Uplink transmit beam selection for single-panel integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) transmissions

Abstract

Disclosed are techniques for wireless sensing. In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) receives, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource. The UE transmits the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

Description

Qualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WOUPLINK TRANSMIT BEAM SELECTION FOR SINGLE-PANELINTEGRATED SENSING AND COMMUNICATION (ISAC) TRANSMISSIONSTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to wireless technologies.BACKGROUND

[0002] Wireless communication systems have developed through various generations, including a first-generation analog wireless phone service (1G), a second-generation (2G) digital wireless phone service (including interim 2.5G and 2.75G networks), a third-generation (3G) high speed data, Internet-capable wireless sendee and a fourth-generation (4G) service (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) orWiMax). There are presently many different types of wireless communication systems in use, including cellular and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular analog advanced mobile phone system (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TOMA), the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), etc.

[0003] A fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, referred to as New Radio (NR), enables higher data transfer speeds, greater numbers of connections, and beter coverage, among other improvements. The 5G standard, according to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, is designed to provide higher data rates as compared to previous standards, more accurate positioning (e.g., based on reference signals for positioning (RS-P), such as downlink, uplink, or sidelink positioning reference signals (PRS)), RF sensing, and other technical enhancements. These enhancements, as well as the use of higher frequency bands, enable improved RF sensing and 5G-based positioning.SUMMARY

[0004] The following presents a simplified summary relating to one or more aspects disclosed herein. Thus, the following summary' should not be considered an extensive overview relating to all contemplated aspects, nor should the following summary be considered to identify key or critical elements relating to all contemplated aspects or to delineate the1QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO2 scope associated with any particular aspect. Accordingly, the following summary has the sole purpose to present certain concepts relating to one or more aspects relating to the mechanisms disclosed herein in a simplified form to precede the detailed description presented below.

[0005] In an aspect, a method of wireless sensing performed by a user equipment (UE) includes receiving, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and transmitting the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0006] In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes one or more memories; one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to: receive, via the one or more transceivers, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and transmit, via the one or more transceivers, the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0007] In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes means for receiving, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and means for transmitting the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality' of spatial relation identi fiers.2QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO[0(W8] In an aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: receive, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of tin SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and transmit the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0009] Other objects and advantages associated with the aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the accompanying drawings and detailed description.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in the description of various aspects of the disclosure and are provided solely for illustration of the aspects and not limitation thereof.

[0011] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communications system, according to aspects of the disclosure.

[0012] FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C illustrate example wireless network structures, according to aspects of the disclosure,

[0013] FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C are simplified block diagrams of several sample aspects of components that may be employed in a user equipment (UE), a base station, and a network entity, respectively, and configured to support communications as taught herein.

[0014] FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate different types of wireless sensing, according to aspects of the disclosure.

[0015] FIG. 5 illustrates an example call flow for a New Radio (NR)-based sensing procedure in which the network configures the sensing parameters, according to aspects of the disclosure.

[0016] FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example frame structure, according to aspects of the disclosure.

[0017] FIG, 7 is a diagram illustrating a base station in communication with a UE, according to aspects of the disclosure.3QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO4

[0018] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating example Frequency Range 2 (FR2) integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) transmission by a UE using a single transmit antenna panel, according to aspects of the disclosure.

[0019] FIG. 9 illustrate a high level example of an uplink beam selection procedure for beam selection for codebook-based ISAC, according to aspects of the disclosure.

[0020] FIGS. 10 illustrates an example method of wireless sensing, according to aspects of the disclosure.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0021] Aspects of the disclosure are provided in the following description and related drawings directed to various examples provided for illustration purposes. Alternate aspects may be devised without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Additionally, well-known elements of the disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omited so as not to obscure the relevant details of the disclosure.

[0022] Various aspects relate generally to wireless sensing. Some aspects more specifically relate to uplink beam management. In some examples, the uplink beam management and codebook-based uplink transmission precoder selection procedure may be tailored for single-panel double-directional integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) transmission, thereby achieving a finer tradeoff between resource overhead and quality of sensing and communication transmissions. Both selection and multiplexing are described, along with conditions for the selection.

[0023] Particular aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented to realize one or more of the following potential advantages. In some examples, by providing an uplink beam management and codebook-based uplink transmission precoder selection procedure, the described techniques can be used to improve resource overhead and quality of sensing and communication transmissions.

[0024] The words “exemplary” and / or “example” are used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” and / or “example” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term “aspects of the disclosure” does not require that all aspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation.4QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO5

[0025] Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the information and signals described below may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the description below' may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof, depending in part on the particular application, in part on the desired design, in part on the corresponding technology, etc.

[0026] Further, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will be recognized that various actions described herein can be performed by specific circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)), by program instructions being executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, the sequence(s) of actions described herein can be considered to be embodied entirely within any form of non- transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a corresponding set of computer instructions that, upon execution, would cause or instruct an associated processor of a device to perform the functionality' described herein. Thus, the various aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in a number of different forms, all of which have been contemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspects may be described herein as, for example, “logic configured to” perform the described action.

[0027] .As used herein, the terms “user equipment” (UE) and “base station” are not intended to be specific or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT), unless otherwise noted. In general, a LIE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, router, tablet computer, laptop computer, consumer asset locating device, wearable (e.g., smartwatch, glasses, augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) headset, etc.), vehicle (e.g., automobile, motorcycle, bicycle, etc.), Internet of Things (loT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate over a wireless communications network. A UE may be mobile or may (e.g., at certain times) be stationary, and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term “UE” may be referred to interchangeably as an “access terminal” or “AT,” a “client device,” a “wireless device,” a “subscriber device,” a “subscriber terminal,” a “subscriber station,” a “user terminal” or “UT,” a “mobile device,” a “mobile terminal,” a “mobile station,” or variations thereof.5QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WOGenerally, UEs can communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network the UEs can be connected with external networks such as the Internet and with other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms of connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are also possible for the UEs, such as over wired access networks, wireless local area network (WLAN) networks (e.g., based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, etc.) and so on.

[0028] A base station may operate according to one of several RATs in communication with UEs depending on tire network m winch it is deployed, and may be alternatively referred to as an access point (AP), a network node, a NodeB, an evolved NodeB (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a New' Radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as a gNB or gNodeB), etc. A base station may be used primarily to support wireless access by UEs, including supporting data, voice, and / or signaling connections for the supported UEs. In some systems a base station may provide purely edge node signaling functions while in other systems it. may provide additional control and / or network management functions. A communication link through winch UEs can send signals to a base station is called an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). A communication link through which the base station can send signals to UEs is called a downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein the term traffic channel (TCH) can refer to either an uplink / reverse or dow-nlink / forward traffic channel .

[0029] The term “base station” may refer to a single physical transmission-reception point (TRP) or to multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be co-located. For example, where the term “base station” refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. Where the term “base station” refers to multiple co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs may be an away of antennas (e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or where the base station employs beamforming) of the base station. Where the term “base station” refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transport medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-co-located6QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO7 physical TRPs may be the serving base station receiving the measurement report from the UE and a neighbor base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signals the UE is measuring. Because a TRP is the point from which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, as used herein, references to transmission from or reception at a base station are to be understood as referring to a particular TRP of the base station.

[0030] In some implementations that support positioning of UEs, a base station may not support wireless access by UEs (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections for UEs), but may instead transmit reference signals to UEs to be measured by the UEs, and / or may receive and measure signals transmitted by the UEs. Such a base station may be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., when transmitting signals to UEs) and / or as a location measurement unit (e.g., when receiving and measuring signals from UEs).

[0031] An “RF signal’’ comprises an electromagnetic wave of a given frequency that transports information through the space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single “RF signal” or multiple “RF signals” to a receiver. However, the receiver may receive multiple “RF signals” corresponding to each transmitted RF signal due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels. Tire same transmitted RF signal on different paths between the transmitter and receiver may be referred to as a “multipath” RF signal. As used herein, an RF' signal may also be referred to as a “wireless signal” or simply a “signal” where it is clear from the context that the term “signal” refers to a wireless signal or an RF signal.

[0032] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communications system 100, according to aspects of the disclosure. The wireless communications system 100 (which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (VVWAN)) may include various base stations 102 (labeled “BS”) and various UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macro cell base stations (high power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low power cellular base stations). In an aspect, the macro cell base stations may include eNBs and / or ng-eNBs where the wireless communications system 100 corresponds to an LTE network, or gNBs where the wireless communications system 100 corresponds to a NR network, or a combination of both, and the small cell base stations may include femtocells, picocells, microcells, etc.

[8033] The base stations 102. may collectively form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC)) through backhaul links 122,7QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO and through the core network 170 to one or more location servers 172 (e.g., a location management function (LMF) or a secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SEP)). The location server(s) 172 may be part of core network 170 or may be external to core network 170. A location server 172 may be integrated with a base station 102. A UE 104 may communicate with a location server 172 directly or indirectly. For example, a UE 104 may communicate with a location server 172 via the base station 102 that is currently serving that UE 104. A UE 104 may also communicate with a location server 172 through another path, such as via an application server (not shown), via another network, such as via a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) (e.g., AP 150 described below), and so on. For signaling purposes, communication between a UE 104 and a location server 172 may be represented as an indirect connection (e.g., through the core network 170, etc.) or a direct connection (e.g., as shown via direct connection 128), with the intervening nodes (if any) omitted from a signaling diagram for clarity.

[0034] In addition to other functions, the base stations 102 may perform functions that relate to one or more of transferring user data, radio channel ciphering and deciphering, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection setup and release, load balancing, distribution for non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment trace, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of warning messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC / 5GC) over backhaul links 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0035] The base stations 102 may wirelessly communicate with the UEs 104. Each of the base stations 102 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic coverage area 110. In an aspect, one or more cells may be supported by a base station 102 in each geographic coverage area 110. A “cell” is a logical communication entity’ used for communication with a base station (e.g., over some frequency resource, referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, band, or the like), and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier (PCI), an enhanced cell identifier (ECI), a virtual cell identifier (VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI), etc.) for distinguishing cells operating via the same or a different earner frequency. In some cases, different cells may8QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine-type communication (MTC), narrowband loT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or others) that may provide access tor different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a specific base station, the term ‘'cell” may refer to either or both of the logical communication entity and the base station that supports it, depending on the context. In addition, because a TRP is typically the physical transmission point of a cell, the terms “cell” and “TRP” may be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term “cell” may also refer to a geographic coverage area of a base station (e.g., a sector), insofar as a carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within some portion of geographic coverage areas 110.

[0036] While neighboring macro cell base station 102 geographic coverage areas 1 10 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover region), some of the geographic coverage areas 110 may be substantially overlapped by a larger geographic coverage area 110, For example, a small cell base station 102' (labeled “SC” for “small cell”) may have a geographic coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the geographic coverage area 110 of one or more macro cell base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell and macro cell base stations may be known as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include home eNBs (HeNBs), which may provide service to a restricted group known as a closed subscriber group (CSG).

[0037] The communication links 120 between the base stations 102 and the UEs 104 may include uplink (also referred to as reverse link) transmissions from a UE 104 to a base station 102 and / or downlink (DL) (also referred to as forward link) transmissions from a base station 102 to a UE 104. The communication links 120 may use MIMO antenna technology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication links 120 may be through one or more carrier frequencies. Allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to downlink and uplink (e.g., more or less earners may be allocated for downlink than for uplink),

[0038] Tire wireless communications system 100 may further include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 in communication with WLAN stations (STAs) 152 via communication links 154 in an unlicensed frequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the WLAN STAs 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen before talk9QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO10(LBT) procedure prior to communicating in order to determine whether the channel is available.

[0039] The small cell base station 102' may operate in a licensed and / or an unlicensed frequency spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the small cell base station 102.' may employ LTE or NR technology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum as used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102.', employing LTE / 5G in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, may boost coverage to and / or increase capacity of the access network. NR in unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as NR-U. LTE in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-U, licensed assisted access (LAA), or MULTEFIRE®.

[0040] The wireless communications system 100 may further include a millimeter wave (mmW) base station 180 that may operate in mmW frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies in communication with a UE 182. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as a millimeter wave. Near mmW may extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100 millimeters. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, also referred to as centimeter wave. Communications using the mmW / near mmW radio frequency band have high path loss and a relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmit and / or receive) over ammW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range. Further, it will be appreciated that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 may also transmit using mm W or near mmW and beamforming . Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the foregoing illustrations are merely examples and should not be construed to limit the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0041] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in a specific direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in all directions (omni-directionally). With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF' signal in that specific direction, thereby providing a faster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal for the receiving device(s). To change the directionality of the RF signal when10QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO transmitting, a network node can control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of the one or more transmitters that are broadcasting the RF signal. For example, a network node may use an array of antennas (referred to as a “phased array" or an “antenna array”) that creates a beam of RF waves that can be “steered” to point in different directions, without actually moving the antennas. Specifically, tire RF current from tire transmitter is fed to the individual antennas with the correct phase relationship so that the radio waves from the separate antennas add together to increase the radiation in a desired direction, while cancelling to suppress radiation in undesired directions.

[8042] Transmit beams may be quasi-co-located, meaning that they appear to the receiver (e.g., a UE) as having the same parameters, regardless of whether or not the transmitting antennas of the network node themselves are physically co-located. In NR, there are four types of quasi-co-location (QCL) relations. Specifically, a QCL relation of a given type means that certain parameters about a second reference RF signal on a second beam can be derived from information about a source reference RF signal on a source beam. Tirus, if the source reference RF signal is QCL Type A, the receiver can use tire source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type B, the receiver can use tire source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type C, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and average delay of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type D, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the spatial receive parameter of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[8043] In receive beamforming, the receiver uses a receive beam to amplify RF signals detected on a given channel. For example, the receiver can increase the gain setting and / or adjust the phase setting of an array of antennas in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., to increase the gain level of) the RF signals received from that direction. Tirus, when a receiver is said to beamform in a certain direction, it means the beam gain in that direction is high relative to the beam gain along other directions, or the beam gain m that direction is the highest compared to the beam gain in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., reference1 1QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal-to- interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), etc.) of the RF signals received from that direction.

