 0-71. Exemplarily, at time 0, the coverage area of satellite 1 is cell 1 and the coverage area of satellite 2 is cell 2, wherein the area range of cell 1 is composed of wave positions 0-3, wave positions 8-11, wave positions 16-19, wave positions 24-26, wave positions 32-35, wave positions 40-43, wave positions 48-51, wave positions 56-59, and wave positions 64-67; the area range of cell 2 is composed of wave positions 4-6, wave positions 12-13, wave positions 20-22, wave positions 27-29, wave positions 36-37, wave positions 44-46, wave positions 52-53, wave positions 60-62, and wave positions 68-70.

[0175] With the movement of the satellite, exemplarily, referring to FIG. 3 together, at time 1, the coverage area of satellite 1 is cell 3 and the coverage area of satellite 2 is cell 4, wherein the area range of cell 3 is composed of wave positions 2-4, wave positions 9-12, wave positions 18-20, wave positions 25-27, wave positions 33-36, wave positions 42-44, wave positions 49-52, wave positions 58-60, and wave positions 66-68; the area range of cell 4 is composed of wave positions 5-7, wave positions 13-15, wave positions 21-23, wave positions 28-31, wave positions 37-39, wave positions 45-47, wave positions 53-55, wave positions 61-63, and wave positions 69-71. As can be seen from FIG. 3, the wave position is a fixed area on the ground, which does not move with the movement of the satellite. The shape of the wave position in FIG. 3 is only a schematic, and the shape and size of the wave position are not limited in the present application, for example, the shape of the wave position can also be a hexagonal grid.

[0176] 4, beam coverage area

[0177] In this application, the beam coverage area can be the same area as the wave position, or a larger area than the wave position granularity, that is, one beam coverage area can contain multiple wave positions.

[0178] 5. ephemeris information

[0179] From the foregoing introduction, it can be known that in the scenario of satellite positioning, the position and speed of the satellite and other information are usually needed. Generally, the above information can be obtained through the ephemeris information of the satellite. The existing technology supports network broadcasting of ephemeris information (including the ephemeris of service satellites and neighboring stars) to terminals. Based on the network broadcast ephemeris information, the terminal can solve the satellite position and / or speed. The commonly used ephemeris is Kepler coordinates (orbital six elements), which will be introduced below in combination with FIG. 4.

[0180] The ephemeris information of the satellite can include satellite orbit parameter information, such as semi-major axis a, eccentricity e, orbit inclination i0, ascending node right ascension Ω0, argument of perigee / amplitude of argument of perigee , true anomaly M0. As shown in FIG. 4, the semi-major axis a is half of the major axis of the ellipse, wherein the larger the semi-major axis is, the larger the ellipse is. The eccentricity e is the ratio of the distance between the foci to the major axis, wherein the smaller the eccentricity is, the more circular the orbit is. The orbit inclination i0 is the angle between the orbit plane and the Earth's equatorial plane, which determines the inclination of the ellipse relative to the Earth. The ascending node right ascension Ω0 is the angle from the vernal equinox to the ascending node in the equatorial plane, which determines the orientation of the ellipse in space. The vernal equinox is the intersection of the ecliptic and the equatorial plane on the Earth, and the direction of the vernal equinox is the day of the first day of spring, and the direction of the sun relative to the Earth. The ascending node is the intersection of the satellite passing through the equatorial plane from south to north. The argument of perigee / amplitude of argument of perigee is the angle from the ascending node to the perigee, which determines the spatial orientation of the major axis of the ellipse. The perigee is the point on the elliptical orbit of the satellite around the Earth closest to the Earth. The true anomaly M0 is the angle swept by the satellite in the orbit plane from the perigee along the orbit when the satellite moves, which is the angle between the orbit perigee and the satellite position vector at a certain time.

[0181] 6. Type of positioning method

[0182] According to whether the reference signal is sent by the network device side or the terminal side, the positioning method can be divided into the following three types:

[0183] Downlink positioning method: a positioning method based on the downlink. That is, the network device side sends a downlink positioning reference signal (DL-PRS), and the terminal side performs positioning measurement to obtain the positioning result of the terminal.

[0184] Uplink positioning method: A positioning method based on the uplink. That is, the terminal sends an uplink-sounding reference signal (UL-SRS), and the network equipment performs positioning measurements to obtain the terminal's positioning result.

[0185] Joint uplink and uplink positioning method: A positioning method based on both downlink and uplink. This means that both the network device and the terminal need to send positioning reference signals, and the terminal and network device respectively perform corresponding measurements, with the terminal or network device obtaining the positioning result.

[0186] 7. Positioning technology

[0187] Based on the physical quantities measured, positioning technologies can be categorized into: Time of Arrival (TOA) based positioning, Time-of-Arrival (TDOA) based positioning, Round Trip Time (RTT) based positioning, Doppler frequency shift based positioning, pseudorange based positioning, and carrier phase based positioning. These positioning methods will be described in detail below.

[0188] (1) TDOA-based positioning method

[0189] In the TDOA positioning method for downlink, multiple network devices can send downlink PRS positioning reference signals. The terminal receives and measures the arrival time (TOA) of the PRS signals. The difference between the arrival time of different network devices and the arrival time of the reference network device is called the downlink TDOA observation.

[0190] Figure 5(a) is a schematic diagram of the TDOA positioning principle. Referring to Figure 5(a), assume that base station 1 is used as the reference network device. The difference in arrival time Δt between base station 1 and base station 2 is measured. 12 The hyperbola l can be determined 12 ;Measure the time difference Δt between base station 1 and base station 3 13 The hyperbola l can be determined 13 The intersection of the two hyperbolas is the terminal position to be estimated.

[0191] (2) Location method based on RTT

[0192] In the RTT (Real-Time To-Time) positioning method, the terminal and network devices need to exchange positioning reference signals. The distance between the terminal and the network devices can be calculated based on the transmission and reception times of the reference signals. When multiple network devices are involved in the positioning process, the distances from the terminal to each of the network devices can be obtained.

[0193] Figure 5(b) is a schematic diagram of a reference signal transceiving process based on RTT positioning. Referring to Figure 5(b), in order to measure the distance d1 between the terminal and the base station 1, the terminal transmits an uplink SRS positioning reference signal at time t1, the base station 1 receives the SRS reference signal at time t2, and transmits a downlink PRS positioning reference signal at time t3, and the terminal receives the positioning reference signal at time t4. Then, the distance d1 between the terminal and the base station 1 satisfies the following formula.

[0194] where c represents the speed of light.

[0195] Similarly, the RTT ranging method can be used to obtain the distances of the terminal to other network devices, such as the distances d2 and d3 of the terminal to the base station 2 and the base station 3.

[0196] Figure 5(c) is a schematic diagram of the RTT positioning principle. Referring to Figure 5(c), it can be determined that the network devices (for example, the base station 1, the base station 2, and the base station 3) are the centers of the circles with the distances (d1, d2, and d3) as the radii, and the intersection of the three circles is the position of the terminal to be estimated.

[0197] (3) Doppler shift-based positioning method

[0198] Considering the fast movement of the satellite, the relative movement between the satellite and the receiving end (such as the terminal) will cause a Doppler frequency shift (which can be referred to as Doppler frequency deviation or Doppler frequency shift). Since the position and movement speed of the satellite can be known, the terminal can be positioned according to the Doppler frequency shift.

