Label quality indicator for model positioning based on pru

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a solution on label quality indicator for model positioning based on PRU is proposed. In particular, a target UE receives a signal from LMF to consider the assessment of the label quality using the PRU information based on the target UE capability. Furthermore, the target UE reports the quality indicator of the label. In this way, the accuracy assessment of the label used for data collection for AIML positioning can be improved.

Description

LABEL QUALITY INDICATOR FOR MODEL POSITIONING BASED ON PRUCROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims priority from, and the benefit of, US Provisional Application No. 63 / 702372, filed October 2, 2024, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELDS

[0002] Various example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to methods, devices, apparatuses and computer readable storage medium for label quality indicator for model positioning based on position reference unit (PRU).BACKGROUND

[0003] With developments in the integration of Artificial Intelligence (Al) and Machine Learning (ML) within the 5G and emerging 6G New Radio (NR) Air Interface, a new frontier in network adaptability and efficiency is being explored. The 3rdgeneration partner project (3GPP) Release-18 study item and 3GPP Release-19 work item emphasize the importance of model generalization across various network scenarios, addressing the need for AI / ML models to maintain robust performance under diverse conditions. To enable AIML positioning in Release-19, it has agreed to consider for data collection two key elements, one related to the channel measurements and another element related to the labels.SUMMARY

[0004] I n a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus to: receive, from a second apparatus, first information indicating whether a position reference unit is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; determine a target assessment for the label quality based at least in part on the first information; and transmit, to the second apparatus, second information indicating the target assessment.

[0005] In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus to: transmit, to a first apparatus, first information indicating whether a position reference unit is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and receive, from the first apparatus, second information indicating a target assessmentthat is determined based at least in part on the first information.

[0006] In a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus to: receive, from a second apparatus, information indicating a target assessment of a label quality of a label that is determined based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

[0007] In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus to: determine a target assessment of a label quality of a label based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and transmit, to a first apparatus, information indicating the target assessment.

[0008] In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: receiving, at a first apparatus and from a second apparatus, first information indicating whether a position reference unit is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; determining a target assessment for the label quality based at least in part on the first information; and transmitting, to the second apparatus, second information indicating the target assessment.

[0009] In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: transmitting, at a second apparatus and to a first apparatus, first information indicating whether a position reference unit is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and receiving, from the first apparatus, second information indicating a target assessment that is determined based at least in part on the first information.

[0010] In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: receiving, at a first apparatus and from a second apparatus, information indicating a target assessment of a label quality of a label that is determined based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

[0011] In an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: determining, at a second apparatus, a target assessment of a label quality of a label based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and transmitting, to a first apparatus, information indicating the target assessment.

[0012] In a ninth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, first information indicating whether a position reference unit is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; means for determining a target assessment for the label quality based at least in part on the first information; and means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, second information indicating the target assessment.

[0013] In a tenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, first information indicating whether a position reference unit is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and means for receiving, from the first apparatus, second information indicating a target assessment that is determined based at least in part on the first information.

[0014] In an eleventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, information indicating a target assessment of a label quality of a label that is determined based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

[0015] In a twelfth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises means for determining a target assessment of a label quality of a label based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, information indicating the target assessment.

[0016] In a thirteenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to the fifth or sixth or seventh or eighth aspect.

[0017] It is to be understood that the Summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

[0019] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

[0020] FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling flow for signaling label quality indicator preference according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0021] FIG. 3 illustrates a signaling flow for signaling label quality indicator preference according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0022] FIG. 4 illustrates a signaling flow for signaling label quality indicator preference according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0023] FIG. 5 illustrates a signaling flow for signaling label quality indicator preference according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0024] FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0025] FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0026] FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0027] FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0028] FIG. 10 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0029] FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0030] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. Embodiments described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

[0032] In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

[0033] References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the sameembodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

[0034] It shall be understood that although the terms “first,” “second,”..., etc. in front of noun(s) and the like may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another and they do not limit the order of the noun(s). For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and / or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

[0035] As used herein, “at least one of the following: ” and “at least one of ” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or”, mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

[0036] As used herein, unless stated explicitly, performing a step “in response to A” does not indicate that the step is performed immediately after “A” occurs and one or more intervening steps may be included.

[0037] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “has”, “having”, “includes” and / or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and / or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and / or combinations thereof.

[0038] As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and / or digital circuitry) and(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable):(i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit(s) with software / firmware and(ii) any portions of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and(c) hardware circuit(s) and or processor(s), such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of amicroprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

[0039] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0040] As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE- A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-loT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1 G), the second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G), the sixth generation (6G) communication protocols, and / or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

[0041] As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), an NR NB (also referred to as a gNB), a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (I AB) node, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In some example embodiments, radio access network (RAN) split architecture comprises a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node comprises a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE toward the parent node, and a DU part of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward the next-hop IAB node.