[0044] Transmit and receive beams may be spatially related. A spatial relation means that parameters for a second beam (e.g., a transmit or receive beam) for a second reference signal can be derived from information about a first beam (e.g., a receive beam or a transmit beam) for a first reference signal. For example, a UE may use a particular receive beam to receive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., synchronization signal block (SSB)) from a base station. Hie UE can then form a transmit beam for sending an uplink reference signal (e.g., sounding reference signal (SRS)) to that base station based on the parameters of the receive beam.

[0045] Note that a “downlink” beam may be either a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity forming it. For example, if a base station is forming the downlink beam to transmit a reference signal to a UE, the downlink beam is a transmit beam. If the UE is forming the downlink beam, however, it is a receive beam to receive the downlink reference signal. Similarly, an “uplink” beam may be either a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity forming it. For example, if a base station is forming the uplink beam, it is an uplink receive beam, and if a UE is forming the uplink beam, it is an uplink transmit beam.

[0046] The electromagnetic spectrum is often subdivided, based on frequency / wavelength, into various classes, bands, channels, etc. In 5G NR two initial operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz - 7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz - 52.6 GHz). It should be understood that although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz, FR1 is often referred to (interchangeably) as a “Sub-6 GHz” band in various documents and articles, A similar nomenclature issue sometimes occurs with regard to FR2, which is often referred to (interchangeably) as a “millimeter wave” band in documents and articles, despite being different from the extremely high frequency (EHF) band (30 GHz - 300 GHz) which is identified by the INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION® as a “millimeter wave” band.

[0047] Tlie frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are often referred to as mid-band frequencies. Recent 5G NR studies have identified an operating band for these mid-band frequencies as frequency range designation FR3 (7.125 GHz - 24.25 GHz). Frequency bands falling within FR3 may inherit FR1 characteristics and / or FR2 characteristics, and thus mayQC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO13 effectively extend features of FR1 and / or FR2 into mid-band frequencies. In addition, higher frequency bands are currently being explored to extend 5G NR operation beyond 52.6 GHz. For example, three higher operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR4aor FR4-1 (52.6 GHz - 71 GHz), FR4 (52.6 GHz - 114.25 GHz), and FR5 (114.25 GHz - 300 GHz). Each of these higher frequency bands falls within the EHF band.

[0048] With the above aspects in mind, unless specifically stated otherwise, it should be understood that the term “sub-6 GHz'’ or the like if used herein may broadly represent frequencies that may be less than 6 GHz, may be within FR1, or may include mid-band frequencies. Further, unless specifically stated otherwise, it should be understood that the term “■millimeter w ave” or the like if used herein may broadly represent frequencies that may include mid-band frequencies, may be within FR2, FR4, FR4-a or FR4-1, and / or FR5, or may be within the EHF band,

[0049] In a multi-carrier system, such as 5G, one of the carrier frequencies is referred to as the “primary carrier” or “anchor carrier” or “primary serving cell” or “PCell,” and the remaining carrier frequencies are referred to as “secondary carriers” or “secondary serving cells” or “SCells.” In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is the earner operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by a UE 104 / 182 and the cell in which the UE 104 / 182 either performs the initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates the RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific con trol channels, and may be a. carrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case). A secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2) that may be configured once the RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier and that may be used to provide additional radio resources. In some cases, the secondary carrier may be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency . The secondary carrier may contain only necessary signaling information and signals, for example, those that are UE-specific may not be present in the secondary' carrier, since both primary uplink and downlink carriers are typically UE-specific. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplink primary carriers. The network is able to change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance the load on different carriers. Because a “serving cell” (whether a13QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO14PCell or an SCell) corresponds to a earner frequency / component earner over which some base station is communicating, the term ‘"cell “serving cell,” “component carrier,” “carrier frequency,” and the like can be used interchangeably.

[0050] For example, still referring to FIG. 1, one of the frequencies utilized by tire macro ceil base stations 102. may be an anchor carrier (or “PCell”) and other frequencies utilized by the macro cell base stations 102. and / or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers (“SCells”). Tire simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers enables the UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rates. For example, two 2.0 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically lead to a two-fold increase in data rate (i.e., 40 MHz), compared to that attained by a single 20 MHz carrier.

[0051] The wireless communications system 100 may further include a UE 164 that may communicate with a macro cell base station 102 over a communication link 120 and / or the mmW base station 180 over a mmW communication link 184. For example, the macro cell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the LIE 164 and the mm W base station 180 may support one or more SCells for the UE 164.

[0052] In some cases, the UE 164 and the UE 182 may be capable of sidelink communication. Sidelink-capable UEs (SL-UEs) may communicate with base stations 102 over communication links 120 using the Uu interface (i.e., the air interface between a UE and a base station). SL-UEs (e.g., UE 164, UE 182) may also communicate directly with each other over a wireless side link 160 using the PC5 interface (i.e., the air interface between sidelink-capable UEs). A wireless sidelink (or just “sidelink”) is an adaptation of the core cellular (e.g., LTE, NR) standard that allows direct communication between two or more UEs without the communication needing to go through a base station. Sidelink communication may be unicast or multicast, and may be used for device-to-device (D2D) media-sharing, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everyfhing (V2X) communication (e.g., cellular V2X (cV2.X) communication, enhanced V2.X (eV2X) communication, etc.), emergency rescue applications, etc. One or more of a group of SL- UEs utilizing sidelink communications may be within the geographic coverage area 110 of a base station 102. Other SL-UEs in such a group may be outside the geographic coverage area 110 of a base station 102. or be otherwise unable to receive transmissions from a base station 102. In some cases, groups of SL-UEs communicating via sidelink14QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO communications may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each SL-UE transmits to every other SL-UE in the group. In some cases, a base station 102 facilitates the scheduling of resources tor sidelink communications. In other cases, sidelink communications are carried out between SL-UEs without the involvement of a base station 102.

[0053] In an aspect, the sidelink 160 may operate over a wireless communication medium of interest, which may be shared with other wireless communications between other vehicles and / or infrastructure access points, as well as other RATs. A “medium” may be composed of one or more time, frequency, and / or space communication resources (e.g., encompassing one or more channels across one or more earners) associated with wireless communication between one or more transmitter / receiver pairs. In an aspect, the medium of interest may correspond to at least a portion of an unlicensed frequency band shared among various RATs. Although different licensed frequency bands have been reserved for certain communication systems (e.g., by a government entity such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States), these systems, in particular those employing small cell access points, have recently extended operation into unlicensed frequency bands such as the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) band used by wireless local area network (WLAN) technologies, most notably IEEE 802.1 lx WLAN technologies generally referred to as “Wi-Fi.” Example systems of this type include different variants of CDMA systems, TDMA systems, FDMA systems, orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems, and so on.

[0054] Note that although FIG. 1 only illustrates two of the UEs as SL-UEs (i.e., UEs 164 and 182), any of the illustrated UEs may be SL-UEs. Further, although only UE 182 was described as being capable of beamforming, any of the illustrated UEs, including UE 164, may be capable of beamforming. Where SL-UEs are capable of beamforming, they may beamform towards each other (i.e., towards other SL-UEs), towards other UEs (e.g,, UEs 104), towards base stations (e.g., base stations 102, 180, small cell 102’, access point 150), etc. Thus, in some cases, UEs 164 and 182 may utilize beamforming over sidelink 160.

[0055] In the example of FIG. 1, any of the illustrated UEs (shown m FIG. 1 as a single UE 104 for simplicity) may receive signals 124 from one or more Earth orbiting space vehicles15QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO(S Vs) 112 (e.g., satellites). In an aspect, the SVs 112 may be part of a satellite positioning system that a UE 104 can use as an independent source of location information. A satellite positioning system typically includes a system of transmiters (e.g., SVs 1 12) positioned to enable receivers (e.g., UEs 104) to determine their location on or above the Earth based, at least in part, on positioning signals (e.g., signals 124) received from the transmitters. Such a transmitter typically transmits a signal marked with a repeating pseudo-random noise (PN) code of a set number of chips. While typically located in SVs 112, transmitters may sometimes be located on ground-based control stations, base stations 102, and / or other UEs 104. A UE 104 may include one or more dedicated receivers specifically designed to receive signals 124 for deriving geo location information from the SVs 112.

[0056] In a satellite positioning system, the use of signals 124 can be augmented by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) that may be associated with or otherwise enabled for use with one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems. For example an SBAS may include an augmentation system(s) that provides integrity information, differential corrections, etc., such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the Multifunctional Satellite Augmentation System (MS AS), the Global Positioning System (GPS) Aided Geo Augmented Navigation or GPS and Geo Augmented Navigation system (GAGAN), and / or the like. Thus, as used herein, a satellite positioning system may include any combination of one or more global and / or regional navigation satellites associated with such one or more satellite positioning systems.

[0057] In an aspect, SVs 112 may additionally or alternatively be part of one or more nonterrestrial networks (NTNs). In an NTN, an SV 112 is connected to an earth station (also referred to as a ground station, NTN gateway, or gateway), which in turn is connected to an element in a 5G network, such as a modified base station 102 (without a terrestrial antenna) or a network node in a 5GC. This element would in turn provide access to other elements in the 5G network and ultimately to entities external to the 5G network, such as Internet web servers and other user devices. In that way, a UE 104 may receive communication signals (e.g., signals 124) from an SV 112 instead of, or in addition to, communication signals from a terrestrial base station 102.

[8058] The wireless communications system 100 may further include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, that connects indirectly to one or more communication networks via one or more16QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO17 device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as “sidelinks”). In the example of FIG. 1, UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of the UEs 104 connected to one of the base stations 102 (e.g., through which UE 190 may indirectly obtain cellular connectivity) and a D2D P2P link 194 with WLAN STA 152 connected to the WLAN AP 150 (through which UE 190 may indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity'). In an example, the 02.0 P2P links 192 and 194 may be supported with any well-known D2D RAT, such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WI-FI DIRECT®), BLUETOOTH®, and so on.

[0059] FIG. 2A illustrates an example wireless network structure 2.00. For example, a 5GC 210 (also referred to as a Next Generation Core (NGC)) can be viewed functionally as control plane (C-plane) functions 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and user plane (U-plane) functions 212, (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data networks, IP routing, etc.) which operate cooperatively to form the core network. User plane interface (NG-U) 213 and control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 to the 5GC 210 and specifically to the user plane functions 212 and control plane functions 214, respectively. In an additional configuration, an ng-eNB 224 may also be connected to the 5GC 210 via NG-C 215 to the control plane functions 214 and NG-U 213 to user plane functions 212. Further, ng-eNB 224 may directly communicate with gNB 222 via a backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, a Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN) 220 may have one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of both ng-eNBs 224 and gNBs 222. Either (or both) gNB 222 or ng-eNB 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

[8060] Another optional aspect may include a location server 2.30, which may be in communication with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance for UE(s) 204. The location server 230 can be implemented as a plurality of separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.), or al ternately may each correspond to a single server. The location server 230 can be configured to support one or more location services for UEs 204 that can connect to the location server 230 via the core network, 5GC 2.10, and / or via the Internet (not illustrated). Further, the location server 230 may be integrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively may beQC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO external to the core network (e.g., a third party server, such as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) server or service server).

[0061] FIG. 2B illustrates another example wireless network structure 240. A 5GC 260 (which may correspond to 5GC 210 in FIG. 2A) can be viewed functionally as control plane functions, provided by an access and mobility management function (AMF) 264, and user plane functions, provided by a user plane function (UPF) 262, which operate cooperatively to form the core network (i.e., 5GC 260). The functions of the AMF 264 include registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawfill interception, transport for session management (SM) messages between one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein) and a session management function (SMF) 266, transparent proxy services for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transport for short message service (SMS) messages between the UE 204 and the short message service function (SMSF) (not shown), and security anchor functionality (SEAF). The AMF 264 also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and the UE 204, and receives the intermediate key that was established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In the case of authentication based on a UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) subscriber identity module (USIM), the AMF 264 retrieves the security material from the AUSF. The functions of the AMF 264 also include security context management (SCM). The SCM recei ves a key from the SEAF that it uses to derive access-network specific keys. The functionality of the AMF 264 also includes location services management for regulatory services, transport for location services messages between the UE 204 and a location management function (LMF) 270 (which acts as a location server 230), transport for location services messages between the NG-RAN 220 and the LMF 270, evolved packet system (EPS) bearer identifier allocation for interworking with the EPS, and UE 204 mobility event notification. In addition, the AMF 264 also supports functionalities for non-3GPP® (Third Generation Partnership Project) access networks.

[0062] Functions of the U PF 262 include acting as an anchor point for intra / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an external protocol data unit (PDU) session point of interconnect to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic18QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usage reporting, quality of service (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g., uplink / downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in the downlink), uplink traffic verification (service data flow7(SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and sending and forwarding of one or more “end markers” to the source RAN node. The UPF 262 may also support transfer of location sendees messages over a user plane between the UE 204 and a location server, such as an SLP 272.

[0063] The functions of the SMF 266 include session management, UE Internet protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, configuration of traffic steering at the UPF 262 to route traffic to the proper destination, control of part of policy enforcement and QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface over which the SMF 266 communicates with the AMF 264 is referred to as the N1 1 interface.

[6064] Another optional aspect may include an LMF 270, which may be in communication with the 5GC 260 to provide location assistance for UEs 204. The LMF 2.70 can be implemented as a plurality of separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternately may each correspond to a single server. The LMF 270 can be configured to support one or more location sendees for UEs 204 that can connect to the LMF 270 via the core network, 5GC 260, and / or via the Internet (not illustrated). The SLP 272 may support similar functions to the LMF 270, but whereas the LMF 270 may communicate with the AMF 264, NG-RAN 220, and UEs 204 over a control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to convey signaling messages and not voice or data), the SLP 272 may communicate with UEs 204 and external clients (e.g., third-party server 274) over a user plane (e.g., using protocols intended to cany voice and / or data like the transmission control protocol (TCP) and / or IP).