[0199] Figure 5(d) is a schematic diagram of the Doppler positioning principle. Referring to Figure 5(d), a plurality of network devices (such as the base station 1 to the base station 3) can transmit downlink PRS, and the terminal can receive and measure the Doppler frequency shift of the PRS signal. According to the Doppler frequency shift, the candidate position of the terminal can be determined as a conical surface, referred to as a “Doppler equal-frequency conical surface”. The vertex of the conical surface is the network device position S, and the conical angle is θ, where θ is the included angle between the line connecting the network device and the terminal and the direction of the network device speed (if the network device is located on the satellite, the direction is the orbit direction).

[0200] Based on this, by measuring the Doppler frequency shift between the terminal and a reference network device, a “Doppler equal-frequency conical surface” can be obtained. Similarly, by measuring the Doppler frequency shift between the terminal and a plurality of network devices, a plurality of conical surfaces can be obtained, and the intersection of the plurality of conical surfaces and the earth's surface is the position of the terminal.

[0201] Exemplarily, the Doppler frequency shift can satisfy the following formula.

[0202] where v is the relative motion speed of the satellite and the terminal, c is the speed of light, R e is the radius of the earth, h is the orbit height of the satellite, E is the elevation angle, and f c is the working frequency band.

[0203] (4) Pseudorange-based positioning method and carrier phase-based positioning method

[0204] The pseudorange-based positioning method and the carrier phase-based positioning method will be introduced below by taking GNSS as an example.

[0205] GNSS, also known as Global Navigation Satellite System, is an air-based radio navigation and positioning system that can provide three-dimensional coordinates and speed and time information for terminals on the earth's surface or in near-earth space at any location. GNSS can include BDS, Global Positioning System (GPS), GLONASS, and Galileo Navigation Satellite System (GALILEO).

[0206] The basic principle of GNSS positioning is based on ranging, that is, the distance between the satellite and the terminal is measured, and the position of the terminal itself is calculated.

[0207] In the pseudorange-based positioning method, the terminal can receive the signal (such as C / A code, i.e., Gold code) transmitted by the satellite and record the current time of the terminal at the same time. Since the satellite transmission time is known, the time of signal propagation in space can be obtained. Based on the propagation time of the signal in space, the distance between the satellite and the terminal can be obtained. Because of the error, the measured distance is not the true distance, so it is called pseudorange. However, when low-orbit satellites use the pseudorange positioning method, they are easily affected by multipath, non-ideal factors, and other factors, and the positioning performance is poor.

[0208] The carrier phase-based positioning method is not based on the measurement of the spatial propagation time of the signal, but uses the periodicity of the phase of the electromagnetic wave to complete the measurement. Alternatively, the terminal can receive the signal transmitted by the satellite and measure the carrier phase. Since the GNSS signal is an electromagnetic wave, the phase has periodicity, so the true phase should be L integer cycles + a non-integer cycle phase, and the non-integer cycle part can be accurately obtained by a phase-locked loop or other methods, while the integer cycle part L is uncertain and needs to be determined by auxiliary information. Based on the phase difference between the received carrier phase and the carrier phase transmitted by the satellite, the auxiliary information, and the position and speed of the satellite at each time, the position information of the terminal can be determined.

[0209] Based on the number of satellites within the terminal's visual range, different positioning methods can be selected. For example, if the terminal can simultaneously search for a large number of satellites (e.g., greater than or equal to 4 satellites), TDOA-based positioning can be used. For another example, if the terminal can only simultaneously search for a small number of satellites (e.g., less than or equal to 3 satellites), Doppler shift-based positioning can be used.

[0210] It should be noted that FIG. 5 shows a scenario of positioning of multiple base stations at a single time. In particular, considering the satellite scenario, because the satellite moves at a high speed (at this time, the base station is the satellite), the satellite at multiple observation times is equivalent to multiple "virtual reference base stations", and therefore a single satellite can also be positioned at multiple times using the above method. Specifically, when positioning is performed using a single satellite (e.g., a low earth orbiting (LEO) satellite), measurement information of the single satellite at different times (e.g., at least three times) is usually needed to estimate the position of the terminal. However, because the positioning accuracy of the single satellite is strongly dependent on the geometric configuration of the satellite at different times, it is difficult to achieve fast and accurate positioning within the service time of the single satellite.

[0211] Based on this, the present application proposes a communication method, which can improve positioning efficiency and positioning accuracy.

[0212] It should be noted that the base station involved in the present application can be a ground base station, or a satellite-borne base station, or a satellite, or an aerial node, etc., and is not limited. The following is described by taking the base station as a satellite as an example.

[0213] The "determination" described in the present application can also be replaced by "calculation", or "acquisition", etc., and is not limited. The "XX belongs to YY" described in the present application can also be replaced by "XX is included in / contained in YY", or "YY includes / contains XX".

[0214] The communication method and the communication device provided by the present application are described in detail as follows:

[0215] Please refer to FIG. 6, which is a flowchart of the communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The execution subject of the method shown in FIG. 6 can be a base station and a terminal, or a chip in the base station and a chip in the terminal. For the convenience of description, the present application mainly takes the base station and the terminal as the execution subject for description. FIG. 6 shows the detailed communication steps or operations of the method, but these steps or operations are only examples, and the embodiments of the present application can also perform other operations or variations of the various operations in FIG. 6. Among them:

[0216] S601, the terminal determines first information.

[0217] In some possible embodiments, the first information can be sent by a base station or a positioning network element to the terminal, or the first information can also be pre-configured in the terminal, for example, written in advance on a card of the terminal, which is not limited in the present application. For the convenience of understanding, the following mainly illustrates that the base station sends the first information to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the first information from the base station.

[0218] In an example, the first information is sent by the base station to the terminal. The first information sent by the base station to the terminal can be carried in a broadcast message or a unicast message. For example, the base station can issue the first information through a broadcast message, for example, the broadcast message can be a system information block 19 (SIB19) or a positioning system information block (posSIB) or other broadcast message. For example, the non-connected state terminal and the connected state terminal can receive the broadcast first information. For another example, the base station can issue the first information through a unicast message. For example, the unicast message can be an RRC message. For example, the connected state terminal can receive the unicast first information.

[0219] In another example, the first information can be sent by the positioning network element to the terminal, and the first information can be carried in an LTE positioning protocol (LPP) message, for example, an LPP ProvideAssistanceData message.

[0220] It can be understood that the first information can include the position information of K regions, the K regions including the first region, or the first region being one of the K regions, wherein K is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Alternatively, the first region involved in the embodiments of the present application can be understood as a region where the terminal is located, or the first region can be understood as a region where the terminal is located or as the terminal being located in the first region. In the present application, the region can be a wave position or a beam coverage area, which is not limited in the present application. For the convenience of understanding, the following mainly understands the region as a wave position.

[0221] It should be understood that when K is equal to 1, the first information is associated with the first region, that is, the granularity of the first information is the wave position, or the first information is understood as wave position level information, or the first information sent for different wave positions can be different, or the first information received by the terminal located in different wave positions can be different. It should be understood that for the wave position level first information, generally, if the wave position where the terminal is located changes, the above-mentioned first information needs to be updated, for example, the broadcast message or the unicast message needs to be received again, that is, the first information received by the terminal in one wave position cannot be used for the positioning service when the terminal moves to another wave position.