[0042] The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wirelesscommunication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE), a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE), an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or an automated processing chain contexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. The terminal device may also correspond to a Mobile Termination (MT) part of an IAB node (e.g., a relay node). In the following description, the terms “terminal device”, “communication device”, “terminal”, “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

[0043] As used herein, the term “resource,” “transmission resource,” “resource block,” “physical resource block” (PRB), “uplink resource,” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing a communication, for example, a communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in time domain, a resource in frequency domain, a resource in space domain, a resource in code domain, or any other combination of the time, frequency, space and / or code domain resource enabling a communication, and the like. In the following, unless explicitly stated, a resource in both frequency domain and time domain will be used as an example of a transmission resource for describing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It is noted that example embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains. The term “transmission reception point (TRP)” used herein may be defined as an antenna array, with one or more antenna elements, available to the network located at a specific geographical location for a specific area. In some embodiments, the TRP may be implemented at a network device. The term “location management function (LMF)” used herein refers to a critical component within the 5G Core Network, ensuring efficient and reliable location tracking for UEs.

[0044] In the field of machine learning, “ground truth” is a term which is often used to refer to the true or actual values of a variable or target that one is trying to predict using an artificial intelligence (Al) or machine learning (ML) algorithm. A ground truth may be used, for example, to compare a model’s prediction and, therefore, evaluate model performance. A ground truth may be continuous or categorical variables, such as depending on a type of problem one is trying to solve. There are severaltypes of ground truth including labeled data, annotated data, and real-world data. Ground truth may refer to true and correct labels or outputs associated with a dataset. These labels may be obtained from reliable sources or domain experts and represent the most accurate representation of the data. In supervised learning tasks, ground truth labels may be used during model training to teach the algorithm how to make predictions. The model may learn to minimize the difference between its predictions and the ground truth labels. Ground truth may be used for assessing the performance of machine learning models. After training, models may be evaluated using ground truth labels to measure their accuracy, precision, recall, and other performance metrics (generally referred to as “model monitoring”). Ground truth may serve as a quality assurance mechanism, ensuring the reliability and validity of the data used for training and testing models. It may be used to help identify errors, inconsistencies, or biases in the dataset that could affect model performance. Ground truth may be used to facilitate iterative model improvement by providing feedback on model predictions. Discrepancies between predicted outputs and ground truth labels may be used to highlight areas where a model may need refinement or additional training data. These are merely some examples of use of a ground truth in regard to Al and ML. As used herein, a machine learning (ML) entity may be an ML model or may contain an ML model and ML model related metadata. The ML entity may be managed as a single composite entity. In some example embodiments, the ML entity may be implemented as a MLApp. In AI / ML, a label is a value that is assigned to a specific instance in a dataset. It is the correct answer or the value that a learning algorithm tries to predict or determine. Labels are typically used in supervised learning tasks, where the goal is to train a model to predict or decide an outcome based on input features.

[0045] In an AI / ML positioning use case, such as with a UE for example, ground truth data may refer to the ‘true’ labels (UE location for direct positioning), and are mandatory to perform model training as well as model monitoring after its deployment and use. To get the UE position in the past, legacy UE positioning methods were envisioned to be employed; which obviously comes with its own errors. Because of these errors associated with conventional legacy UE positioning methods, relying on this conventional approach to derive position ground truth would impact the accuracy when training AI / ML models with locations estimated using such legacy positioning methods. With features as described herein, more accurate ground truth data may be provided for an AI / ML direct positioning use case.

[0046] Features as described herein may be used to provide a method and related signaling enhancement to use multiple position related features at a UE. In an example embodiment both information from one or more sensors at a UE is considered and information related to at least one position reference unit (PRU) is considered. The example method and related signaling may provide enhancement to leverage sensors capabilities at UE side in order to derive more accurate ground truth data with PRU assistance. In one type of example, one may assume that the NW has accurate positioninformation of one or more deployed PRUs in an area of interest. Therefore, the proximity of the UE to these PRUs, along with information from one or more sensors of the UE, may be exploited jointly in order to derive more accurate ground truth data targeted for model training (and possibly for model monitoring, such as upon request for example).

[0047] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment 100 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. In the communication environment 100, a plurality of communication devices, including a terminal device 110 and a network device 120, can communicate with each other. The communication environment 100 may also include a core network device 130, such as, LMF. Further, there may be one or more PRUs (such as, the PDU 140-1 , ... , the PDU 140- N, collectively referred to as “PRU 140” where N is an integer) that are near / close to the terminal device 110. For example, a distance between the terminal device 110 and PRU 140 is smaller than or equal to a distance threshold.

