WO2024028198A1

WO2024028198A1 - Identifying and authorizing a target for wireless sensing

Info

Publication number: WO2024028198A1
Application number: PCT/EP2023/070800
Authority: WO
Inventors: Walter Dees; Oscar Garcia Morchon
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
Priority date: 2022-08-05
Filing date: 2023-07-27
Publication date: 2024-02-08

Abstract

The invention proposes systems and methods for providing wireless sensing capability in a wireless communication system (700) which enables identifying a target object (TO) for sensing, and provides capabilities for the network to be capable of verifying whether the target object (TO) is authorized to make use of a sensing service.

Description

IDENTIFYING AND AUTHORIZING A TARGET FOR WIRELESS SENSING

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the field of communication between terminal devices and/or fixed or mobile access devices in wireless networks, such as - but not limited to - fifth generation (5G) cellular communication systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As the wavelength of communication systems decreases, the ability to use the same wavebands for increasingly precise sensing applications improves.

As an example, signal wavebands of 5G communication systems or other suitable wireless communication systems can be used as a radar, e.g., to measure locations and movements of cars and people and even vital sign signals such as heart rate and breathing rate.

Radar systems or other sensing systems are usually implemented as single non-dis- tributed systems comprising a transmitter and a receiver to enable communication of analogue signals and timing but they may also be distributed between a set of separate transmitter and receiver devices.

An issue with radar systems and wireless sensing systems in general is that it is not clear how to make sure that a detected object is the intended target, in order to not unnecessary obtain/leak privacy sensitive data of unintended target objects. It is also not clear how to verify whether the target object is authorized to make use of the sensing service.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to achieve a wireless sensing capability.

An advantage of the present invention is that the wireless sensing capability will enable identifying and authorizing a target object for sensing.

This object is achieved by an apparatus as claimed in claims 1 and 2, by a wireless communication device as claimed in claim 10, by a system as claimed in claim 14, by a method as claimed in claims 15 and 16, and by a computer program product as claimed in claim 17.

According to a first aspect, an apparatus for providing a wireless sensing capability is provided. The apparatus is configured at least to: obtain a set of target identification information; detect a set of objects and determine a set of sensing information about one or more of said detected objects, based on an output of a sensing operation of a target area or volume performed at least by a sensing transmitter transmitting a set of sensing signals and by a sensing receiver receiving the set of sensing signals; determine whether the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects meets or does not meet one or more configured criteria for identifying a target based on the set of target identification information; and perform, based on said determination that the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects meets or does not meet the one or more configured criteria for identifying the target, at least one of: stopping or continuing the sensing operation; initiating an additional sensing operation; generating an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected; and initiating or continuing an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing.

According to a second aspect, an apparatus for providing a wireless sensing capability is provided. The apparatus is configured at least to: detect a set of objects and determine a set of sensing information about one or more of said detected objects, based on an output of a sensing operation of a target area or volume performed at least by a sensing transmitter transmitting a set of sensing signals and by a sensing receiver receiving the set of sensing signals; provide the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects and/or one or more potential targets, to a target matching entity; receive a result of a target matching procedure performed by the target matching entity based on the set of sensing information and a set of target identification information; and perform, based on said result of the target matching procedure, at least one of: stopping or continuing the sensing operation; initiating an additional sensing operation; generating an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected; and initiating or continuing an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing.

According to a third aspect, a wireless communication device is provided. The wireless communication device comprises a communication unit configured to connect to a network configured to operate a sensing service, wherein the wireless communication device is configured to transmit an identifier to be used for authorizing a use of the sensing service, and to retrieve a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with the set of target identification information for use in a sensing operation initiated by the network.

According to a fourth aspect, a system is provided. The system comprises at least a wireless communication device according to the above third aspect and an apparatus according to any of the above first to second aspects, wherein the apparatus receives a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with the set of target identification information after the wireless communication device has been authenticated and authorized by a network for using a sensing service.

According to a fifth aspect, a method for providing a sensing capability in a wireless communication network or device is provided. The method comprises at least: obtaining a set of target identification information; detecting a set of objects and determining a set of sensing information about one or more detected objects, based on an output of a sensing operation of a target area or volume performed at least by a sensing transmitter transmitting a set of sensing signals and by a sensing receiver receiving the set of sensing signals; determining whether the set of sensing information about one or more of said detected objects meets or does not meet one or more configured criteria for identifying a target, based on the set of target identification information; and performing, based on said determination that the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects meets or does not meet the one or more configured criteria for identifying the target, at least one of: stopping or continuing the sensing operation; initiating an additional sensing operation; generating an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected; and initiating or continuing an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing.

According to a sixth aspect, a method for providing a sensing capability in a wireless communication network or device is provided. The method comprises at least: detecting a set of objects and determining a set of sensing information about one or more of said detected objects, based on an output of a sensing operation of a target area or volume performed at least by a sensing transmitter transmitting a set of sensing signals and by a sensing receiver receiving the set of sensing signals; providing the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects and/or one or more potential targets, to a target matching entity; receiving a result of a target matching procedure performed by the target matching entity based on the set of sensing information and a set of target identification information; and performing, based on said result of the target matching procedure, at least one of: stopping or continuing the sensing operation; initiating an additional sensing operation; generating an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected; and initiating or continuing an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing.

According to a seventh aspect, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product comprises code means for producing the steps of any of the above fifth to sixth aspects when run on a processor of a wireless communication device or of a device operating a wireless communication network.

According to a first option which may be combined with the first aspect, the apparatus may be configured to evaluate a user consent associated with an identified target prior to executing said performing step of the first aspect.

According to a second option which may be combined with the second aspect, the target matching entity may be configured to verify a user consent associated with an identified target prior to executing said performing step of the second aspect.

According to a third option which may be combined with the second option, the target matching entity may be configured to receive and store user consent preferences and/or a set of target identification information of objects amongst said detected objects in a region of interest. For example, a region of interest may be defined as a location or area or volume in which a target is to be sensed/detected (i.e., a target location or area or volume) or in which sensing is performed (i.e., a sensing location or area or volume).

According to a fourth option which may be combined with any of the above first to second aspects, the apparatus may comprise a communication unit configured to operate the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver in order to generate the output of the sensing operation. According to a fifth option which may be combined with any of the above first to second aspects, the apparatus may comprise a communication unit configured to configure the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver based on the set of target identification information, and receive the output of the sensing operation from the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver.

According to a sixth option which may be combined with any of the above first to second aspects, the apparatus may comprise a communication unit configured to connect to a network and receive the set of target identification information from the network, and optionally, wherein the apparatus may receive the set of target identification information from the network after the apparatus has been authenticated by the network and authorized to take part in the sensing operation.

According to a seventh option which may be combined with any of the above first to second aspects, the apparatus may be configured to operate as a network function or service within a network, and optionally wherein the apparatus may comprise a communication unit configured to receive the set of target identification information as obtained from the first aspect or the result of the target matching procedure as received from the second aspect, from an authentication server function (AUSF), a unified data management (UDM), a unified data repository (UDR), a network exposure function (NEF) or an external database.

According to an eighth option which may be combined with the above first aspect, the apparatus may be configured to use an identifier associated with the set of target identification information to initiate or continue the authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing, or continue the sensing operation based on said determination that the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects meets the one or more configured criteria for identifying the target based on the set of target identification information associated with the identifier.

According to a ninth option which may be combined with any of the above first to second aspects, the apparatus may receive the set of target identification information or an identifier associated with the set of target identification information after a device associated with a subscription to a sensing service has been authenticated and authorized by the network for using the sensing service, and optionally, wherein: the apparatus may receive the set of target identification information or the identifier associated with the set of target identification information after the device associated with the subscription to the sensing service has been determined to be located in the target area or volume, and/or the apparatus may be configured to transmit a signal or a message to the device associated with the subscription to the sensing service, the signal or the message indicating that the sensing operation has started or indicating a request to confirm initiating the sensing operation. Optionally, the device may be a wireless communication device.

According to a tenth option which may be combined with the above third aspect, the wireless communication device may be configured to provide location information, the sensing operation being performed in a target area or volume based on the location information.

According to an eleventh option which may be combined with the above third aspect, the wireless communication device may be configured to receive a signal or a message from the network, the signal or the message indicating that the sensing operation has started or indicating a request to confirm initiating the sensing operation.

According to a twelfth option which may be combined with the above third aspect, the wireless communication device may be configured to transmit the set of target identification information or the identifier associated with the set of target identification information or an artificial intelligence (Al) model capable of identifying a target, to the sensing service operated by the network.

According to a thirteenth option which may be combined with the above fourth aspect, the set of target identification information received by the apparatus may be transmitted by the wireless communication device.

It shall be understood that the apparatus of claims 1 and 2, the wireless communication device of claim 9, the system of claim 13, the method of claims 14 and 15, and the computer program product of claim 16 may have similar and/or identical preferred embodiments, in particular, as defined in the dependent claims.

It shall be understood that a preferred embodiment of the invention can also be any combination of the dependent claims or above embodiments with the respective independent claim.

These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following drawings:

Fig. 1 schematically shows an embodiment of a communication system with a distributed radar function, which may be used in embodiments of the present invention;

Fig. 2 schematically shows an embodiment of a transmitter and receiver architecture, which may be used in embodiments of the present invention;

Fig. 3 schematically shows an embodiment of a process flow diagram for radar sensing in a communication system, which may be used in embodiments of the present invention; Fig. 4 schematically shows an embodiment of a flow diagram of a sensing operation, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 5 schematically shows an embodiment of a flow diagram of a location and movement detection process, which may be used in embodiments of the present invention;

Fig. 6 schematically shows an embodiment of a flow diagram of a heart rate and breathing rate detection process, which may be used in embodiments of the present invention;

Fig. 7 schematically shows a sensing system according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 8 schematically shows a target authorization procedure according to various embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention are now described based on a cellular communication network environment, such as 5G. However, the present invention may also be used in connection with other wireless technologies (e.g., IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi or IEEE 802.15.4/ultra-wide- band communication (UWB)) in which target sensing is provided or can be introduced.

Throughout the present disclosure, the abbreviation "gNB" (5G terminology) or "BS" (base station) is intended to mean a wireless access device such as a cellular base station or a WiFi access point or a UWB PAN coordinator. The gNB may consist of a centralized control plane unit (gNB-CU-CP), multiple centralized user plane units (gNB-CU-UPs) and/or multiple distributed units (gNB-DUs). The gNB is part of a radio access network (RAN), which provides an interface to functions in the core network (CN). The RAN is part of a wireless communication network. It implements a radio access technology (RAT). Conceptually, it resides between a communication device such as a mobile phone, a computer, or any remotely controlled machine and provides connection with its CN. The CN is the communication network's core part, which offers numerous services to customers who are interconnected via the RAN. More specifically, it directs communication streams over the communication network and possibly other networks.

Furthermore, the terms "base station" (BS) and "network" may be used as synonyms in this disclosure. This means for example that when it is written that the "network" performs a certain operation it may be performed by a CN function of a wireless communication network, or by one or more base station that are part of such wireless communication network, and vice versa. It can also mean that part of the functionality is performed by a CN function of the wireless communication network and part of the functionality by the base station. Moreover, the terms "radar sensing" and "wireless sensing" are intended to cover not only techniques whereby a single device both sends and receives a radar signal, but also distributed RF based sensing techniques, such as techniques whereby the sensing signal is received by multiple devices in a distributed manner or techniques that are based on sensing of a channel state information (CSI) in a CSI-based distributed sensing solution and/or based on other types measurement information related to RF signals (e.g., multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) sounding signal feedback, doppler phase shift measurements). It is to be noted that the above terms "radar sensing" and "wireless sensing" can be interchangeably used throughout the present disclosure, and that embodiments describing radar sensing as an example can also extend to any kind of wireless sensing, such as, e.g., channel state information (CSI) based sensing.

Furthermore, the terms "target" and "target object" indicate any entity that may be subject to wireless sensing. This may include people, animals, inanimate objects, structures consisting of several smaller entities (e.g., a cloud consisting of small waterdrops). Also, the terms "target" and "target object" may be used as synonyms in this disclosure.

Furthermore, the term "object" throughout this disclosure is intended to denote any physical entity, including people, animals, inanimate objects, vehicles, structures consisting of several smaller entities (e.g., a cloud consisting of small waterdrops)).

It is noted that throughout the present disclosure only those blocks, components and/or devices that are relevant for the proposed data distribution function are shown in the accompanying drawings. Other blocks have been omitted for reasons of brevity. Furthermore, blocks designated by same reference numbers are intended to have the same or at least a similar function, so that their function is not described again later.

The sensing function of the following embodiments may be implemented, e.g., by a radar functionality, in wireless communication involving one or more access devices (e.g., base stations (BS)) and/or one or more terminal devices (e.g., user equipment devices (UEs)).

As an example, frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) millimeter wave (mmWave) radar systems can measure range, velocity, and angle of arrival (if two receivers are available) of objects in the scene which reflect radio waves. Such radar systems emit a chirp signal, e.g., a sine wave that increases in frequency over time. The chirp signal (e.g., a continuous wave pulse) has a bandwidth and a frequency increase rate. Generally, a continuous series of such chirps are emitted. The transmitted and received analogue chirp signals are mixed to generate an intermediate frequency (IF) signal which corresponds to the difference in frequencies of the two signals (outbound and inbound) and whose output phase corresponds to the difference in the phases of the two signals.

Each surface of a scene or environment will therefore produce a constant frequency IF signal whose frequency relates to the distance to the surface (i.e., a first distance from the transmitter of the chirp signal to the surface plus a second distance from the surface to the receiver of the chirp signal). To resolve two surfaces at different distances, the two IF signals can be frequency resolved. A longer time window of the IF signal results in greater resolution. As the chirp time is related to its bandwidth (with constant chirp frequency change), the resolution of the radar is related to the chirp bandwidth. The IF signal may then be band pass filtered (to remove signals below some minimal range and frequencies above the maximum frequency for a subsequent analogue- to-digital converter (ADC)) and digitized prior to further processing. The upper frequency sensing range of the bandpass filter and ADC sets the maximum range that can be detected (i.e., IF frequencies increase with range).

To detect vibrations, the phase of the IF signal is important, since the phase (i.e., the difference in phases of the transmitted and received chirp signals) is a sensitive measure of small changes in the distance of a surface. Small distance changes can be detected in the phase signal but may be indiscernible in the frequency signal. Moreover, phase difference measures between two consecutive chirp signals can be used to determine the velocity of the surface.

As an example, a fast Fourier transform (FFT) processing can be performed across multiple chirp signals to enable separation of objects with the same range but moving at different velocities. A Fourier transform converts a signal from a space or time domain into the frequency domain. In the frequency domain, the signal is represented by a weighted sum of sine and cosine waves. A discrete digital signal with N samples can be represented exactly by a sum of N waves. FFT provides a faster way of computing a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) by using the symmetry and repetition of waves to combine samples and reuse partial results. This method can save a huge amount of processing time, especially with real-world signals that can have many thousands or even millions of samples.

As a further example, angle estimation can be performed by using the phase difference between the received chirp signal at two separated receivers.

As another option, a channel state information (CSI) can be used, which is a measure of the phases and amplitudes of many frequencies detected at a receiver, thereby forming a complex "map" of the radio environment, including effects of objects within that environment. CSI characterizes how wireless signals propagate from the transmitter to the receiver at certain carrier frequencies. CSI amplitude and phase are impacted by multi-path effects including amplitude attenuation and phase shift, e.g., by the displacements and movements of the transmitter, receiver, and surrounding objects and humans. In other words, CSI captures the wireless characteristics of the nearby environment. These characteristics, assisted by mathematical modeling or machine learning algorithms, can be used for different sensing applications.

A radio channel may be divided into multiple subcarriers - as is done, e.g., in 5G communication systems (using, e.g., orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)). To measure CSI, the transmitter may send long training field symbols (LTFs), which contain pre-defined symbols for each subcarrier, e.g., in a packet preamble. When those LTFs are received, the receiver can estimate a CSI matrix using the received signals and the original LTFs. For each subcarrier, the channel can be modeled by y = Hx + n, where y is the received signal, x is the transmitted signal, H is the CSI matrix, and n is the noise vector. The receiver estimates the CSI matrix H using a pre-defined signal x and the received signal y after signal processing such as removing cyclic prefix, de-mapping and demodulation. The estimated CSI is then a three-dimensional matrix of complex values and this matrix represents an "image" of the radio environment at that time. By processing a time series of such "images" information on movements, locations and vibrations of objects can be extracted.

Such a processing of a CSI matrix can be used for vital signs monitoring, presence detection, and human movement recognition. As an example, neural network like recognition techniques can be used to process the CSI matrix to perform such kinds of recognition.

It is noted that systems using channel state information (CSI) are somehow related to systems with FMCW mmWave radar. In a CSI-based system, the input signal x may be defined and the receiver may use the received signal y to obtain H, i.e., as H = (Y - N) / X. In a FMCW mmWave radar, the transmitted signal Chirp x might also be predefined, and the receiver may use the received signal y to obtain a transfer function as H = Y / X. This last step is in fact somehow related to multiplying the locally computed chirp signal and the received chirp signal and applying a bandpass filter. According to various embodiments described below, the above described wireless sensing techniques are implemented in a mobile communication system (e.g., 5G or other cellular or WiFi communication systems), while the functional coexistence of radar and communication operating in the same frequency bands is configured to avoid interference bandwidths. Thereby, radio sensing can be integrated into large-scale mobile networks to create perceptive mobile networks (PMNs).

As another example, the sensing signal might consist of a number of pulses sent, e.g., at specific frequencies and timing (sensing signal parameter information) by a sensing transmitter. The sensing receiver might include a number of bandpass filters that allow identifying the sensing signal parameter information, e.g., timing and frequency of the received pulses. In particular, if the transmitter determines a given pseudo-random sequence of frequency/timing pulses and beams it, e.g., by means of beamforming, in a specific direction, and if the transmitter communicates to the receiver the timing/frequency, in general, the sensing signal parameter information, of the transmitted sensing signal, the receiver can use its bandpass filters to identify the reception of the same transmitted pulses, i.e., sensing signal, based on the received sensing signal parameter information.

Fig. 1 schematically shows an embodiment of a communication system with a distributed radar function created via a wireless communication system link, which may be used in embodiments of the present invention.