[0222] It should be understood that when K is an integer greater than 1, the first information is associated with K regions, that is, the granularity of the first information is the region range / cell, or it is understood that the first information is region range level / cell level information, or it is said that the first information transmitted for different region ranges / cells can be different, or it is said that the first information received by the terminal located in different region ranges / cells can be different, wherein one region range / cell includes multiple regions. Exemplarily, in the present application, the relationship between the region, the region range and the cell can be that the granularity of the region range is between the region and the cell, that is, the area size corresponding to the region ≤ the area size of the region range ≤ the area size of the cell. It should be understood that for the first information at the region range level / cell level, generally, if the region range / cell where the terminal is located changes, the above-mentioned first information needs to be updated, for example, the broadcast message or the unicast message is received again, that is, the first information received by the terminal in one region range / one cell cannot be used for positioning service when the terminal moves to another region / another cell.

[0223] Optionally, there can also be a case where the first information at the wave bit level and the first information at the region range level / cell level coexist, for example, the central region of the cell is the first information at the region range level / cell level, and the edge region of the cell is the first information at the wave bit level.

[0224] It should be noted that the position information of any region can include one or more of the following: center position information of the region, range information of the region, vertex position information of the region, identification information of the region, arrangement information of the region, or wave position number information of the region. The identification information of the region and the position information of the region have a correlation relationship. The center position information of the region can be coordinate information (such as latitude and longitude information, 3D coordinate information, etc.), or can be position information relative to a certain reference point, wherein the reference point can be a certain region center, a certain vertex, or a certain position known reference point. The range information of the region can be one or more of the following: radius information, edge length information (such as edge length or half of the edge length), length, width information, distance information to the center of the region, etc. For example, if the region is a circle, the range information can be a radius; if the region is a square, the range information can be an edge length; if the region is a rectangle, the range information can be a length and a width; if the region is of other shapes, it can be any information describing its range, such as the distance from the region vertex to the region center, etc. The vertex position information of the region can be coordinate information (such as latitude and longitude information, 3D coordinate information, etc.), or can be position information relative to a certain reference point, wherein the reference point can be a certain region center, a certain vertex, or a certain position known reference point. The identification information of the region can be a wave position index, a wave position identifier (ID), a beam index, a beam ID, or a beam direction, etc.

[0225] For example, there can be a mapping relationship table between the identification information of the region and the position information of the region, as shown in FIG. 7. That is, by querying the mapping relationship table, the position information of the region corresponding to the identification information of the region can be queried. Exemplarily, the position information of the region in the mapping relationship table shown in FIG. 7 can be represented by one or more of the following: center position information of the region, range information of the region, vertex position information of the region, etc., which are not limited in the present application.

[0226] For another example, the position information of the region can include the center position information of the region and the range information of the region. For another example, the position information of the region can include the center position information of the region and at least one vertex position information of the region. For another example, the position information of the region can include at least two vertex position information of the region.

[0227] Exemplarily, as shown in (a) of FIG. 8, taking K=1 and the wave position shape being a square region as an example, the position information of 1 region included in the first information can be indicated in the following three ways.

[0228] For example, taking wave position 3 as an example, in mode 1, the position information of wave position 3 can be the center position information of wave position 3 (such as P3) and the range information of wave position 3 (such as the side length 2r or half of the side length r).

[0229] For example, taking wave position 1 as an example, in mode 2, the position information of wave position 1 can be the center position information of wave position 1 and at least one vertex position information of wave position 1, as shown in (a) of FIG. 8, the position information of wave position 1 can include the center position information (such as P1) of wave position 1 and one vertex position information (such as P 1-1 ) of wave position 1. In this way, based on the center position information and one vertex position information of wave position 1, the range information of wave position 1 can be obtained.

[0230] For example, taking wave position 12 as an example, in mode 3, the position information of wave position 12 can be at least two vertex position information of wave position 12, as shown in (a) of FIG. 8, the position information of wave position 12 can include four vertex position information of wave position 12, such as P 12-1 , P 12-2 , P 12-3 , and P 12-4 . In this way, based on the multiple vertex position information of wave position 12, the center position information and the range information of wave position 12 can be obtained.

[0231] For example, taking wave position 1 as an example, in mode 2, the position information of wave position 1 can be the center position information of wave position 1 and at least one vertex position information of wave position 1, as shown in (a) of FIG. 8, the position information of wave position 1 can include the center position information (such as P1) of wave position 1 and one vertex position information (such as P

[0232] For example, taking K=4 as an example, assuming that the four wave positions are wave position 2, wave position 3, wave position 6 and wave position 7, in mode 1, the position information of the four wave positions included in the first information can be the center position information and the range information of each of the four wave positions, such as the center position information (such as P2) and the range information (such as half of the side length r) of wave position 2, the center position information (such as P3) and the range information (such as half of the side length r) of wave position 3, the center position information (such as P6) and the range information (such as half of the side length r) of wave position 6, and the center position information (such as P7) and the range information (such as half of the side length r) of wave position 7.

[0233] For example, taking K=4 as an example, assuming that the four wave positions are wave position 8, wave position 9, wave position 12 and wave position 13, in mode 2, the position information of the four wave positions can be at least two vertex position information of each of the four wave positions. As shown in (b) of FIG. 8, the position information of wave position 8, wave position 9, wave position 12 and wave position 13 can be four vertex position information (such as P 8-1 , P 8-2 , P 8-3 , and P 8-4), the 4 vertex position information (e.g. P 9-1 , P 9-2 , P 9-3 , P 9-4 ), the 4 vertex position information (e.g. P 12-1 , P 12-2 , P 12-3 , P 12-4 ) of wave position 12, and the 4 vertex position information (e.g. P 13-1 , P 13-2 , P 13-3 , P 13-4 ) of wave position 13.

[0234] For example, assuming that the 4 wave positions are wave position 10, wave position 11, wave position 14 and wave position 15, in the mode 3, the position information of the 4 wave positions can be the center position information and range information of 2 wave positions (e.g. wave position 10 and wave position 14 in (b) of FIG. 8, whose position information is the center position information and range information. Specifically, such as the center position information (e.g. P10) and range information (e.g. half of the side length r) of wave position 10, the center position information (e.g. P14) and range information (e.g. half of the side length r) of wave position 14, and the at least two vertex position information of each of the other 2 wave positions (e.g. wave position 11 and wave position 15 in (b) of FIG. 8, whose position information is the diagonal two vertex position information. Specifically, such as the diagonal two vertex position information of wave position 11, which are P 11-1 , P 11-4 , and the diagonal two vertex position information of wave position 15, which are P 15-1 , P 15-4 ).

[0235] Optionally, when K is an integer greater than 1, the first information can further comprise K1 region position information. In this way, the signaling overhead can be reduced. For example, the first information can comprise the center position information and range information of K1 regions, and the identification information of the regions; or the first information can comprise the vertex position information of K1 regions, and the identification information of the regions; or the first information can comprise the center position information and vertex position information of K1 regions, and the identification information of the regions. Wherein K1 is a positive integer less than K. That is to say, when the first information is the region range level or cell level information, the first information can not need to carry the position information of the center or vertex of all regions, but can carry the position information of the center or vertex of part of the regions, and on this basis, the terminal can infer the position information of the other regions based on the position information of the part of the regions and the identification information of the regions, for example, the terminal can determine the position information of the remaining (K-K1) regions based on the position information of K1 regions and the identification information of all K regions to assist in inferring the distribution rule of the regions.

[0236] Exemplarily, as shown in (b) of FIG. 8, taking a square region as an example, K=16, and the wave bit shape is a square region. In this scenario, the first information can only include the position information of K1 regions. Exemplarily, K1=1, and the first information includes: 1) the position information of wave bit 0 and wave bit 2, for example, the center position information and range information of wave bit 0 and wave bit 2; 2) the identification information of wave bit 0 and wave bit 4 (such as the index number “0” of wave bit 0 and the index number “4” of wave bit 4); 3) the arrangement information of the wave bits, for example, the identification information of the wave bits is arranged in ascending order from south to north and from west to east, and the number of wave bits in each row is 4 and the number of wave bits in each column is 4; 4) the number information of the wave bits, for example, the number of wave bits in each region / cell is 16. Based on the first information, the terminal can infer the position information of other wave bits. For example, the terminal can infer the center position information and range information of wave bit 1 based on the center position information and range information of wave bit 0 and wave bit 2.