[0048] It is to be understood that the number of devices and their connections shown in FIG. 1 are only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitation. The communication environment 100 may include any suitable number of devices configured to implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it would be appreciated that one or more additional devices may be located in the cell provided by the network device 120, and one or more additional cells may be deployed in the communication environment 100. It is noted that although illustrated as a network device, the network device 120 may be another device than a network device. Although illustrated as a terminal device, the terminal device 110 may be another device than a terminal device.

[0049] In the following, for the purpose of illustration, some example embodiments are described with the terminal device 110 operating as a UE and the network device 120 operating as a base station. However, in some example embodiments, operations described in connection with a terminal device may be implemented at a network device or other device, and operations described in connection with a network device may be implemented at a terminal device or other device.

[0050] In some example embodiments, a transmission direction from the network device 120 to the terminal device 110 is referred to as a downlink (DL), while a transmission direction from the terminal device 110 to the network device 120 is referred to as an uplink (UL). In DL, the network device 120 is a transmitting (TX) device (or a transmitter) and the terminal device 110 is a receiving (RX) device (or a receiver). In UL, the terminal device 110 is a TX device (or a transmitter) and the network device 120 is a RX device (or a receiver).

[0051] Communications in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol(s), comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1 G), the second generation (2G), the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), the fifth generation (5G), 5.5G, the sixth generation (6G), and the like, wireless local networkcommunication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and / or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex (TDD), Multiple- Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM), Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and / or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

[0052] As mentioned above, it has agreed to consider for data collection two key elements, one related to the channel measurements and another element related to the labels. For both, an additional information aims to indicate the quality of the information. For training data collection of AI / ML based positioning, the collected data sample can include the following components: Part A including channel measurement, quality indicator of channel measurement, time stamp of channel measurement; and Part B including ground truth label (or its approximation), quality indicator of label, and time stamp of label. It is noted that “Part A” and “Part B” terminologies are only for discussion purpose and contents in Part A and Part B may or may not be generated by different entities.

[0053] As ground truth can be collected by a regular, using another method different than the information provided by PRU may carry an intrinsic error that dependent of the positioning methodology (such as, legacy, non-radio access technology (RAT)). Thus, the usage of a quality indicator of label is justified.

[0054] There may be serval cases for AI / ML positioning. For example, it proposes an example case (referred to Case 1 hereinafter) where AI / ML positioning where the model is located in the UE-side, as a consequence the data collection target is the UE or set of UEs. It is expected that UE vendors may use external servers to do data collection as over the top (OTT) server. Further, it also proposes another example case (referred to Case 3a hereinafter) where AI / ML positioning where the model is located in the gNB, as a consequence the data collection target entity is the gNB. In addition, a further example case (referred to Case 3b hereinafter) is also proposed where AI / ML positioning where the model is located in the location management function (LMF), as a consequence the data collection target entity is LMF.

[0055] The problem on using the legacy quality indicator is that the assessment of the quality is mostly a statistical method related to the specific legacy methodology to do the positioning estimation. Here, it relays again on the capacity of the legacy method on getting a minimum quality positioning in indoor scenarios (e.g. industrial warehouse) with a variety of clutter densities, represented in most cases by a large number of NLOS links.

[0056] As AI / ML positioning in Releas-19 is based on supervised learning scheme to train models, thesolution depends on the quality of ground truth. In this regard, the PRU is the unique entity that may guarantee the highest quality in terms of positioning. In addition, any label that was generated based on any PRU information during data collection, may count as a good quality label, but with a certain error that depends on the correlation of the label information with the nearest PRU. Thus, in the current solution there is not any indication of the label quality linked to the PRU information.

[0057] According to example embodiments of the present disclosure, a solution on label quality indicator for model positioning based on PRU is proposed. In particular, a target UE receives a signal from LMF to consider the assessment of the label quality using the PRU information based on the target UE capability. Furthermore, the target UE reports the quality indicator of the label. In this way, the accuracy assessment of the label used for data collection for AIML positioning can be improved.

[0058] Reference is made to FIG. 2, which illustrates a signalling flow 200 for signaling label quality indicator preference in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the signalling flow 200 will be discussed with reference to FIG. 1 , for example, by using the terminal device 110 and the core network device 130.

[0059] In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 may transmit (2010) capability information to the core network device 130. In other words, the core network device 130 may receive (2010) the capability information from the terminal device 110. The capability information may indicate a set of capabilities supported by the terminal device 110. For example, the capability information may include a label quality capability of the terminal device 110. That is, the capability information may indicate that the terminal device 110 is capable of determining the label quality indicator. In some example embodiments, the capability information may be transmitted via a LTE positioning protocol (LPP) signaling.

[0060] The core network device 130 may determine (2020) first information indicating whether a PRU is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label. The label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the terminal device 110. For example, the first information may be a quality indicator availability (QI A).