Although the example embodiment of figure 1 is directed to a distributed radar function, it is to be noted that the present invention can apply to non-distributed sensing, in particular the present invention can be equally applied for non-distributed sensing services and/or function where the sensing transmitter and sensing receiver are colocated. Thus, the described embodiments can be implemented in a single device including both a transmitter and a receiver.

In a distributed radar function, in distinction to a purely centralized radar solution (i.e., whereby the transmitter and receiver of the radar signals are part of or operated by the same device), a part of the 5G (or other cellular or WiFi) network spectrum is configured (e.g., set into a radar mode) or is detected to be quiet/free of communication for a period of time to enable performing, e.g., remote vital signs and other measurements by construction of a distributed radar system between a base station (BS) 100 or UE (as transmitter) and at least one UE 120 or base station (as receiver), while the lack of analogue signal exchange and the additional path length caused by the transmitter-receiver distance and the distance between the receiver (e.g., UE 120) and a target (e.g., human being) may be corrected for. To this end, a base station 100 (or UE) that will act as transmitter may set up a communication link with a UE 120 (or base station) that will act as a receiver (or vice versa) to exchange some control information and/or sensing measurements and/or (partial) sensing results. The control information may include a set of configuration parameters related to the distributed sensing operation. The parameters may include e.g., distance and angle from transmitter to receiver, pulse origination time, pulse phase, frequencies, possibly including chirp timing (CT), chirp profile (CP), target location (TL), phase offset (PO), time between subsequent sensing signals, number of repetitions, sensing signal waveform information, amplitudes, MIMO/beamforming parameters, number of transmitter antennas used, transmit power, potential interference patterns, an identifier/address (e.g., internet protocol (IP) address/uniform resource locator (URL) address) of a destination server and/or network function/device for sending the sensing results to (e.g., for storage or further processing), session or application related information (e.g., session identifier or application identifier), a desired accuracy for the sensing measurements, etc., and may be communicated in response (e.g., as a radio resource control (RRC) Connection Reconfiguration message including, e.g., a measurement configuration as specified in 3GPP TS 38.331 extended with sensing configuration parameters) to a request for radar (RR) (e.g., an initial Attach Request message from a UE to a base station or an RRC message or System Information as specified in 3GPP TS 38.331 from a base station to a UE, extended with a sensing request field) from the receiver side (e.g., UE 120), or may be sent to the receiver side by the transmitter side before the transmitter will start sending sensing signals (e.g., as part of a configuration/auxil- iary information message/signal), or may be (partially) pre-configured on the receiver (e.g., stored in an universal subscriber identity module (USIM) or stored in a nonvolatile memory at manufacturing time), or may be configured on the receiver by means of a local application, or may be provided by the network (possibly via the transmitter or via another transmitter, or, e.g., provided by an access and mobility management function (AMF), policy control function (PCF), network exposure function (NEF), location management function (LMF), gateway mobile location centre (GMLC), or other core network function (e.g., as specified in 3GPP TS 23.501)) as part of policy/system in- formation/RRC configuration/session configuration (e.g., upon initial registration or connection setup of the receiver to the network or a previous initial registration/connection setup). These parameters may be configured differently per application (e.g., based on the sensing target or based on the sensing algorithm). A set of parameters may be combined in the form of a sensing profile that may be identifiable, e.g., by means of a profile identifier or application identifier or device identifier. After a sensing profile is sent/configured/pre-configured on a receiver, the activation of a sensing profile may be triggered by sending a signal/message to the receiver with an indicated sensing profile identifier. The sensing profile and/or the configuration parameters may also include an algorithm identifier, filter identifier or machine-learning model identifier to trigger the application of respectively a specific sensing algorithm, a filter or a machine learning model to use for analyzing/processing the received sensing signals. These algorithms, filters or models may be pre- configured/stored at the receiver beforehand, or transmitted by the transmitter to the receiver (e.g. as virtual machine code, filter parameters/code or model data), for example in a separate message, or may be downloaded (e.g., as virtual machine code, filter parameters/code or model data) by the receiver based on, e.g., a download URL or IP address of a server, may be configured for the application required. For example, if a precise distance measurement is required, the full set of parameters may be communicated, while if a phase-based velocity is required, only chirp parameters may be required. In some applications, the chirp parameters might be predefined and only an identifier indicating the set of chirp parameters might be exchanged. The parameters may also include a set of time/frequency resources (e.g., a semi-persistent schedule as defined in 3GPP TS 38.321) and/or time/frequency offsets in which the sensing signals are planned to be transmitted and/or when these are expected to arrive at the receiver. This information may also be provided as a time interval in which the receiver is expected to listen to incoming reflected sensing signals (e.g., as an offset to a start time or system frame number/subframe/symbol at which the signal will be transmitted by the transmitter). The start time, offset or time interval to perform the sensing by the receiver may be specified such that it starts at the start time or end time at which the first instance of the sensing signal is received by the receiver (i.e., the one received via a direct nonreflected path), i.e., reception of the first instance of the sensing signal can be used by the receiver to trigger/activate active sensing of the reflected sensing signals. The parameters may also include information about quiet periods or guard intervals that may be taken into account by the receiver device. In addition, the parameters may include information about encoded identity information or special symbol/preamble or a unique signal characteristic that can enable the receiver to uniquely identify the respective sensing signal from possible other sensing or communication signals. In order for the receiver to be capable of determining which parts of the sensing signal has encoded information in it (e.g., signal identity information, timestamp of when the transmitter sent the signal), additional timing or frequency information may be provided to identify start/end times or a subdivision of time intervals within the time interval for receiving a complete single sensing signal, that indicates where in the sensing signal the receiver can find the encoded information. In a similar way as for the sensing receiver, the sensing transmitter may be configured by the network (e.g., by an access and mobility management function (AMF), policy control function (PCF), network exposure function (NEF), location management function (LMF), gateway mobile location centre (GMLC), or other core network function (e.g., as specified in 3GPP TS 23.501)) as part of policy/system in- formation/RRC configuration/session configuration (e.g., upon initial registration or connection setup of the sensing transmitter to the network or a previous initial registration/connection setup) with parameters on how to perform the sensing (e.g., pulse origination time, pulse phase, frequencies, possibly including chirp timing (CT), chirp profile (CP), target location (TL), phase offset (PO), time between subsequent sensing signals, sensing signal waveform information, amplitudes, MIMO/beamforming parameters, number of transmitter antennas to be used, transmit power, quiet periods or guard intervals that may be taken into account, etc.) and/or which algorithm, filter, sensing profile to use and/or which destination server and/or network function/device to send the sensing results to (e.g., for storage or further processing) and/or session or application related information (e.g., session identifier/application identifier), etc. The above-mentioned parameters for sensing may also be pre-configured on the transmitter (e.g., stored in USIM or stored in a nonvolatile memory at manufacturing time), or may be configured on the transmitter by means of a local application, or may be provided by the receiver.

In order to facilitate the configuration of the above mentioned sensing parameters, a sensing receiver or sensing transmitter device may provide its sensing related capabilities to the network (e.g., a core network function, or a service (operated/offered by the network) responsible for managing and/or performing the sensing (i.e., a sensing service), or an application function for managing and/or using the results of the sensing operations (i.e., a sensing application)), to one or more base stations, or to the other device(s) involved in the distributed sensing (e.g., to the sensing transmitter device in case of a sensing receiver device) by means of a capability exchange message (e.g., as part of the request for radar message, or an RRC UECapabilitylnformation message as specified in 3GPP TS 38.331, extended with some fields to denote the sensing related capabilities). The sensing related capability information may include for example device information (such as number of antennas or supported frequency ranges), wireless sensing signal processing capabilities (such as which algorithms supported, and/or whether it is capable of determining certain sensing re- sults/goals (e.g., capable of determining a position or movement of a target object or a shape of a target object), one or more supported sensing profiles, etc.), wireless sensing signal transmission capabilities (whether this is supported and if so at which frequencies, etc.). The sensing receiver may be configured differently based on the received capabilities of the sensing receiver and/or sensing transmitter. The sensing transmitter may be configured differently and/or adapt the sensing signal based on the received capabilities of the sensing receiver and/or sensing transmitter.

The parameters to use for the configuration of the sensing transmitter and sensing receiver may depend on and be adapted based on sensing requirements that may be provided, e.g., through an application function or a network exposure function or other core network function/ser- vice or application, for example a sensing service or a sensing application. Such sensing requirements may, e.g., identify the type of sensing results that are expected to be calculated (e.g., movement, position, shape, material, biometrics), information about one or more target objects (e.g., information about rough location, last known location, identifiable features or already known features such as size or material or shape) and/or quality of service (e.g., desired accuracy, sampling rate) and/or information about algorithms/filters to be used and/or session/application related information (e.g., application identifier or session identifier).

In Fig. 1, the base station (BS) 100 and/or the UE 120 determine(s) the (rough) location or area or volume of the target 150 by emitting a series of signals, e.g., chirp signals, that may be beamformed in the direction of the target 150. The (rough) location may also be in the form of a relative position, e.g., a set of distances and/or angles relative to a reference point (e.g., the transmitter or the receiver).

Optionally, e.g., before the actual radar sensing procedure is started between a transmitter and a receiver, the target angle and distance and/or target shape and/or target mate- rial/reflectivity characteristic may be determined using a location estimation radar operation and/or target shape determination operation and/or target material/reflectivity characteristic determination operation at the transmitter (e.g., base station (BS) 100), unless it is already known. This information may be stored at the transmitter and/or may be provided to the receiver and/or may be provided to a network function responsible for collecting the sensing measurements and/or (partial) sensing results and which may perform further processing on these sensing measure- ments/results to determine further sensing characteristics of a particular target.

Depending on the target sensing application, ahead of emitting a (chirp) signal, the precise timing of the phase and frequency (and optionally amplitude) of each individual (chirp) signal may be communicated (e.g., by using a protected standard communication signal) to the receiver (i.e., UE 120) optionally along with the location or relative position of the emitter (i.e., BS 100) and optionally rough location of the target 150. The idea of protected communication (encryption and/or integrity protection) is to make sure that only the target receiver can use this information. Based thereon, the receiver may optionally determine a path length and angle from the transmitter to the receiver and internally synthesize an analogue (chirp) signal matching the emitted (chirp) signal. Received and synthesized signals can be used for sensing purposes.

If the relative positions and exact times are known, the path length of reflected sensing signals via a target 150 can be determined and/or the target surface can be reconstructed accurately, e.g., by detecting a correct intermediate frequency (IF) signal at a mixer output when the signal is a chirp signal. Knowing the rough position of the target object and/or by detecting the angle of arrival of the incoming reflected sensing signal(s), a distance or angle between the receiver and the target object and/or the emitter and the target object may be calculated. Knowing the phase and therefore phase difference, the velocity of the target 150 can be determined based on the frequency.

If only the velocity of the target 150 is required (as opposed to its position and velocity), the transmitter can optionally avoid providing its relative position and only communicate the phases, timing and frequency of emitted sensing signal. In certain cases, only the sensing signal itself may be transmitted to the receiver so that the receiver can use that sensing signal assuming a fixed time delay to compute the IF signal from which the velocity of the target can be derived. This might be of particular interest to measure vital signs such as breath or heart rate. For instance, it might allow to measure the speed of the breast when breathing and derive from it the breathing rhythm.

Given good enough reflecting surface location estimation, the receiver may enable further data to be collected, such as skin conductivity.

In an example, the radar sensing capability can be achieved by the following procedures. The parameters of the sensing signals to be used in the transmitter sensing generation process, the rough location or relative position of the target and the position offset/angle from the transmitter to the receiver (e.g., UE 120), or the absolute/geographic location of the transmitter along with a future time or a set of time/frequency resources for first (and subsequent) sensing signals, are determined and communicated from the transmitter to the receiver by using, e.g., a protected communication signal.

Alternatively, some of the parameters may also be pre-configured at the receiver or may be configured at the receiver by means of a local application or may have been sent by the transmitter or the network at an earlier time (e.g., during a previous session). Then, the communicated parameter information is (optionally) decrypted and/or verified by the receiver. Thereafter, the transmitter emits sensing signals at the stated time by using, e.g., its discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM) signal generation process to generate the sensing signal. The receiver may listen to the sensing signals at the time/resources as indicated in the parameter information. The receiver may use its DFT-s-OFDM signal generation process to generate an internal synthetic sensing signal (e.g., chirp) matching the parameters supplied, optionally with a delay corresponding to the direct distance from the transmitter to the receiver, thereby minimizing the IF frequency generated in the receiver. The receiver may use the supplied sensing parameter information and/or the internal representation of the sensing signals to configure its radio frequency (RF) reception frontend or signal detection unit to identify/detect the sensing signal amongst the signals received by the RF reception frontend. Upon detection and/or further processing of the received sensing signals, the receiver may determine and rec- ord/store start/end times, phase shifts, frequencies, amplitudes, signal deformations, signal strength, interference patterns, detected special symbols/preambles, encoded identity information of the sensing signals and/or timing of quiet periods between sensing signals. The receiver may use this information to further determine whether the received sensing signals are actually reflected by a target object or have been received via a direct non-reflected path between the transmitter and the receiver, in order to filter out only the relevant sensing signals to extract sensing information about a target object. To this end, the receiver may calculate the expected path loss and/or timing between transmitter and receiver for direct path, and expected path loss and/or timing via indirect reflected path via the target, and use this in the determination of whether the received sensing signals are actually reflected by a target object or have been received via a direct nonreflected path between the transmitter and the receiver.

Alternatively, the transmitter may calculate the expected path loss and/or timing between transmitter and receiver for direct path, and expected path loss and/or timing via indirect reflected path via the target, and send this information to the receiver, which can then use this in the determination. The receiver may form an IF signal using (e.g., mixing) the internal synthetic "emitted" sensing signal and the received sensing signal reflected at the target 150 and may perform band pass (or optionally only high pass filtering at the maximum frequency of the ADC) filtering and ADC to digitize the IF data and/or to digitize raw/filtered received reflected sensing signal data. To this end the receiver may create a compressed or uncompressed digitally sampled representation of the IF signal or the received raw/filtered reflected sensing signal(s), with a sampling frequency pre-configured at the receiver device, or a sampling frequency provided by the transmitter (e.g., as part of the sensing signal parameters). Also, information about which compression method/format to apply may be provided by the transmitter (e.g., as part of the sensing signal parameters) or pre-configured at the receiver. The digital IF signal may then be processed to yield application specific data (e.g., the output of one or more (pre-configured) algorithms or machine learning models), in this case sensing results related to the target (e.g. certain characteristics of the target such as its position, speed, shape, size, material composition etc. that may be determined after performing the respective signal processing/analysis on the received (reflected) sensing signals), or the digitized data from the receiver can be transmitted to the transmitter or a network function/device or a cloud to perform further application specific processing.

In addition to the processed or digitized data, the receiver may include identification information of the signal, sensing profile, algorithm/model, and/or the device, and may include timing and/or measurement information (e.g., arrival/end times, phase shifts, frequency, amplitude or signal deformations of the sensing signals) and/or antenna information/antenna sensitiv- ity/MIMO configuration/beamforming configuration used by the receiver for sensing, and/or loca- tion/distance/angle related information of the receiver relative to the transmitter and/or the target, or as absolute coordinates, and/or information about the sensing application or sensing session (e.g., application identifier or session identifier).

A complete separation of transmitter and receiver in a digital radio system such as 5G implies that the receiver has no access to the analogue version of the directly emitted signal (phase, frequency), only the reflected sensing signal, and therefore cannot form the IF signal in the analogue domain. This would mean that all processing is performed on the received analogue signals (which requires a very fast ADC is to digitize the received "raw" sensing signal). Furthermore, in the proposed distributed radar sensing system, the distance to the reflecting surface of the target 150 depends on both the distances from the transmitter to the target 150 and from the receiver to the target 150 (rather than simply being twice the distance from the transmitter to the target, as in non-distributed radar systems).

The "minimum range" of the measurement corresponds to the direct distance from the transmitter to the receiver. Of course, objects may be measured which lie at smaller distances from the receiver, but their indicated range will always be greater than the direct distance from the transmitter to the receiver. Equal time returns lie on spatial position ellipses (return ellipses) having the transmitter and receiver positions as their two focal points. The minimum (degenerate) ellipse with a short axis length of zero (a straight line between transmitter and receiver) has a minimum delay time, which is the time taken for radio waves to go directly from transmitter to receiver.

The receiver may receive a signal corresponding to the directly transmitted signal straight from the transmitter to the receiver (a pseudo-surface at "zero" range, i.e., points on the direct line between transmitter and receiver).

Therefore, the proposed integrated distributed radar system may require a kind of clock-level synchronization between transmitter and receiver to remove ambiguity in sensing parameter estimation.

Furthermore, the auxiliary information signals (e.g., radar request and responded parameters) can be communicated between the transmitter to the receiver via an alternative communication route (using, e.g., a separate band, a beam formed sub-beam directed at the receiver, or time interspersed signals between sensing signals) so that the receiver can obtain a representation of required details of the transmitted signal (e.g., precise timing, phase of the continuous (chirp) signal) in order to simulate the mixing of the transmitted and received signals to obtain an IF signal without requiring direct analysis of the analogue emitted signal. This could be done by, for example, internally generating an analogue version of the identical emitted sensing signal using the parameters supplied via the auxiliary information signal. Thus, to ensure that a correct timing is provided for this mixing of a simulated transmitter sensing signal and the actual received sensing signal, the transmitter should signal the precise timing, phase, frequencies etc. of the emitted signal to the receiver ahead of time.

Furthermore, the receiver may use the auxiliary/(pre-)configured information/pa- rameters about the sensing signal to distinguish between a sensing signal received via a direct nonreflected path, versus reflected sensing signals. The receiver may ignore the sensing signals received via a direct non-reflected path (e.g., by ignoring the first instance of receiving the sensing signal (for example, by checking the arrival time of the sensing signal, or by checking for phase shifts, frequency changes, signal deformations, amplitude changes, interference patterns that correspond to identify which of the sensing signals has been reflected or not), or may use these signals to more accurately determine its relative position/distance/angle towards the transmitter. The receiver may also use the signal received via a direct non-reflected path as further input to the signal analysis algorithm/model, e.g., as additional reference signal for IF calculation, (relative) position calculation or additional phase shift/signal deformation/frequency/amplitude calculations.