[0065] Yet another optional aspect may include a third-party server 274, which may be in communication with the LMF 270, the SLP 272, the 5GC 260 (e.g., via the AMF 264 and / or the UPF 262), the NG-RAN 220, and / or the UE 204 to obtain location information (e.g., a location estimate) for the UE 204. As such, in some cases, the third-party server 274 may be referred to as a location sendees (LCS) client or an external client. The third-19QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO20 party server 274 can be implemented as a plurality of separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternately may each correspond to a single server.

[0066] User plane interface 263 and control plane interface 265 connect the 5GC 260, and specifically the UPF 262 and AMF 264, respectively, to one or more gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 in the NG-RAN 220. The interface between gNB(s) 222 and / or ng-eNB(s) 224 and the AMF 264 is referred to as the “N2” interface, and the interface between gNB(s) 222 and / or ng-eNB(s) 224 and the UPF 262 is referred to as the£<N3” interface. The gNB(s) 222 and / or ng-eNB(s) 224 of the NG-RAN 220 may communicate directly with each other via backhaul connections 223, referred to as the “Xn-C” interface. One or more of gNBs 22.2 and / or ng-eNBs 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 over a wireless interface, referred to as the££Uu” interface.

[0067] Tire functionality of a gNB 222 may be divided between a gNB central unit (gNB-CU) 226, one or more gNB distributed units (gNB-DUs) 228, and one or more gNB radio units (gNB-RUs) 229. A gNB-CU 226 is a logical node that includes the base station functions of transferring user data, mobility control, radio access network sharing, positioning, session management, and the like, except for those functions allocated exclusively to the gNB-DU(s) 228. More specifically, tire gNB-CU 226 generally host the radio resource control (RRC), service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) protocols of the gNB 222. A gNB-DU 228 is a logical node that generally hosts the radio link control (RLC) and medium access control (MAC) layer of the gNB 222. Its operation is controlled by the gNB-CU 226. One gNB-DU 228 can support one or more cells, and one cell is supported by only one gNB-DU 228. The interface 232 between the gNB-CU 226 and the one or more gNB-DUs 228 is referred to as the “Fl” interface. The physical (PHY) layer functionality of a gNB 222 is generally hosted by one or more standalone gNB-RUs 229 that perform functions such as power amplification and signal transmission / reception. The interface between a gNB-DU 228 and a gNB-RU 229 is referred to as the “Fx” interface. Thus, a UE 204 communicates with the gNB-CU 226 via tire RRC, SDAP, and PDCP layers, with a gNB-DU 228 via the RLC and MAC layers, and with a gNB-RU 229 via the PHY layer.20QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO

[0068] Deployment of communication systems, such as 5G NR systems, may be arranged in multiple manners with various components or constituent parts. In a 5G NR. system, or network, a network node, a network entity, a mobility element of a network, a RAN node, a core network node, a network element, or a network equipment, such as a base station, or one or more units (or one or more components) performing base station functionality', may be implemented in an aggregated or disaggregated architecture. For example, a base station (such as a Node B (NB), evolved NB (eNB), NR base station, 5G NB, AP, TRP, cell, etc.) may be implemented as an aggregated base station (also known as a standalone base station or a monolithic base station) or a disaggregated base station.

[0069] An aggregated base station may be configured to utilize a radio protocol stack that is physically or logically integrated within a single RAN node. A disaggregated base station may be configured to utilize a protocol stack that is physically or logically distributed among two or more units (such as one or more central or centralized units (CUs), one or more distributed units (DUs), or one or more radio units (RUs)). In some aspects, a CU may be implemented within a RAN node, and one or more DUs may be co-located with the CU, or alternatively, may7be geographically7or virtually distributed throughout one or multiple other RAN nodes. Tire DUs may be implemented to communicate with one or more RUs. Each of the CU, DU and RU also can be implemented as virtual units, i.e., a virtual central unit (VCU), a virtual distributed unit (VDU), or a virtual radio unit (VRU).

[0070] Base station-type operation or network design may consider aggregation characteristics of base station functionality'. For example, disaggregated base stations may be utilized in an integrated access backhaul (IAB) network, an open radio access network (O-RAN (such as the network configuration sponsored by the O-RAN ALLIANCE®)), or a virtuali zed radio access network (vRAN, also known as a cloud radio access network (C- RAN)). Disaggregation may include distributing functionality across two or more units at various physical locations, as well as distributing functionality for at least one unit virtually, which can enable flexibility in network design. The various units of the disaggregated base station, or disaggregated RAN architecture, can be configured for wired or wireless communication with at least one other unit.

[0071] FIG. 2C illustrates an example disaggregated base station architecture 250, according to aspects of the disclosure. The disaggregated base station architecture 250 may include one or more central units (CUs) 280 (e.g., gNB-CU 226) that can communicate directly21QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO with a core network 267 (e.g., 5GC 210, 5GC 260) via a backhaul link, or indirectly with the core network 267 through one or more disaggregated base station units (such as a Near-Real Time (Near-RT) RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) 259 via an E2 link, or a Non-Real Time (Non-RT) RIC 257 associated with a Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) Framework 255, or both). A CU 280 may communicate with one or more DUs 2.85 (e.g., gNB-DUs 228) via respective midhaul links, such as an Fl interface. The DUs 285 may communicate with one or more radio units (RUs) 287 (e.g., gNB-RUs 229) via respective fronthaui links. The RUs 287 may communicate with respective UEs 2.04 via one or more radio frequency (RF) access links. In some implementations, the UE 204 may be simultaneously served by multiple RUs 287.

[0072] Each of the units, i.e., the CUs 280, the DUs 285, the RUs 287, as well as the Near-RT RICs 259, the Non-RT RICs 257 and the SMO Framework 255, may include one or more interfaces or be coupled to one or more interfaces configured to receive or transmit, signals, data, or information (collectively, signals) via. a wired or wireless transmission medium. Each of the units, or an associated processor or controller providing instructions to the communication interfaces of the units, can be configured to communicate with one or more of the other units via the transmission medium. For example, the units can include a wired interface configured to receive or transmit signals over a wired transmission medium to one or more of the other units. Additionally, the units can include a wireless interface, which may include a receiver, a transmitter or transceiver (such as a RF transceiver), configured to receive or transmit signals, or both, over a wireless transmission medium to one or more of the other units.

[0073] In some aspects, the CU 280 may host one or more higher layer control functions. Such control functions can include RRC, PDCP, service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), or the like. Each control function can be implemented with an interface configured to communicate signals with other control functions hosted by the CU 280. The CU 2.80 may be configured to handle user plane functionality (i ,e., Central Unit. - User Plane (CU- UP)), control plane functionality (i.e., Central Unit - Control Plane (CU-CP)), or a combination thereof. In some implementations, the CU 280 can be logically split into one or more CU-UP units and one or more CU-CP units. The CU-UP unit can communicate bidirectionally with the CU-CP unit via an interface, such as the El interface when implemented in an O-RAN configuration. The CU 280 can be22QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO implemented to communicate with the DU 285, as necessary, for network control and signaling.

[0074] The DU 285 may correspond to a logical unit that includes one or more base station functions to control the operation of one or more RUs 287. In some aspects, the DU 285 may host one or more of a RLC layer, a MAC layer, and one or more high PHY layers (such as modules for forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding, scrambling, modulation and demodulation, or the like) depending, at least in part, on a functional split, such as those defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP®). In some aspects, the DU 285 may further host one or more low PHY layers. Each layer (or module) can be implemented with an interface configured to communicate signals with other layers (and modules) hosted by the DU 285, or with the control functions hosted by the CU 280.

[0075] Lower-layer functionality can be implemented by one or more RUs 287. In some deployments, an RU 287, controlled by a DU 285, may correspond to a logical node that hosts RF processing functions, or low-PHY layer functions (such as performing fast Fourier transform (FFT), inverse FFT (iFFT), digital beamforming, physical random access channel (PRACH) extraction and filtering, or the like), or both, based at least in part on the functional split, such as a lower layer functional split. In such an architecture, the RU(s) 287 can be implemented to handle over the air (OTA) communication with one or more UEs 204. In some implementations, real-time and non-real-time aspects of control and user plane communication with the RU(s) 287 can be controlled by the corresponding DU 285. In some scenarios, this configuration can enable the DU(s) 285 and the CU 280 to be implemented in a cloud-based RAN architecture, such as a vRAN architecture.

[0076] The SMC) Framework 255 may be configured to support RAN deployment and provisioning of non-virtualized and virtualized network elements. For non-virtualized network elements, the SMO Framework 255 may be configured to support the deployment of dedicated physical resources for RAN coverage requirements which may be managed via an operations and maintenance interface (such as an 01 interface). For virtualized network elements, the SMO Framework 255 may be configured to interact with a cloud computing platform (such as an open cloud (O-Cloud) 2.69) to perform network element life cycle management (such as to instantiate virtualized network23QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO elements) via a cloud computing platform interface (such as an 02 interface). Such virtualized network elements can include, but are not limited to, CUs 280, DUs 285, RUs 287 and Near-RT RICs 259. In some implementations, the SMO Framework 255 can communicate with a hardware aspect of a 4G RAN, such as an open eNB (O-eNB) 261, via an 01 interface. Additionally, in some implementations, the SMO Framework 255 can communicate directly with one or more RUs 287 via an 01 interface. The SMO Framework 255 also may include a Non-RT RIC 257 configured to support functionality of the SMO Framework 255.

[8077] The Non-RT RIC 257 may be configured to include a logical function that enables non- real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources, artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) workflows including model training and updates, or policy-based guidance of applications / features in the Near-RT RIC 259. The Non-RT RIC 257 may be coupled to or communicate with (such as via an A l interface) the Near- RT RIC 259. The Near-RT RIC 259 may be configured to include a logical function that enables near-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources via data collection and actions over an interface (such as via an E2 interface) connecting one or more CUs 280, one or more DUs 285, or both, as well as an O-eNB, with the Near-RT RIC 259.

[0078] In some implementations, to generate AI / ML models to be deployed in the Near-RT RIC 259, the Non-RT RIC 257 may receive parameters or external enrichment information from external servers. Such information may be utilized by the Near-RT RIC 259 and may be received at the SMO Framework 255 or the Non-RT RIC 257 from non-network data sources or from network functions. In some examples, the Non-RT RIC 257 or the Near-RT RIC 259 may be configured to tune RAN behavior or performance. For example, the Non-RT RIC 257 may monitor long-term trends and patterns for performance and employ AI / ML models to perfonn corrective actions through the SMO Framework 2.55 (such as reconfiguration via 01) or via creation of RAN management policies (such as Al policies).

[0079] FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C illustrate several example components (represented by corresponding blocks) that may be incorporated into a UE 302 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein), a base station 304 (which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein), and a. network entity 306 (which may correspond to or24QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO embody any of the network functions described herein, including the location server 230 and the L.MF 270, or alternatively may be independent from the NG-RAN 220 and / or 5GC 210 / 260 infrastructure depicted in FIGS. 2A and 2B, such as a private network) to support the operations described herein. It will be appreciated that these components may be implemented in different types of apparatuses in different implementations (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system -on-chip (SoC), etc.). The illustrated components may also be incorporated into other apparatuses in a communication system. For example, other apparatuses in a sy stem may include components similar to those described to provide similar functionality. Also, a given apparatus may contain one or more of the components. For example, an apparatus may include multiple transceiver components that enable the apparatus to operate on multiple carriers and / or communicate via different technologies.

[0080] The UE 302 and the base station 304 each include one or more wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceivers 310 and 350, respectively, providing means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for refraining from transmitting, etc.) via one or more wireless communication networks (not shown), such as an NR network, an LTE network, a GSM network, and / or the like. The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may each be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc., via at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest (e.g., some set of time / frequency resources in a particular frequency spectrum). The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be variously configured for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, and so on), respectively, and, conversely, for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, and so on), respectively, in accordance with the designated RAT. Specifically, the WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 include one or more transmiters 314 and 354, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358, respectively, and one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively, for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively.

[0081] The UE 302 and the base station 304 each also include, at least in some cases, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360, respectively. The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be connected to one or more antennas 326 and25QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO366, respectively, and provide means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for refraining from transmitting, etc.) with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc., via at least one designated RAT (e.g., Wi-Fi, LTE Direct, BLUETOOTH®, ZIGBEE®, Z-WAVE®, PC5, dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), wireless access for vehicular environments (WAVE), near-field communication (NFC), ultra- wideband (UWB), etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest. The short- range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be variously configured for transmitting and encoding signals 32.8 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, and so on), respectively, and, conversely, for receiving and decoding signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, and so on), respectively, in accordance with the designated RAT. Specifically, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 include one or more transmitters 324 and 364, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 328 and 368, respectively, and one or more receivers 322 and 362, respectively, for receiving and decoding signals 328 and 368, respectively. As specific examples, the short-range wireless transceivers 32.0 and 360 may be Wi-Fi transceivers, BLUETOOTH® transceivers, ZIGBEE® and / or Z-WAVE® transceivers, NFC transceivers, UWB transceivers, or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and / or vehicle-to- everythmg (V2X) transceivers.

[0082] The UE 302. and the base station 304 also include, at least m some cases, satellite signal interfaces 330 and 370, which each include one or more satellite signal receivers 332 and 372, respectively, and may optionally include one or more satellite signal transmitters 334 and 374, respectively . In some cases, the base station 304 may be a terrestrial base station that may communicate with space vehicles (e.g., space vehicles 1 12) via the satellite signal interface 370. In other cases, the base station 304 may be a space vehicle (or other non-terrestrial entity) that uses the satellite signal interface 370 to communicate with terrestrial networks and / or other space vehicles.