[0061] In some example embodiments, the core network device 130 may determine the first information based on whether a radio resource of the PRU is available. For example, the core network device 130 may determine whether the radio resource of at least one PRU 140 is available. In some example embodiments, if all radio resources of the PRUs 140 are occupied for other purpose, the core network device 130 may determine no PRU is available. In some example embodiments, if the radio resource is available, the first information may indicate the PRU is available for the assessment. For example, if the radio resource of the PRU 140-1 is available, the first information may indicate the PRU 140-1 is available for the assessment.

[0062] The core network device 130 transmits (2030) the first information of the terminal device 110.That is, the terminal device 110 receives (2030) the first information from the core network device 130. For example, the first information may be transmitted via the LPP signaling.

[0063] The terminal device 110 determines (2040) a target assessment for the label quality based at least in part on the first information. In this way, the estimation of the label quality can be enhanced. Further, the AI / ML based positioning can be improved.

[0064] In some example embodiments, if the first information indicates the PRU is available for the assessment of the label quality indicator (for example, QI A= 1 ), the terminal device 110 may determine a first assessment where position reference unit information is used as the target assessment. For example, if the first information indicates the PRU 140-1 is available, the terminal device 110 may determine to use information (such as, position information) of the PRU 140-1 for determining the label quality indicator. Alternatively, if the first information indicates the position reference unit is not available for the assessment, the terminal device 110 may determine a second assessment where no PRU information is used as the target assessment. For example, if the first information indicates no PRU is available (for example QIA=0), the terminal device 110 may determine to perform the assessment without the information of PRU. In some other example embodiments, if the first information indicates the PRU is available for the assessment, the terminal device 110 may determine the target assessment between the first assessment and the second assessment. For example, the terminal device 110 may determine to use the first assessment or the second assessment based on its preference.

[0065] The terminal device 110 transmits (2050) second information indicating the target assessment to the core network device 130. That is, the core network device 130 receives (2050) the second information from the terminal device 110.

[0066] In some example embodiments, if the second assessment is determined as the target assessment, the terminal device 110 may perform (2060) the target assessment of label quality indicator without the PRU. The terminal device 110 may transmit the assessment result of label quality indicator to the core network device 130. For example, Table 1 shows an information element (IE) the quality indicator of positioning measurements. The field timingQualityValue in the IE may provide an estimate of uncertainty of the timing value for which the IE NR-TimingQuality is provided in units of metres. The field timingQualityResolution in the IE may provide the resolution used in the timingQualityValue field. Enumerated values mdotl, ml, m10, m30 correspond to 0.1 , 1 , 10, 30 metres, respectively.Table 1

[0067] Table 2 shows another example of IE of measurement quality. This IE contains the TRP’s best estimate of the quality of the measurement.Table 20068] I n some example embodiments, if the first assessment is determined as the target assessment, the terminal device 110 may perform (2060’) the target assessment on the label quality based on position information of the PRU. For example, the core network device 130 may trigger (2060’-1 ) the assessment method with PRU. The terminal device 110 may report (2060’-2) an assessment decision to the core network device 130. For example, the reported assessment decision may indicate that assessment method with PRU is triggered.

[0069] The terminal device 110 may transmit (2060’-3) an assessment report including an assessment result of the label quality to the core network device 130. That is, the core network device 130 may receive (2060’-3) the assessment report from the terminal device 110. In some example embodiments, the assessment result may be in unit of meter. For example, the assessment result may indicate an absolute value (such as, 0.5m) which indicates the distance to the terminal device 110. Alternatively, the assessment result may be a value in a predetermined range. For example, the assessment result may be between 0 to 1. In this case, higher value means better quality. For example, if the assessment result is 0 or a value close to 0 (such as, 0.1), it means the label quality is bad / not good. Alternatively, if the assessment result is 1 or a value close to 1 (such as, 0.9), it means the label quality is good. In some other example embodiments, lower value means better quality. For example, if the assessment result is 0 or a value close to 0 (such as, 0.1), it means the label quality is good.

[0070] Reference is made to FIG. 3, which illustrates a signalling flow 300 for signaling label qualityindicator preference in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the signalling flow 300 involves a UE 310, an LMF 320, and an OTT server 330. In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 may act as the UE 310 and the core network device 130 may act as the LMF 320. Example embodiments described with reference to FIG. 3 may be applicable in case 1 where the model is located in the UE-side.

[0071] The UE 310 may provide (301) its capability report to the LMF 320. For example, the capability report may include the label quality capability of the UE 310.

[0072] The LMF 320 may determine (302) the QIA based on PRU radio resource availability and UE capability. For example, if there is no PRU available, QIA may be 0. Alternatively, if there is available PRU, QIA may be 1.