Additionally, the distance and angle from the transmitter to the receiver or the ab- solute/geographical position of the transmitter may be signaled as well, in order to calculate the correct positions for detected surfaces.

Finally, if the receiver (or transmitter, or both) is a hand-held device, the movements and vibrations of that device(s) may be measured by corresponding sensors, in order to subtract them from the movements and vibrations of the detected surfaces for some sensing applications.

The proposed distributed radar system between, e.g., the base station (BS) 100 (as the transmitter) and the UE 120 (as the receiver and analyzer) provide the advantage that the receiver may be located more preferentially for obtaining the reflected sensing signals at higher signal strength than the transmitter (i.e., using the receiver part of the transmitter device to monitor the reflected sensing signals, e.g., as in the case of non-distributed sensing), for example it may be closer or more in the path of the reflected sensing signal, and may avoid some of the clutter from the transmitted signal.

Moreover, a single antenna may not operate in full continuous duplex mode, while the proposed distributed radar system separates the transmitter antenna from the receiver antenna.

As a further advantage, multiple receivers can be used with a single transmitter, each possibly associated with collecting vital signs from a different target (e.g., individual human being).

architecture

Fig. 2 schematically shows an embodiment of a summarizing transmitter and receiver architecture (including optional elements and functions) of a communication system with distributed sensing capability, which may be used in embodiments of the present invention.

Although the architecture of figure 2 shows the transmitter device and receiver device as distinct devices in a distributed sensing system, the functions of the sensing transmitter and sensing receiver may be colocated in the same device (e.g., in case of a centralized sensing architecture), whereby (a subset of) similar functions and elements are expected to be present. The proposed distributed radio wave sensing radar/communication system comprises a transmitter device (TX) 10 and a receiver device (RX) 20 and is configured to operate over a suitable radio frequency range (such as the initially mentioned mmWave range) and comprises RF hardware and signal processing algorithms to enable both standard communication, e.g., 5G, and radar sensing for vital signs, object detection and/or movement recognition. In 5G systems, two options for an uplink (UL) waveform are provided. One is cyclic prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM, same as downlink (DL) waveform) and the other one is discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s- OFDM) which corresponds to the UL waveform in long term evolution (LTE) systems (i.e., fourth generation (4G)). Transform precoding is the first step to create the DFT-s-OFDM waveform, followed by sub-carrier mapping, inverse FFT and cyclic prefix (CP) insertion. Whether a UE needs to use CP-OFDM or DFT-s-OFDM can be determined by a radio resource control (RRC) parameter.

A 5G transmitter or receiver with integrated radar sensing capability may have slightly modified DFT-s-OFDM and frequency domain spectral shaping (FDSS) filters enabling them to generate suitable chirps. Linear and other chirp signals can be generated with DFT-s-OFDM signals via a well-designed FDSS filter enabling standard communication hardware with only minor modification to generate suitable signals for radar. Their framework offers a way to efficiently synthesize chirps that can be used in dual-function radar and communication (DFRC) or wireless sensing applications with existing DFT-s-OFDM transceivers.

Other options for generating a signal suitable for simultaneously performing data transmission and radar sensing are described in Cong Li et al.: "Radar Communication Integrated Waveform Design Based on OFDM and Circular Shift Seguence”, Mathematical Problems in Engineering, July 2017, and are based on a peak-to-mean envelope power ratio (PMERP) and a peak-to- side-lobe ratio (PSLR) of OFDM waveforms. To be specific, a Gray code technology can be adopted to reduce the PMERP and simultaneously choose an optimal cyclic sequence to improve the PSLR of an OFDM waveform. The optimal cyclic sequence is dynamically generated to continuously provide the best waveform according to the change of communication data. In addition, to meet the requirements of different radar detection tasks, two simple methods can be utilized to adjust the bandwidth of the OFDM waveform. One method is to design different subcarrier complex weights and the other method is to utilize a phase code technique.

The transmitter device (TX) 10 may be an access device (e.g., base station) or a terminal device (e.g., UE or internet of things (loT) device) and comprises a standard transmitter communication unit or system (S-TX-COM) 101 enabling standard communication, e.g., 5G, capabilities using, e.g., DFT-s-OFDM generated data communication signals. By operating in a "radar mode", the transmitter communication system 101 is capable of forming a radar mode signal generator (RM-SIG-GEN) 102 capable of, e.g., generating linear chirp signals (chirps) using minimally modified communication components. This can be achieved, e.g., by a using (slightly) modified DFT-s-OFDM with a suitable FDSS filter for converting the single-carrier nature of the DFT-s-OFDM signal to a linear combination of chirp signals circularly translated in the time domain, as described, e.g., in Alphan §ahin et al.: " DFT-spread-OFDM Based Chirp Transmission", IEEE Communications Letters, Volume: 25, Issue: 3, March 2021. By exploiting properties of Fourier series and Bessel function of the first kind, an FDSS filter for an arbitrary chirp can be obtained.

Furthermore, the transmitter device 10 comprises a transmission frontend (TX/ANT) 103 (e.g., capable of operating in mmWave frequencies) including a transmitter coupled to antenna with beam forming capabilities.

Optionally, a reception frontend (RX/ANT) 104 (e.g., capable of operating in mmWave frequencies) may be provided (e.g., as a separate component or integrated with the transmission frontend 103 in a joint transceiver frontend), which includes a receiver coupled to an antenna with beam forming reception capabilities (e.g., if an additional non-distributed transmitter-only radar operation is to be performed to determine a target location, shape/size or mate- rial/reflectivity characteristic).

Additionally, the transmitter device 10 comprises a transmitter clock generator (TX- CLK) 105 for generating an accurate system clock for the transmitter device 10.

Optionally, a transmitter time delay measurement functionality (not shown) may be provided (e.g., implemented by a processor/controller of the transmitter device 10), which uses the standard transmitter communication unit 101 to perform a two-way time delay measurement with a cooperative receiver device (e.g., the receiver device 20).

Optionally, an encryption and decryption functionality (ENCR/DECR) 106 may be provided for implementing a suitable data encryption/decryption scheme (based on, e.g., the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm or the Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA) algorithm) and data integrity verification (e.g., a data verification scheme using a message authentication code or digital signatures). For instance, data might be distributed in a protected radio resource control (RRC) message.

As a further option, the transmitter device 10 may comprise a non-distributed (low- resolution) transmitter radar analysis system (L-RES RAS) 107, i.e., a radar analysis system that may comprises a receiver device and/or may comprise a (low-resolution) transmitter radar analysis system, which provides a non-distributed location radar scanning capability, which may include an intermediate frequency (IF) generation mixer (IF-MIX) 107-1 to which a copy of an emitted sensing signal and an externally received reflected sensing signal are supplied and mixed to generate a mixed signal including an IF signal. Furthermore, the transmitter radar analysis system 107 may comprise electronic signal processing components - including a transmitter band pass filter (BPF) 107-2 and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 107-3 - capable of IF filtering and analogue to digital conversion of the generated IF signal. Moreover, the transmitter radar analysis system 107 may comprise a digital signal processing component and algorithm system (DSP, implemented by, e.g., a digital signal processor) 107-4 which provide DSP capabilities for, e.g., location detection, preprocessing by clutter removal, etc.

As a still further option, the transmitter device 10 may comprise sensor components including transmitter movements sensors (TX-MOV-SEN) 108, such as accelerometers or the like, which measure movements and vibrations of the transmitter device 10.

Furthermore, the receiver device 20 may be an access device (e.g., base station) or a terminal device (e.g., UE or Internet of Things (loT) device) and may comprise a standard receiver communication unit or system (S-RX-COM) 201 that provides standard communication capabilities, e.g., in 5G, using, e.g., DFT-s-OFDM-generated data communication signals. By operating in a "radar mode", the receiver communication system 201 may be capable of forming a radar mode signal generator (RM-SIG-GEN) 202 that, e.g., generates linear sensing signals, e.g., by using a (slightly) modified DFT-s-OFDM signal, wherein the generated sensing signals may be used internally and not coupled to a transmitter and antenna. The waveform of the sensing signal may be generated from specific input parameters that may include at least one of a specific start time, a phase, an amplitude, a base frequency, a band width, a frequency slope, a sensing signal repetition frequency, a gap between sensing signals, and a total number of sensing signals.

Furthermore, the receiver device 20 comprises a reception frontend (RX/ANT) 204 which includes a receiver coupled to a antenna with beam forming reception capabilities, and which may be capable of operating in mmWave frequencies.

Additionally, the receiver device 20 comprises a receiver clock generator (RX-CLK) 205 for generating an accurate system clock for the receiver device 20.

Optionally, a receiver time delay measurement functionality (not shown) may be provided (e.g., implemented by a processor/controller of the receiver device 20), which uses the standard receiver communication unit 201 to perform a two-way time delay measurement with a cooperative transmitter device (e.g., the transmitter device 10).

Optionally, an encryption and decryption functionality (ENCR/DECR) 206 may be provided for implementing a suitable data encryption/decryption scheme (based on, e.g., the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm or the Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA) algorithm) and data integrity verification (e.g., a data verification scheme using a message authentication code or digital signatures) matched to the scheme(s) used on the transmitter side. For instance, data might be distributed in a protected radio resource control (RRC) message. As a further option, the receiver device 20 may comprise a (low-resolution) nondistributed radar analysis system (L-RES RAS) 207 which provides a non-distributed location radar scanning capability, i.e., a radar analysis system that may comprise a receiver device and/or may comprise a (low-resolution) transmitter radar analysis system, which may include a transmitter frontend (TX/ANT) 204 including a transmitter coupled to an antenna with beam forming capabilities of the receiver device 20.

Additionally, the (low-resolution) radar analysis system 207 may include components which are shared with an additional high-resolution distributed radar analysis system (H-RES RAS) 209 and which may comprise an IF generation mixer (IF-MIX) 207-1, to which a (internally generated) copy of an emitted sensing signal and an externally received reflected sensing signal are input to generate a mixed signal including an IF signal, electronic signal processing components including a receiver band pass filter (BPF) 207-2 and an ADC 207-3 and capable of IF filtering and analogue to digital conversion of the generated IF signal, and an electronic and digital components and algorithm system (DSP, e.g., a digital signal processor) 207-4 which provide DSP capabilities for, e.g., location detection, preprocessing by clutter removal, etc.

The high-resolution distributed radar analysis system 209 may be configured to share electronics components of the IF generation mixer 207-1, which is configured to mix the inputs of an internally generated sensing signal based on supplied timing/phase parameters produced by the radar mode signal generator 202 and an externally received sensing signal supplied by the receiver frontend 204, electronic components of the receiver band pass filter 207-2 and ADC 207- 3, which take an analogue IF signal, filter it with a suitable bandpass filter and perform analogue to digital conversion, and the electronic and digital components and algorithm system 207-4, which provides DSP capabilities for desired applications, including pre-processing by clutter removal etc. In order to prevent leakage/tampering of potentially privacy sensitive sensing information about a target, the radar analysis should run in a secure tamper-resistant subsystem, and the resulting sensing information should be stored on a secure storage and/or encrypted with non-tamper resistant credentials (such as subscriber identity module (e.g., USIM) credentials).

Alternatively, a final digital processing could be off-loaded from the receiver device 20 to the transmitter device 10 or to a network function/device or a cloud computing resource, which may return obtained results.

Optionally, the receiver device 20 may comprise a user Interface (UI/MEM) 210 with data storage and display capabilities, which can input information from a user, store data in the receiver device 20 and output displays to the user. Specific elements of the user interface 210 may be dependent on the type of receiver device (e.g., UE) and its function. For example, a hand- held smartphone device may have a sophisticated user interface 210 and display, while an loT monitoring device may simply have a visual or auditory alarm.

As a further option, the receiver device 20 may comprise receiver movements sensors (RX-MOV-SEN) 208 such as accelerometers, cameras, structured light sensors, etc., which measure movements and vibrations of the receiver device 20, and locations of nearby objects. The receiver device 20 may also communicate via its transmitter standard communication unit 201 to the transmitter device 10 its movements and vibrations by using a receiver movement data series during a sensing time interval, which have been obtained by the receiver movements sensors 208. The receiver movement data series may be sent to the transmitter by using a separate communication channel between the receiver and transmitter (e.g., as a series of RRC or media access control (MAC) control element (CE) messages).

Target identification and authorization

One of the issues with radar systems and wireless sensing systems in general, for both distributed and non-distributed/centralized radar systems, is that within the sensing area/vol- ume multiple objects may be present that may be sensed/detected by the radar system. Not all these objects may be subject to a wireless sensing service, may not have subscribed to such wireless sensing service, may not be intended targets of a wireless sensing service, and/or may not even wish to be sensed or take part of a sensing service or sensing procedure. Similarly, some services, e.g., communication services, might also benefit of the usage of the sensing service that might require the collection of sensed information of one or more objects. For instance, communication services might be optimized or improved if very accurate information of the location or trajectory or speed of one or more objects, is known, e.g., as potentially collected by a sensing service, even if not all objects might have subscribed, be authorized, give authorization, or consent for the usage of the wireless sensing service.

This is an issue since wireless sensing may reveal personal identification information (e.g., biometrics) and/or other information that may be privacy sensitive (e.g., where a person is located or what he doing). In many countries, user must give consent to take part in services that may obtain privacy sensitive information, in particular in private domains, such as somebody's home. Similarly, User consent can be required for 3GPP features depending on local regulations as described in TS 33.501, Annex V, where, e.g., the collection, processing, and usage of privacy sensitive data, e.g., by means of sensing, might also be restricted to a particular usage. Also, the devices involved in sensing, in particular the ones that may obtain/receive privacy sensitive information in the process, should be properly authorized. The transmitter and/or receiver and/or sensing service may receive information (e.g., from an application, network exposure function, policy control function, subscription database (e.g., home subscriber service, unified data management service), identity database, authen- tication/authorization control function, public safety answering point, for example as part of the sensing configuration/ parameters) information about one or more biometrics (e.g., heart rate signal characteristic, body shape, body absorption/reflectivity characteristic, body posture/move- ments, body size/mass, diseases/handicaps leading to certain identifiable characteristics, such as sleep apnea leading to breathing pauses during sleeping, asthma leading to potentially fast irregular breathing rate or gasping for breath, a limp leading to unusual body movements, tremors (e.g., Parkinson), expected body temperature pattern, heart rate variability/pattern) associated with an individual, whereby depending on whether the respective biometric is detected or not detected (e.g., by the analysis system) in the reflected sensing signals received by the receiver device or a receiver unit in the transmitter device, the sensing session may be continued or aborted, or the sensing information may be approved for further processing/storage or discarded, or a different target or receiver (20) or transmitter (10) may be selected. This is to make sure that no unnecessary sensing information is collected that may potentially be from the wrong target. The use of a transmitter device or the receiver (in particular in case of a radar sensing operation to determine biometrics or vital signs) may be restricted to authorized devices and/or devices of authorized individuals with permissions to, e.g., read vital signs of a specific patient, so that patient security can be preserved.

In general, if the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver determines that the sensing information (e.g., sensing measurements or sensing results related to a detected object) or the input/output data of the sensing signal processing do not correspond to the given information on how to identify the target (e.g., determined location is too far from the UE that the target is carrying, or the shape/size of the target is different (e.g., smaller or larger), or the biometrics do not fit with the target, or one or more sensing measurement/results are above or below certain threshold values), the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may discard the received sensing signal and/or discard the sensing information (e.g., sensing measurements or sensing results), and/or discard the input/output data of the sensing signal processing, and/or may not perform any further processing on these measurements, results and/or input/output data and/or may not transmit to a further processing unit. The sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may also generate a notification message and, e.g., send it to an application, application server, core network function or via/through the NEF for further processing or storage, and/or may store information about such occurrence onto non-volatile storage (such as a database), if the target is not detected (anymore). Furthermore, the network may provide a service or run an application function or interface with an external application (e.g., through the NEF) to monitor a target (e.g., an elderly person living alone at home or, e.g., a car). Such sensing service or application may provide information about a target location/area/volume and/or how to identify the target (e.g., address/loca- tion of a home in which or around which the target resides, or area/volume information (e.g., a delimited geographical area denoted by a set of coordinates, lengths, sizes, diameters) in which the target is to be sensed or is expected to be, physical characteristics of the target (e.g., size, shape, mass, material composition, biometrics associated with a target (e.g., as listed in the previous embodiment)), last known location, identities and/or locations of wireless communication devices or other devices that the target may own, encompass, include, or carry, etc.) to a sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver (possibly indirectly via a sensing service). It is to be noted that, in the present disclosure, such a location or area or volume in which a target is to be sensed/detected (i.e., a target location or area or volume) or in which the sensing is performed (i.e., a sensing location or area or volume) can be defined as a region of interest (ROI).

The sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may also obtain information about devices (e.g., their identities and estimated location) that are in the vicinity of the target or target's address/location/home (e.g., a set of nearby base stations or UEs in the vicinity (e.g., a UE placed in the person's home or UEs carried around by the person or its family, friends or neighbors) that are capable and that may be authorized (or are authorized) by the network and/or by the user of the device and/or by the target object to participate in (distributed) sensing of the intended target. The authorization information (which may also include user consent information) may be stored as part of a user's subscription (e.g., in the unified data management (UDM) function of the core network) and/or as part of the sensing service and/or received from a service or application function or external application or authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) server (e.g., through the NEF).

However, not every UE may be a sensing device, and it is also not clear how a UE may trigger the initiation of sensing of a target or how a UE could be used to confirm user consent. In general, it may be desirable to improve the manner in which authorization is obtained/provided to initiate sensing of a particular target, and to mitigate/prevent sensing (in particular detailed sensing) of unauthorized/unintended targets, as described in subsequent embodiments.

In an embodiment for identifying a target for wireless sensing, the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may initiate an initial radar scan (e.g., in low resolution by using a low-frequency signal (e.g., below 2.4 GHz)) of an area/volume derived from a target loca- tion/address, last known location, area information in/around which a target is expected to be and/or location of a wireless communication device that a target may carry/encompass, for example using a low-resolution non-distributed radar analysis system as described in other embodiments. Such scan may be used for obtaining (low-resolution) radar measurement/sensing results that may be used to determine whether a target is present in the scanned area/volume.