[0237] S602, the terminal obtains first reference measurement quantities corresponding to the at least one sub-region at M time instants.

[0238] Here, the at least one sub-region belongs to the first region, or the first region includes the at least one sub-region. The first reference measurement quantity can be one or more of the following: a measurement quantity of Doppler shift (or a Doppler shift measurement quantity, or a Doppler frequency domain calculation quantity, or a Doppler frequency domain calculation quantity, or a Doppler frequency domain), a measurement quantity of time (or a time measurement quantity, or a time calculation quantity), a measurement quantity of carrier phase (or a carrier phase measurement quantity, or a carrier phase calculation quantity), or a signal strength. Exemplarily, the above-mentioned time measurement quantity can be TOA, TDOA, etc. The above-mentioned signal strength can be reference signal received power (RSRP) or reference signal received quality (RSRQ), etc.

[0239] Here, exemplarily, the terminal obtaining the first reference measurement quantities corresponding to the at least one sub-region at the M time instants can adopt the following two implementation manners:

[0240] In one possible implementation manner (I), the terminal obtaining the first reference measurement quantities corresponding to the at least one sub-region at the M time instants can be understood as: the terminal determines the first reference measurement quantities corresponding to the at least one sub-region at the M time instants based on the ephemeris information and the position information of the at least one sub-region. That is, the terminal can complete the calculation locally to obtain the first reference measurement quantities corresponding to the at least one sub-region at the M time instants.

[0241] In a possible implementation (II), the terminal acquires the first reference measurement corresponding to the at least one sub-area at the M time points, which can be understood as that the terminal receives the first reference measurement corresponding to the at least one sub-area at the M time points from the base station or the positioning network element. That is, the first reference measurement corresponding to the at least one sub-area at the M time points can be calculated by the base station or the positioning network element based on the ephemeris information and the position information of the at least one sub-area, and then sent to the terminal after the calculation is completed.

[0242] Exemplarily, taking the Doppler shift as the first reference measurement, the Doppler shift satisfies the formula The Doppler shift corresponding to the center position of the at least one sub-area at the M time points (for example, M=4, and the four time points are t1, t2, t3 and t4) can be calculated. Wherein, f d is the Doppler shift, v is the relative motion speed of the satellite and the terminal, c is the speed of light, R e is the radius of the earth, h is the satellite orbit height, E is the elevation angle of the satellite when viewed from the terminal, and f c is the working frequency band.

[0243] It should be noted that the above v is determined based on the motion speed of the satellite and the motion speed of the terminal, for example, the motion speed of the satellite can be obtained based on the ephemeris information, the speed of the terminal can be ignored (relative to the motion speed of the satellite) or obtained through a sensor or other means, so that the relative motion speed v of the satellite and the terminal can be determined. The above E is determined based on the position of the satellite and the position of the terminal, generally, the position of the satellite can be derived based on the ephemeris information, and the position of the terminal can be understood as the center position of the sub-area when calculating the first reference measurement, so that the elevation angle E can be determined. The satellite orbit height can be obtained based on the ephemeris information.

[0244] As shown in FIG. 9, it is assumed that the first area is the wave position 12, wherein the wave position 12 includes 16 sub-areas, which are sub-area 0 to sub-area 15. It is assumed that the Doppler shift corresponding to the center position of the sub-area 0 to the sub-area 15 at the time points t1, t2, t3 and t4 is respectively determined based on the calculation formula of the Doppler shift:

[0245] t1 time point: [F 1,0 ,F 1,1 ,F 1,2 ,......,F 1,j ,......,F 1,12 ,F 1,13 ,F 1,14 ,F 1,15 ];

[0246] t2 time point: [F 2,0 ,F2,1 ,F 2,2 ,......,F 2,j ,......,F 2,12 ,F 2,13 ,F 2,14 ,F 2,15 ];

[0247] t3 time: [F 3,0 ,F 3,1 ,F 3,2 ,......,F 3,j ,......,F 3,12 ,F 3,13 ,F 3,14 ,F 3,15 ];

[0248] t4 time: [F 4,0 ,F 4,1 ,F 4,2 ,......,F 4,j ,......,F 4,12 ,F 4,13 ,F 4,14 ,F 4,15 ];

[0249] wherein, F i,j represents the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the center position of the sub-region j at time i, wherein the first reference measurement quantity is Doppler shift, and the value range of j is [0, 15] and j is an integer. It should be noted that the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to each sub-region is described by taking the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the center position of each sub-region as an example. Alternatively, the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to any sub-region can also be the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to other positions (for example, the position of a vertex, or the position of a point on the boundary of the sub-region) of the sub-region, that is, the position of the terminal involved in the determination of E can refer to the center position of the sub-region, or can refer to other positions of the sub-region.

[0250] S603, the terminal performs measurement of the downlink reference signal, and determines the first measurement results corresponding to the N time points.

[0251] In some possible implementation manners, the base station transmits a downlink reference signal, and the terminal performs measurement on the downlink reference signal, to determine the first measurement result corresponding to the N time points. The downlink reference signal can be a PRS, an SSB signal, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), or the like.

[0252] The first measurement result and the first reference measurement quantity can be used to determine the position information of the terminal. The first measurement result can be one or more of the following: a Doppler shift measurement quantity, a time measurement quantity, a carrier phase measurement quantity, or a signal strength. It should be understood that the first measurement result and the first reference measurement quantity have the same dimension, for example, the first reference measurement quantity and the first measurement result are both Doppler shift measurement quantities. For another example, the first reference measurement quantity is a Doppler shift measurement quantity and a TOA, and the first measurement result is a Doppler shift measurement quantity and a TOA. For the convenience of understanding, the following will mainly take the first measurement result and the first measurement result as an example to be explained, both of which are Doppler shift measurement quantities.

[0253] The N time points and the M time points have a non-empty intersection.

[0254] For example, the N time points belong to the M time points, or the N time points are contained in the M time points, or the M time points are contained in the N time points. For example, N = 4 and the four time points are t1, t2, t3, and t4, M = 10 and the ten time points are t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6, t7, t8, t9, and t10, and the non-empty intersection of the N time points and the M time points is t1, t2, t3, and t4.

[0255] For another example, the N time points are equal to the M time points. For example, N = 4 and the four time points are t1, t2, t3, and t4, M = 4 and the four time points are t1, t2, t3, and t4, and the non-empty intersection of the N time points and the M time points is t1, t2, t3, and t4.

[0256] For another example, the M time points belong to the N time points, or the M time points are contained in the N time points, or the N time points are contained in the M time points. For example, M = 4 and the four time points are t1, t2, t3, and t4, N = 10 and the ten time points are t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6, t7, t8, t9, and t10, and the non-empty intersection of the N time points and the M time points is t1, t2, t3, and t4.

[0257] For another example, the M time instants and the N time instants have no subordination relationship, but both have non-empty intersection. For example, M = 4 and the 4 time instants are t1, t2, t3, t4, N = 4 and the 4 time instants are t1, t2, t9, t10, and the non-empty intersection of the M time instants and the N time instants is t1, t2.