[0083] The satellite signal receivers 332 and 372 may be connected to one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, and may provide means for receiving and / or measuring satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. Where the satellite signal receiver(s) 332 and 372. are satellite positioning system receivers, the satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378 may be global positioning system (GPS)2.6QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO27 signals, global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, Beidou signals, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NA VIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) signals, etc. Where the satellite signal receiver(s) 332 and 372 are nonterrestrial network (NTN) receivers, the satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378 may be communication signals (e.g., carrying control and / or user data) originating from a 5G network. The satellite signal receivers) 332 and 372 may comprise any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378, respectively, lire satellite signal receivers) 332 and 372 may request information and operations as appropriate from the other systems, and, at least in some cases, perform calculations to determine locations of the UE 302 and the base station 304, respectively, using measurements obtained by any suitable satellite positioning system algorithm.

[0084] The optional satellite signal transmitter(s) 334 and 374, when present, may be connected to the one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, and may provide means for transmitting satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. Where the satellite signal transmitters) 374 are satellite positioning system transmitters, the satellite positioning / communication signals 378 may be GPS signals, GLONASS® signals, Galileo signals, Beidou signals, NAVIC, QZSS signals, etc. Where the satellite signal transmitter(s) 334 and 374 are NTN transmitters, the satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378 may be communication signals (e.g., carrying control and / or user data) originating from a 5G network. The satellite signal transmitter) s) 334 and 374 may comprise any suitable hardware and / or software for transmitting satellite positioning / communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. The satellite signal transmitters) 334 and 374 may request information and operations as appropriate from the other systems.

[0085] The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include one or more network transceivers 380 and 390, respectively, providing means for communicating (e.g,, means for transmitting, means tor receiving, etc.) with other network entities (e.g., other base stations 304, other network entities 306). For example, the base station 304 may employ the one or more network transceivers 380 to communicate with other base stations 304 or network entities 306 over one or more wired or wireless backhaul links. As another example, the network entity 306 may employ the one or more network transceivers 390QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO28 to communicate with one or more base station 304 over one or more wired or wireless backhaul links, or with other network entities 306 over one or more wired or wireless core network interfaces.

[0086] A transceiver may be configured to communicate over a wired or wireless link. A transceiver (whether a wired transceiver or a wireless transceiver) includes transmitter circuitry (e.g., transmitters 314, 32.4, 354, 364) and receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352, 362). A transceiver may be an integrated device (e.g., embodying transmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry in a single device) in some implementations, may comprise separate transmitter circuitry and separate receiver circuitry in some implementations, or may be embodied in other ways in other implementations. The transmiter circuitry' and receiver circuitry of a wired transceiver (e.g., network transceivers 380 and 390 in some implementations) may be coupled to one or more wired network interface ports. Wireless transmitter circuitry (e.g., transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) may include or be coupled to a plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as an antenna array, that permits the respective apparatus (e.g., LIE 302, base station 304) to perform transmit “beamforming,” as described herein. Similarly, wireless receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352, 362) may include or be coupled to a plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as an antenna array, that permits the respective apparatus (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform receive beamforming, as described herein. In an aspect, the transmiter circuitry' and receiver circuitry may share the same plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such that the respective apparatus can only receive or transmit at a given time, not both at the same time. A wireless transceiver (e.g., WWAN transceivers 310 and 350, short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360) may also include a network listen module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

[0087] As used herein, the various wireless transceivers (e.g., transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, and network transceivers 380 and 390 in some implementations) and wired transceivers (e.g., network transceivers 380 and 390 in some implementations) may generally be characterized as “a transceiver,” ‘"at least one transceiver,” or ‘"one or more transceivers.” As such, whether a particular transceiver is a wired or wireless transcei ver may be inferred from the type of communication performed. For example, backhaul communication between network devices or servers will generally relate to signaling via28QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO a wired transceiver, whereas wireless communication between a UE (e.g., UE 302) and a base station (e.g,, base station 304) wiil generally relate to signaling via a wireless transceiver.

[0088] The UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 also include other components that may be used in conjunction with the operations as disclosed herein, lire UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 include one or more processors 342, 384, and 394, respectively, for providing functionality relating to, tor example, wireless communication, and for providing other processing functionality'. The processors 342, 384, and 394 may therefore provide means for processing, such as means for determining, means for calculating, means for receiving, means for transmitting, means for indicating, etc. In an aspect, the processors 342, 384, and 394 may include, for example, one or more general purpose processors, multi-core processors, central processing units (CPUs), ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), other programmable logic devices or processing circuitry, or various combinations thereof.

[8089] The UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 include memory' circuitry' implementing memories 340, 386, and 396 (e.g., each including a memory' device), respectively, for maintaining information (e.g., information indicative of reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, and so on), lire memories 340, 386, and 396 may therefore provide means for storing, means for retrieving, means for maintaining, etc. In some cases, the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 may include sensing component 348, 388, and 398, respectively. The sensing component 348, 388, and 398 may be hardware circuits that are part of or coupled to the processors 342, 384, and 394, respectively, that, when executed, cause the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. In other aspects, the sensing component 348, 388, and 398 may be external to the processors 342, 384, and 394 (e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated with another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the sensing component 348, 388, and 398 may be memory' modules stored in the memories 340, 386, and 396, respectively, that, when executed by the processors 342, 384, and 394 (or a modem processing system, another processing system, etc.), cause the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity' 306 to perform the functionality described herein. FIG. 3A illustrates possible locations of the sensing29QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO30 component 348, which may be, for exampie, part of the one or more WWAN transceivers 310, the roemoi}' 340, the one or more processors 342, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component. FIG . 3B illustrates possible locations of the sensing component 388, which may be, for example, part of the one or more WWAN transceivers 350, the memory 386, the one or more processors 384, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component. FIG. 3C illustrates possible locations of the sensing component 398, which may be, for example, part of the one or more network transceivers 390, the memory 396, the one or more processors 394, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component.[009ft] The UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to the one or more processors 342 to provide means for sensing or detecting movement and / or orientation information that is independent of motion data derived from signals received by the one or more WWAN transceivers 310, the one or more short-range wireless transceivers 32.0, and / or the satellite signal interface 330. By way of example, the sensor(s) 344 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric pressure al timeter), and / or any other type of movement detection sensor. Moreover, the sensor(s) 344 may include a plurality of different types of devices and combine their outputs in order to provide motion information. For example, the sensor(s) 344 may use a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and orientation sensors to provide the ability to compute positions in two-dimensional (2D) and / or three-dimensional (3D) coordinate systems.

[6091] In addition, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346 providing means for providing indications (e.g., audible and / or visual indications) to a user and / or for receiving user input (e.g., upon user actuation of a sensing device such a keypad, a touch screen, a microphone, and so on). Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 may also include user interfaces.

[0092] Referring to the one or more processors 384 in more detail, in the downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the processor 384. The one or more processors 384 may implement functionality for an RRC layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a medium access control (MAC) layer. Tire one or more processors 384 may provide RRC layer functionality30QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO associated with broadcasting of system information (e.g., master information block (MIB), system information blocks (STBs)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression, security (ciphering, deciphering, integrity' protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality associated with the transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ), concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly' of RLC service data units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, scheduling information reporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0093] Tire transmitter 354 and the receiver 352 may implement Layer- 1 (LI) functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Layer- 1, which includes a physical (PHY) layer, may include error detection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of the transport channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physical channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, and M1M0 antenna processing. The transmitter 354 handles mapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary' phase-shift keying ( BPSK), quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), M-phase-shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time and / or frequency domain, and then combined together using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a time domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol stream is spatially precoded to produce multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator may be used to determine the coding and modulation scheme, as well as for spatial processing. The channel estimate may be derived from a reference signal and / or channel condition feedback transmitted by the UE 302. Each spatial stream may' then be provided to one or more different antennas 356. The31QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO transmitter 354 may modulate an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

[0094] At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives a signal through its respective antenna(s) 316. The receiver 312 recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to the one or more processors 342. The transmitter 314 and the receiver 312 implement Layer- 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. The receiver 312 may perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for the UE 302. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE 302, they may be combined by the receiver 312 into a single OFDM symbol stream. The receiver 312 then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time-domain to the frequency domain using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal comprises a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier, and the reference signal, are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the base station 304. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates computed by a channel estimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and de-interleaved to recover the data and control signals that were originally transmited by the base station 304 on the physical channel. The data and control signals are then provided to the one or more processors 342, which implements Layer-3 (L3) and Layer-2. (L2) functionality.

[0095] In the downlink, the one or more processors 342 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. The one or more processors 342 are also responsible for error detection.

[8096] Similar to the functionality described in connection with the downlink transmission by the base station 304, the one or more processors 342 provides RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g.„ MIB, SIBs) acquisition, RRC connections, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression, and security (ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality associated with the transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport32QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO33 channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0097] Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from a reference signal or feedback transmitted by the base station 304 may be used by the transmitter 314 to select the appropriate coding and modulation schemes, and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter 314 may be provided to different antenna(s) 316. The transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

[0098] The uplink transmission is processed at the base station 304 in a manner similar to that described in connection with the receiver function at the UE 302. The receiver 352 receives a signal through its respective antenna(s) 356. The receiver 352 recovers information modulated onto an RF earner and provides the information to the one or more processors 384.

[6099] In the uplink, the one or more processors 384 pro vides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from the UE 302. IP packets from the one or more processors 384 may be provided to the core network. The one or more processors 384 are also responsible for error detection.

[0100] For convenience, the UE 302, the base station 304, and / or the network entity 306 are shown in FIGS. 3 A, 3B, and 3C as including various components that may be configured according to the various examples described herein. It will be appreciated, however, that the illustrated components may have different functionality in different designs. In particular, various components in FIGS. 3A to 3C are optional in alternative configurations and the various aspects include configurations that may vary due to design choice, costs, use of the device, or other considerations. For example, in case of FIG. 3A, a particular implementation of UE 302 may omit the WAV AN transceiver(s) 310 (e.g., a wearable device or tablet computer or personal computer (PC) or laptop may have Wi-Fi and / or BLUETOOTH® capability without cellular capability), or may omit the short- range wireless transceivers) 320 (e.g., cellular-only, etc.), or may omit the satellite signal interface 330, or may omit the sensor(s) 344, and so on. In another example, in case of FIG. 3B, a particular implementation of the base station 304 may omit the WAV AN33QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO34 transceivers) 350 (e.g., a Wi-Fi “hotspot” access point without cellular capability), or may omit the short-range wireless transceiver(s) 360 (e.g., cellular-only, etc,), or may omit the satellite signal interface 370, and so on. For brevity, illustration of the various alternative configurations is not provided herein, but would be readily understandable to one skilled in the art.

[0101] The various components of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 may be communicatively coupled to each other over data buses 308, 382, and 392, respectively. In an aspect, the data buses 308, 382, and 392 may form, or be part of, a communication interface of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306, respectively. For example, where different logical entities are embodied in the same device (e.g., gNB and location server functionality incorporated into the same base station 304), the data buses 308, 382, and 392 may provide communication between them.

[0102] The components of FIGS. 3 A, 3B, and 3C may be implemented in various ways. In some implementations, the components of FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C may be implemented in one or more circuits such as, for example, one or more processors and / or one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors). Here, each circuit may use and / or incorporate at least, one memory' component for storing information or executable code used by the circuit to provide this functionality. For example, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 310 to 346 may be implemented by processor and memory component(s) of the UE 302. (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of processor components). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 350 to 388 may be implemented by processor and memory component(s) of the base station 304 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of processor components). Also, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390 to 398 may be implemented by processor and memory component(s) of the network entity 306 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of processor components). For simplicity, various operations, acts, and / or functions are described herein as being performed “by a UE,” “by a base station,” “by a network entity,” etc. However, as will be appreciated, such operations, acts, and / or functions may actually be performed by specific components or combinations of components of the UE 302, base station 304, network entity 306, etc..34QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO35 such as the processors 342, 384, 394, the transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, the memories 340, 386, and 396, the sensing component 348, 388, and 398, etc.

[0103] In some designs, the network entity 306 may be implemented as a core network component. In other designs, the network entity 306 may be distinct from a network operator or operation of the cellular network infrastructure (e.g., NG RAN 220 and / or 5GC 210 / 260). For example, the network entity' 306 may be a component of a private network that may be configured to communicate with the UE 302 via the base station 304 or independently from the base station 304 (e.g., over a non-cellular communication link, such as Wi-Fi).

[0104] Wireless communication signals (e.g., radio frequency (RF) signals configured to carry' orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in accordance with a wireless communications standard, such as LTE, NR, etc.) transmitted between a LIE and a base station can be used for environment sensing (also referred to as “RF sensing” or “wireless sensing”). Using wireless communication signals tor environment sensing can be regarded as consumer-level wireless sensing with advanced detection capabilities that enable, among other things, touchless / device-free interaction with a device / system. The wireless communication signals may be cellular communication signals, such as LTE or NR signals, WLAN signals, such as Wi-Fi signals, etc. As a particular example, the wireless communication signals may be an OFDM waveform as utilized in LTE and NR. High-frequency communication signals, such as millimeter wave (mmW) RF signals, are especially beneficial to use as sensing signals because the higher frequency provides, at least, more accurate range (distance) detection.[hl 05] Possible use cases of RF sensing include health monitoring use cases, such as heartbeat detection, respiration rate monitoring, and the like, gesture recognition use cases, such as human activity recognition, keystroke detection, sign language recognition, and the like, contextual information acquisition use cases, such as location detection / trackmg, direction finding, range estimation, and the like, and automotive sensing use cases, such as smart cruise control, collision avoidance, and the like.

[0106] There are different types of sensing, including monostatic sensing (also referred to as “active sensing”) and bistatic sensing (also referred to as “passive sensing”). FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate these different types of sensing. Specifically, FIG. 4A is a diagram 400 illustrating a monostatic sensing scenario and FIG. 4B is a diagram 430 illustrating a35QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO36 bistatic sensing scenario. In FIG. 4A, the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) are colocated in the same sensing device 404 (e.g., a UE). The sensing device 404 transmits one or more RF sensing signals 434 (e.g., uplink or sidelink positioning reference signals (PRS) where the sensing device 404 is a UE), and some of the RF sensing signals 434 reflect off a target object 406 (e.g., an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)). Hie sensing device 404 can measure various properties (e.g., times of arrival (ToAs), angles of arrival (AoAs), phase shift, etc.) of the reflections 436 of the RF sensing signals 434 to determine characteristics of the target object 406 (e.g., size, shape, speed, motion state, etc.).