Identifying a target for wireless sensing may be done as hereafter. The sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may be configured with information about a target location/area/volume in which the target is to be sensed or is expected to be and/or how to identify the target (e.g., physical characteristics of the target (e.g., size, shape, mass, material composition, biometrics associated with a target (e.g., heart rate signal characteristic, body shape, body absorp- tion/reflectivity characteristic, body posture/movements, body size/mass, diseases/handicaps leading to certain identifiable characteristics, such as sleep apnea leading to breathing pauses during sleeping, asthma leading to potentially fast irregular breathing rate or gasping for breath, a limp leading to unusual body movements, tremors (e.g., Parkinson), expected body temperature pattern, heart rate variability/pattern)), identities and/or locations of wireless communication devices or other devices that the target may own, encompass, include, or carry, etc.). This target identification information may include thresholds or other criteria related to sensing measurement/results, such as a minimum/maximum deviation from a certain location, a set of different shapes or scatterplot of allowed shapes, or multiple shape definitions indicating a minimal shape and maximum shape contours, deviations in size (e.g., maximum/minimum allowed difference in height, width, length, or kilograms), minimum/maximum speed, a set of possible moving pattern and/or possible deviations thereof, minimum/maximum value for sensed biometrics (e.g., minimum/maximum heart rate or breathing rate), etc. Note that the target identification information may be defined with different levels of accuracy, granularity, matching criteria (e.g., threshold values), depending on the resolution/accuracy of the radar based sensing (e.g., depending on number of transmitter and receivers, frequency used, whether non-distribute or distributed sensing is used).

Alternatively or additionally, a target may also be indicated by exclusion, i.e., as a person or animal or structure or another type of object that does not match a set of criteria (e.g., is not a person, animal, object or structure that, e.g., matches certain known biometrics or size) and/or that should not be detected at a certain location/area or volume (e.g., does not match the biometrics of the people registered to live in a certain house, for which the biometrics may have been stored in advance), for example to detect intruders/burglars to a house. The information provided to the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver (possibly indirectly via a sensing service) may further comprise a set of telephone numbers (e.g., emergency call numbers) that should be contacted in case of certain alert situations, a set of time periods (e.g., only evenings) or a set of triggers (e.g., only when person is known to be at home, e.g., by receiving a signal from a device that the person may carry) when the service should be active.

Based on the above mentioned target location/area/volume information and/or target identification information, the sensing service may select and/or configure one or more sensing transmitter device(s) and/or the sensing receiver device(s) with a sensing configuration which enables the sensing to be performed with the required accuracy to be capable of performing the matching with the target identification information, for example by configuring a set of frequencies for the sensing signals, which measurements need to be performed, how many times a sensing signal should be transmitted or how many times a measurement should be performed, etc. The sensing service may also provide information about the target area/location/volume to be sensed and/or a (sub)set of target identification information to the sensing transmitter device(s) and/or sensing receiver device(s).

Based on the above-mentioned target identification information, the sensing service and/or the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver may be configured to perform a target matching procedure based on the configured target identification information, whereby the target matching procedure includes determining (e.g., through algorithmic processing of the sensing data (i.e., sensing measurements and/or (partial) sensing results) produced by and/or obtained from the sensing receiver) whether a set of sensing measurements performed on received sensing signals, or results from a processing performed on a set of sensing measurements and/or (partial) sensing results, meet one or more of the configured criteria (e.g., threshold values) for identifying the target object. This may include determining whether or not the sensing measurements and/or sensing results fall within certain thresholds and/or boundary conditions, e.g., is the object sufficiently close to a target location, does the identified shape of the object fall within certain boundaries, is the size of the object close to an expected size, is the speed of the object below a minimum or above a maximum expected speed for a target or below a minimum or above a maximum to enable proper sensing of the target object, is the moving pattern a moving pattern that could be expected by the target, are the measured biometrics (e.g., heartrate or breathing rate) be- low/above a certain expected value for a target, etc.

The target matching procedure may be given an (ideal) representation of a signal as input, to which the outcome of the signal processing (which may include passing the signals through one or more filters) needs to be matched by finding similarities between the processed signal and such (ideal) representation of a signal. This may include identifying overlap of the processed signal with the (ideal) representation of the signal, possibly changing the amplitude or timing of the signal. This may also include identifying signal shapes, signal peaks and verifying if these may or may not occur in the (ideal) representation of the signal. Additionally or alternatively, the input for such target matching procedure may include a description of at least one or more signal characteristics (e.g., certain signal peaks or signal shapes) that need to be present in order for the signal to match. The input for such target matching procedure may also include a set of signal characteristics (e.g., certain signal shapes, signal peaks) that should not be present in order for the signal to match. Since some sensing measurements and/or sensing results may not be stable (e.g., measurements fluctuating between certain values, movements causing Doppler shift, small movements, or RF signal interference causing noise in certain signals), the signals may need to pass certain filters (e.g., low-pass or high-pass filter) in order to remove noise, unwanted spikes, outliers or trends, or Doppler shifts from a signal. Note that the sensing measurements and sensing results may be measured or calculated during a period of time whereby some outliers during that period of time may be removed and/or some average values during the period of time may be used for the signal processing and matching algorithms. The resulting output after these processing steps may be a signal that matches the given (ideal) representation and/or the given set of signal characteristics, whereby matching is likely never going to be 100% accurate. This is further exacerbated if the original or processed sensing signal or sensing measurements or (partial)sensing results lack sufficient accuracy (e.g., because a low frequency signal or low sampling rate, or a low accuracy signal representation is used). Hence, the matching results may be provided together with a level of confidence, or a matching percentage, or a standard deviation value. The target matching procedure may be given a minimum level of confidence, or a confidence interval, or a minimum matching percentage, or a maximum standard deviation value for one or more of the configured criteria or other target identification information. If a minimum confidence level, or a minimum matching percentage, or a maximum deviation is not met, the target matching procedure may not include this in the set of matched criteria or other target identification information.

Additionally or alternatively, the sensing service and/or the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver or other entity involved in performing a target matching procedure may determine or receive information (e.g. from a core network function such as location service, other sensing service or NWDAF) about a set of UEs or other (potential) targets being located close to the location of the intended target and/or a location of a set of UEs in an area, whereby the location of the UEs or other (potential) targets may be obtained through sensing or through other means (e.g. GNSS location obtained via a location service). If the amount of UEs or other (potential) targets for which it is determined that they are located close to the location of the intended target (e.g. in a crowded house, apartment building or area) and/or for which it is determined that these UEs are not carried or otherwise linked to the intended target exceeds a threshold value, then the confidence level is adapted (e.g. reduced by a certain percentage). Similarly if this amount is less than a threshold value the confidence level may be adapted (e.g. confidence level may be increased). Additionally or alternatively, the sensing service and/or the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver or other entity involved in performing a target matching procedure may determine or receive information (e.g. from a core network function such as NWDAF which may capture and/or store data and/or have historical data about number of devices in an area) about areas to be known as crowded areas and/or information indicating crowdedness of a set of areas (e.g. average number of UEs residing or connected in an area). If the intended target is determined to be located in an area that is known to be a crowded area, then the confidence level is adapted (e.g. reduced by a certain percentage). Similarly, if the intended target is determined to be in a non-crowded area, then the confidence level may be adapted (e.g. confidence level may be increased).

Additionally or alternatively, the target matching procedure may perform matching of the sensing measurements and/or (partial) sensing results with an artificial intelligence (Al) model, whereby the Al model may have been trained in identifying a particular target or set of targets, e.g., by using sensing measurement results and/or (partial) sensing results based on sensing of the target in a controlled environment, possibly in various settings. Such Al model may be provided as input to the target matching procedure or may be made available (e.g., running on an edge server) to the target matching procedure through a communication interface. By passing a set of sensing measurements and/or (partial) sensing results of an actual target with such Al model, the Al model may determine that the given sensing measurement result and/or (partial) sensing result, such as a certain processed signal matches with what the model has learned on how to identify the particular target. Additionally or alternatively, the Al model may determine a machine learning confidence score that the given sensing measurement result and/or (partial) sensing result indeed identifies the target and/or that it matches one or more of target identification information for the target. The Al model may provide the matching learning confidence score and/or other matching results for further processing in the target matching procedure.

The target matching procedure may result in a set of objects (i.e. matching targets) that match either a subset of the set of target identification information in the case of a partial match or the entirety of the set of target identification information in the case of a full match, whereby, as mentioned above, the matching may be augmented with or conditioned with a confidence level or a matching percentage. In short, a matching target is an object that matches (with a certain confidence or matching percentage) at least a subset of the target identification information, e.g., by meeting one or more of the configured criteria (e.g., threshold values) for identifying the target object. The sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver performing the sensing of a target or performing the target matching procedure may allocate a new identifier when a new and/or distinct object has been detected, or may allocate an identifier that is associated with a set of target identification information (e.g., matching criteria for a target), or may allocate an identifier based on a target identifier provided by an application, or may allocate an identifier based on a subscription identifier associated with the sensing service and/or the sensing of the target, or may allocate an identifier based on an identification of the sensing session. The entity responsible for the target matching procedure may replace an allocated identifier with an identifier associated with a set of target identification information in case of a full match and/or when the confidence level or matching percentage is above a pre-configured threshold.

In order to identify a target in a target location/area/volume, the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may initiate an initial scan of the target area and/or obtain the sensing measurements/results resulting from an initial scan of the target area as input for a target matching procedure. Such initial scan may be a low-resolution scan, but may also be a high- accuracy scan, e.g., if allowed/enabled/authorized for example in certain countries or facilities (e.g., in case of a non-public network) or certain use cases (e.g., for lawful intercept or emergency situations), for example using distributed radar sensing or in a higher frequency such as mmWave. The sensing signals/measurements/results may be processed as described in other embodiments to obtain a set of sensing results, which may reveal zero, one or more objects (e.g., persons, animals, houses, cars) detected in the target area.

If only one object is detected that may (or may not) match a set of target identification information (according to the target matching procedure), then the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may generate an event and/or transmit a signal (that may carry a message, e.g., to an application server, core network function or via the NEF) indicating that a matching target or the intended target is present in the scanned area/volume (possibly augmented with position information and/or other sensing results related to a detected target), and/or may store information about detecting a target (possibly augmented with position information and/or other sensing results related to a detected target) onto non-volatile storage (such as a database) if the target is detected in accordance with the target identification information, and/or may initiate an additional scan and/or may perform further sensing measurements for verification or to determine additional matches to the target identification information and/or may initiate/trigger the start of a (detailed) sensing session (only) when the presence of the intended target is detected. To this end, the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may inform the one or more other sensing services, sensing transmitters or sensing receivers that may be involved in the (detailed) sensing of a target, e.g., by sending a signal to initiate additional sensing operations.

If more than one object is detected that may (or may not) match a set of target identification information (according to the target matching procedure), then the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may generate an event and/or transmit a signal (that may carry a message, e.g., to an application server, core network function or via the NEF) indicating that the multiple intended targets are detected and/or that multiple objects (e.g., matching targets) are detected that match (or do not match) a set of identification information (but for which, e.g., it cannot be determined with sufficient certainty that the intended target is present in the scanned area/volume and/or which detected object is the intended target), and/or may delay/cancel the start of a (detailed) sensing session and/or may initiate another scan and/or may perform further sensing measurements for verification or to determine additional matches to the target identification information (e.g., to reduce the number of potential targets and/or to find a better match with the set of target identification information for the intended target).

In another embodiment, the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may initiate an initial scan of a target location/area/volume and obtain the sensing measure- ments/results resulting from an initial scan of the target area. This may include raw measurement results (such as timing or signal strength of signals) or may be (partial) sensing results (e.g., number of detected objects, location of an object, speed of an object, size of an object, movement pattern of an object) derived from the sensing measurements. The sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver (as a requesting entity) may provide these sensing measurements/results or a subset thereof to a/another sensing service or to a sensing application or to a core network function (e.g., an authentication server function (AUSF) or UDM) or external server responsible for performing the target matching procedure. Because of security and privacy reasons, the target matching procedure may need to be performed within a security/privacy domain for a specific target (e.g., in the home network (e.g., a home public land mobile network (H-PLMN)) who owns the target's subscription to the sensing service or by a server operated by a trusted identification authority (e.g., provided by government) or by a server operated by an authorized/trusted application provider)), and hence the target identification may not be shared with the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver, in particular if these would operate in a visiting network (e.g., a visited public land mobile network (V-PLMN)). After the sensing service, sensing application or core network performed the target matching procedure on the provided sensing measurements/results, it may respond to the requesting entity that a match has been found or has not been found and/or a (temporary) identity related to an identified target that may be used for further authentication and authorization, as described in later embodiments. The response may also contain information about whether the target is authorized to be a target for sensing and/or may contain credentials that may be used for encrypting/decrypting subsequent messages (e.g., if the (temporary) identity is provided in a subsequent message secured by a key based on those credentials). Based on the response^) received, the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may stop or continue the sensing operation, initiate an additional sensing operation, generate an event or transmit a signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected or initiate/continue an authorization of a target for sensing (e.g., verifying whether a detected object is an authorized target for a sensing service).

In yet another embodiment, the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may initiate an initial scan of a target location/area/volume and obtain the sensing measure- ments/results resulting from an initial scan of the target area. This may include raw measurement results (such as timing or signal strength of signals) or may be (partial) sensing results (e.g., number of detected objects, location of an object, speed of an object, size of an object, movement pattern of an object) derived from the sensing measurements. The sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver (as a requesting entity) may request one or more (other) sensing services or sensing applications or core network functions (e.g., AUSF or UDM) or identity databases (e.g., provided by government) that maintains/stores target identification information to provide one or more sets of target identification information (e.g., target identification information that matches one or more sensing measurements/results). Such request may contain information about the target location/area/volume that was scanned, one or more sensing parameters/measurements/results (e.g., a size of an object, a location of an object, a speed of an object, a movement pattern of an object, a shape of an object, a material of an object), and/or information about one or more targets subscribed to the sensing service (which may also configure/be in control of the sensing transmitter or sensing receiver) and/or that are expected to be in/near the target location/area/volume. Based on this request, the one or more (other) sensing services or sensing applications or core network functions or identity databases may provide a (sub)set of target identification information for targets for which the target location/area/volume and/or target identification information (partially) match with the provided information (e.g., about the target location/area/volume that was scanned and/or one or more sensing parameters/measurements/results). Additionally or alternatively, a set of target identification information is provided by the network (e.g., the sensing service) or an application (e.g., via the NEF) or an external entity (e.g., a public safety answering point (PSAP)) to the sensing service, sensing transmitter(s) and/or sensing receiver(s) as part of the configuration information for sensing of a target based on the set of target identification information, or as part of a request to start sensing a target or target location/area/volume. The (sub)set of target identification information received by the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver, may then be used by the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver to perform further and/or more detailed sensing of a target that may be fine-tuned to the (sub)set of target identification that was provided, in order to achieve a better matching result or, for example, to further determine/exclude one or more detected objects in the initial (low resolution) scan that may or may not match (e.g., fall within or outside of a set of thresholds for location, speed, size or other parameters) a set of target identification information to be an intended target.

Depending on the situation the detailed/prolonged/continued sensing of a target area or a set of target objects or other objects detected in a target area, which may include, e.g., sensing by using higher frequency or distributed radar or for longer period of time or with more advanced/more accurate algorithms of a target, may be initiated anyway in certain situations. Examples of such situations include, e.g., in case of an emergency call or a lawful intercept that initiated a request to start the radar based sensing of one or more targets and/or a certain area, or in case the target area/volume covers a house or facility (e.g., factory) for which the owner/inhabit- ants have (implicitly or explicitly) granted permission (e.g., provided user consent) when subscribing to the sensing service or subscribing to the operator's network communication services or for example through their healthcare provider/service or for example because the sensing service is operated by a non-public network (which may include privately owned infrastructure equipment and core network components that may include a sensing services, sensing receivers or sensing transmitters) whereby the sensing service/equipment operates in and/or covers the intended facility, or in case the targets and/or sensing receivers and/or sensing transmitters are subscribed to the same service/application or are part of the same group (e.g. sharing group ID or sharing group credentials).

In an example embodiment, a UE (that may or may not be a sensing receiver and/or sensing transmitter) initiates an emergency call with a public safety answering point via the (cellular) network to which it is attached, and based on location information provided/acquired during the emergency call according to local regulations (e.g., Enhanced 911), a sensing transmitter in the vicinity of the originating location of the emergency call (e.g., a base station in the vicinity or a mobile phone in the vicinity or the mobile phone making the emergency call) may get instructed (e.g., through configuration messages) to perform a sensing session (e.g., to sense a designated target victim or target area/volume around a victim or emergency area/volume), whereby the instructions may include authorization information, information about the target (e.g., target loca- tion/area/volume or some characteristics of the target victim, e.g., whether the target victim is moving or not, is lying on the ground, has cardiac arrest, etc.) or the context (e.g., how many people are gathered around the victim, distance between people and their devices relative to the victim, number of injured people, debris in the vicinity) or an identifier or address (e.g., IP address, URL) of a destination server, network function/device or public safety answering point or a credential (e.g., public key) to be used for encrypting the results, or requested sensing output/results such as target position or movement or vital signs. The information about the target may be a set of target iden- tification information (as described elsewhere in the present disclosure). The set of target identification information may be provided by the UE to the core network (e.g., to the emergency call session control function (E-CSCF) as specified in 3GPP TS 23.167) and/or the PSAP, for example, by including this information in the emergency connection setup request (e.g., an emergency PDU session establishment (e.g., an emergency PDU session as defined in 3GPP TS 23.501 and TS 23.167, and extended accordingly) or over the emergency connection (e.g., an emergency PDU session), whereby the E-CSCF may forward the received information to the PSAP. This information may be determined by the UE performing an initial scan (e.g., a radar sweep) of the victim or another target or of the emergency area, if the UE is capable of performing wireless sensing. The UE may be configured to sense for a target victim (e.g., matching one or more default characteristics such as shape or size of a person lying on the ground or heavily breathing or bleeding), e.g., based on a preconfigured set of target identification information (e.g., sensing criteria). The information (such as a set of target identification information) provided by the UE and received by the core network and/or the PSAP may then be provided (together with one or more of the mentioned instructions) to the RSMF (or another network function, e.g., location retrieval function (LRF) or LMF responsible for initiating the sensing of a target based on the provided information) and/or directly to a set of sensing transmitters and/or receivers.