[0073] The LMF 320 may provide (303) generic assistance data for data collection to the UE 310. The generic assistance data may include the QIA information. The UE 310 or the OTT server 330 may make (304) a quality indicator decision (QID). For example, if QIA is equal to 1 , the data collection at UE-side may may select between legacy quality indicator and new quality indicator. The UE 310 may report (305) the QID to the LMF 320.

[0074] If the UE 310 determines to perform the quality assessment without PRU, the UE 310 may perform (306) and report the assessment result in the IE NR-TimingQuality. Alternatively, if the UE 310 determines to perform the quality assessment with PRU, the LMF 320 may trigger (307) the assessment method with PRU. The UE 310 may report (308) the method to do the assessment to the LMF 320. For example, the method may include that the absolute positioning from PRU and relative positioning from UE-sensors (gyroscope) are mapped. Based on the method to match both information (PRU and UE-sensor information), the quality indicator may be 0 (very bad matching ) or 1 (high accurate matching). Alternatively, or in addition, another method may be enabled using side link (SL) to do the assessment between PRU and the target UE generating the Label.

[0075] The UE 310 may report (309) the assessment result of the quality indicator to the LMF 320. For example, the assessment result may be in meters. Alternatively, the assessment result may be based on hard or soft information. For example, the assessment result may be between 0 and 1 . The UE 310 may perform (310) the collection of label and its quality indicator.

[0076] Reference is made to FIG. 4, which illustrates a signalling flow 400 for signaling label quality indicator preference in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the signalling flow 400 will be discussed with reference to FIG. 4, for example, by using the terminal device 110 and the core network device 130.

[0077] In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 may transmit (4010) capability information to the core network device 130. In other words, the core network device 130 may receive (4010) the capability information from the terminal device 110. The capability information may indicatea set of capabilities supported by the terminal device 110. For example, the capability information may include a label quality capability of the terminal device 110. That is, the capability information may indicate that the terminal device 110 is capable of determining the label quality indicator. In some example embodiments, the capability information may be transmitted via an LTE positioning protocol (LPP) signaling.

[0078] The core network device 130 may determine whether a PRU is available for the assessment of the label quality of the label. For example, the core network device 130 may determine whether the radio resource of at least one PRU 140 is available. In some example embodiments, if all radio resources of the PRUs 140 are occupied for other purpose, the core network device 130 may determine no PRU is available. In some example embodiments, if the radio resource is available, the first information may indicate the PRU is available for the assessment. For example, if the radio resource of the PRU 140-1 is available, the first information may indicate the PRU 140-1 is available for the assessment.

[0079] In some example embodiments, if the PRU is available for the assessment of the label quality indicator, the core network device 130 may determine a first assessment where position reference unit information is used as the target assessment. For example, if the PRU 140-1 is available, the core network device 130 may determine to use information (such as, position information) of the PRU 140- 1 for determining the label quality indicator. Alternatively, if the PRU is not available for the assessment, the core network device 130 may determine a second assessment where no position reference unit information is used as the target assessment. For example, if the no PRU is available (for example Q I A is equal to 0), the core network device 130 may determine to perform the assessment without the information of PRU. In some other example embodiments, if the PRU is available for the assessment, the core network device 130 may determine the target assessment between the first assessment and the second assessment. For example, the core network device 130 may determine to use the first assessment or the second assessment based on its preference.

[0080] The core network device 130 transmits (4030) the information indicating the target assessment to the terminal device 110. That is, the terminal device 110 receives (4030) the information indicating the target assessment from the core network device 130.

[0081] In some example embodiments, if the second assessment is determined as the target assessment, the terminal device 110 may perform (4040) the target assessment of label quality indicator without the PRU. The terminal device 110 may transmit the assessment result of label quality indicator to the core network device 130. Example embodiments described with reference to the performing (2060) in FIG. 2 may also be applicable here.

[0082] I n some example embodiments, if the first assessment is determined as the target assessment, the terminal device 110 may perform (4040’) the target assessment on the label quality based onposition information of the PRU. For example, the core network device 130 may trigger (4040’-1 ) the assessment method with PRU. The terminal device 110 may report (4040’-2) an assessment decision to the core network device 130. For example, the reported assessment decision may indicate that assessment method with PRU is triggered.

[0083] The terminal device 110 may transmit (4040’-3) an assessment report including an assessment result of the label quality to the core network device 130. That is, the core network device 130 may receive (4040’-3) the assessment report from the terminal device 110. In some example embodiments, the assessment result may be in unit of meter. For example, the assessment result may indicate an absolute value (such as, 0.5m) which indicates the distance to the terminal device 110. Alternatively, the assessment result may be a value in a predetermined range. For example, the assessment result may be between 0 to 1. In this case, higher value means better quality. For example, if the assessment result is 0 or a value close to 0 (such as, 0.1), it means the label quality is bad / not good. Alternatively, if the assessment result is 1 or a value close to 1 (such as, 0.9), it means the label quality is good. In some other example embodiments, lower value means better quality. For example, if the assessment result is 0 or a value close to 0 (such as, 0.1), it means the label quality is good.