[0258] In one implementation ①, the terminal can determine the position information of the terminal according to the first measurement result and the first reference measurement quantity, wherein the terminal is located in one sub-region in the first region. That is, the terminal can complete the measurement and positioning calculation locally, that is, using the UE-based positioning method. Optionally, after the terminal calculates the position information of the terminal, the terminal can also report the position information of the terminal to the base station or the positioning network element.

[0259] For example, as shown in FIG. 10, a flowchart of the UE-based positioning method is shown. As shown in FIG. 10, it includes S1001, the base station / positioning network element sends the first information to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the first information from the base station / positioning network element. S1002, the terminal obtains the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the M time instants of at least one sub-region. For example, scheme A or scheme B can be used. Scheme A is that the base station / positioning network element determines the information of the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the M time instants of at least one sub-region, and sends the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the M time instants of at least one sub-region to the terminal; scheme B is that the terminal locally determines the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the M time instants of at least one sub-region. S1003, the terminal performs measurement of the downlink reference signal to determine the first measurement result corresponding to the N time instants. S1004, the terminal determines the position information of the terminal according to the first measurement result and the first reference measurement quantity. The execution order of each step is not limited, for example, step S1002 can be executed before S1003, or step S1002 can be executed after S1003, or steps S1002 and S1003 can be executed simultaneously.

[0260] In another implementation (II), the terminal can send the first measurement result to the positioning network element or the base station, so that the positioning network element or the base station can determine the position information of the terminal based on the first measurement result. Illustratively, the positioning network element or the base station can determine the position information of the terminal according to the first measurement result and the first reference measurement quantity. If the first reference measurement quantity is determined by the terminal (i.e., the above implementation (I)), the terminal needs to send the first reference measurement quantity to the positioning network element or the base station in addition to sending the first measurement result to the positioning network element or the base station; if the first reference measurement quantity is determined by the positioning network element or the base station (i.e., the above implementation (II)), the terminal needs to send the first measurement result to the positioning network element or the base station, but does not need to send the first reference measurement quantity to the positioning network element or the base station. That is, the positioning calculation can be completed at the network side (e.g., the positioning network element or the base station), i.e., using the UE-assisted / LMF-based positioning method. Optionally, after the positioning network element or the base station determines the position information of the terminal, the positioning network element or the base station can send the position information of the terminal to the terminal.

[0261] Illustratively, as shown in FIG. 11, a flowchart of the UE-assisted positioning method is shown. As shown in FIG. 11, S1101, the base station / positioning network element sends first information to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the first information from the base station / positioning network element. S1102, the base station / positioning network element obtains the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the at least one sub-area at the M time instants. Illustratively, scheme A or scheme B can be used. In scheme A, the terminal determines the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the at least one sub-area at the M time instants, and sends the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the at least one sub-area at the M time instants to the base station / positioning network element; in scheme B, the base station / positioning network element itself determines the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the at least one sub-area at the M time instants. S1103, the terminal performs measurement of the downlink reference signal, and determines the first measurement result corresponding to the N time instants. S1104, the terminal sends the first measurement result to the base station / positioning network element. S1105, the base station / positioning network element determines the position information of the terminal according to the first measurement result and the first reference measurement quantity. The execution order of each step is not limited, for example, step S1102 can be executed before S1103, or step S1102 can be executed after S1103, or steps S1102 and S1103 can be executed simultaneously.

[0262] It should be noted that, whether the terminal side performs positioning calculation or the network side performs positioning calculation, the determination manner of the terminal position information can be understood as: comparing the closeness / approximation degree of the first measurement result and the first reference measurement, the sub-area corresponding to the first reference measurement closest to the first measurement result is determined as the sub-area where the terminal is located, that is, the position information of the terminal. In this application, the first measurement result can also be referred to as a true measurement, or a true measurement result, or an actual measurement, or an actual measurement result, etc., and the first reference measurement can also be referred to as a reference measurement, a predicted measurement, etc.

[0263] Exemplarily, taking the first measurement result as the Doppler shift measurement, N = 4, and the four time instants as t1, t2, t3, t4, for example. The terminal performs measurement on the downlink reference signal in the current sub-area k, and the first measurement results corresponding to the time instants t1, t2, t3, t4 obtained are as follows:

[0264] t1 time: f 1,k ;

[0265] t2 time: f 2,k ;

[0266] t3 time: f 3,k ;

[0267] t4 time: f 4,k .

[0268] Wherein, f i,k represents the first measurement result corresponding to the sub-area k at time instant i, wherein the first measurement result is the Doppler shift measurement. It should be noted that the above k can be understood as an unknown number to be solved, that is, the sub-area k is to be determined. Wherein, the terminal side / network side can adopt some judgment criteria when performing positioning calculation, for example, based on a cost function, the closeness of the true measurement (that is, the first measurement result) and the reference measurement (that is, the first reference measurement) is compared to determine which sub-area the terminal is in. Exemplarily, the cost function can be Wherein, f i,k represents the first measurement result corresponding to the sub-area k at time instant i, and F i,j represents the first reference measurement corresponding to the sub-area j at time instant i. Generally, the smaller the value of the cost function S, the closer the closeness of the true measurement and the reference measurement. For example, it is assumed that the first measurement result is most close to the first reference measurement corresponding to the center position of the sub-area 15, so it can be determined that the position information of the terminal is the center position of the sub-area 15, that is, k = 15.

[0269] It should be understood that the foregoing part (i.e., the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 6) mainly introduces how to further determine the specific sub-area in the first area where the terminal is located, in the case that the area where the terminal is located is determined to be the first area. In some scenarios, it can be necessary to first determine the first area where the terminal is located, and then further subdivide the first area to obtain the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to at least one sub-area included in the first area at the M time points, and then determine the sub-area where the terminal is located. In other scenarios, it can only be necessary to determine the first area where the terminal is located, for example, to determine which wave position the terminal is located in, to assist communication and other related operations. That is, this part can be used as a separate embodiment, or can be combined with the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 6, or can be understood as the position information of the terminal determined in this application, which can be a wave position or a sub-area in the wave position, and the application is not limited. Exemplarily, the wave position where the terminal is located is taken as the first wave position, and the specific method / method for determining the first area where the terminal is located is described below. The following two implementation manners can be executed separately or in combination, and the application is not limited.

[0270] In a possible implementation (1), the terminal can determine the first area according to the information of the first beam. That is, there is an association / correspondence / mapping relationship between the beam and the area, and the terminal can determine the corresponding first area based on the information of the first beam. The information of the beam can be a beam index or a beam direction. For example, if there is a mapping relationship between the beam (such as an SSB beam or a service beam) and the area, the terminal can determine which area it is located in based on the information of the beam. Exemplarily, there is a mapping relationship between the SSB beam index and the area identifier (such as the wave position index), so that the terminal can determine the SSB beam index when receiving the SSB signal, and can determine the wave position index based on the mapping relationship, and can further determine which wave position the terminal is located in.

[0271] In a possible implementation (2), the base station / positioning network element / terminal can obtain the second reference measurement quantity corresponding to the Q areas at the W time points, and the second reference measurement quantity is used to determine the first area. The K areas and the Q areas have a non-empty intersection, the Q areas include the first area, Q is an integer greater than or equal to 1, K is an integer greater than or equal to Q, and W is an integer greater than or equal to 1. The non-empty intersection between the K areas and the Q areas can be understood as that the K areas are equal to the Q areas, or the K areas belong to the Q areas, or the Q areas belong to the K areas.