[8107] In FIG. 4B, the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) are not co-located, that is, they are separate devices (e.g., a UE and a base station). Note that while FIG. 4B illustrates using a downlink RF signal as the RF sensing signal 432, uplink RF signals or side link RF signals can also be used as RF sensing signals 432. In a downlink scenario, as shown, the transmitter device 402. is a base station (e.g., a gNB) and the receiver device 408 is a UE (e.g., a mobile phone, a V2X-capable vehicle, a roadside unit (RSU), etc.), whereas in an uplink scenario, the transmitter device 402 is a UE and the receiver device 408 is a base station. Where the transmiter device 402 is a base station and the receiver device 408 a UE, the sensing is referred to as UE-assisted sensing. In UE-assisted sensing, the position of receiver device 408 should be known by the network (e.g., by GPS or other UE positioning method).

[0108] Referring to FIG. 4B in greater detail, the transmitter device 402 transmits RF sensing signals 432 and 434 (e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS)) to the receiver device 408, but some of the RF sensing signals 434 reflect off a target object 406. The receiver device 408 (also referred to as the “sensing device”) can measure the times of arrival (ToAs) of the RF sensing signals 432 received directly from the transmitter device 402 and the ToAs of the reflections 436 of the RF sensing signals 434 reflected from the target object 406.

[0109] More specifically, as described above, a transmitter device (e.g., a base station) may transmit, a single RF signal or multiple RF signals to a receiver device (e.g,, a UE). However, the receiver may receive multiple RF signals corresponding to each transmitted RF signal due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals through multipath channels. Each path may be associated with a cluster of one or more channel taps. Generally, the time at which the receiver detects the first cluster of channel taps is considered the ToA of the RF signal on the line-of-site (LOS) path (i.e., the shortest path between the36QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO37 transmitter and the receiver). Later clusters of channel taps are considered to have reflected off objects between the transmitter and the receiver and therefore to have followed non-LOS (NLOS) paths between the transmitter and the receiver.

[0110] Thus, referring back to FIG. 4B, the RF sensing signals 432 followed the LOS path between the transmitter device 402 and the receiver device 408, and the RF sensing signals 434 followed an NLOS path between the transmitter device 402 and the receiver device 408 due to reflecting off the target object 406. The transmitter device 402 may have transmitted multiple RF sensing signals 432, 434, some of which followed the LOS path and others of which followed the NLOS path. Alternatively, the transmitter device 402 may have transmitted a single RF sensing signal in a broad enough beam that a portion of the RF sensing signal followed the LOS path (RF sensing signal 432) and a portion of the RF sensing signal followed the NLOS path (RF sensing signal 434).

[0111] Based on the ToA of the LOS path, the ToA of the NLOS path, and the speed of light, the receiver device 408 can determine the distance to the target object(s). For example, the receiver device 408 can calculate the distance to the target object as the difference between the ToA of the LOS path and the ToA of the NLOS path multiplied by the speed of light. In addition, if the receiver device 408 is capable of receive beamfonning, the receiver device 408 may be able to determine the general direction to a target object 406 as the direction (angle) of the receive beam on which the RF sensing signal following the NLOS path was received. That is, the receiver device 408 may determine the direction to the target object 406 as the AoA of the RF sensing signal, which is the angle of the receive beam used to receive the RF sensing signal. The receiver device 408 may then optionally report this information to the transmitter device 402, its serving base station, an application server associated with the core network, an external client, a third-party application, or some other sensing entity. Alternatively, the receiver device 408 may report the ToA measurements to the transmitter device 402, or other sensing entity (e.g., if the receiver device 408 does not have the processing capability to perform the calculations itself), and the transmiter device 402 may determine the distance and, optionally, the direction to the target object 406.

[0112] Note that if the RF sensing signals are uplink RF’ signals transmitted by a UE to a base station, the base station would perform object, detection based on the uplink RF signals just like the UE does based on the downlink RF signals.QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO38

[0113] Like conventional wireless sensing, wireless communication-based sensing signals can be used to estimate the range (distance), velocity (Doppler), and angle (AoA) of a target object. However, the performance (e.g., resolution and maximum values of range, velocity, and angle) may depend on the design of the reference signal.

[0114] FIG. 5 illustrates an example call flow 500 for an NR-based sensing procedure (e.g., a bistatic sensing procedure) in which the network configures the sensing parameters, according to aspects of the disclosure. Although FIG. 5 illustrates a network-coordinated sensing procedure, the sensing procedure could be coordinated over sidelink channels.

[0115] At stage 505, a sensing server 570 (e.g., inside or outside the core network) sends a request for network (NW) information to a gNB 522 (e.g., the serving gNB of a UE 504). The request may be for a list of the UE’s 504 serving cell and any neighboring cells. At stage 510, the gNB 522. sends the requested information to the sensing server 570. At stage 515, the sensing server 570 sends a request for sensing capabilities to the UE 504. At stage 520, the UE 504 provides its sensing capabilities to the sensing server 570.

[0116] At stage 525, tire sensing server 570 sends a configuration to the UE 504 indicating one or more reference signal (RS) resources that will be transmitted for sensing. The reference signal resources may be transmited by the serving and / or neighboring cells identified at stage 510. In some cases, the NR-based sensing procedure illustrated in FIG. 5 may be a sensing-only procedure or a joint communication and sensing (JCS) procedure (also referred to as an integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) procedure). In tire case of a sensing-only procedure, the reference signal resources may be reference signal resources specifically configured for sensing purposes. In the case of a JCS procedure, the reference signal resources may be reference signal resources for communication that can also be used for sensing purposes. Alternatively, the reference signal resources for sensing may be multiplexed (e.g., time-division multiplexed) with reference signal resources for communication. For example, the reference signal resources for communication may be an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform, while the reference signal resources for sensing may be a frequency modulation continuous wave (FMCW) waveform.

[0117] At stage 530, the sensing server 570 sends a request for sensing information to the UE 504. The UE 504 then measures the transmitted reference signals and, at stage 535, sends38QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO39 the measurements, or any sensing results determined from the measurements, to the sensing sener 570.

[0118] In an aspect, the communication between the UE 504 and the sensing server 570 may be via the LTE positioning protocol (LPP). The communication between the sensing server 570 and tire gNB may be via NR positioning protocol type A (NRPPa).

[0119] Various frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (e.g., base stations and UEs). FIG. 6 is a diagram 600 illustrating an example frame structure, according to aspects of the disclosure. The frame structure may be a downlink or uplink frame structure. Other wireless communications technologies may have different frame structures and / or different channels.

[0120] LTE, and in some cases NR, utilizes orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. Unlike LTE, however, NR has an option to use OFDM on the uplink as well. OFDM and SC-FDM partition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarrier may be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. Tire spacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of tire subcarriers may be 15 kilohertz (kHz) and the minimum resource allocation (resource block) may be 12 subcarriers (or 180 kHz). Consequently, the nominal fast Fourier transform (FFT) size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048 for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1 .08 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1 , 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz, respectively.

[0121] LTE supports a single numerology (subcarrier spacing (SCS), symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR may support multiple numerologies (p), for example, subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz (p=0), 30 kHz (p= i), 60 kHz (p=2), 120 kHz (p= =3), and 240 kHz (p=4) or greater may be available. In each subcarrier spacing, there are 14 symbols per slot. For 15 kHz SCS (p=0), there is one slot per subframe, 10 slots per frame, the slot duration is I millisecond (ms), the symbol duration is 66.7 microseconds (ps), and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 50. For 30 kHz SCS (p= 1 ),39QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO40 there are two slots per subframe, 20 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.5 ms, the symbol duration is 33.3 ps, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 100. For 60 kHz SCS (p=2), there are four slots per subframe, 40 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.25 ms, the symbol duration is 16.7 ps, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) witli a 4K FFT size is 200. For 120 kHz SCS (p=3), there are eight slots per subframe, 80 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.125 ms, the symbol duration is 8.33 ps, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 400. For 240 kHz SCS ( p= 4). there are 16 slots per subframe, 160 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.0625 ms, the symbol duration is 4.17 ps, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFT size is 800.

[0122] In the example of FIG. 6, a numerology of 15 kHz is used. Thus, in the time domain, a 10 ms frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes of 1 ms each, and each subframe includes one time slot. In FIG. 6, time is represented horizontally (on the X axis) with time increasing from left to right, while frequency is represented vertically (on the ¥ axis) with frequency increasing (or decreasing) from bottom to top.

[8123] A resource grid may be used to represent time slots, each time slot including one or more time-concurrent resource blocks (RBs) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) in the frequency domain. The resource grid is further divided into multiple resource elements (REs). An RE may correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain. In the numerology of FIG. 6, for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB may contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and seven consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 84 REs. For an extended cyclic prefix, an RB may contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and six consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 72 REs. The number of bits earned by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0124] Some of the REs may carry reference (pilot) signals (RS). The reference signals may include positioning reference signals (PRS), tracking reference signals (TRS), phase tracking reference signals (PTRS), cell-specific reference signals (CRS), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS), primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), sounding reference signals (SRS), etc., depending40QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO41 on whether the illustrated frame structure is used for uplink or downlink communication. FIG, 6 illustrates example locations of REs carrying a reference signal (labeled “R”).

[0125] In an aspect, the reference signal carried on the REs labeled “R” in FIG. 6 may be SRS. SRS transmitted by a UE may be used by a base station to obtain the channel state information (CSI) for the transmitting HE. CSI describes how an RF signal propagates from the UE to the base station and represents the combined effect of scattering, fading, and power decay with distance. The system uses the SRS for resource scheduling, link adaptation, massive M1M0, beam management, etc.

[0126] A collection of REs that are used for transmission of SRS is referred to as an “SRS resource,” and may be identified by the parameter “SRS-Resourceld.” The collection of resource elements can span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and ‘N’ (e.g., one or more) consecutive symbol(s) within a slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol, an SRS resource occupies one or more consecutive PRBs. An “SRS resource set” is a set of SRS resources used tor the transmission of SRS signals, and is identified by an SRS resource set ID (“SRS-ResourceSetld”).

[8127] The transmission of SRS resources within a given PRB has a particular comb size (also referred to as the “comb density”). A comb size ‘N’ represents the subcarrier spacing (or frequency / tone spacing) within each symbol of an SRS resource configuration. Specifically, for a comb size ‘N,’ SRS are transmitted in every N th subcarrier of a symbol of a PRB. For example, for comb-4, for each symbol of the SRS resource configuration, REs corresponding to every' fourth subcarrier (such as subcarriers 0, 4, 8) are used to transmit SRS of the SRS resource. In the example of FIG. 6, the illustrated SRS is comb- 4 over four symbols. That is, the locations of the shaded SRS REs indicate a comb-4 SRS resource configuration.

[0128] Currently, an SRS resource may span 1, 2, 4, 8, or 12 consecutive symbols within a slot with a comb size of comb-2, comb-4, or comb-8. The following are the frequency offsets from symbol to symbol for the SRS comb patterns that are currently supported. I -symbol comb-2: {0}; 2-symbol comb-2: {0, 1 }; 2-symbol comb-4: {0, 2}; 4-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1}; 4-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1, 3 } (as in the example of FIG. 6); 8-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3}: 12-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3) ; 4-symbol comb-8: {0, 4, 2, 6}; 8-symbol comb-8: {0, 4, 2, 6, 1 , 5, 3, 7}; and 12-symbol comb-8: {0, 4, 2, 6, 1 , 5, 3, 7, 0, 4, 2, 6} .41QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. Rio. 2404291WO42

[0129] Generally, as noted above, a UE transmits SRS to enable the receiving base station (either the serving base station or a neighboring base station) to measure tire channel quality (i.e. , CSI) between the UE and the base station. However, SRS can also be specifically configured as uplink positioning reference signals for uplink-based positioning procedures, such as uplink time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA), round-trip-time (RTT), uplink angle-of-arrival (UL-AoA), etc. As used herein, the term “SRS” may refer to SRS configured tor channel quality measurements or SRS configured for positioning purposes. "Die former may be referred to herein as “SRS-for-communication” and / or the latter may be referred to as “SRS for positioning” or “positioning SRS” when needed to distinguish the two types of SRS.

[0130] Several enhancements over the previous definition of SRS may be available for SRS for positioning (also referred to as “(JL-PRS”), such as a new staggered pattern within an SRS resource (except for single-symbol / comb-2), a new comb type for SRS, new sequences tor SRS, a higher number of SRS resource sets per component carrier, and a higher number of SRS resources per component carrier. In addition, the parameters “SpatialRelationlnfo” and “PathLossReference” are to be configured based on a downlink reference signal or SSB from a neighboring TRP. Further still, one SRS resource may be transmitted outside the active bandwidth part (BWP), and one SRS resource may span across multiple component carriers. Also, SRS may be configured in RRC connected state and only transmitted within an active BWP. Further, there may be no frequency hopping, no repetition factor, a single antenna port, and new lengths for SRS (e.g., 8 and 12 symbols). There also may be open-loop power control and not closed-loop power control, and comb-8 (i.e., an SRS transmitted every eighth subcarrier in the same symbol) may be used , Lastly, the UE may transmit through the same transmit beam from multiple SRS resources for UL-AoA. These features may be configured through RRC higher layer signaling (and potentially triggered or activated through a MAC control element (MAC- CE) or downlink control information (DCI)).