[0084] Reference is made to FIG. 5, which illustrates a signalling flow 300 for signaling label quality indicator preference in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the signalling flow 500 involves a UE 510, an LMF 520, and a gNB 530. In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 may act as the UE 510, the core network device 130 may act as the LMF 520, and the network device 120 may act as the gNB 530. Example embodiments described with reference to FIG. 5 may be applicable in cases 3a and 3b where the model is located in the UE-side.

[0085] The UE 510 may provide (501) its capability report to the LMF 520. For example, the capability report may include the label quality capability of the UE 510.

[0086] The LMF 520 may determine (502) the quality indicator decision (QID) based on PRU radio resource availability and UE capability. For example, if there is no PRU available, QID may be 0. Alternatively, if there is available PRU, QID may be 1.

[0087] If the LMF 520 determines that the quality assessment is performed without PRU, the UE 510 may perform (503) and report the assessment result in the IE NR-TimingQuality. Alternatively, if the LMF 520 determines that the quality assessment is performed with PRU, the LMF 520 may trigger (504) the assessment method with PRU. The UE 510 may report (505) the method to do the assessment to the LMF 520. For example, the method may include that the absolute positioning from PRU and relative positioning from UE-sensors (gyroscope) are mapped. Based on the method to match both information (PRU and UE-sensor information), the quality indicator may be 0 (very bad matching ) or 1 (high accurate matching). Alternatively, or in addition, another method may be enabledusing side link (SL) to do the assessment between PRU and the target UE generating the label.

[0088] The UE 510 may report (506) the assessment result of the quality indicator to the LMF 520. For example, the assessment result may be in meters. Alternatively, the assessment result may be based on hard or soft information. For example, the assessment result may be between 0 and 1.

[0089] In some example embodiments, for case 3a where the model is located in the gNB, the label and its quality indicator may be collected (507) by the gNB 530. Alternatively, for case 3b where the model is located in the LMF, the label and its quality indicator may be collected (508) by the LMF 520.

[0090] FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example method 600 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 600 will be described from the perspective of the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1.

[0091] At block 610, the first apparatus receives, from a second apparatus, first information indicating whether a position reference unit is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label. The label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

[0092] At block 620, the first apparatus determines a target assessment for the label quality based at least in part on the first information.

[0093] At block 630, the first apparatus transmits, to the second apparatus, second information indicating the target assessment.

[0094] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: determining whether the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment based on the first information; and based on a determination that the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment, determining a first assessment where position reference unit information is used as the target assessment.

[0095] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: determining whether the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment based on the first information; and based on a determination that the first information indicates the position reference unit is not available for the assessment, determining a second assessment where no position reference unit information is used as the target assessment.

[0096] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: determining whether the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment based on the first information; and based on a determination that the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment, determining the target assessment between a first assessment where position reference unit information is used and a second assessment where no position reference unit information is used.

[0097] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: transmitting, to the second apparatus, capability information comprising a label quality capability of the first apparatus.

[0098] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: based on a determination that the target assessment is the first assessment, performing the target assessment on the label quality based on position information of the position reference unit.

[0099] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: transmitting, to the second apparatus, an assessment report comprising an assessment result of the label quality.

[0100] In some example embodiments, the assessment result is in unit of meter or is a value in a predetermined range (e.g. between 0 and 1).

[0101] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device, and the second apparatus is a core network device.

[0102] FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of an example method 700 implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 700 will be described from the perspective of the core network device 130 in FIG. 1.

[0103] At block 710, the second apparatus transmits, to a first apparatus, first information indicating whether a position reference unit is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label. The label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

[0104] At block 720, the second apparatus receives, from the first apparatus, second information indicating a target assessment that is determined based at least in part on the first information.

[0105] In some example embodiments, the method 700 further comprises: determining the first information based on whether a radio resource of the position reference unit is available; and based on a determination that the radio resource is available, determining that the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment.

[0106] In some example embodiments, the method 700 further comprises: receiving, from the first apparatus, capability information comprising a label quality capability of the first apparatus.

[0107] In some example embodiments, the method 700 further comprises: receiving, from the first apparatus, an assessment report comprising an assessment result of the label quality.

[0108] In some example embodiments, the assessment result is in unit of meter or is a value in a predetermined range (e.g. between 0 and 1).

[0109] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device, and the second apparatus is a core network device.

[0110] FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of an example method 800 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 800 will be described from the perspective of the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1.