Additionally or alternatively, the UE may provide a set of wireless sensing measurements or sensing results to the core network (e.g., to the E-CSCF) and/or the PSAP, for example, by including this information in the emergency connection setup request (e.g., emergency PDU session establishment) or over the emergency connection (e.g. an emergency PDU session), upon which the core network or the PSAP may determine a set of target identification information, based on the provided set of wireless sensing measurements or sensing results, that may then be provided (together with one or more of the mentioned instructions) to the RSMF (or another network function, e.g., LRF or LMF responsible for initiating the sensing of a target based on the provided information) and/or directly to a set of sensing transmitters and/or receivers.

Additionally or alternatively, a set of target identification information may be retrieved (e.g., by the E-CSCF) based on a UE identity received from the UE making the emergency call from a core network function or database (e.g., UDM/UDR) that maps UE identities with associated set(s) of target identification information. To this end, the UE may indicate (e.g., in a message field during emergency connection setup) whether or not the target is carrying the UE or encompasses the UE that has initiated the emergency call, e.g., because the person itself is a victim. The retrieved set of target identification information may then be provided (together with one or more of the mentioned instructions) to the RSMF (or another network function, e.g., LRF or LMF responsible for initiating the sensing of a target based on the provided information) and/or directly to a set of sensing transmitters and/or receivers.

In case of an emergency call, the authorization (including a user consent) to perform sensing (e.g., initial scan or detailed/prolonged sensing) of a target and/or to share sensing results of a target with a PSAP may be implicitly provided, e.g., because the request to initiate sensing was done by a core network function specifically used in case of emergency calls (e.g., E-CSCF or LRF) or by the PSAP, or e.g., because the request to initiate sensing includes a flag indicating that this is for an emergency call. Similarly, one or more receivers (also if receiver is part of the same device as the transmitter) gets activated to participate in the sensing session, upon which the transmitter and receiver may perform sensing according to the other embodiments in this document). The sensing results (which may be filtered to contain results only pertaining the designated target, i.e., a target that matches a set of target identification criteria provided to the sensing service, sensing transmitter(s) or sensing receiver(s), e.g., by the E-CSCF or PSAP) may be forwarded by the core network (e.g., by the E-CSCF) to the PSAP. To this end, the sensing results may be provided via the AMF to the E-CSCF when the UE includes them during the PDU session establishment, or the E-CSCF may retrieve them via a LRF/GMLC as specified in 3GPP TS 23.167/23.273, extended for this purpose, e.g., by providing functions similar the RSMF or by involving the RSMF as described in other embodiments of the present disclosure or by collecting the sensing results directly from the sensing receiver(s) and/or sensing transmitter(s).

In summary, a method, apparatus and system is provided for identifying a target for wireless sensing, comprising obtaining or determining a set of target location/area/volume information and/or target identification information by a sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver (e.g., upon/after receiving a request to perform sensing of a particular target, or based on pre-configuration beforehand), performing a sensing operation (e.g., an initial/low-resolution scan) of a location/area/volume (derived from the set of target location/area/volume information and/or target identification information) using signals transmitted by a sensing transmitter, receiving the signals (that may be reflected by a target) by a sensing receiver (which may be colocated with a sensing transmitter), perform a set of measurements and/or signal processing operations resulting in a set of (raw) measurements about the received signals and/or obtain a set of (raw) measurements from one or more of the involved devices, use a set of (raw) measurements for further processing/analysis in order to detect a set of objects (that may be potential targets or matching targets) and/or obtain a set of detected objects and/or a set of potential targets from one or more of the involved devices or an application/service, determine/calculate a set of sensing information (i.e., sensing measurements and/or results) about one or more of the detected objects and/or potential targets and/or obtain a set of sensing information about one or more detected objects/persons/animals/structures and/or potential targets from one or more of the involved devices, either performing a target matching procedure itself or providing a set of sensing information about one or more detected objects and/or potential targets to a target matching entity (e.g., a sensing service, sensing application or core network function or external server) for performing the target matching procedure, whereby the target matching procedure includes comparing/correlat- ing the set of sensing information with target identification information (e.g., by checking if a set of sensing measurements/results meets one or more of the configured criteria (e.g., threshold values) for identifying the target object), determining that one or more objects have been found that match or did not match a set of target identification information, optionally generating/issuing an event or transmitting a signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected, and based on whether a matching target was detected or not, initiating or delaying/cancelling further sensing or storing of sensing measurement/results of a matching target or a non-matching object, or obtaining/verifying authorization for performing further sensing. In order to clarify, a target matching entity may be operated by a core network function/service of the same core network to which the sensing transmitter and sensing receiver are subscribed and/or which runs the sensing service, or may be operated by a different network operator (e.g., the home network of a target user) or external application or external server, or may be operated by a sensing transmitter, sensing receiver or sensing service. In the latter, it is assumed that these entities are authorized, trusted and/or that user consent was provided for these entities to be involved in the sensing of a target.

Fig. 8 schematically shows an example target authorization procedure according to various embodiments of the present invention.

In an embodiment that can be combined with any other embodiment, or that can be implemented independently, the sensing service and/or the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver may need to initiate an authorization procedure before initiating or continuing a sensing session (e.g., before initiating another scan or before initiating detailed and/or distributed sensing). Such authorization procedure may comprise verifying the authorization information and/or the credentials of the network operator or the application or the user or the device or the third party that issued a request for the sensing of the target and/or that provided the information on how to identify the intended target and/or the user that subscribed to the sensing service, in order to assess whether or not the respective entity is authorized to receive sensing measurements or sensing results or other sensing data, and/or is authorized to initiate a sensing request for a target, and/or is authorized to provide configuration information (e.g., authorized to provide a set of target identification information) for sensing of a target. The authorization may be provided by, and/or stored in, and/or retrieved from, the subscription database (e.g., the UDM) for the requesting user or device or the intended target. Alternatively, the authorization may be provided by, and/or obtained from, an application server or a core network function or through the NEF. Alternatively, the authorization may be provided by, and/or obtained from, a lawful intercept service or a PSAP. In case of lawful intercept or an emergency call (i.e., with a PSAP), the authorization (incl. user consent) to perform sensing (e.g., initial scan or detailed/prolonged sensing) of a target and/or share sensing results of a target with a PSAP or lawful intercept service may be implicitly provided, e.g., because the request to initiate sensing was done by a core network function specifically used in case of emergency calls (e.g., E-CSCF or LRF) or by the PSAP or, e.g., because the request to initiate sensing include a flag indicating that this is for an emergency call. If the authorization fails or cannot be verified, then an event and/or an error message may be generated, and/or the sensing of the target may be aborted. Since the rules for sensing in public spaces versus sensing in private spaces may be different, also the authorization and whether or not the authorization needs to be performed may differ depending on the location or area or volume in which a target is to be sensed or in which the sensing is performed. Also in the case where only one object (i.e., matching target) was detected that may match a set of target identification information (either partially when matching a subset of the set of target identification information or fully when matching an entirety of the set of target identification information), such authorization procedure or authorization verification may need to be performed. In an example, a set of target identification information (and/or a set of sensing measurements and/or results within certain thresholds) may be linked to a mobile subscription identifier or a user identifier, e.g., a subscription permanent identifier (SUPI), or to an identifier from which (e.g., after authentication with an authentication server function (AUSF)) a mobile subscription identifier or user identifier can be derived (e.g., of a wireless communication device carried or encompassed by a target, or of a wireless communication device carried by or owned by the person that subscribed to a sensing service). The links between the sets of target identification information and mobile subscription identifiers or user identifiers may be stored, e.g., as part of a unified data repository (UDR) or UDM functions in a core network or in a separate database or AAA server from which this link information can be retrieved by a core network function (such as AUSF) upon or after authentication. The information to link the sets of target identification information to the mobile subscription identifiers or user identifiers may also be provided by or retrieved from an application beforehand, or upon or after authentication. To this end, the application may communicate with the respective core network function(s), such as UDM/UDR or AUSF, through the NEF. The information to link the sets of target identification information to the mobile subscription identifiers or user identifiers may further contain an association with one or more identifiers (preferably temporary or intermediate identifiers that may change or update (e.g., based on a set of rules or matching criteria) for privacy reasons) and may contain information on whether the user or device is subscribed to a sensing service and/or whether a device associated with the mobile subscription may be authorized and/or is capable of acting as a sensing transmitter or a sensing receiver. These (temporary or intermediate) identifiers may be provided to a target matching entity (e.g., a sensing service or a sensing transmitter or a sensing receiver (possibly indirectly via the sensing service) or a sensing application or a core network function) that is capable of performing a target matching procedure. If (e.g., through an initial radar scan) a potential target is found by the target matching entity, then the target matching entity (or a sensing transmitter or a sensing receiver or a sensing service to which the result of the target matching procedure (which may include a (temporary) target identifier) was transmitted) may initiate an authentication and/or authorization procedure using such a (temporary/intermediate) identifier as input for the authentication and/or authorization request and/or may use the set of target identification information (and/or the set of sensing measurements and/or results) as input for an authentication and/or authorization request, and/or may first retrieve a mobile subscription identifier or user identifier based on a set of target identification information and/or on a set of sensing measurements and/or results, and then use the retrieved identifier as input for the authentication and/or authorization request. The authentication and/or authorization request may be directed towards a core network function such as the AUSF and/or the UDM, which may verify whether the intended target is authorized for the sensing service and may also verify whether a user consent has been provided. To this end, the core network function (e.g., the AUSF and/or the UDM) may retrieve (e.g., from the UDR or database) a mobile subscription identifier or user identifier by using a (temporary/intermediate) identifier, and/or target identification information (and/or a set of sensing measure- ments/results). Since the mobile subscription identifier or user identifier may be associated to one or more UEs, the network may also send a notification to the one or more UEs (e.g., to inform the user that the sensing service is activated), and/or may request confirmation from the user of the one or more UEs to initiate and/or approve the sensing of the target, and/or may also request the location of the one or more UEs and use it to verify whether the one or more UEs are in the vicinity of the target (e.g., as an additional check that the target is correct or to request these one or more UEs to participate in the sensing of the target), and/or may perform primary authentication with the one or more UEs. The authorization and/or user consent for sensing may be provided only on a temporary basis, and/or may be temporarily revoked, for example for a particular time of day (e.g. according to some schedule) or if a target for sensing is going to sleep or take a shower, or going to a specific area/location, etc. To this end, the user consent information stored in the UDM/UDR and/or requested from the user of the one or more UEs may contain a time or time period or validity time field in relation to the user consent information for wireless sensing. Similarly, the authorization and/or user consent may be provided only for a given context (time, location, usage,...), e.g., a given location or a maximum amount of measurements or sensing results (e.g. thousand measurements or one hundred measurement results for a certain sensing goal), which may be bound to a maximum (or minimum) period of time. To this end, the user consent information stored in the UDM/UDR and/or requested from the user of the one or more UEs may contain a field that indicates a (maximum) number of sensing measurement or sensing results. The sensing devices (e.g. sensing transmitter or sensing receiver) and/or sensing service should stop or be commanded by a NF or AF to stop sensing and/or sensing measurements should be discarded and/or not be exposed to a 3^rd party/application if the authorization and/or user consent expires or is not valid with a given context, e.g., at a particular time period and/or too many measurements/results have been obtained. Furthermore, the user consent and/or authorization may be limited to a particular loca- tion/area/volume, e.g. only allow sensing at a person's home, not when the target moves outside of his home. To this end, the user consent information stored in the UDM/UDR and/or requested from the user of the one or more UEs may contain a field that indicates a location/area/volume for sensing. Furthermore, the user consent and/or authorization may be limited to a particular set of sensing result to be obtained, e.g. only the velocity of a target object may be determined using sensing, but not the size of a target. To this end, the user consent information stored in the UDM/UDR and/or requested from the user of the one or more UEs may contain a field that indicates a certain set of measurement goals/results for sensing. Similarly, user consent and/or authorization may be limited to a maximum or minimum sensing accuracy (e.g. accuracy of movements or other sensing result to be in a certain measurement system (e.g. kilometer per hour) and/or results to be rounded off if exceeding a maximum number of digits behind the comma and/or maximum frequency to be used for sensing (e.g. no mmWave or TeraHertz since that would enable very high accuracy for sensing). To this end, the user consent information stored in the UDM/UDR and/or requested from the user of the one or more UEs may contain a field that indicates a minimum/max- imum accuracy level and/ or data types or data type constraints to store/expose the sensing measurements/results. Furthermore, user consent and/or authorization may be limited to a certain maximum or minimum confidence level (e.g. matching certain criteria for identification of person/ob- ject to be above a certain confidence level (for example to ensure that no bystanders are accidentally involved in sensing), or the criteria for identification of a person/object to be below a certain confidence level for example to ensure that the results do not identify one unique person/object, but that multiple persons/objects could match to prevent unique tracking or exposure of privacy sensitive information uniquely pointing to a specific person/object). To this end, the user consent information stored in the UDM/UDR and/or requested from the user of the one or more UEs may contain a field that indicates a minimum/maximum confidence level or accuracy related to the sensing measurements/results. The sensing devices (e.g. sensing transmitter or sensing receiver) and/or sensing service should (be commanded to) stop sensing and/or sensing measurements should be discarded and/or not be exposed to a 3^rd party/application if the above mentioned conditions related to authorization or user consent cannot be met/ensured. Contextual information such as timing information or location/area/volume related to the authorization and/or user consent may be stored as part of the subscription and/or may be provided to the sensing devices or sensing service. If the sensing service determines (e.g. after contacting the UDM) that user consent and/or authorization is limited to a particular location/area/volume and/or is limited to a particular set of sensing results to be obtained, then the sensing service may discard sensing measurements or sensing results that does not pertain to the particular location/area/volume and/or that does not pertain to the particular set of sensing results to be obtained.

In the example authorization procedure as shown in Fig. 8, the sensing service 30 and/or the sensing transmitter 10 and/or the sensing receiver 20 perform(s) an initial scan 801 (i.e., an initial sensing operation 801) of a target location or area or volume. This may be done if the scan is authorized in the given context (location, timing, accuracy, etc) where the authorization may have been received previously from a NF. As shown, the sensing service 30 (or the sensing transmitter 10 or the sensing receiver 20) may transmit the sensing measurements and/or results (e.g., the set of sensing information) from the initial scan 801 (i.e., transmit an output of the initial sensing operation 801) to a target matching entity 40 via a message exchange 802. The target matching entity 40 may then perform a target matching procedure 803 based on the sensing measurements and/or results from the initial scan 801 and on a set of target identification information. If a partial or full match to the set of target identification information is found for a target (i.e., if a matching target, matching either a subset of the set of target identification information in the case of the partial match or an entirety of the set of target identification information in the case of the full match, is determined (with a certain confidence or matching percentage)), then, the target may be initially authenticated/authorized. The target matching entity may have received the target identification information from a centralized authentication and/or authorization entity (e.g., AUSF, UDM, AAA server, sensing application, or a combination therefore) so that the target matching entity can take this initial authentication/authorization decision on its own. Furthermore, if this initial authentica- tion/authorization succeeds (or when it is not applied), as shown, the target matching entity 40 (or the sensing service 30 or the sensing transmitter 10 or the sensing receiver 20 to which the result of the target matching was sent) may request an authorization for a target by transmitting a (temporary) identifier associated with the target or the set of target identification information to an authentication and/or authorization entity 50 (such as AUSF, UDM, AAA server, sensing application or a combination thereof) via a message exchange 804. The authentication and/or authorization entity 50 may perform an authentication and/or authorization procedure 805 in which the authentication and/or authorization entity 50 may further authenticate the target (e.g., by deriving the identity of a device or user that subscribed to the sensing service based on the provided (temporary) identifier, or by performing a fine grained verification of the provided sensing parameters, or, e.g., by performing primary authentication with the respective device), and/or may verify whether the target is authorized to be a target for sensing (e.g., based on subscription information directly or indirectly linked to the provided (temporary) identifier associated with the target or the set of target identification information), and/or may verify whether the user or target that subscribed or that is subject to the sensing service, has provided a user consent to be sensed/for sensing. The authentication and/or authorization entity 50 (possibly in cooperation with other core network and RAN entities) may also send a notification to a device 60 that is linked to the same subscription, the notification indicating that the target is subscribed to be a target for a sensing service, in a message exchange 806. In the same message exchange 806, the device 60 may send a message back to the authentication and/or authorization entity 50 in order to confirm that it is ok to proceed with the sensing of the target. Once the authentication and/or authorization procedure 805 performed by the authentication and/or authorization entity 50 has been completed, the entities (e.g., 10, 20, 30, and 40) involved in the sensing operation of the respective target will be informed by the authentication and/or authorization entity 50 through an authorization information procedure 807 that the target is authorized to be a target for sensing, and that, based on this, they may then continue the sensing of the target.

In an embodiment variant, the above authentication/authorization process may be iterative in the sense that the sensing service 30 or the sensing transmitter 10 or the sensing receiver may perform an initial set of measurements with an initial (low) accuracy/granularity required for (initial) authentication/authorization. If a match is determined, then the sending accuracy/granularity is increased so that more accurate sensing measurements can be obtained and a better authentication match can be achieved.

In a further embodiment variant that may be used independently, the data stored in the target matching entity and/or authentication and/or authorization entity (e.g., AUSF, UDM, AAA server, sensing application, or a combination therefore) and used for authentication may be encrypted homomorphically. The target matching entity may also receive an evaluation key used to verify whether the sensing measurements match the homomorphically encrypted data without having access to said measurements. This embodiment variant addresses the need of allowing an entity to perform an entity matching without disclosing the parameters used for matching. This is of particular interest when the entity matching entity connected to the sensing devices is in a dif- ferent security domain compared with the entity holding or owning the data used for authentica- tion/authorization, e.g., when the entity matching entity is in a visiting PLMN (home PLMN) and the entity owning/holding the data used for authentication/authorization is in a home PLMN (external entity/application).