[0131] FIG. 7 is a diagram 700 illustrating a base station (BS) 702 (which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein) in communication with a UE 704 (which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein), according to aspects of the disclosure. Referring to FIG, 7, the base station 702 may transmit a beamformed signal to the UE 704 on one or more transmit beams 712a, 712b, 712c, 712d, 712e, 712f, 712g, 7121142QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO43(collectively, beams 712), each having a beam identifier that can be used by the LIE 704 to identify the respective beam. Where the base station 702 is beamforming towards the UE 704 with a single array of antennas (e.g., a. single TRP / cell), the base station 702 may perform a “beam sweep” by transmitting first beam 712a, then beam 712b, and so on until lastly transmitting beam 712h. Alternatively, the base station 702 may transmit beams 712 in some pattern, such as beam 712a, then beam 712h, then beam 712b, then beam 712g, and so on. Where the base station 702 is beam forming towards the UE 704 using multiple arrays of antennas (e.g., multiple TRPs / cells), each antenna array may perform a beam sweep of a subset of the beams 712. Alternatively, each of beams 712. may correspond to a single antenna or antenna array.

[0132] FIG. 7 further illustrates the paths 722c, 722d, 722e, 722f, and 722g followed by the beamformed signal transmitted on beams 712c, 712d, 712e, 712f, and 712g, respectively. Each path 722c, 722d, 72.2e, 72.2.f, 722g may correspond to a single “multipath” or, due to the propagation characteristics of radio frequency (RF) signals through the environment, may be comprised of a plurality (a cluster) of “multipaths.” Note that although only the paths 72.2c - 72.2g for beams 712c - 712g are shown, this is for simplicity, and the signal transmited on each of beams 712 will follow' some path. In the example shown, the paths 722c, 722d, 722e, and 722f are straight lines, while path 722g reflects off an obstacle 72.0 (e.g., a building, vehicle, terrain feature, etc.).

[0133] The UE 704 may receive the beamformed signal from the base station 702 on one or more receive beams 714a, 714b, 714c, 714d (collectively, beams 714). Note that for simplicity, the beams illustrated in FIG. 7 represent either transmit beams or receive beams, depending on which of the base station 702 and the UE 704 is transmitting and which is receiving. Thus, the UE 704 may also transmit a beamformed signal to the base station 702 on one or more of the beams 714, and the base station 702 may receive the beamformed signal from the UE 704 on one or more of the beams 712.

[0134] In an aspect, the base station 702. and the UE 704 may perform beam training to align the transmit, and receive beams of the base station 702 and the UE 704. For example, depending on environmental conditions and other factors, the base station 702 and the UE 704 may determine that the best transmit and receive beams are 712d and 714b, respectively, or beams 712e and 714c, respectively. The direction of the best transmit beam tor the base station 702 may or may not be the same as the direction of the best43QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO44 receive beam, and likewise, the direction of the best receive beam for the UE 704 may or may not be the same as the direction of the best transmit beam.

[0135] As noted above, NR UEs may be capable of beamforming on one or more uplink transmit beams and / or one or more downlink receive beams. When performing uplink beamforming, beam management techniques are used to identify the best UE uplink transmit beam(s) and corresponding TRP uplink receive beam(s). Beam management techniques are necessary when there is no transmit / receive beam correspondence (reciprocity) at the UE side.

[8136] To perform beam management, the base station (e.g., a gNB) configures the UE with one or more SRS resource sets with an associated usage information element (IE) set to “beamManagement.” The base station configures one SRS resource set per UE antenna panel. Each SRS resource set consists of multiple (time division multiplexed) SRS resources, where each SRS resource corresponds to an uplink transmit beam (direction). Over each SRS resource, the UE transmits a (non-precoded) SRS using the corresponding beam / panel. lire SRS may be a multi-port SRS, according to the number of ports (layers) the UE is capable of (simultaneously) transmitting. The base station, based on measurements of the SRS, evaluates the UE transmi t beams to determine the appropriate beam(s) to use for upcoming uplink transmissions.

[0137] A codebook is used to define a set of beams (e.g., a set of uplink transmit beams). Each entry in the codebook (referred to as a “codeword”) includes a set of beam weights for phase shift and / or amplitude control for each antenna element in the antenna array to enable co-phasing of the beam energy in a desired direction. For codebook -based uplink transmission, the goal is to identify the transmitting antenna panel and transmit precoder- plus-rank the UE should use for upcoming uplink transmi ssion(s). This is necessary’ when there is no transmit / receive beam correspondence (reciprocity) at the UE side.

[0138] At a high level, the UE transmits an SRS from each of its transmit antenna panels. Based on these SRS, the base station identifies the best antenna panel and the best precoder for the UE to use for subsequent uplink transmissions.

[0139] In greater detail, the base station allocates to the UE one SRS resource set with the usage “codebook.” The SRS resource set includes one SRS resource per antenna panel with which the UE is equipped. (Note that for UEs that support multi-layer transmission, the SRS resources are multi-port.) Tire configuration of each SRS resource (e.g., an “SRS-44QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO45Resource” IE) in the SRS resource set (e.g., configured by an “SRS-ResourceSet” IE) includes a spatial relation identifier (e.g., an “spatialRelationlnfo” IE) based on which the UE identifies the transmit beam it should use for the transmission of the corresponding SRS. The transmit beam may be indicated as the SRS resource identifier (SRI) of the SRS to which it was applied in an earlier-performed uplink beam management procedure, an SSB identifier, or a DL-CSI-RS identifier. The UE then transmits non-precoded SRSs over each SRS resource. The base station measures the SRSs and identifies the best transmit antenna panel and the best transmit precoder (out of a finite size pre-defined codebook). The base station then indicates to the UE the antenna panel and the precoder / rank in DCI (e.g., DCI format 0_l) that triggers a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.

[0140] Note that for uplink transmission, tire base station indicates (or reports) to the UE a single uplink transmit beam that the UE is expected to use for subsequent uplink transmissions. This transmit beam indication may be viewed as an indication of the uplink direction in which the uplink transmit beam should point. This is in contrast to NR downlink transmit beam management, where the UE, based on measurements of DL-CSI-RS or SSB, reports the best one or more downlink transmit beams to the base station.

[0141] The rationale for this discrepancy in the number of indicated downlink / uplink transmit beams is that the base station, having to serve multiple UEs simultaneously (e.g., in the case of MIMO), may not necessarily pick the best downlink transmit beam for each of the UEs; however, for uplink transmission, it does not make sense for the UE to use any other beam than the best uplink transmit beam.

[0142] Referring back to ISAC, the most efficient version of ISAC is when both communication and sensing (radar) operations are jointly performed with a single transmission. In this case, the NR cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform used by the UE to perform uplink communication (e.g., PUSCH transmission) also serves as a probing signal for target detection. This effectively allows sensing with virtually no additional overhead in time / frequency resources, and there is no need to allocate dedicated resources for standalone sensing transmission. This is particularly important for, for example, autoniative sensing applications, wdiere sensing operation is typically at a high-durt cycle, and using sensing resources that are exclusively dedicated for sensing may result in significant overhead.45QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO46

[0143] To achieve sensing performance with (good) angular resolution, tire effective (end-to- end) sensing radiation pattern, formed by the multiplication of sensing transmitter and sensing receiver radiation patterns, should exhibit a high gam towards the sensing direction (angle) of interest and a (much) smaller gain over other directions (angles). This calls for directive beamforming performed in FR2 bands.

[0144] The present disclosure considers scenarios where the UE performs ISAC transmission using a single transmit antenna panel, such as where the UE is a low-cost UE equipped with only a single transmit antenna panel, or because of the UE position / heading, only the antenna panel currently used for uplink transmission is capable of " viewing” the sensing direction of interest.

[0145] Given the foregoing assumptions, the ideal scenario for joint communication and sensing via a single (ISAC) transmit antenna panel is where the uplink direction and the sensing direction are the same. In this case, the same transmit beam would be optimal for both operations. However, if the two directions are (sufficiently ) different, a single / common beam may not accommodate both operations at the same time (e.g., as in the example of FIG, 7, where beams 714b and / or 714c may be the best communication beams, whereas beam 714d may be the best sensing beam). For applications such as automotive sensing, this may be a common occurrence due to the large sensing field-of-view typically considered. For example, if the transmit beam points to the uplink communication direction, signal reflections may only be generated by targets in that direction instead of the sensing direction of interest. In such cases, the UE needs to apply beamforming weights such that the transmission radiation patern covers (with sufficient gain) both the uplink and the sensing directions (referred to as “double-directional” radiation pattern). A double-directional radiation pattern is where the radiation pattern ideally exhibits two distinct peaks (instead of one main lobe), one in the sensing direction and one in the communication direction.

[0146] FIG. 8 is a diagram 800 illustrating example FR2 ISAC transmission by a UE using a single transmit antenna panel, according to aspects of the disclosure. In the example of FIG. 8, the antenna panel beamforming weights (denoted wi, w?„ ... nw) are selected such as the transmission radiation pattern points to both the uplink (communication) direction and the sensing direction at the same time.46QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO47

[0147] With a double -directional radiation pattern, the maximum gain achieved is, as expected, iess than the gain achievable with single-direction beamfonning due to the power splitting effect between the two directions. The sidelobe pattern is also worse than the pattern achievable with conventional single-direction beamforming. However, depending on the use case and / or requirements, this transmission pattern may be acceptable for both communication and sensing operation. Note that if there are restrictions on the beamfonning weights (e.g., a finite number of phase values, a fixed amplitude, etc.), designing an acceptable double -directional beamformer becomes more challenging.

[8148] Note that the term ‘'beamformer” generally refers to the panel radiation pattern. It is up to the UE as to how this radiation pattern is formed. In some cases, the UE may apply flexible weights to the antenna panel, and different radiation patterns may be achieved by changing these weights. These weights are generally referred to as the “precoder.” This precoder operation is not visible to the base station, and the precoder information the base station provides is for precoding on top of this first UE side precoding.

[8149] In general, a single transmit antenna panel UE may not be able to sufficiently support any (arbitrary') pair of sensing and communication directions. Thus, determining a good double-directional beamformer may be possible only for a subset of the possible pairs of uplink-sensing directions. Even if good beamformers could be identified for all possible uplink-sensing direction pairs, the UE would likely be equipped with a finite database (codebook) of double-directional patterns, corresponding to a limited number of uplinksensing direction pairs.

[0150] In view of the above, the following issue arises. As noted above, in uplink procedures, such as codebook-based transmission, tire base station indicates a single uplink transmit beam / direction that the UE should use for its upcoming uplink transmission(s). However, the UE may also want to, or be configured to, perform ISAC transmission (not just uplink transmission) with a sensing direction that the UE cannot support along with the indicated uplink direction. In such cases, the UE will have to drop either the communication or the sensing operation, with the dropped operation performed at a later instance, resulting in a resource usage overhead.

[0151] Accordingly, the present disclosure proposes an enhancement to the uplink beam indication / selection procedure towards achieving a compromise between communication and sensing that allows a UE to perform both at the same time.47QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO48

[0152] FIG. 9 illustrates a high level example of an uplink beam selection procedure 900 for beam selection for codebook-based ISAC, according to aspects of the disclosure. The uplink beam selection procedure 900 may be performed by a UE 204 and a base station (illustrated as a gNB 222). As shown in FIG. 9, at stages 910 and 920, the UE 204 and the gNB 222 perform an uplink (UL) beam management (BM) procedure for SRS transmission (Tx), as currently defined, with the UE 204 using beams assuming standalone uplink transmission is performed. That is, the beams used for the SRS transmissions are single -directional as in a communication-only scenario.

[0153] At stage 930, the UE 204 optionally requests or otherwise indicates a preference to be provided with multiple uplink transmit beam choices for ISAC transmission. This stage is discussed further below.

[0154] Based on tire SRS measurements at stage 920, at stage 940, the gNB 222 indicates multiple uplink transmit beams / directions (e.g., via SRIs) per SRS resource of an SRS resource set with a usage of “codebook.” (This is different from the current procedure where the gNB 222 only indicates one beam / direction.) This set of beams corresponds to uplink directions that the gNB treats as “acceptable” (although not necessarily optimal) for uplink transmission.

[0155] At stage 950, the UE 204 selects one of these directions for its uplink transmission, based on the sensing direction(s) it wants to ping with the ISAC transmission. At stage 960, the UE 204 optionally indicates the selected spatial relation identifiers to the gNB 222. In principle, the UE 204 may evaluate the quality of the double-directional beamforming covering the sensing direction! s) of interest and each of the options provided by the gNB 222 for the uplink direction to use.

[0156] More specifically, the UE 204 has flexibility in selecting the direction of the beam pointing to the gNB 222 (the uplink communication beam). In some cases, the UE 204 may prefer to use a sub-optimal uplink transmit beam because that beam allows for a double -direction transmit beam that better covers the sensing direction (compared to how well the sensing direction can be covered by a double-directional beam with one main iobe / peak pointing to the optimal uplink communication direction). How the UE 204 forms the double directional beam is up to UE implementation, as long as the doubledirectional beam covers one of the options for the uplink communication direction. If the UE 204 cannot form a double-directional beam that covers one of the options for the48QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO49 uplink communication direction, the UE 204 generates a single -directional beam pointing to the uplink communication direction alone.

[0157] At stage 970, the UE 204 transmits SRS using the selected spatial relation identifiers, or using a double-directional beam, if conditions allow.

[0158] With the techniques of the present disclosure, more than one option is offered for tire uplink transmit beam from which to select, similar to downlink transmit beam selection. That is, ISAC operation introduces a use case where the UE 204 has to “serve” multiple directions, analogous to a gNB having to transmit toward multiple directions (UEs). As such, it makes sense to follow the downlink transmit beam selection principle for uplink ISAC transmit beam management.

[0159] In some cases, to indicate multiple uplink transmit beams / directions per SRS resource (as at stage 940 of FIG. 9), the SpatialRelationlnfo IE of an SRS resource may include a list of more than one spatial relation identifier. For example, the SRS resource of an SRS resource set with a “codebook” usage may indicate a list of SRIs. However, the spatial relation identifiers may not necessarily be SRIs (e.g., they can be SSB or CSI-RS IDs). Further, more than one type of resource ID may be indicated, each with more than one spatial relation identifier (e.g., two CSI-RS IDs and three SRIs may be indicated).