[0272] For example, K regions belong to Q regions, such as K=4 and the 4 regions are region 1, region 2, region 3 and region 4, Q=5 and the 5 regions are region 1, region 2, region 3, region 4 and region 5, then the non-empty intersection of the K regions and the Q regions is region 1, region 2, region 3 and region 4.

[0273] For another example, K regions are equal to Q regions, such as K=4 and the 4 regions are region 1, region 2, region 3 and region 4, Q=4 and the 4 regions are region 1, region 2, region 3 and region 4, then the non-empty intersection of the K regions and the Q regions is region 1, region 2, region 3 and region 4.

[0274] For another example, Q regions belong to K regions, such as Q=4 and the 4 regions are region 1, region 2, region 3 and region 4, K=5 and the 5 regions are region 1, region 2, region 3, region 4 and region 5, then the non-empty intersection of the K regions and the Q regions is region 1, region 2, region 3 and region 4.

[0275] For another example, Q regions and K regions have no subordination relationship, but there is a non-empty intersection between the two. For example, Q=4 and the 4 regions are region 1, region 2, region 3 and region 4, K=5 and the 5 regions are region 1, region 2, region 4, region 5 and region 6, then the non-empty intersection of the K regions and the Q regions is region 1, region 2 and region 4.

[0276] Specifically, in the implementation (2), the base station / positioning network element / terminal can determine the region where the terminal is located based on the second reference measurement quantity and the second measurement result. For example, the terminal side / network side can compare the closeness of the real measurement quantity (i.e. the second measurement result) and the reference measurement quantity (i.e. the second reference measurement quantity) based on the cost function when performing positioning calculation, to determine which region the terminal is in. For example, taking the region as a wave bit as an example, based on the second measurement result and the second reference measurement quantity, it can be determined that the terminal is in which wave bit or is located within which wave bit, that is, the position information of the terminal is the wave bit where the terminal is located. Similar to the description of the first reference measurement quantity described above, the second reference measurement quantity can be determined by the terminal or by the base station / positioning network element, which is not limited. In addition, the above-mentioned second measurement result can be understood as the measurement result corresponding to R time instants determined by the terminal after performing the measurement of the downlink reference signal, where R is an integer greater than or equal to 1. In one example, there is a non-empty intersection between the W time instants and the R time instants, the W time instants are equal to the R time instants, or the W time instants belong to the R time instants, or the R time instants belong to the W time instants.

[0277] For example, the W time instants belong to the R time instants, such as the W time instants are t0, t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6, t7, t8, t9, t10 and the R time instants are t0, t5, then the non-empty intersection of the W time instants and the R time instants is t0, t5.

[0278] For another example, the W time instants are equal to the R time instants, such as the W time instants are t0, t5 and the R time instants are t0, t5, then the non-empty intersection of the W time instants and the R time instants is t0, t5.

[0279] For another example, the W time instants belong to the R time instants, such as the R time instants are t0, t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6, t7, t8, t9, t10 and the W time instants are t0, t5, then the non-empty intersection of the W time instants and the R time instants is t0, t5.

[0280] For another example, the W time instants and the R time instants have no subordination relationship, but both have a non-empty intersection. For example, the W time instants are t0, t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6, t7, t8, t9, t10 and the R time instants are t0, t5, t11, t12, then the non-empty intersection of the W time instants and the R time instants is t0, t5.

[0281] Likewise, similar to the foregoing description of the first measurement result and the first reference measurement quantity, the second measurement result and the second reference measurement quantity can also be one or more of a Doppler shift measurement quantity, a time measurement quantity, a carrier phase measurement quantity, or a signal strength.

[0282] For example, still taking FIG. 9 as an example, as shown in FIG. 9, there are 20 wave positions, i.e., wave position 0-wave position 19. Assuming that W=2 and the two time instants are t0, t5, and assuming that the calculation formula based on the Doppler shift measurement quantity determines that the Doppler shifts corresponding to the center positions of the wave positions 0-wave position 19 at the t0, t5 time instants are respectively:

[0283] t0 time instant: [F 0,0 , F 0,0 , F 0,2 , F 0,v , F 0,12 , F 0,13 , F 0,14 , F 0,15 , F 0,16 , F 0,17 , F 0,18 , F 0,19 ];

[0284] t5 time instant: [F 5,0 , F 5,5, , F 5,2 , F 5,v , F5,12 ,F 5,13 ,F 5,14 ,F 5,15 ,F 5,16 ,F 5,17 ,F 5,18 ,F 5,19 ];

[0285] wherein, F u,v represents the second reference measurement quantity corresponding to the center position of the wave position v at time u, wherein the second reference measurement quantity is a Doppler shift measurement quantity, and the value of v ranges from 0 to 19 and v is an integer. It should be noted that the second reference measurement quantity corresponding to each wave position is described by taking the second reference measurement quantity corresponding to the center position of each wave position as an example. Alternatively, the second reference measurement quantity corresponding to any wave position can also be the second reference measurement quantity corresponding to other positions (such as a certain vertex position) of the wave position, that is, the position of the terminal involved in the determination of E can refer to the center position of the wave position, or can refer to other positions (such as a certain vertex position) of the wave position.

[0286] Similarly, taking the second measurement result as a Doppler shift measurement quantity, R = 2, and the two time instants as t0, t5 as an example, the terminal performs downlink reference signal measurement at the current wave position x, and the second measurement results corresponding to the time instants t0, t5 obtained can be:

[0287] t0 time instant: f 0,x ;

[0288] t5 time instant: f 5,x .

[0289] wherein, f u,x represents the second measurement result corresponding to the wave position x at time u, wherein the second measurement result is a Doppler shift measurement quantity. It should be noted that x can be understood as an unknown to be solved, that is, the wave position x is to be determined. Wherein the terminal side / network side can adopt some judgment criteria when performing positioning calculation, for example, based on a cost function, comparing the closeness of the real measurement quantity (that is, the second measurement result) and the reference measurement quantity (that is, the second reference measurement quantity) to determine which wave position the terminal is in. Exemplarily, the cost function can be wherein f u,x represents the second measurement result corresponding to the wave position x at time u, and F u,v represents the second reference measurement quantity corresponding to the wave position v at time u. Generally, the smaller the value of the cost function S, the closer the closeness of the real measurement quantity and the reference measurement quantity. For example, assuming that the second measurement result is most close to the second reference measurement quantity corresponding to the center position of the wave position 12, then it can be determined that the position information of the terminal is the center position of the wave position 12, that is, x = 12.

[0290] It should be noted that in the implementation (2), if the terminal needs to determine the location of the terminal specifically in which sub-region in the first region subsequently, the base station / positioning network element needs to send information indicating the first region to the terminal after determining the first region. Similarly, if the base station / positioning network element needs to determine the location of the terminal specifically in which sub-region in the first region subsequently, the terminal needs to send information indicating the first region to the base station / positioning network element after determining the first region.

[0291] It should be noted that the accuracy of the determined location information of the terminal is related to the granularity of the division of the first region. In one example, the first region can be divided into sub-regions with finer granularity as much as possible to determine more accurate location information of the terminal. For example, the more the number of sub-regions included in the first region, the smaller each sub-region, and the more accurate the finally determined location information of the terminal. In another example, in addition to dividing the first region once to obtain sub-regions, after determining the sub-region where the terminal is located, the sub-region can be taken as the first region, and the sub-region where the terminal is located can be divided again to obtain sub-regions with finer granularity, and then the foregoing steps S602 and S603 are repeated to further determine more accurate location information of the terminal.