In a further embodiment variant that may be used independently, the data stored in the target matching entity and/or authentication and/or authorization entity (e.g., AUSF, UDM, AAA server, sensing application, or a combination therefore) and used for authentication may be used in a secure environment managed by a remote party owning said data. For instance, the main authentication and/or authorization entity may remotely manage the secure enclave in the target matching entity and may perform attestation of said secure enclave. If attestation is successful, the main authentication and/or authorization entity may configure said secure enclave with data to perform the target matching wherein the data is securely stored in the secure enclave and not accessible to the target matching entity. The matching may be performed in the secure enclave and only the result may be shared with the main authentication and/or authorization entity. This embodiment variant addresses the need of allowing an entity to perform an entity matching without disclosing the parameters used for matching. This is of particular interest when the entity matching entity connected to the sensing devices is in a different security domain compared with the entity holding or owning the data used for authentication/authorization, e.g., when the entity matching entity is in a visiting PLMN (home PLMN) and the entity owning/holding the data used for authentication/authorization is in a home PLMN (external entity/application).

In a further embodiment variant that may be used independently, the target matching entity and/or authentication and/or authorization entity (e.g., AUSF, UDM, AAA server, sensing application, or a combination therefore) and/or an external entity/application function may perform a multiparty communication protocol to perform the entity matching without revealing private data. Such a multiparty protocol allows two or more parties, e.g., the target matching entity and the centralized authentication/authorization entity to determine whether a set of measurements of a target match a given set of data without revealing measurements to the centralized authentication/authorization entity and without revealing the data to the target matching entity. This is of particular interest when the entity matching entity connected to the sensing devices is in a different security domain compared with the entity holding or owning the data used for authentication/authorization, e.g., when the entity matching entity is in a visiting PLMN (home PLMN) and the entity owning/holding the data used for authentication/authorization is in a home PLMN (external entity/application). The previous embodiment variants show that there are multiple types of privacy enhancing technologies (PET) capable of providing a certain level of privacy when identifying a target and performing the subsequent authentication/authorization. Examples of those PET related embodiment variants include an iterative authentication/authorization process, the usage of homomorphic encryption, the usage of secure enclaves, or the usage of a multiparty computation protocol. It is therefore needed a method to select one of those PETs and select the required parameters of the PET. Thus, in a further embodiment variant that may be used independently, different entities (e.g., the target matching entity and/or a centralized authentication/authorization entity and/or an external entity) may execute a protocol wherein they expose their privacy set- tings/requirements/preferences requiring the type of PET and they agree on one or multiple of those PET. For instance, the target matching entity may expose its PET capabilities and the centralized authentication/authorization entity may indicate to the target matching entity its preferred PET and parameters. It is to be noted that although this embodiment variant is described in the context of wireless sensing and target identification, other applications performing data matching on other types of data may also benefit from a similar protocol.

In an embodiment that can be combined with other embodiments or that can be implemented independently, in order to further improve the privacy of the sensing operation, a device carried or encompassed by the target, in particular a wireless communication device (e.g., a UE device) can be used to trigger or initiate a sensing operation of the target or target object carrying or encompassing that device. The wireless communication device may establish a connection to a network that may operate a sensing service, or to an application server or core network function that may communicate with the sensing service, or to a sensing transmitter, or to a sensing receiver, and may trigger or initiate a sensing operation by sending a signal (which may carry a message) indicating such a trigger directly or indirectly to the sensing service or to the sensing transmitter or to the sensing receiver. Such a message may contain potential sensing transmitter or sensing receiver capabilities of the device, may contain location or area or volume information about the device itself or about an intended target, may contain authorization information and/or credentials, and/or information about user consent, may contain identification information of a target or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information, and/or may contain a set of sensing measurements or results. Upon receiving such a trigger for initiating the sensing operation, the sensing service may obtain and/or verify an authorization of the device (e.g., by obtaining the identity of the device and by checking the information in the subscription database (e.g., the UDM) whether the user of the device is subscribed to the sensing service, and/or whether the device is authorized to participate in the sensing operation, and/or whether the user of the device has provided a consent to be a target for the sensing operation). If the user of the device or the device is indeed authorized, then the sensing service and/or the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver may initiate and/or perform the sensing operation as described in the present disclosure. Note that initiating a sensing operation may comprise receiving and/or retrieving a set of target identification information, or an identifier associated with the set of target identification information (e.g., if the set of target identification information and its associated (set of) identifier(s) has already been provided earlier or during a pre-configuration of the involved sensing transmitter and receiver devices and/or the sensing service). The wireless communication device encompassed or carried by a target object may provide information to the sensing service or sensing devices about dimensions of the object (e.g. a vehicle) carrying or encompassing the wireless communication device, and/or the relative position (e.g. distance and/or angle and/or using a relative coordinate system) of the wireless communication device and/or one or more antennas of the wireless communication device in relation to the surface or gravitational center or other (pre-configured or determined) reference point of the object carrying or encompassing the wireless communication device. This may be used to adjust the calculated distance and/or angle between the wireless communication device and a sensing device or to adjust the calculated location of a device, by taking the distance to the object's surface into account, for example to make it easier to identify the target object which encompasses or carries the wireless communication device. The information about dimensions or relative position may be determined by the wireless communication device by performing sensing using its own wireless sensing capabilities, other sensing modalities, or may be determined by other means (e.g. pre-configured on the device by the user or manufacturer). Additionally or alternatively, the information may include information about antenna configuration, antenna ports (possibly together with information about the signals transmitted through those ports), antenna length, antenna placement/position relative to a reference coordinate, and/or orienta- tion/angle/direction relative to a reference direction (which may be represented e.g. by vector in a coordinate system) or magnetic north. Alternatively or additionally, the sensing service or sensing devices may retrieve information about dimensions of the object and/or relative position of the device or antennas relative to the surface, gravitational center or reference point, and/or detailed antenna information (e.g. antenna length, ports) from a database which stores this information about target objects which encompass or carry a wireless communication device, based on an identity of the wireless communication device.

The sensing service or sensing transmitter/receiver may initiate sensing based on the received information (e.g. by targeting a beam towards the estimated location of the wireless communication device) and/or perform a set of sensing measurements when a UE carried or encompassed by the target connects to the network (e.g. during or after authorization) and/or initiates a request for sensing to a sensing service or application. By doing so, the sensing service or sensing transmitter/receiver may detect an object that matches the given target identification information and/or the information about the dimensions of the object carrying or encompassing the wireless communication device, and/or the relative position (e.g. distance and/or angle and/or using a relative coordinate system) of the wireless communication device and/or one or more antennas of the wireless communication device in relation to the surface or gravitational center or other (pre-configured or determined) reference point of the object carrying or encompassing the wireless communication device. In an example, this initial sensing may result in detection of an object that given its location and/or surface and/or dimensions would encompass the wireless communication and/or would be at the given relative position of the wireless communication device and the surface or gravitational center or other reference point. Using these measurements/matching results, the sensing service or sensing transmitter/receiver devices may determine that the detected object is a target for sensing. Additionally or alternatively, the sensing measurements performed on an object that encompasses the wireless communication device may be used to determine a (additional) set of target identification information that may be used for matching.

Once it has identified the target for sensing, the wireless communication device is not needed anymore for continued sensing, hence sensing can continue (e.g. once it has a "fix" of the object it can follow the object when it moves around) and/or the target object can be identified again if needed based on the target identification information or the object dimension or relative position related information (e.g. received from the wireless communication device or derived from the initial sensing of a target object encompassing the wireless communication device or at an in- dicated/measured distance from the object's surface), even when the wireless communication device carried or encompassed by the target is switched off or gets separated from the target object.

Optionally, the sensing service may send a signal to the device carried or encompassed by the target, the signal indicating that the sensing operation is starting or is about to start. The device may display a notification to the user, or may request the user to provide confirmation (or automatically provide confirmation based on the device configuration) that he/she/it agrees to start the sensing operation, upon which a signal may be sent back to the sensing service, the signal indicating whether or not a confirmation has been obtained, after which, if the confirmation has been obtained, initiate or further perform the sensing operation. In an example, a wireless communication device carried or encompassed by the target (e.g., a mobile phone, loT device, sensor device, wireless tag, or other UE) has a subscription with the network. The user of that wireless communication device may also be subscribed to a sensing service. A core network function (e.g., a UDR or a UDM or a separate database or AAA server) may store an association between a mobile subscription identifier or user identifier (such as a SUPI of the wireless communication device carried or encompassed by the target (object), or a SUPI of the wireless communication device carried by or owned of the person that subscribed to a sensing service) or a (temporary or intermediate) identifier from which a mobile subscription identifier or user identifier may be derived, and a set of target identification information (and/or a set of sensing measurements and/or results within certain thresholds). The information to link these identifiers to the sets of target identification information may also contain information on whether the user of the device or the device is subscribed to a sensing service, and/or on whether a device associated with the mobile subscription may be authorized and/or is capable of acting as a sensing transmitter or a sensing receiver. Upon registration to the network and/or to the sensing service by the wireless communication device carried or encompassed by the target (object) or the user that subscribed to the sensing service, or upon connection of the wireless communication device carried or encompassed by the target or the user that subscribed to the sensing service to a sensing transmitter or a sensing receiver, an identifier of the wireless communication device may be provided by the wireless communication device to a core network function responsible for authentication and/or authorization of the device (e.g., to the AUSF or to the UDM). After the authentication or as part of the authentication procedure, the core network function responsible for authentication and/or authorization of the device may check the information stored in the UDR or the UDM or a separate database or AAA server, about whether or not the user of the device or the device is subscribed to a sensing service, and/or whether or not a user consent has been provided, and/or whether or not a device associated with the mobile subscription may be authorized and/or is capable of acting as a sensing transmitter or a sensing receiver, based on the given identifier, and/or may retrieve a mobile subscription identifier or user identifier based on the given identifier. The identifier used by a wireless communication device carried or encompassed by the target may be a subscription concealed identifier (SUCI) or a 5G globally unique temporary identifier (GUTI) that the wireless communication transmits to the core network as part of a connection setup and/or primary authentication procedure as specified in TS 33.501. However, it may provide a benefit if the wireless communication device carried or encompassed by the target may use another or additional identifier, preferably a temporary identifier, to indicate to the core network that the wireless communication device is subject to wireless sensing. This identifier may be pre-configured by the core network on the device (e.g., by a policy control function (PCF)), or configured by the network (e.g., by the AMF) when the device connects to the network, or may be provided as part of a sensing request (e.g., a mobile terminated or network initiated sensing request by the RSMF). The core network function responsible for authentication and/or authorization of the device (e.g., the AUSF or the UDM) may use the identifier to verify whether the device is authorized for using the sensing service, to retrieve user consent information, to retrieve a set of target identification information associated with the device, etc.

Alternatively or additionally, the authorization may be provided by or obtained from an application server or from a core network function or through the NEF, or may be provided by and/or obtained from a lawful intercept service or PSAP. The core network function responsible for authentication and/or authorization of the device may also retrieve a set of target identification information associated with the given identifier or the mobile subscription identifier or the user identifier retrieved based on the given identifier, or may retrieve or create an (intermediate or temporary) identifier associated with the set of target identification information. The set of target identification information or (intermediate or temporary) identifier associated therewith may be provided to the sensing service or to the sensing transmitter or to the sensing receiver, if authentication and/or authorization is successful and/or if a set of target identification information can be successfully retrieved.

Additionally, credentials may be provided that the involved devices (e.g., the sensing transmitter(s) and/or the sensing receiver(s)) need to use for securely sending (e.g., with integrity and/or confidentially being protected) any sensing measurements and/or results or other sensing information about one or more targets/objects, and/or sensing configuration information, to the sensing service or to other devices or services and/or applications involved in a sensing session and/or operation.

Additionally or alternatively, it is verified whether or not identification information of a target (and/or a set of sensing measurements and/or results) provided during a registration and/or a connection setup matches such a retrieved set of target identification information.

Additionally or alternatively, the mobile subscription identifier or user identifier associated to one or more UEs may be used by the network to send a notification to the one or more UEs (e.g., to inform the user that the sensing service is activated) and/or request a confirmation from the user of the UE to initiate and/or approve the sensing of the target, and/or may also be used to request the location of the UE and use it to verify whether the UE is in the vicinity of the target (e.g., as an additional check that the target is correct or to trigger a sensing session and/or operation or to generate an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected, or initiate/continue an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing).

Additionally or alternatively, the subscription identifier or user identifier associated to one or more UEs may be used by a location service to determine if one or more of the one or more UEs is moving in the same direction and/or follows the same trajectory (with a certain maximum deviation) as an intended target, and based on this determination trigger, stop or continue a sensing session/operation, initiate an additional sensing operation, generate an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected, or initiate/continue an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing. Additionally or alternatively, if the wireless communication device carried or encompassed by a target is also capable of wireless sensing, e.g., act as a sensing receiver, then the sensing service or another sensing device (e.g., a sensing transmitter or a sensing receiver) may request the wireless communication device carried or encompassed by the target to prove it is attached to the target or target object that is being sensed, e.g., it might require the wireless communication device carried or encompassed by the target to sense a transmitted sensing signal and to send the sensing measurements and/or results based on the (reflected and/or received) sensing signal to determine that the sensing measurements and/or results match with a set of target identification information of the respective target or target object, and based on this determination trigger, stop or continue a sensing session/operation, initiate an additional sensing operation, generate an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected, or initiate/continue an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing.

Additionally or alternatively, the wireless communication device carried or encompassed by a potential target may be instructed to show instructions for the target or target object to perform a particular movement (e.g., wave hands, wiggle, move a few steps in a certain direction) that may be detected by the sensing service, e.g., whilst performing an initial radar scan or at a particular time. If the movement can indeed be detected, it may be determined that the potential target is indeed the intended target or target object.

In some scenarios, users or targets for sensing may be in a sensing area in the jurisdiction of a managing entity (e.g., an official organization such as a local authority or a local government providing public services in said sensing area, e.g., an IT department of a hospital or a manager of an elderly facility) with the capabilities to sense users in the sensing area. The managing entity may be authorized by default (e.g., by law) to perform sensing of users or may perform sensing of a user after arranging an agreement (e.g., a subscription) with the user and/or getting user consent and/or obtaining privacy consent from the user.

In some scenarios, the managing entity may be responsible for the monitoring of (certain) users, e.g., in a healthcare facility. However, only authorized users (e.g., subscribers) of said managing entity are supposed to be sensed.

In some scenarios, the managing entity may still have the obligation to perform wireless sensing even if a user in its jurisdiction has not subscribed to its services. Thus:

• in a further embodiment variant, the managing entity may exchange information with the telecommunication system (e.g., 5GS) about its sensing area and sensing features, e.g., targets, sensing features, sensing timing, sensing parameters, and so on; in a further embodiment variant, the managing entity may get permission/con- sent/ a subscription for the users in its jurisdiction to perform wireless sensing on them; in a further embodiment variant, the managing entity may obtain sample sensed data/sensed parameters of a user/target to facilitate the sensing identifica- tion/matching task by a target matching entity in the telecommunication system. Such sense parameters may include, e.g., gait, health condition, and so on; in a further embodiment variant, the managing entity may provide said sample sensed data/parameters of a user to the telecommunication system so that target identification can be performed by the target matching entity; in a further embodiment variant, the managing entity may configure the telecommunication system with sensing parameters/data to be used in the sensing area under its jurisdiction. These sensing parameters/data may include one or more of at least the following: authorized users/targets; parameters to be measured/sensed for each user; and sample sensing data of each user/target; in a further embodiment variant, the managing entity may have a sensing subscription with the operator of the telecommunication system. As part of the subscription, the operator offers a sensing service with certain features (e.g., for a number N (e.g., N=100) of users/targets, in a given area, of certain parameters). The subscription data may be stored in a database, e.g., in UDM. The operator may check whether sensing requests from the managing entity fall under the current subscription. For example, when the managing entity configures the telecommunication system with sensing parameters/data (as aforementioned in the previous embodiment), the telecommunication system may check whether those sensing parameters/data fall under the current subscription. In a positive case, said sensing parameters/data may be configured in the target matching entity and/or user identities/authorization rights may be configured in an authentica- tion/authorization entity.

Identifiable Information

Wireless sensing may be useful to sense information about intended targets and/or target area. However, it may (unintentionally) expose information about people, objects, context that were not the intended target for sensing and/or information about intended target for sensing that was not intended to be sensed. For instance, a target (Robert) may wish/authorize the sensing of his gait, but may not allow the sensing of his heart rate. When sensing Robert's gait, Robert's heart rate may be disclosed. Such personal information/data may be considered personally identifiable information ( PI I). For privacy reasons, exposure of sensing information of unintended targets and/or identifiable information based on sensing of unintended targets and/or to unintended sensing information about intended targets to applications or external parties outside of the wireless network, or even to other parts within the wireless network not directly involved in sensing of a target should be prevented or minimized. Hence, the following embodiments aim at addressing these shortcomings.

In an embodiment that may be combined with other embodiments or be implemented independently, the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may use a confidence function (e.g., the correlation function, the confidence level or matching percentage or standard deviation or thresholds, etc. as mentioned in other embodiments) to determine whether or not a sensing measurement or sensing result may be provided to another device, service, application or third party. For instance, the confidence function may be such that the sensing measurements/re- sult may only be exposed if the measurements match the data/ target matching criteria more than a threshold. For example, the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver or other device that performs matching of a target with a set of target identification information may be configured or may have received or may have determined a minimum confidence level for a confidence function (e.g, confidence level or matching percentage or threshold above which or maximum standard deviation, etc) below which a target matches a set of target identification information and hence is identified an intended target. If a target does not match with a set of target identification information with a confidence level (e.g., matching percentage or threshold above such minimum confidence level or matching percentage or threshold or with a standard deviation below such maximum standard deviation) then the related sensing measurement or results will not be provided to another device, service, application or third party, since it may relate to unintended targets and/or the related sensing measurements or results will be obfuscated (e.g. replacing it with random data or adapting the resolution of the data (e.g. changing the bit depth, number of samples, number of objects, or using lower accuracy data types)) before providing a set of sensing measure- ments/results to another device, service, application or third party. Instead, the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may provide an error message or other message indicating that a matching target was not found (with sufficient confidence) to the other device, service, application or third party. In other words, a sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may be adapted to prevent/reduce exposure of privacy sensitive information by applying a confidence function to a set of sensing measurements and/or sensing results to determine if the set of sensing measurements and/or sensing results matches a set of target matching criteria of an intended target with a minimum confidence level, and based on the result of that determination decide whether or not a sensing measurement or sensing result may be provided to another device, service, application or third party and/or remove or obfuscate a sensing measurement or sensing result from the set of sensing measurements/results provided to another device, service, application or third party.