[0160] In some cases, when an SRS resource is provided with more than one SpatialRelationlnfo ID, the UE may select one of the configured IDs and apply the corresponding beam to the SRS transmitted over that SRS resource. In some cases, if two or more SRS resources of one or more SRS resource sets with the same usage indicate overlapping lists of IDs, the UE should ensure it selects different IDs (i.e., uplink transmit beams) across these SRS resources.

[8161] Given that the disclosed uplink beam selection procedure is for ISAC transmission, and given that UEs do not perform ISAC transmissions all the time (it depends on the sensing duty cycle), or even at all, the disclosed uplink beam selection procedure may be applied selectively. Thus, in some cases, a UE may indicate (its preference) to receive multiple options for uplink transmit beams from which to select (e.g., as at stage 930). In some cases, the indication may be a capability indication (e.g., included in an LPP Provide Capabilities message). In some cases, the indication may be included in a scheduling request (SR) or buffer status report (BSR). For example, an SR may be transmitted over UE-specific or cell-specific resources indicating that the UE wants to request transmission49QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO50 resources for ISAC. As another example, an SR and / or a BSR may include a flag (e.g., a single-bit) that indicates that the UE wants to perform ISAC. In some cases, the indication may be included in RRC reconfiguration signaling. In some cases, the indication may be included in transmission of UE assistance information. In some cases, the indication may be provided as a response to a query from a base station. In this case, the query and response could be performed via RRC signaling.

[0162] In some eases, there may be performance degradation to the uplink or sensing operations due to using a double-directional beam transmission. Accordingly, in some cases, a UE may be allowed to transmit using a double-directional beamformer (with one of the directions corresponding to the uplink direction) as long as one or more of the following conditions are satisfied: (1) the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) over the uplink direction is no less than ’‘X” dB compared to tire EIRP achievable if an uplink-only- direction beamformer were used, (2) the EIRP over the sensing direction is no less than “Y” dB compared to the EIRP achievable if a sensing-only-direction beamformer were used, and / or (3) the beamwidth over the sensing direction does not exceed a maximum limit.

[0163] For option (1) above, the threshold X may be ( 1) configured via RRC, (2) indicated in the configuration of the SRS resource set (or a constituent SRS resource), and / or (3) in a DCI field. In some cases, different values of X may be provided for each of the multiple spatial relation identifiers indicated m the SpatialRelationlnfo IE, and the UP! may select from those values of X. For example, the spatial relation identifiers may be implicitly or explicitly ranked with values of X increasing or decreasing according to the ordering.

[6164] For option (2) above, the threshold Y may be selected similarly to X (Y may or may not be equal to X) or, it may be up to the UE to select the value of Y, For option (3) above, the maximum limit may be set by the base station to minimize spatial interference and / or achieve the sensing requirement(s). Alternatively, the UE may set the maximum limit based on the UE’s sensing requirements.

[0165] In some cases, if conditions for transmission with a double-directional beam are not satisfied, the UE may transmit towards the uplink direction on a single-directional beam.

[0166] In some cases, where the selection of tire uplink transmit beam / direction is selected by the UE, it may be beneficial for the base station to be aware of this selection (e.g., to enable the base station to activate the appropriate uplink receive beam for the selected50QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO51 uplink transmit beam). Accordingly, when a UE is provided with a list of spatial relation identifiers for an SRS resource, it may indicate the selected identifier to the base station prior to transmiting the SRS over the corresponding SRS resource. This indication may be transmitted via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.

[0167] Resources for the above transmission may be configured via a previously provided grant or dynamically indicated as part of the configuration of the SRS resource set that contains the SRS resource(s) with tire multiple spatial relation identifiers. The transmission of the selection may use the beam corresponding to a spatial relation (1) that is configured by the base station via a previously provided transmission grant or (2) that corresponds to the ‘"best” spatial relation identifier in the list of spatial relation identifiers indicated in the configuration of the SRS resource (assuming that an implicit or explicit ordering of the spatial relation identifiers is used).

[0168] In some cases, a base station may prefer that a UE transmit only over the uplink direction, meaning that it does not want the UE to use a double-directional beam. For example, during SRS measurements, the base station may observe that only a single uplink transmit beam is of acceptable quality (and possibly only barely), suggesting that a doubledirectional beam would not meet the QoS requirements of the uplink / communication transmissions. Thus, in some cases, a UE is not allowed to perform an uplink transmission using a double-directional beam when (1) the UE is configured with only one spatial relation identifier (as currently defined), (2) the configuration of the SRS resource or SRS resource set includes a flag (e.g., a single-bit) disabling usage of a double-directional beam by the UE (regardless of the spatial relation identifier the UE selects for the uplink transmission), and / or (3) the base station explicitly indicates this via dedicated signaling (e.g., RRC signaling or DCI).

[0169] Alternatively or additionally, in some cases, the UE is allowed to perform an uplink transmission using a double-directional beam when (1) the UE is configured with more than one spatial relation identifier, (2) the configuration of the SRS resource or SRS resource set includes a flag (e.g., a single-bit) enabling usage of a double-directional beam by the UE (regardless of the spatial relation identifier the UE selects for the uplink transmission), and / or (3) the base station explicitly indicates this via dedicated signaling (e.g., RRC signaling or DCI).51QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO

[0170] FIG. 10 illustrates an example method 1000 of wireless communication, according to aspects of the disclosure. In an aspect, method 1000 may be performed by a UE (e.g,, any of the UEs described herein).

[0171] At operation 1010, the UE may receive, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, where tire configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and where each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource, as at stage 940 of FIG, 9.

[0172] In an aspect, operation 1010 may be performed by the one or more WAV AN transceivers 310, the one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320, the one or more processors 342, memory 340, and / or sensing component 348, any or all of which may be considered means for performing this operation.

[0173] At. operation 1020, the UE may transmit the first. SRS resource on a. first uplink transmit, beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers, as at stage 970 of FIG, 9.

[0174] In an aspect, operation 1020 may be performed by the one or more WWAN transceivers 310, the one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320, the one or more processors 342, memory 340, and / or sensing component 348, any or all of which may be considered means for performing this operation.As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of the method 1000 is improve resource utilization and quality of sensing and communication transmissions.

[0175] In the detailed description above it can be seen that different features are grouped together in examples. This manner of disclosure should not be understood as an intention that the example clauses have more features than are explicitly mentioned in each clause. Rather, the various aspects of the disclosure may include fewer than all features of an individual example clause disclosed. Therefore, the following clauses should hereby be deemed to be incorporated in the description, wherein each clause by itself can stand as a separate example. Although each dependent clause can refer in the clauses to a specific combination with one of the other clauses, the aspect(s) of that dependent clause are not limited to the specific combination. It will be appreciated that other example clauses can also include a combination of the dependent clause aspect(s) with the subject matter of52QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO53 any other dependent clause or independent clause or a combination of any feature with other dependent and independent clauses. The various aspects disclosed herein expressly include these combinations, unless it is explicitly expressed or can be readily inferred that a specific combination is not intended (e.g., contradictory aspects, such as defining an element as both an electrical insulator and an electrical conductor). Furthermore, it is also intended that aspects of a clause can be included in any other independent clause, even if the clause is not directly dependent on the independent clause.

[6176] Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0177] Clause 1 . A method of wireless sensing performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and transmitting the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0178] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers comprises: one or more SRS resource identifiers (SRIs), one or more synchronization signal block (SSB) identifiers, one or more channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) identifiers, or any combination thereof.

[0179] Clause 3. Tire method of any of clauses 1 to 2, wherein: the configuration includes a second plurality of spatial relation identifiers for a second SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and at least one spatial relation identifier is common to both the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers and the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0180] Clause 4. Ihe method of clause 3, further comprising: transmitting the second SRS resource on a second uplink transmit beam corresponding to a second spatial relation identifier of the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers, where the second spatial relation identifier is different from the first spatial relation identifier.

[0181] Clause 5. Ihe method of any of clauses 1 to 4, further comprising: transmitting, to the base station, a request to be configured with multiple spatial relation identifiers for an53QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO54SRS resource, wherein the configuration of the one or more SRS resources is received in response to the request,

[0182] Clause 6. The method of clause 5, wherein the request is included in: a capability message, a scheduling request, a buffer status report, a radio resource configuration (RRC) reconfiguration message, UE assistance information, or a response to a query from tire base station .

[0183] Clause 7. The method of any of clauses 1 to 6, wherein the first spatial relation identifier is selected for an uplink communication direction, a sensing direction, or both.

[8184] Clause 8, The method of clause 7, wherein the first SRS resource is transmitted on the first uplink transmit beam based on: an effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of the first SRS resource over the sensing direction being no less than a signal strength threshold compared to an EIRP achievable for transmission of the first SRS resource over only tire sensing direction, a beamwidth of the first SRS resource over the sensing direction not exceeding a maximum threshold, or any combination thereof.

[0185] Clause 9. lire method of clause 8, wherein the maximum threshold is selected: to minimize spatial interference, to achieve a sensing requirement of the base station, to comply with sensing requirements of the UE, or any combination thereof

[8186] Clause 10. The method of any of clauses 7 to 9, wherein the first SRS resource is transmitted on the first uplink transmit beam based on an EIRP of the first SRS resource over the uplink communication direction being no less than a signal strength threshold compared to an EIRP achievable for transmission of the first SRS resource over only the uplink communication direction.

[0187] Clause 11. The method of clause 10, wherein the signal strength threshold is: configured to the UE via RRC signaling, included in the configuration, or included in downlink control information (DCI).

[0188] Clause 12. The method of any of clauses 10 to 11, wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers is associated with a different signal strength threshold.

[0189] Clause 13. The method of any of clauses 1 to 12, further comprising: transmitting, to the base station, an indication of the first spatial relation identifier.

[6190] Clause 14. The method of clause 13, wherein the indication is transmitted via: a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission, or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.54QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO55

[0191] Clause 15. The method of any of clauses 13 to 14, wherein the resources for transmission of the indication are indicated: in the configuration, or a previously received uplink grant,

[0192] Clause 16. The method of any of clauses 13 to 15, wherein the indication is transmitted on: the first uplink transmit beam, or a previously configured uplink transmit beam.

[0193] Clause 17. The method of any of clauses 1 to 16, further comprising: receiving an indication that the UE is not permitted to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction.

[8194] Clause 18. The method of clause 17, wherein the indication is: a flag in the configuration, or received via RRC signaling or DCI signaling.

[8195] Clause 19. The method of any of clauses 1 to 18, further comprising: receiving an indication that the UE is permitted to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction.

[0196] Clause 2.0. The method of clause 19, wherein the indication is: indicated by the configuration including at least the first plurality’ of spatial relation identifiers, a flag in the configuration, or received via RRC signaling or DCI signaling.

[8197] Clause 21. A user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories; one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to: receive, via the one or more transceivers, from abase station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and transmit, via the one or more transceivers, the first. SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0198] Clause 22. The UE of clause 21, wherein the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers comprises: one or more SRS resource identifiers (SRIs), one or more synchronization signal block (SSB) identifiers, one or more channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) identifiers, or any combination thereof.55QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO56

[0199] Clause 23. The UE of any of clauses 21 to 22, wherein: the configuration includes a second plurality' of spatial relation identifiers for a second SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and at least one spatial relation identifier is common to both the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers and the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0200] Clause 24. The UE of clause 23, wherein the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to: transmit, via the one or more transceivers, the second SRS resource on a second uplink transmit beam corresponding to a second spatial relation identifier of the second plurality7of spatial relation identifiers, where the second spatial relation identifier is different from the first spatial relation identifier.

[0201] Clause 25. The UE of any of clauses 21 to 24, wherein the one or more processors, either alone or m combination, are further configured to: transmit, via the one or more transceivers, to the base station, a request to be configured with multiple spatial relation identifiers for an SRS resource, wherein the configuration of the one or more SRS resources is received in response to tire request.

[0202] Clause 26. The UE of clause 25, wherein the request is included in: a capability message, a scheduling request, a buffer status report, a radio resource configuration (RRC) reconfiguration message, UE assistance information, or a response to a query from the base station.

[0203] Clause 27, The UE of any of clauses 21 to 26, wherein the first spatial relation identifier is selected for an uplink communication direction, a sensing direction, or both.

[0204] Clause 28. The UE of clause 27, wherein the first SRS resource is transmitted on the first uplink transmit beam based on: an EIRP of the first SRS resource over the sensing direction being no less than a signal strength threshold compared to an EIRP achievable for transmission of the first SRS resource over only the sensing direction, a beamwidth of the first SRS resource over the sensing direction not exceeding a maximum threshold, or any combination thereof.

[0205] Clause 29. The UE of clause 28, wherein the maximum threshold is selected: to minimize spatial interference, to achieve a sensing requirement of the base station, to comply with sensing requirements of the UE, or any combination thereof

[0206] Clause 30. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 29, wherein the first SRS resource is transmitted on the first uplink transmit beam based on an EIRP of the first SRS resource56QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO57 over the uplink communication direction being no less than a signal strength threshold compared to an EIRP achievable for transmission of the first SRS resource over only the uplink communication direction.

[0207] Clause 31. The UE of clause 30, wherein the signal strength threshold is: configured to the UE via RRC signaling, included m the configuration, or included in downlink control information (DCI).

[0208] Clause 32. The UE of any of clauses 30 to 31 , wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers is associated with a different signal strength threshold.

[0209] Clause 33. The UE of any of clauses 21 to 32, wherein the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to: transmit, via the one or more transceivers, to the base station, an indication of the first spatial relation identifier.

[0210] Clause 34. The UE of clause 33, wherein tire indication is transmitted via: a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission, or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.

[0211] Clause 35. The UE of any of clauses 33 to 34, wherein the resources for transmission of the indication are indicated: in the configuration, or a previously received uplink grant.

[0212] Clause 36. The UE of any of clauses 33 to 35, wherein the indication is transmitted on: the first uplink transmit beam, or a previously configured uplink transmit beam.

[0213] Clause 37. The UE of any of clauses 21 to 36, wherein tire one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to: receive, via the one or more transceivers, an indication that the UE is not permitted to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction.

[0214] Clause 38. The UE of clause 37, wherein the indication is: a flag in the configuration, or received via RRC signaling or DCI signaling.