[0292] It should be understood that the present application can utilize multiple measurement quantities (such as Doppler shift measurement quantity and signal strength) to obtain the location information of the terminal at the same time, or can be fused with other positioning methods, such as fusing the scheme with Doppler shift-based positioning technology, TDOA-based positioning technology, etc. to obtain more accurate location information.

[0293] It should be noted that each step in FIG. 6 can be performed in a different order from that presented in FIG. 6, and it is possible that not all operations in FIG. 6 are to be performed. Taking the execution order of the foregoing steps S602 and S603 as an example, for example, step S602 can be performed before step S603, or step S602 can be performed after step S603, or step S602 can be performed simultaneously with step S603.

[0294] It should be noted that when the values of M, N, W, or R involved in the present application are greater than 1, the M time instants, N time instants, W time instants, or R time instants can be consecutive multiple time instants or multiple time instants with a short interval. For example, the interval between every two time instants in the N time instants, W time instants, or R time instants is not more than one or more time slots, one or more symbols, or the interval between every two time instants is several us or tens or hundreds of us, several ms or tens or hundreds of ms, several s or tens or hundreds of s, which is not limited by the present application.

[0295] In the present application, the first reference measurement quantity corresponding to the plurality of sub-regions included in the first region at at least one time instant and the first measurement result of the terminal in the region currently located by the terminal are used for terminal positioning. Compared with the prior art, the plurality of measurement information at a plurality of time instants (each two time instants of the plurality of time instants usually need to be separated by several minutes) are required for terminal positioning. The positioning efficiency can be improved. In addition, the positioning accuracy of the terminal position is related to the granularity of the division of the first region. By dividing the first region into sub-regions, the positioning accuracy can be improved.

[0296] Generally, the positioning method of the terminal includes an uplink positioning method, a downlink positioning method, and an uplink-downlink combined positioning method. The above description takes the downlink positioning method as an example for description. The scheme of the present application is also applicable to the uplink positioning method and the uplink-downlink combined positioning method, and the present application is not limited. It should be noted that the method provided in the embodiments of the present application can also be applicable to a ground cellular positioning scenario (such as a high-speed mobile scenario), and the present application is not limited in this regard.

[0297] In the method embodiments of the embodiments of the present application, the size of the serial number does not mean the order of execution. The execution order should be determined according to its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

[0298] The communication device provided by the present application will be described in detail below in combination with FIG. 12 and FIG. 13.

[0299] It can be understood that, in order to realize the functions in the above embodiments, the communication device includes the hardware structure and / or software module for executing each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and method steps of the examples described in the embodiments disclosed in the present application, the present application can be realized in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is executed by hardware or computer software driven hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0300] FIG. 12 and FIG. 13 are structural schematic diagrams of possible communication devices provided by the embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to realize the functions of the terminal or the base station or the positioning network element in the above method embodiments, and thus can also realize the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be one of the terminals 120a-120j as shown in FIG. 1, or can be the RAN node 110a or 110b as shown in FIG. 1, or can be the positioning network element in the core network 200 as shown in FIG. 1. Alternatively, it can also be a module (such as a chip) applied to a terminal or a base station or a positioning network element.

[0301] As shown in FIG. 12, the communication apparatus 1200 includes a processing unit 1210 and a transceiver unit 1220. The communication apparatus 1200 is configured to implement the functions of a terminal or a base station or a positioning network element in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 6, FIG. 10 or FIG. 11.

[0302] When the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to implement the functions of a terminal in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 6, FIG. 10 or FIG. 11:

[0303] In one example, the processing unit 1210 is configured to determine first information, the first information including location information of K regions, K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; the processing unit 1210 is configured to obtain first reference measurement quantities corresponding to M time instants of at least one sub-region, the at least one sub-region belonging to a first region, the first region being one of the K regions, M being an integer greater than or equal to 1; and the processing unit 1210 is configured to perform measurement of a downlink reference signal to determine first measurement results corresponding to N time instants, the first measurement results and the first reference measurement quantities being used to determine location information of the terminal, N being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0304] In another example, the processing unit 1210 is configured to determine first information, the first information including location information of K regions, K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; the processing unit 1210 is configured to obtain second reference measurement quantities corresponding to W time instants of Q regions, the K regions and the Q regions having a non-empty intersection, Q being an integer greater than or equal to 1, and W being an integer greater than or equal to 1; and the processing unit 1210 is configured to perform measurement of a downlink reference signal to determine second measurement results corresponding to R time instants, the second measurement results and the second reference measurement quantities being used to determine location information of the terminal, R being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0305] When the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to implement the functions of a base station in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 6, FIG. 10 or FIG. 11:

[0306] In one example, the transceiver unit 1220 is configured to send first information, the first information including location information of K regions, K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; and the transceiver unit 1220 is configured to send a downlink reference signal, the downlink reference signal being used to determine first measurement results corresponding to N time instants, the first measurement results and first reference measurement quantities being used to determine location information of a terminal, wherein the first reference measurement quantities are reference measurement quantities corresponding to M time instants of at least one sub-region, the at least one sub-region belonging to a first region, the first region being one of the K regions, M being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0307] In another example, the transceiver 1220 is configured to transmit first information, the first information comprising position information of K regions, K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; and transmit a downlink reference signal, the downlink reference signal being used for determining second measurement results corresponding to R time instants, the second measurement results and a second reference measurement quantity being used for determining the position information of the terminal, the second reference measurement quantity being reference measurement quantities corresponding to W time instants of Q regions, R being an integer greater than or equal to 1, Q being an integer greater than or equal to 1, and W being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0308] When the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to implement the functions of a base station or a positioning network element in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 6, FIG. 10 or FIG. 11, the processor 1210 is configured to implement the functions of the processing unit 1210, and the transceiver 1220 is configured to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 1220.

[0309] The processing unit 1210 is configured to determine first information comprising position information of K regions, and obtain first reference measurement quantities corresponding to M time instants of at least one sub-region, the at least one sub-region belonging to a first region, and the first region being one of the K regions. The transceiver 1220 is configured to receive first measurement results corresponding to N time instants. The processing unit 1210 is configured to determine the position information of the terminal according to the first measurement results and the first reference measurement quantities, N being an integer greater than or equal to 1, M being an integer greater than or equal to 1, and K being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0310] For more detailed description of the processing unit 1210 and the transceiver 1220, refer to the related description in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 6, FIG. 10 or FIG. 11.

[0311] As shown in FIG. 13, the communication apparatus 1300 comprises a processor 1310, and optionally further comprises an interface circuit 1320. The processor 1310 and the interface circuit 1320 are coupled to each other. It can be understood that the interface circuit 1320 can be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, the communication apparatus 1300 further comprises a memory 1330, configured to store instructions executed by the processor 1310, or store input data required by the processor 1310 for executing instructions, or store data generated after the processor 1310 executes instructions.

[0312] When the communication apparatus 1300 is configured to implement the method shown in FIG. 6, FIG. 10 or FIG. 11, the processor 1310 is configured to implement the functions of the processing unit 1210, and the interface circuit 1320 is configured to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 1220.

[0313] When the communication device is a chip applied to a terminal, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal in the method embodiments. The terminal chip receives information sent by the base station to the terminal through other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal; or the terminal chip sends information to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal, and the information is sent by the terminal to the base station.

[0314] When the communication device is a module applied to a base station, the base station module implements the functions of the base station in the method embodiments. The base station module receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the base station, and the information is sent by the terminal to the base station; or the base station module sends information to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the base station, and the information is sent by the base station to the terminal. The base station module can be a baseband chip of the base station, a CU, a DU or other modules, or a device under an open radio access network (O-RAN) architecture, such as an open CU, an open DU, etc.