Additionally or alternatively, if a target does match with a minimum confidence level or matching percentage or threshold or a maximum standard deviation, but authorization of the target is not successful and/or user consent related to that target cannot be obtained, then the related sensing measurement or results will not be provided to another device, service, application or third party. Instead, the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may provide an error message or other message indicating that a target could not be authorized or that user consent for the target could not be obtained to the other device, service, application or third party.

Additionally or alternatively, if a target does match with a minimum confidence level or matching percentage or threshold or a maximum standard deviation, but it also finds other targets matching the same set of target identification information and/or finds too many potential targets in vicinity of the intended targets (e.g. number of objects detected that meet some of the target identification information being above a certain threshold, then the related sensing measurement or results will not be provided to another device, service, application or third party and/or information pertaining or not pertaining to the desired target will be removed or obfuscated (e.g. replacing it with random data or adapting the resolution of the data (e.g. changing the bit depth, number of samples, number of objects, or using lower accuracy data types)). If the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver finds other targets matching the same set of target identification information or too many potential targets then it may provide an error message or other message indicating that multiple matching targets were found to the other device, service, application or third party. In a particular example, the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver or other entity involved in sensing of a target may determine or receive information (e.g. from a core network function such as location service, other sensing service or NWDAF) about a set of UEs or other (potential) targets being located close to the location of the intended target and/or a location of a set of UEs in an area, whereby the location of the UEs or other (potential) targets may be obtained through sensing or through other means (e.g. GNSS location obtained via a location service). If the amount of UEs or other (potential) targets for which it is determined that they are located close to the location of the intended target (e.g. in a crowded house, apartment building or area) and/or for which it is determined that these UEs are not carried or otherwise linked to the intended target exceeds a threshold value, then the sensing measurement or results will not be provided to another device, service, application or third party and/or information not pertaining to the desired target will be removed or obfuscated. Additionally or alternatively, the sensing service and/or the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver or other entity involved in sensing of a target may determine or receive information (e.g. from a core network function such as NWDAF which may capture and/or store data and/or have historical data about number of devices in an area) about areas to be known as crowded areas and/or information indicating crowdedness of a set of areas (e.g. average number of UEs residing or connected in an area). If the intended target is determined to be located in an area that is known to be a crowded area, then the sensing measurement or results will not be provided to another device, service, application or third party and/or information not pertaining to the desired target will be removed or obfuscated.

In other words, a sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may be adapted to prevent/reduce exposure of privacy sensitive information by determining a number of targets that match a set of target matching criteria (with a certain confidence level) of an intended target and comparing this number with a minimum/maximum number of matching targets, and/or by determining a number of potential targets or amount of UEs located close to an intended target and comparing this number with a minimum/maximum number of UEs or potential targets, and based on the result of that determination decide whether or not a sensing measurement or sensing result may be provided to another device, service, application or third party and/or remove or obfuscate a sensing measurement or sensing result from the set of sensing measurements/results provided to another device, service, application or third party.

Additionally, or alternatively, the actions performed based on the context (e.g., number of targets, confidence level, etc) may depend on a policy that may be configured by the application or the network operator.

Additionally, or alternatively, in the case of emergency services (e.g., when one of the users or devices (e.g., a UE) in an area requests an emergency service, privacy-related settings in a policy controlling the exposure of sensed information may be overridden to allow the exposure of said sensing information, even if it may contain private information.

In a related embodiment that may be combined with other embodiments or be implemented independently, the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may remove or obfuscate the sensing data (e.g. sensing measurements or sensing results) to be exposed that does not pertain to a certain target (e.g. limit the area/volume for which sensing results are provided to only cover/include the desired target or adapting the resolution of the data for sensing data pertaining to other discovered objects) or that does not pertain to a desired sensing result (e.g. if only shape of an object is requested by an application or service, then it should not provide information about location or velocity, or use a data format for the desired sensing result that only allows information related to the desired sensing result or other high level information to be represented and not raw or partially processed sensing results (e.g. if the application/service indicates that it would like to obtain the velocity of an object, then a data type is selected/used to represent velocity of an object e.g. by a data type that includes a integer velocity value and an object identifier and nothing more)) before the sensing data pertaining to the intended targets is exposed to another device, service, application or third party.

In a related embodiment that may be combined with other embodiments or be implemented independently, in order to limit the exposure of private information of unintended targets, the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may:

1) Configure sensing parameters (e.g., sensing accuracy, location, timing) to the type of information that is required to be sensed of an intended target, and/or

2) perform (post-)processing of the sensing data (e.g. sensing measurements or sensing results) to check if any people, objects, context information can be discovered in the sensing data or derived from the sensing data, other than the intended targets, e.g. by trying to perform matching of the sensing data with multiple generic sets of target identification information (e.g. sets of target identification information to discover a human in one or more sizes or poses, or to discover common objects such as houses, trees, cars),

3) as a default or if indeed any people, objects, or context information is found that does not pertain to the target, e.g. if matching to one or more generic sets of target identification is successful, then information pertaining to such people, objects or context information is removed and/or obfuscated and/or concealed before the sensing data pertaining to the intended targets is exposed to another device, service, application or third party. Furthermore, the configured sensing parameters at the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may be updated, e.g., by sending a configuration message from the sensing service (where the decision is taken) to the sensing transmitter/receiver.

In a related embodiment that may be combined with other embodiments or be implemented independently, in order to limit the exposure of private information of an intended target, the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may:

2) perform (post-)processing of the sensing data (e.g. sensing measurements or sensing results) to check if any private information that is not intended/authorized to be disclosed of an intended target can be discovered/leaked in the sensing data or derived from the sensing data. For instance, given the sensing measurements of a user Rob that allows for the sensing of his gait, the sensing service may verify whether other type of information other than the goals/results that were requested and/or for which authorized to be obtained/ex- posed and/or for which user consent was given to be obtained/exposed (e.g., heart rate or breathing) may leak. This may be done by trying to extract that information (e.g. by performing sensing/matching algorithms on the sensing data for multiple generic sets of sensing goals (e.g. not only perform the gait sensing/matching algorithms, but also the respective sensing/matching algorithms for heart rate, breathing rate or other sensing/matching algorithms to obtain other sensing goals/results, and determine if other sensing goals/results can be obtained by performing those algorithms), and/or

3) as default or if in 2) is determined that information may leak, then the sensing measurements / information may be removed and/or obfuscated and/or concealed before the sensing data pertaining to the intended targets is exposed to another device, service, application or third party. This may be done, e.g., by reducing the sampling frequency of the sensing measurements and/or updating the configured sensing parameters at the sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver e.g., by sending a configuration message from the sensing service (where the decision is taken) to the sensing transmitter/receiver. In other words, a sensing service or sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may be adapted to prevent/reduce exposure of privacy sensitive information by performing (post-)processing of the sensing measurement and/or sensing results to determine if any people, objects, context information can be discovered in the sensing data or derived from the sensing data, other than the intended targets by performing matching of the sensing data with one or more sets of target identification information other than the set of target identification information used for the intended target, and/or determine whether other type of information than requested or authorized to be obtained/exposed by performing sensing of other sensing goals/results with one or more sensing/matching algorithms other than the sensing/matching algorithm used for the intended sensing goal/result, and based on the result of that determination decide whether or not a sensing measurement or sensing result may be provided to another device, service, application or third party and/or remove or obfuscate a sensing measurement or sensing result from the set of sensing meas- urements/results provided to another device, service, application or third party and/or to provide or not provide the sensing results for a certain sensing goal and/or to use a data format for exposing only a certain sensing goal.

Reducing measurement reporting In an embodiment that can be combined with other embodiments or that can be implemented independently, after the sensing of a target is initiated, the wireless communication device carried or encompassed by the target may stop or reduce its (regular) wireless communication signal measurements (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP) reporting as performed by a UE according to TS 38.331, TS 38.215) or location/ranging signal measurements (e.g., positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements as performed by a UE according to TS 38.215, TS 38.305) automatically (e.g., based on a pre-configured trigger/criterion for relaxed measurement similar to the ones defined in TS 38.304) or after receiving an message from the network (e.g., RRC Reconfiguration message) with a new/updated measurement configuration. The network may use the sensing measurements/results of the sensing service instead of the wireless signal measurements provided by the wireless communication device to determine its location and/or determine whether or not the wireless communication device is moving, for example to adjust its beam forming towards the wireless communication device or trigger a handover of the wireless communication device to another base station. This allows the wireless communication device to save energy and/or go to sleep. The network may inform (e.g., through paging) the wireless communication device when something happens and it needs to wake up, e.g., to perform handover or start its regular wireless medium measurements again, and/or inform the wireless device if anything anomalous is detected or it cannot get a reliable reading or an Al model for sensing needs (re)training (e.g., if the target, and hence the wireless communication device carried/encompassed by the target enters new location).

Using sensors to determine target identification information

In an embodiment that can be combined with other embodiments or that can be implemented independently, a wireless communication device (possibly in cooperation with a set of sensors and/or a set of sensing transmitters and/or sensing receivers connected to the wireless communication device) may determine a set of target identification information by performing wireless medium measurements or sensor readings or performing an initial radar scan of a target, in order to identify a unique set of characteristics by which the target can be identified. For example, it may detect particular patterns in the wireless medium measurement, sensor readings or radar scan measurements/results, e.g., a unique movement pattern or biometric using signal/data processing/analysis. To this end, the wireless communication device or a network function/server to which the wireless communication device is connected may run an Al model to learn how to identify the target (e.g., by identifying particular patterns) by feeding it with the respective wireless medium measurements, sensor readings and/or radar scan measurements/results. The model may also be fed with information (e.g., wireless medium measurements, sensor readings and/or radar scan measurements/results) related to a different object that should not be identified as a target. The Al model could be initially configured with a coarse-grained classification of objects and people based on some high-level characteristics (e.g., male person, medium height, heavy), and use such set of characteristics for a particular target object as input to determine a particular set of target objects with those characteristics in a particular area and/or select a particular Al model trained for objects with those characteristics. The user/subscriber of the sensing service could be asked (e.g., based on a request/message received from the network) to place his mobile phone once very close to the target object, so that an Al model can learn about the particular target object during this initial phase, and use the Al model afterwards for sensing of the target without requiring the mobile phone to be close to the target.

Additionally or alternatively, the wireless communication device carried/encom- passed by a potential target may be instructed to show instructions for the target to perform a particular movement (e.g., wave hands, wiggle, move a few steps in a certain direction) that may be detected by the Al model, e.g., whilst performing an initial radar scan or at a particular time. The resulting set of target identification information or the Al model itself (or part thereof) may be transmitted to a core network function or application server and/or to a sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver, upon which it may be used for identifying a target using the mechanisms as described in other embodiments. The set of target identification may be stored together with an identifier of the wireless communication device or an identifier of the Al model. A sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may use such identifier to identify a wireless communication device or an Al model, and transmit a request to verify whether a set of target identification information and/or a set of sensing measurement/results matches with a target.

In an embodiment that can be combined with other embodiments or that can be implemented independently, the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may receive information from a heat/movement sensor, camera or surveillance system (e.g., capable of generating heat maps or process video footage) or through an external application interface (e.g., Network Exposure Function) about a target for sensing and/or about other potential objects that should be excluded from being sensed or that should be excluded from the sensing measurements/results. The sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may use the information to determine a target location, target area, target direction for transmitting the sensing signals towards and/or for the receiver to focus its antenna/receiving unit towards. The sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may also use the information to correlate the sensing measurement/results with this information to determine whether or not the sensing measurement/results correspond to a target for sensing (e.g., by comparing a measured/calculated characteristic of the sensed object/target with a measured/calculated characteristic of an object/target based on this information). The sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may also use the information to trigger the start of a (detailed/distributed) sensing session (only) when the presence of the intended target is detected in this information. of transmitter and receiver

According to a further embodiment, the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver determines based on an initial (low resolution) scan of the target or a detailed scan of the target (e.g., if allowed/enabled/authorized) that the sensing signals do not or cannot adequately identify a target object based on a set of target identification information. For example, this may be because the resolution/accuracy may be too low (e.g., due to a low frequency used), because the sensing signals may be blocked, because the distance may be too big, because the target may not sufficiently reflect the sensing signal or may absorb the sensing signal too much, or because the target is moving, or because the sensing transmitter or sensing receiver is moving). Based on this determination, the sensing service, sensing transmitter or sensing receiver may decide to reposition itself, delay sending the sensing signals (e.g., wait until the target, the receiver or transmitter have moved to a new position), adapt the sensing signal transmission characteristics/waveform, send information/instructions to the sensing transmitter or sensing receiver or sensing service or sensing application for example through the NEF (e.g., warning signal, request the receiver to move closer or further away to the position of the target or change its angle towards the target, reconfigure its antennas, adapt the sensing signal parameters, or a sensing measurement/result that, e.g., the transmitter may use to adapt the transmission of the sensing signals), select another receiver for sensing of the target, or send a signal to another transmitter or receiver to initiate the sensing of the target. If the sensing transmitter or sensing receiver has a display (e.g., in the case of a mobile phone) or is connected to a display, the transmitter or receiver may show a notification, whereby the notification may show a request and/or instructions to the user to move the sensing transmitter or sensing receiver or the target to another position.

flow

Fig. 3 schematically shows an embodiment of a process flow diagram for radar sensing in a communication system.

In the following, a process for a distributed radar sensing function in a wireless communication infrastructure (as shown in Fig. 2) is described. The process is designed to produce a distributed system of a transmitter device 10 (e.g., base station or UE) and receiver device 20 (e.g., base station or UE) capable of both standard wireless communication and distributed radar sensing of a local environment. However, it can be noted that, in an alternative embodiment, the transmitter device 10 and the receiver device 20 may be colocated.

In Fig. 3, the components/blocks of the embodiment of the transmitter and receiver architecture of Fig. 2 that are involved in the process are indicated but not described again.

The receiver device 20 uses its receiver standard communication unit 201, e.g., 5G, to transmit to the transmitter device 10 a request that a radar measurement is required (i.e., a radar service session request (RS-REQ)), optionally along with a description of its sensing related capabilities (e.g., number of antennas, supported frequency ranges, wireless sensing signal processing capabilities (such as which algorithms supported, and/or whether it is capable of determining certain sensing results/goals (e.g., capable of determining a position or movement of a target object or a shape of a target object)), one or more supported sensing profiles, etc.) and/or the position of the receiver device 20.

Alternatively or additionally, the transmitter device 10 could request a distributed radar session with a selected receiver device (e.g., UE) or multiple receivers that could be supported simultaneously.

Optionally, an initial position of the receiver device 20 may be obtained from a current known location of the receiver device 20 (if available, e.g., from a location management function in the core network) or already be known to the transmitter device 10.

Optionally, the receiver device 20 may transmit a rough indication of direction and range to a target as a target initial location estimate, which may be derivable from estimated values supplied by a user and/or based on a measurement made by a local terminal device (e.g., UE).

Optionally, the receiver device 20 may transmit an identifier to be used for authorizing the use of a sensing service or for authorizing the receiver device 20 to be involved in a sensing operation, and/or to retrieve a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information for use in a sensing operation.

Optionally, the receiver device 20 may transmit a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information, or an Al model capable of identifying a target to a sensing service operated by the network.

In an example, the receiver device 20 may also transmit a required scan time (i.e., a length of time during which a radar scanning is performed). This may depend on the desired application (for example vital signs scanning might require an extended scanning time while object location/counting may only require only a very short session (one scan)). Monitoring the position of an infrastructure object may require a short scan once per day for some extended period. The transmitter device 10 may be configured to generate sensing signals for a number of receiver devices, in which case the sensing signals are generated up to the latest required time for any of the receiver devices.

In case the transmitter has received a radar measurement request, the transmitter device 10 determines whether it can respond to the request from the receiver device 20 and may transmit to the receiver device 20 a radar session confirmation (CONF) or a radar session denial (DEN) message. It may not be capable of providing radar capabilities if, for example, it is not capable of making available sufficient bandwidth for the radar signals given its current communication demands, or if it is currently performing a radar function for another receiver device and cannot perform both, or if the receiver device 20 does not have permission to request a radar function from the transmitter device 10.

If the receiver device 20 asks for resources, the transmitter device 10 may also indicate its allocated resources. This option may be implemented similar as a dynamic resource allocation process in 5G or other standard communication systems. Thus, the receiver device 20 may send to the transmitter device 10 a resource scheduling message requesting the scheduling of radar session resources, and the transmitter device 10 replies to the receiver device 20 with a downlink control information (DCI) message including the allocated resources (e.g., time (timeslot, slot offset k2, ...), frequency, etc.).

Alternatively, if the receiver has not asked for resources of if the radar measurement is initiated by the transmitter, the transmitter device 10 may voluntarily send the allocated resources for radar based sensing to the receiver device. To indicate that it involves radio resources for radar based sensing a dedicated DCI message may be used that may include some of the auxil- iary/configuration information (for sensing).

For sensing, it might make sense to use a semi-persistent scheduled resource allocation in which the transmitter device 10 sends the allocated resources for the radar session in a secure RRC message, reserved on a regular basis for a given period of time. If, in addition, an offset and/or time interval for radar based sensing is sent to the receiver device, e.g., as part of the semi- persistent resource schedule or same RRC message or as a different message, then the start of the radar based sensing may be activated/triggered at the receiver by the transmitter by sending a subsequent DCI message with the corresponding Semi-Persistent Scheduling C-RNTI to the receiver.

Once resource scheduling is performed, the receiver device(s) 20 are aware of the timing/frequencies used for the (distributed) radar functionality. Optionally, a time synchronization (T-SYNC) and delay compensation (D-COMP) measurement process may then be initiated, where the transmitter and receiver clocks are synchronized. This may not be necessary for applications where a high level of clock synchronization for sensing or distance measurements (i.e., ranging) is not required.