[0111] At block 810, the first apparatus receives, from a second apparatus, information indicating a target assessment of a label quality of a label that is determined based on whether a position reference unit is available. The label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

[0112] In some example embodiments, the method 800 includes transmitting, to the second apparatus, capability information comprising a label quality capability of the first apparatus.

[0113] In some example embodiments, the method 800 includes based on a determination that a target assessment is a first assessment where position reference unit information is used, performing the target assessment on the label quality based on position information of the position reference unit.

[0114] In some example embodiments, at block 820, the first apparatus transmits, to the second apparatus, an assessment report comprising an assessment result of the label quality.

[0115] In some example embodiments, the assessment result is in unit of meter or is a value in a predetermined range (e.g. between 0 and 1).

[0116] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device, and the second apparatus is a core network device.

[0117] FIG. 9 shows a flowchart of an example method 900 implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 900 will be described from the perspective of the core network device 130 in FIG. 1.

[0118] At block 910, the second apparatus determines a target assessment of a label quality of a label based on whether a position reference unit is available. The label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

[0119] At block 920, the second apparatus transmits , to a first apparatus, information indicating the target assessment.

[0120] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus is caused to: determining whether a radio resource of the position reference unit is available for the assessment of the label quality; and based on a determination that the radio resource of the position reference unit is available, determining a first assessment where position reference unit information is used as the target assessment.

[0121] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus is caused to: determining whether a radio resource of the position reference unit is available for the assessment of the label quality; and based on a determination that the radio resource of the position reference unit is not available, determining a second assessment where no position reference unit information is used as the target assessment.

[0122] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus is caused to: receiving, from the first apparatus, capability information comprising a label quality capability of the first apparatus.

[0123] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus is caused to: receiving, from the first apparatus, an assessment report comprising an assessment result of the label quality.

[0124] In some example embodiments, the assessment result is in unit of meter or is a value in a predetermined range (e.g. between 0 and 1).

[0125] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device, and the second apparatus is a core network device.

[0126] In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 600 (for example, the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 600. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1 .

[0127] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, first information indicating whether a position reference unit is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; means for determining a target assessment for the label quality based at least in part on the first information; and means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, second information indicating the target assessment.

[0128] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining whether the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment based on the first information; and means for based on a determination that the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment, determining a first assessment where position reference unit information is used as the target assessment.

[0129] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining whether the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment based on the first information; and means for based on a determination that the first information indicates the position reference unit is not available for the assessment, determining a second assessment where no position reference unit information is used as the target assessment.

[0130] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining whether the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment based on the first information; and means for based on a determination that the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment, determining the target assessment between a first assessment where position reference unit information is used and a second assessment where no position reference unit information is used.

[0131] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, capability information comprising a label quality capability of the first apparatus.

[0132] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for based on a determination that the target assessment is the first assessment, performing the target assessment on the label quality based on position information of the position reference unit.

[0133] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, an assessment report comprising an assessment result of the label quality.

[0134] In some example embodiments, the assessment result is in unit of meter or is a value in a predetermined range.

[0135] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device, and the second apparatus is a core network device.

[0136] In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 700 (for example, the core network device 130 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 700. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The second apparatus may be implemented as or included in the core network device 130 in FIG. 1 .

[0137] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, first information indicating whether a position reference unit is available for an assessment of a label quality of a label, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and means for receiving, from the first apparatus, second information indicating a target assessment that is determined based at least in part on the first information.

[0138] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for determining the first information based on whether a radio resource of the position reference unit is available; and means for based on a determination that the radio resource is available, determining that the first information indicates the position reference unit is available for the assessment.

[0139] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the first apparatus, capability information comprising a label quality capability of the first apparatus.

[0140] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the first apparatus, an assessment report comprising an assessment result of the label quality.

[0141] In some example embodiments, the assessment result is in unit of meter or is a value in a predetermined range.

[0142] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device, and the second apparatus is a core network device.

[0143] In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 800 (for example, the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 800. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1 .

[0144] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, information indicating a target assessment of a label quality of a label that isdetermined based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

[0145] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, capability information comprising a label quality capability of the first apparatus.

[0146] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for based on a determination that a target assessment is a first assessment where position reference unit information is used, performing the target assessment on the label quality based on position information of the position reference unit.

[0147] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, an assessment report comprising an assessment result of the label quality.

[0148] In some example embodiments, the assessment result is in unit of meter or is a value in a predetermined range (e.g. between 0 and 1).

[0149] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device, and the second apparatus is a core network device.

[0150] In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 900 (for example, the core network device 130 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 900. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The second apparatus may be implemented as or included in the core network device 130 in FIG. 1.

[0151] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for determining a target assessment of a label quality of a label based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, information indicating the target assessment.