[0315] When the communication device is a chip applied to a positioning network element, the positioning network element chip implements the functions of the positioning network element in the method embodiments. The positioning network element chip receives information sent by the base station / terminal to the positioning network element through other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the positioning network element; or the positioning network element chip sends information to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the positioning network element, and the information is sent by the positioning network element to the base station / terminal.

[0316] It can be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application can be a central processing unit (CPU), and can also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0317] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions executable by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, which can be stored in a random access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory, an erasable programmable read-only memory, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, a register, a hard disk, a mobile hard disk, a 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 the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a base station or a terminal. The processor and the storage medium can also exist as discrete components in the base station or the terminal.

[0318] In the above embodiments, the implementation can be entirely or partially achieved by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, the implementation can be entirely or partially in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer programs or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are entirely or partially executed. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user equipment, or other programmable devices. The computer programs or instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transferred from one computer-readable storage medium to another, for example, the computer programs or instructions can be transferred from one website, computer, server, or data center to another by wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium accessible by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. integrated with one or more available media. The available media can be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape; an optical medium, such as a digital video disc; and a semiconductor medium, such as a solid-state disk. The computer-readable storage medium can be a volatile or non-volatile storage medium, or can include both volatile and non-volatile storage media.

[0319] In various embodiments of the present application, the terms and / or descriptions of different embodiments are consistent and can be mutually referred to if there is no special description and no logical conflict. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationship.

[0320] It can be understood that various digital numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only distinguished for convenience of description, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the serial number of the above processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of the processes should be determined according to its function and inherent logic.

Claims

1. A communication method characterized by comprising: The method comprises: determining first information, the first information comprising position information of K regions, K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; obtaining first reference measurement quantities corresponding to M time instants of at least one sub-region, the at least one sub-region belonging to a first region, the first region being one of the K regions, M being an integer greater than or equal to 1; performing measurement of a downlink reference signal to determine first measurement results corresponding to N time instants, the first measurement results and the first reference measurement quantities being used to determine position information of a terminal, N being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, The K is equal to 1, and the first information is associated with the first region.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, The K is an integer greater than 1, and the first information is associated with the K regions.

4. The method of any one of claims 1-3, wherein, The method further comprises: determining the first region according to information of a first beam, the terminal being located in the first region.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, The method further comprises: obtaining second reference measurement quantities corresponding to W time instants of Q regions, the K regions and the Q regions having a non-empty intersection, the Q regions comprising the first region, the second reference measurement quantities being used to determine the first region, the terminal being located in the first region, Q being an integer greater than or equal to 1, and W being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, The obtaining of the first reference measurement quantities corresponding to M time instants of the at least one sub-region comprises: determining the first reference measurement quantities corresponding to M time instants of the at least one sub-region based on ephemeris information and position information of the at least one sub-region.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, The obtaining of the first reference measurement quantities corresponding to M time instants of the at least one sub-region comprises: receiving the first reference measurement quantities corresponding to M time instants of the at least one sub-region.

8. The method according to claims 1-7, characterized by, The method further comprises: determining position information of the terminal according to the first measurement results and the first reference measurement quantities, the terminal being located in a sub-region of the first region.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein, The method further comprises: sending the first measurement results and / or the first reference measurement quantities.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that, The determining of the first information comprises: receiving the first information.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that, The N time instants and the M time instants have a non-empty intersection.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that, The position information of the region comprises one or more of the following: center position information of the region, range information of the region, vertex position information of the region, identification information of the region, arrangement information of the region, or wave position number information of the region; wherein the identification information of the region and the position information of the region have an association relationship.

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that, The region is a wave position or a beam coverage region.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that, The first reference measurement quantities or the first measurement results comprise one or more of the following: Doppler shift measurement quantity, time measurement quantity, carrier phase measurement quantity, or signal strength.

15. A method of communication, comprising: The method comprises: sending first information, the first information comprising position information of K regions, K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; transmitting a downlink reference signal, the downlink reference signal being used for determining first measurement results corresponding to N time instants, the first measurement results and first reference measurement quantities being used for determining position information of the terminal, wherein the first reference measurement quantities are reference measurement quantities corresponding to M time instants of at least one sub-region, the at least one sub-region belonging to a first region, the first region being one of the K regions, and M being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein, The K is equal to 1, and the first information is associated with the first region.

17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that, The K is an integer greater than 1, and the first information is associated with the K regions.

18. The method according to any one of claims 15-17, characterized by, The method further comprises: determining the first reference measurement quantities corresponding to M time instants of the at least one sub-region based on ephemeris information and position information of the at least one sub-region.

19. The method according to any one of claims 15-18, characterized in that, The N time instants and the M time instants have a non-empty intersection.

20. The method according to any one of claims 15-19, characterized by, The position information of the region comprises one or more of the following: center position information of the region, range information of the region, vertex position information of the region, identification information of the region, arrangement information of the region, or wave position number information of the region; wherein the identification information of the region and the position information of the region have an association relationship.

21. The method according to any one of claims 15-20, characterized in that, The region is a wave position or a beam coverage region.

22. The method according to any one of claims 15-21, characterized by, The first reference measurement quantities or the first measurement results comprise one or more of the following: Doppler shift measurement quantity, time measurement quantity, carrier phase measurement quantity, or signal strength.

23. A method of communication, comprising: comprising: determining first information, the first information comprising position information of K regions, the K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; obtaining second reference measurement quantities corresponding to W time instants of Q regions, the K regions and the Q regions having a non-empty intersection, the Q being an integer greater than or equal to 1, and the W being an integer greater than or equal to 1; performing measurement of a downlink reference signal to determine second measurement results corresponding to R time instants, the second measurement results and the second reference measurement quantities being used for determining position information of the terminal, the R being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

24. A method of communication, comprising: comprising: transmitting first information, the first information comprising position information of K regions, the K being an integer greater than or equal to 1; transmitting a downlink reference signal, the downlink reference signal being used for determining second measurement results corresponding to R time instants, the second measurement results and second reference measurement quantities being used for determining position information of the terminal, wherein the second reference measurement quantities are reference measurement quantities corresponding to W time instants of Q regions, the R being an integer greater than or equal to 1, the Q being an integer greater than or equal to 1, and the W being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

25. A communications device, characterized by comprising units or modules for performing the method according to any one of claims 1-14, or units or modules for performing the method according to any one of claims 15-22, or units or modules for performing the method according to claim 23, or units or modules for performing the method according to claim 24.

26. A communications device, characterized by comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving signals from and transmitting signals to other communication devices outside the communication device and processing signals received by the interface circuitry or to be sent to the other communication devices by the interface circuitry, the processor being configured to implement the method of any of claims 1-24 by logic circuitry or by operating code instructions.

27. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a communication device, implement the method of any of claims 1-14, or perform the method of any of claims 15-22, or perform the method of claim 23, or perform the method of claim 24.

28. A computer program product, characterised in that, The computer program code, when run on a computer, implements the method of any of claims 1-14, or the method of any of claims 15-22, or the method of claim 23, or the method of claim 24.

29. A communication system, characterized by The terminal and the access network device, the terminal being configured to implement the method of any of claims 1-14, or to perform the method of any of claims 15-22, or to perform the method of claim 23, or to perform the method of claim 24.

30. A chip, comprising: comprising: a processor and a memory for storing a computer program, the processor being configured to invoke and run the computer program stored in the memory, so that the device or equipment in which the chip is installed implements the method of any of claims 1-14, or performs the method of any of claims 15-22, or performs the method of claim 23, or performs the method of claim 24.

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