[0215] Clause 39. The UE of any of clauses 21 to 38, wherein tire one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to: receive, via the one or more transceivers, an indication that the UE is permitted to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction.57QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO58

[0216] Clause 40. The UE of clause 39, wherein the indication is: indicated by the configuration including at least the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers, a flag in the configuration, or received via RRC signaling or DCI signaling.

[0217] Clause 41 . A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for receiving, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and means for transmitting the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0218] Clause 42. The UE of clause 41, wherein the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers comprises: one or more SRS resource identifiers (SRIs), one or more synchronization signal block (SSB) identifiers, one or more channel state information reference signal (CS1-RS) identifiers, or any combination thereof.

[0219] Clause 43. The UE of any of clauses 41 to 42, wherein: the configuration includes a second plurality of spatial relation identifiers for a second SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and at least one spatial relation identifier is common to both the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers and the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0220] Clause 44. The UE of clause 43, further comprising: means for transmitting the second SRS resource on a second uplink transmit beam corresponding to a second spatial relation identifier of the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers, where the second spatial relation identifier is different from the first spatial relation identifier.

[0221] Clause 45. The UE of any of clauses 41 to 44, further comprising: means for transmitting, to the base station, a request to be configured with multiple spatial relation identifiers for an SRS resource, wherein the configuration of the one or more SRS resources is received in response to the request.

[0222] Clause 46. The UE of clause 45, wherein the request is included in: a capability message, a scheduling request, a buffer status report, a radio resource configuration (RRC) reconfiguration message, UE assistance information, or a response to a query from the base station.58QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO59

[0223] Clause 47. The UE of any of clauses 41 to 46, wherein the first spatial relation identifier is selected for an uplink communication direction, a sensing direction, or both,

[0224] Clause 48. The UE of clause 47, wherein the first SRS resource is transmitted on the first uplink transmit beam based on: an effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of the first SRS resource over the sensing direction being no less than a signal strength threshold compared to an EIRP achievable for transmission of the first SRS resource over only the sensing direction, a beamwidth of the first SRS resource over the sensing direction not exceeding a maximum threshold, or any combination thereof.

[8225] Clause 49. The UE of clause 48, wherein the maximum threshold is selected: to minimize spatial interference, to achieve a sensing requirement of the base station, to comply with sensing requirements of the UE, or any combination thereof.

[0226] Clause 50. The UE of any of clauses 47 to 49, wherein the first SRS resource is transmitted on the first uplink transmit beam based on an EIRP of the first SRS resource over the uplink communication direction being no less than a signal strength threshold compared to an EIRP achievable for transmission of the first SRS resource over only the uplink communication direction .

[0227] Clause 51. The UE of clause 50, wherein the signal strength threshold is: configured to the UE via RRC signaling, included in the configuration, or included in downlink control information (DCI).

[0228] Clause 52. The UE of any of clauses 50 to 51 , wherein each of the first, plurality of spatial relation identifiers is associated with a different signal strength threshold.

[0229] Clause 53. The UE of any of clauses 41 to 52, further comprising: means for transmitting, to the base station, an indication of the first spatial relation identifier.

[8238] Clause 54. The UE of clause 53, wherein the indication is transmitted via: a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission, or a physical uplink shared channel (PU SCH) transmission.

[0231] Clause 55. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 54, wherein the resources for transmission of the indication are indicated: in the configuration, or a previously received uplink grant.

[0232] Clause 56. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 55, wherein the indication is transmitted on: the first uplink transmit beam, or a previously configured uplink transmit beam.

[8233] Clause 57. The UE of any of clauses 41 to 56, further comprising: means for receiving an indication that the UE is not permitted to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink59QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO60 transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction .

[0234] Clause 58. The UE of clause 57, wherein the indication is: a flag in the configuration, or received via RRC signaling or DCI signaling.

[0235] Clause 59. The UE of any of clauses 41 to 58, further comprising: means for receiving an indication that the UE is permitted to transmit the first SR.S resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction.

[0236] Clause 60. The UE of clause 59, wherein the indication is: indicated by the configuration including at least the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers, a flag in the configuration, or received via RRC signaling or DCI signaling.

[0237] Clause 61. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: receive, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and transmit the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0238] Clause 62. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 61 , wherein the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers comprises: one or more SRS resource identifiers (SRIs), one or more synchronization signal block (SSB) identifiers, one or more channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) identifiers, or any combination thereof,

[0239] Clause 63. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 61 to 62, wherein: the configuration includes a second plurality of spatial relation identifiers for a second SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and at least one spatial relati on identifier is common to both the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers and the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

[0240] Clause 64. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 63, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the UE, cause the UE to: transmit the second SRS resource on a second uplink transmit beam corresponding60QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO61 to a second spatial relation identifier of the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers, where the second spatial relation identifier is different from the first spatial relation identifier.

[0241] Clause 65. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 61 to 64, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the UE, cause the UE to: transmit, to the base station, a request to be configured with multiple spatial relation identifiers for an SRS resource, wherein the configuration of the one or more SRS resources is received in response to the request.

[0242] Clause 66. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 65, wherein the request is included in: a capability message, a scheduling request, a buffer status report, a radio resource configuration (RRC) reconfiguration message, UE assistance information, or a response to a query' from the base station.

[0243] Clause 67. The non-transitory' computer-readable medium of any of clauses 61 to 66, wherein the first spatial relation identifier is selected for an uplink communication direction, a sensing direction, or both.

[8244] Clause 68. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 67, wherein the first SRS resource is transmited on the first uplink transmit beam based on: an effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of the first SRS resource over the sensing direction being no less than a signal strength threshold compared to an EIRP achievable for transmission of the first SRS resource over only the sensing direction, a beamwidth of the first SRS resource over the sensing direction not exceeding a maximum threshold, or any combination thereof.

[0245] Clause 69. The non-transitory' computer-readable medium of clause 68, wherein the maximum threshold is selected: to minimize spatial interference, to achieve a sensing requirement of the base station, to comply with sensing requirements of the UE, or any combination thereof.

[0246] Clause 70. The non-transitory' computer-readable medium of any of clauses 67 to 69, wherein the first SRS resource is transmited on the first uplink transmit beam based on an effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of the first SRS resource over the uplink communication direction being no less than a signal strength threshold compared to an EIRP achievable for transmission of the first. SRS resource over only the uplink communication direction.61QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO62

[0247] Clause 71. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 70, wherein the signal strength threshold is: configured to the UE via RRC signaling, included in the configuration, or included in downlink control information (DCI).

[0248] Clause 72. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 70 to 71, wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers is associated with a different signal strength threshold.

[0249] Clause 73. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 61 to 72, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by tire UE, cause the UE to: transmit, to the base station, an indication of the first spatial relation identifier.

[0250] Clause 74. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 73, wherein the indication is transmitted via: a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission, or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.

[0251] Clause 75. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 73 to 74, wherein the resources for transmission of the indication are indicated: in the configuration, or a previously received uplink grant.

[0252] Clause 76. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 73 to 75, wherein the indication is transmitted on: the first uplink transmit beam, or a previously configured uplink transmit beam.

[0253] Clause 77. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 61 to 76, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the UE, cause the UE to: receive an indication that the UE is not permitted to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction.

[0254] Clause 78. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 77, wherein the indication is: a flag in the configuration, or received via RRC signaling or DCI signaling.

[0255] Clause 79. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 61 to 78, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the UE, cause the UE to: receive an indication that the UE is permitted to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction.62.QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO63

[0256] Clause 80. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 79, wherein the indication is: indicated by the configuration including at least the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers, a flag in the configuration, or received via RRC signaling or DCI signaling.

[0257] Those of skill in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout tire above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0258] Further, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeabili ty of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0259] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, a field-programable gate array (FPGA), or oilier programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general -purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.63QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO64

[0260] The methods, sequences and / or algorithms described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in random access memory (RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An example storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

[0261] In one or more example aspects, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.64QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO65Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0262] While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative aspects of the disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications could be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. For example, the functions, steps and / or actions of the method claims in accordance with the aspects of the disclosure described herein need not be performed in any particular order. Further, no component, function, action, or instruction described or claimed herein should be construed as critical or essential unless explicitly described as such. Furthermore, as used herein, the terms “set,” “group,” and the like are intended to include one or more of the stated elements. Also, as used herein, the terms “has,” “’have,” “having,” “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” and the like does not preclude the presence of one or more additional elements (e.g., an element “having” A may also have B), Further, the phrase “based on” is intended to mean “based, at. least in part, on” unless explicitly stated otherwise. Also, as used herein, the term “or” is intended to be inclusive when used in a series and may be used interchangeably with “and / or,” unless explicitly stated otherwise (e.g., if used in combination with “either” or “only one of’) or the alternatives are mutually exclusive (e.g., “one or more” should not be interpreted as “one and more”). Furthermore, although components, functions, actions, and instructions may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated. Accordingly, as used herein, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to include one or more of the stated elements. Additionally, as used herein, the terms “at least one” and “one or more” encompass “one” component, function, action, or instruction performing or capable of performing a described or claimed functionality and also “two or more” components, functions, actions, or instructions performing or capable of performing a described or claimed functionality in combination.65QC2404291WO

Claims

1. Qualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO66CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:1 . A user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories; one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to: receive, via the one or more transceivers, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and transmit, via the one or more transceivers, the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers comprises: one or more SRS resource identifiers (SRIs), one or more synchronization signal block (SSB) identifiers, one or more channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) identifiers, or any combination thereof.

3. The UE of claim 1, wherein: the configuration includes a second plurality of spatial relation identifiers for a second SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and at least one spatial relation identifier is common to both the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers and the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers.66QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO674. The L!E of claim 3, wherein the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to: transmit, via the one or more transceivers, the second SRS resource on a second uplink transmit beam corresponding to a second spatial relation identifier of the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers, where the second spatial relation identifier is different from the first spatial relation identifier.

5. The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to: transmit, via the one or more transceivers, to the base station, a request to be configured with multiple spatial relation identifiers for an SRS resource, wherein the configuration of the one or more SRS resources is received in response to the request.

6. The UE of claim 5, wherein the request is included in: a capability message, a scheduling request, a buffer status report, a radio resource configuration (RRC) reconfiguration message,UE assistance information, or a response to a query from the base station.

7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the first spatial relation identifier is selected for an uplink communication direction, a sensing direction, or both.

8. The UE of claim 7, wherein the first SRS resource is transmitted on the first uplink transmit beam based on: an EIRP of the first SRS resource over the sensing direction being no less than a signal strength threshold compared to an EIRP achievable for transmission of the first SRS resource over only the sensing direction, a beamwidth of the first SRS resource over the sensing direction not exceeding a maximum threshold, or any combination thereof.67QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO689. The UE of claim 8, wherein the maximum threshold is selected: to minimize spatial interference, to achieve a sensing requirement of the base station, to comply with sensing requirements of the UE, or any combination thereof.

10. llie UE of claim 7, wherein the first SRS resource is transmitted on the first uplink transmit beam based on an EIRP of the first SRS resource over the uplink communication direction being no less than a Signal strength threshold compared to an EIRP achievable for transmission of the first SRS resource over only the uplink communication direction.11 . The UE of claim 10, wherein the signal strength threshold is: configured to the UE via RRC signaling, included in the configuration, or included in downlink control information (DCI).

12. The UE of claim 10, wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers is associated with a different signal strength threshold.

13. The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to: transmit, via the one or more transceivers, to the base station, an indication of the first spatial relation identifier.

14. The UE of claim 13, wherein the indication is transmitted via: a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission, or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.

15. The UE of claim 13 , wherein the resources for transm ission of the indication are indicated:68QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO69 in the configuration, or a previously received uplink grant,16. The UE of claim 13, wherein the indication is transmited on: the first uplink transmit beam, or a previously configured uplink transmit beam.

17. Hie UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to: receive, via the one or more transceivers, an indication that the UE is not permited to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction .

18. lire UE of claim 17, wherein the indication is: a flag in the configuration, or received via RRC signaling or DCI signaling.

19. The LIE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to: receive, via the one or more transceivers, an indication that the UE is permitted to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction.

20. The UE of claim 19, wherein the indication is: indicated by the configuration including at least the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers, a flag in the configuration, or received via RRC signaling or DCI signaling.

21. A method of wireless sensing performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:69QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO70 receiving, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers tor at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and transmitting the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein: the configuration includes a second plurality of spatial relation identifiers for a second SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and at least one spatial relation identifier is common to both the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers and the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising: transmiting the second SRS resource on a second uplink transmit beam corresponding to a second spatial relation identifier of the second plurality of spatial relation identifiers, where the second spatial relation identifier is different from the first spatial relation identifier.

24. The method of claim 21 , further comprising: transmitting, to the base station, a request to be configured with multiple spatial relation identifiers for an SRS resource, wherein the configuration of the one or more SRS resources is received in response to the request.

25. The method of claim 21 , wherein the first spatial relation identifier is selected for an uplink communication direction, a sensing direction, or both.

26. The method of claim 21 , further comprising : transmitting, to the base station, an indication of the first spatial relation identifier.70QC2404291WOQualcomm Ref. No. 2404291WO7127. The method of claim 21, further comprising: receiving an indication that the UE is not permitted to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction.

28. The method of claim 21 , further comprising: receiving an indication that the L!E is permitted to transmit the first SRS resource over an uplink transmit beam corresponding to a spatial relation identifier selected for both an uplink communication direction and a sensing direction.

29. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for receiving, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and means for transmitting the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers.

30. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: receive, from a base station, a configuration of one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources of an SRS resource set, wherein the configuration includes at least a first plurality of spatial relation identifiers for at least a first SRS resource of the one or more SRS resources, and wherein each of the first plurality of spatial relation identifiers corresponds to an uplink transmit beam for transmission of the first SRS resource; and transmit the first SRS resource on a first uplink transmit beam corresponding to a first spatial relation identifier of the first plurality' of spatial relation identifiers.71QC2404291WO

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