[0152] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises: means for determining whether a radio resource of the position reference unit is available for the assessment of the label quality; and means for based on a determination that the radio resource of the position reference unit is available, determining a first assessment where position reference unit information is used as the target assessment.

[0153] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises: means for determining whether a radio resource of the position reference unit is available for the assessment of the label quality; and means for based on a determination that the radio resource of the position reference unit is not available, determining a second assessment where no position reference unit information is used as the target assessment.

[0154] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises: means for receiving, from the first apparatus, capability information comprising a label quality capability of the first apparatus.

[0155] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises: means for receiving, from the first apparatus, an assessment report comprising an assessment result of the label quality.

[0156] In some example embodiments, the assessment result is in unit of meter or is a value in a predetermined range (e.g. between 0 and 1).

[0157] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device, and the second apparatus is a core network device.

[0158] FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1000 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1000 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the terminal device 110 or the core network device 130 as shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 1000 includes one or more processors 1010, one or more memories 1020 coupled to the processor 1010, and one or more communication modules 1040 coupled to the processor 1010.

[0159] The communication module 1040 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 1040 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 1040 may include at least one antenna.

[0160] The processor 1010 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 1000 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

[0161] The memory 1020 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 1024, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM), a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disk (DVD), an optical disk, a laser disk, and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random-access memory (RAM) 1022 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

[0162] A computer program 1030 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 1010. The instructions of the program 1030 may include instructions for performing operations / acts of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 1030 may be stored in the memory, e.g., the ROM 1024. The processor 1010 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 1030 into the RAM 1022.

[0163] The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 1030 so that the device 1000 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIG. 2 to FIG. 9. The example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0164] In some example embodiments, the program 1030 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 1000 (such as in the memory 1020) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 1000. The device 1000 may load the program 1030 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 1022 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer readable medium may include any types of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. The term “non-transitory,” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e. , tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM).

[0165] FIG. 11 shows an example of the computer readable medium 1100 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 1100 has the program 1030 stored thereon.

[0166] Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, and other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. Although various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0167] Some example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor, to carry out any of the methods as described above. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machineexecutable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

[0168] Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in anycombination of one or more programming languages. The program code may be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program code, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions / operations specified in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

[0169] In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

[0170] The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random-access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0171] Further, although operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, although several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Unless explicitly stated, certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, unless explicitly stated, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in a plurality of embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.

[0172] Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

l / We Claim:1 . A first apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus to: receive, from a second apparatus, information indicating a target assessment of a label quality of a label that is determined based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

2. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is caused to: transmit, to the second apparatus, capability information comprising a label quality capability of the first apparatus.

3. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is caused to: based on a determination that a target assessment is a first assessment where position reference unit information is used, perform the target assessment on the label quality based on position information of the position reference unit.

4. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is caused to: transmit, to the second apparatus, an assessment report comprising an assessment result of the label quality.

5. The first apparatus of claim 4, wherein the assessment result is in unit of meter or is a value in a predetermined range.

6. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is a terminal device, and the second apparatus is a core network device.

7. A second apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus to:determine a target assessment of a label quality of a label based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and transmit, to a first apparatus, information indicating the target assessment.

8. The second apparatus of claim 7, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: determine whether a radio resource of the position reference unit is available for the assessment of the label quality; and based on a determination that the radio resource of the position reference unit is available, determine a first assessment where position reference unit information is used as the target assessment.

9. The second apparatus of claim 7, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: determine whether a radio resource of the position reference unit is available for the assessment of the label quality; and based on a determination that the radio resource of the position reference unit is not available, determine a second assessment where no position reference unit information is used as the target assessment.

10. The second apparatus of claim 7, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: receive, from the first apparatus, capability information comprising a label quality capability of the first apparatus.11 . The second apparatus of claim 7, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: receive, from the first apparatus, an assessment report comprising an assessment result of the label quality.

12. The first second of claim 11 , wherein the assessment result is in unit of meter or is a value in a predetermined range.

13. The second apparatus of claim 7, wherein the first apparatus is a terminal device, and the second apparatus is a core network device.

14. A method comprising:receiving, at a first apparatus and from a second apparatus, information indicating a target assessment of a label quality of a label that is determined based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

15. A method comprising: determining, at a second apparatus, a target assessment of a label quality of a label based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and transmitting, to a first apparatus, information indicating the target assessment.

16. A computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for causing a first apparatus at least to: receive, from a second apparatus, information indicating a target assessment of a label quality of a label that is determined based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus.

17. A computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for causing a second apparatus at least to: determine a target assessment of a label quality of a label based on whether a position reference unit is available, wherein the label is used in data collection of a model based positioning for the first apparatus; and transmit, to a first apparatus, information indicating the target assessment.

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