This measurement process may be achieved by having the transmitter device 10 send a timing signal (clock synchronization signal) that reflects the current timing of the transmitter clockto the receiver device 20 using its standard communication unit, and by having the transmitter device 10 perform a round trip time delay measurement from the transmitter device 10 to the receiver device 20 and back using the transmitter time delay measurement functionality and with the receiver device 20 using the receiver time delay measurement functionality resulting in a measured delay time (transmitter-receiver delay), and by having the receiver device 20 update the receiver clock time using both the clock synchronization signal and the transmitter-receiver delay, thereby ensuring that the two clocks of the transmitter device 10 and the receiver device 20 are completely synchronized.

As an optional measure, the transmitter device 10 may then obtain a (relative) position, shape/size or material/reflectivity characteristic of a desired target to direct its transmitter towards that location. This can be achieved by at least one of:

(i) having the receiver device 20 (or a core network function, e.g., a sensing management function, or an application server (e.g., via a Network Exposure Function), not shown in the figure) send to the transmitter device 10 the position of the target obtained from an initial target location estimation which may have been obtained by a user entering details of the target position, or some other form of relative location estimation performed by the receiver device 20; or

(ii) as shown in Fig. 3, having the transmitter device 10 perform a low-resolution scan of the environment and select a suitable target direction for detailed radar transmission, where the radar mode signal generator 102 sends sensing signals via the transmitting frontend 103, reflected sensing signals are received by the receiving frontend 104, and the transmitter low-resolution non-distributed radar analysis system 107 is used to process the signal (e.g., a standard FMCW scan using a sweep of beam forming directions to determine approximate surfaces in the scene and obtain a target location information); or

(iii) having the receiver device 20 perform a low-resolution scan of the environment and select a suitable target direction for the detailed radar transmission, wherein the radar mode signal generator 202 sends sensing signals to the transmitting frontend 203, reflected sensing signals are received by the receiving frontend 204, and the receiver low-resolution nondistributed radar analysis system 207 is used to process the signal (e.g., a standard FMCW scan using a sweep of beam forming directions to determine approximate surfaces in the scene and obtain a target location information which is then communicated to the transmitter device 10); or

(iv) having the transmitter device 10 identify a device carried/encompassed by the target subject (e.g., matching the identity of a known device in a device database) by using the signals/communication messages received from that device through the receiving frontend 104 of the transmitter device, and use the measurement or location information of that device (e.g., provided by the device or by a location service) to determine a rough location of the sensing target. In a particular example, the target sensing subject (e.g., a person) is carrying a receiver device 20 that can also be used for performing the distributed radar sensing measurements; or

(v) having the transmitter device 10 receive information from a sensor, camera or surveillance system (e.g., capable of generating heat maps or process video footage) and/or through an external application interface (e.g., a NEF) about potential target subjects for radarbased sensing; or

(vi) having the transmitter device 10 use CSI information received from a set of devices in an area and use this to calculate changes and/or interruptions/occlusion of certain signals to detect some activity/movement of an object in the area, and use that to determine a rough location of a potential sensing target; or

(vii) having the transmitter device send an initial set of signals (possibly at different frequencies, varying waveforms, varying bandwidth, and various beam steering direc- tions/angles/focal areas) and receive reports from a set of receiver devices 10 that have received one or more of these signals, including timing information of receiving the signal(s), and processed information regarding these signal(s), such as IF signal information or angle of arrival, and using the information from these reports to determine a rough location of a potential sensing target; or

(viii) having the transmitter device initiate a sensing operation of a configured target area/volume (whereby the transmitter device and/or receiver device may be configured by a sensing service (e.g., operated by a cellular core network)), and based on the output of a sensing operation of a target area/volume performed by a sensing transmitter transmitting a set of sensing signals, and a sensing receiver receiving a set of sensing signals (whereby the output may result from performing measurements/signal processing of the received sensing signals), detect (e.g., by the transmitter device, receiver device, or sensing service to which the output may be transmitted) a set of objects and/or determine a set of sensing information for one or more detected objects, and/or determine whether the set of sensing information for one or more detected objects meets or does not meet one or more configured criteria for identifying a target, based on a set of target identification information (e.g., provided/configured by a sensing service, core network function or an application), and based on said determination stop or continue the sensing operation or initiate an additional sensing operation or generate an event or transmit a signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected. The location of a detected target may be stored or provided to the sensing service.

Based on target location/area/volume information and/or based on whether a target is detected to be present in the target location/area/volume and/or the location of a detected target or device carried/encompassed by the target, the transmitter device 10 selects an appropriate transmitter target direction for beam forming for the distributed radar function.

Furthermore, the transmitter device 10 selects appropriate parameters of the sensing signals to be generated for the distributed radar function. The sensing signal generation parameters may be chosen to meet at least one of bandwidth/frequency constraints at the transmitter device 10, limits on the sensing signal generation capabilities of the radar mode signal generator 102, and requirements of the radar application, e.g., as requested by the receiver device 20. Such sensing signal generation parameters may include at least one of a number of sensing signals (related to the scan time and application requirements), a sensing signal repetition rate (alternatively, a delay between chirps), a sensing signal frequency slope, a sensing signal bandwidth, a lowest sensing signal (starting) frequency, an initial sensing signal phase, and a sensing signal start time (precise time for the first sensing signal, that may be selected at a later time).

Further details about the relationship between sensing signal parameters and accuracies of positioning and velocity (as well as the use of triangular chirp signals rather than linear chirp signals) can be gathered from, e.g., Pasi Koivumaki: "Triangular and Ramp Waveforms in Target Detection with a Freguency Modulated Continuous Wave Radar”, Master Thesis, School of Electrical Engineering, Espoo, January 23, 2017.

Before or thereafter, the transmitter device 10 uses its transmitter standard communication unit 101 (e.g., 5G) to send configuration information, such as at least one of radar session parameters (RSP), the sensing signal generation parameters, the sensing signal start time (CST), the transmitter location (TXL, own location of the transmitter device 10), and the target location information (TLI) and other information about the target (e.g., shape/size, material/reflectivity characteristic), to the receiver device 20, e.g., as part (e.g., an encrypted payload) of an RRC message, such as a measurement configuration included in the RRC Reconfiguration message or the RRC Resume message).

The transmitted receiver configuration information is received by the receiver standard communication unit 201 (e.g., 5G) and (optionally) decrypted and verified at the receiver device 20 using a suitable process (e.g., decryption algorithm).

It is noted that any of the data exchanges in any of the methods described herein may be protected between the transmitter device 10 and the receiver device 20, where protected can mean integrity protected and/or encrypted. The integrity protection may be required to make sure that an attacker cannot tamper with the required radar parameters, e.g., the chirp generation parameters. The encryption may be required, e.g., to make sure that an attacker located close by to the receiver device 20 cannot use the transmitted signal to monitor the target.

Optionally, if specific ranging and positioning is required, the receiver device 20 may derive a relative position offset (or alternatively distance and angle) between the transmitter device 10 and the receiver device 20 and/or an equivalent time delay (transmitter-receiver delay) by at least one of using the transmitter location plus its own known receiver location to calculate the relative position offset (or equivalent light transit time) between the transmitter device 10 and the receiver device 20, or determining from a round trip delay measurement from the receiver device 20 to the transmitter device 10 and back the time delay using the receiver time delay measurement and with the transmitter device 10 using the transmitter time delay measurement, or reusing the above obtained transmitter-receiver delay.

This relative position/distance/time delay can be used to derive the time at which the transmitter sensing signal is to be emitted and received, and in subsequent digital signal processing to enable knowledge of the points in the environment or scene, which lie on spatial ellipses of equal delay time defined by the transmitter device 10 and the receiver device 20 as focal points.

The relative position/distance/time delay information provided to the receiver can also be used to delay/trigger the start time of an active sensing time interval at the receiver, e.g., such that only reflected sensing signals are sensed/received and taken into account for the sensing algorithm, and not the first signal that reached the receiver through a direct path without reflections (given the longer path and hence longer delay/later signal arrival time of the reflected sensing signals compared to the shorter path and hence shorter delay/earlier arrival time of the direct sensing signals). To this end, the signals received before a certain time (e.g., based on the estimated distance/delay for a signal travelling directly between the transmitter device and the receiver device) may be ignored/discarded, and only those signals that arrive after a time beyond the estimated delay for the direct path will be used for further analysis.

At the sensing signal start time, the transmitter device 10 uses the radar mode signal generator 102 operating on the sensing signal generation parameters and emits a sensing signal or a sequence of sensing signals (E-CRP) with an antenna beam formed in the direction of the target (i.e., in the transmission target direction).

The transmitter device 10 may also communicate, via its transmitter standard communication unit 101, to the receiver device 20, its movements and vibrations by using transmitter movement data series (TX-MOV-D) during a series of sensing signal transmissions or sensing interval (e.g., a chirp sequence transmission), which have been obtained by the transmitter movements sensors 108. The transmitter movement data series may be sent along with the sensing signal (e.g., encoded in the signal) or by using a separate communication channel between the transmitter and receiver (e.g., as a series of RRC or MAC Control Element messages).

The receiver device 20 receives a reflected sensing signal (R-CRP) by calculating the direction to the target and/or the expected delay for the signal to arrive via a path reflected via the target from the target location information supplied to it by the transmitter device 10.

Alternatively, the receiver device 20 can search for the radar reflections until it finds a desired signal, e.g., a signal that corresponds to the (pre-)configured/received sensing signal characteristics (e.g., waveform, frequency, preamble, encoded identity, ...), or the maximum returned signal, or which corresponds to a certain pattern (based on the application) in the reflected sensing signals (e.g., that may be indicative/representative of a vital sign or movement of an object), and use this direction as the receiver target direction.

Alternatively, if the receiver device 20 allows a number of sensing signals to be transmitted before analysis can begin and/or the beamformed radar transmission direction is not known to the receiver device 20, it can scan the environment or scene using beamforming and detect a direction giving the highest sensing signal returns and store this as receiver target direction.

The receiver device 20 then directs its antenna of the receiving frontend 204 using beamformed reception at the receiver target direction and collects reflected radio signals to form the received signal.

Then, the receiver device 20 may starts an IF signal generation process by using the sensing signal generation parameters and optionally the sensing signal start time and the transmitter-receiver delay to generate an internal analogue signal (i.e., a synthetic sensing signal that precisely matches the emitted sensing signal) by its radar mode signal generator 202. It may combine this internal analogue signal with the received signal in the IF mixer 207-1 to generate an IF signal. Options for this signal combination can be that the synthetic sensing signal is timed to match the sensing signal start time (exact time that the sensing signal is emitted by the transmitter device 10) or that the synthetic sensing signal is timed to match the time when the sensing signal will arrive at the receiver device 20 by a direct path (that is, the synthetic sensing signal time is equal to the sensing signal start time plus the transmitter-receiver delay), or that the synthetic sensing signal time is equal to the sensing signal start time plus some defined fraction of the transmitter-receiver delay.

A reason for adding the transmitter-receiver delay (or some fraction of the delay) can be to obtain a minimum range (i.e., minimum IF frequency) that is zero (or some minimum value) rather than representing the distance to the transmitter device 10, to thereby reduce the IF frequencies and increase the available range of detection (by reducing the "measured range" of detection).

In an example where an object is to be positioned exactly, it is assumed that the transmitter device 10 can also receive radar signals (i.e., it comprises a non-distributed radar as well) and thus estimate a distance DI to any object because of the usage of, e.g., an FMCW radar. The receiver device 20 knows exactly when the transmitter device 10 starts sending a sensing signal and can estimate the distance D2 from transmitter device 10 to receiver device 20 through the reflected path. In this case, the distance D3 from receiver device 20 to the object can be calculated as D3 = DI - D2. Thus, if the locations of the receiver device 20 and the transmitter device 10 are known (e.g., in case of a distributed access device (e.g., gNB-DU)), then this embodiment could be used to enhance positioning algorithms.

Similarly, if the transmitter device 10 can receive radar signals and is capable of accurately calculating the distance DI and/or angle Al between the transmitter and the sensing target, and forwards this information together with its own (relative) position information, then the receiver device can use this information together with information of the received sensing signal via a direct non-reflected path (i.e., typically the first instance of a series of sensing signals) and via a reflected path to accurately calculate the distance between the receiver and the transmitter, or its position relative to the transmitter, or its absolute geographical position, more accurately.

In those examples where either the transmitter device 10 or the receiver device 20 optionally comprise a non-distributed radar, positioning information might also be derived from alternative positioning or ranging technologies, e.g., 5G positioning or ranging technologies, such as round-trip time, angle of arrival, time of flight, etc., enabled by means of signals, e.g., positioning signals through either standard Uu interface or the PC5 (sidelink) interface.

Following the generation of the IF signal in the IF mixer 207-1 of the receiver device 20, the signal may be band-pass or low-pass filtered and converted to a digital signal using the filter and ADC components 207-2 and 207-3. The IF signal may be high-pass filtered (as part of the band pass filter) if the use of the IF data requires removing returns (reflected chirp signals) below some minimum "range" (distance from the transmitter device 10 to the target and return to the receiver device 20). Furthermore, the IF signal can be low-pass filtered to prevent aliasing at the upper frequency range of the ADC 207-3.

The resulting digital data obtained from the ADC 207-3 may be processed using the digital signal processing system 207-4 to yield sensing information (e.g., sensing measurement/results or application specific data).

Alternatively, the digital signal processing can be dispensed with by communicating the resulting digital data to the transmitter device 10 (e.g., as an RRC measurement report) or network function/device (e.g., through a non-access stratum (NAS) message or user plane (UP) message). The processed received sensing signal and/or the digital data and/or the sensing measurements/results and/or application specific data and/or other sensing information/results may be transmitted to the transmitter device 10 or a cloud computing resource, e.g., an edge server, which may return the processing result to the receiver device 20. The resulting digital data or sensing information from the above mentioned sensing operation, may be used for detecting a set of objects and/or for determining a set of sensing information for one or more detected objects and/or for determining whether the set of sensing information for one or more detected objects meets or does not meet one or more configured criteria for identifying a target based on the set of target identification information. Based on said determination, the receiver device and/or transmitter device and/or sensing service may:

• stop or continue the sensing operation;

• initiate an additional sensing operation;

• generate an event or transmit a signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected; or

• initiate/continue an authorization of a target for sensing (e.g., verifying whether a detected object is an authorized target for a sensing service).

Optionally, the receiver device 20 may send an updated and improved TLI and/or location/movement/vibration information of the receiver device (e.g., as acquired by its movement sensor 208) to the transmitter device 10 during the radar process based on the results of the above digital signal processing, using standard (e.g., 5G) communication between the receiver device 20 and the transmitter device 10, to enable continuing accurate beamforming by the transmitter device 10 towards the target or to adjust the beamforming by the transmitter device 10 towards the target, or to adjust the sensing signal sent by the transmitter device 10, or to adjust the sensing signal configuration information to be used by the transmitter device 10 and/or to be sent to receiver devices, or to update the location information of the target and/or the receiver by the transmitter device 10, based on the target location information and/or receiver location/movement/vibration information and/or the processed sensing signal and/or the resulting digital data and/or the application specific data and/or other sensing information/results received from the receiver device 20 during the course of the distributed radar process.

It is noted that the receiver device 20 may have limited information on the exact position of the target due to reflected sensing signals of equal delay time lying on spatial ellipses (restricted to some extent by the beam width of the transmitted signal). A target object may be moving to the edge of the transmitter beam, so that the transmitter device 10 may need to update its transmitter target direction.

Optionally, a movement compensation may be performed, where detected movements of the transmitter device 10 and/or the receiver device 20 are subtracted during data processing, wherein the receiver movement sensors 208 obtain sensor signals (movement data series) of the movements of the receiver device 20 and the transmitter movement sensors 108 obtain movements of the transmitter device 10.

Finally, input information may be collected and the resulting digital data (D-DISP) may be stored and displayed by the receiver device 20 using its user interface and data storage 210. The precise nature and details of the user interface, data storage and display process may depend on the type and nature of the receiver device 20 (e.g., UE) and may range from a high-resolution display with sophisticated user interface to a very simple number display or generation of an alarm.

Sensing flow diagrams

Fig. 4 schematically shows an embodiment of a flow diagram of a sensing operation (e.g., a radar-based sensing operation) between a transmitter device and a receiver device (including identification and authorization of a target for sensing), whereby the transmitter and receiver devices may or may not be colocated.

In an optional initial session request (RS-REQ) step S401, a receiver device (e.g., terminal device), or a transmitter device (e.g., access device), or a sensing service, or sensing application (e.g., via NEF), or a mobile device carried/encompassed by a target, or a mobile device subscribed to a sensing service may transmit a sensing session request (e.g., using an RRC or NAS message), possibly augmented with information about the position of the receiver device, transmitter device or mobile device to a sensing service (e.g., operated by a core network function or a transmitter device) or in general the wireless network operating or providing access to the respective service. The request and/or the respective information may be transmitted as part of a PDU session request, or a request for a service that may involve sensing.

Optionally, information about a target location or area or volume, and/or a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information, and/or (part-of) an Al model capable of identifying a target, and/or an identifier for authorizing the device to use a sensing service or be involved in a sensing operation, and/or a required scan time, may be supplied as well by the receiver device, the transmitter device, or the mobile device. Optionally, the receiver device, transmitter device or mobile device are authenticated by the network and are authorized to use a sensing service or be involved in a sensing operation (e.g., by verifying whether the subscription information associated with a unique identifier of the device includes information whether or not the device has subscribed to a sensing service or is authorized by a user (e.g., a target of a sensing service) to be involved in a sensing operation of a target).

In an optional responsive request confirmation (REQ-CONF)/denial (REQ-DEN) step S402, the sensing service, and/or the transmitter device, and/or the receiver device, determine(s) whether it/they can respond to the request (for example make available sufficient bandwidth for the signals given its current communication demands) and transmit(s) to the requesting device or service a confirmation or denial response. The response (e.g., using an RRC or NAS message) may include a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information and/or other sensing configuration information. The response may also include credentials to be used for securely sending (e.g., integrity/confidentially protected) any sensing measurements/results or other sensing information about one or more targets/objects, and/or sensing configuration information to the sensing service, or other devices or services or applications involved in a sensing session/operation. The response may further include a message to inform the user that the sensing service is activated and/or to request confirmation from the user of the UE to initiate/approve the sensing of the target and/or may also include a request for the location of the UE (if not provided in the request), e.g., to use it to verify whether the UE is in the vicinity of the target.

Optionally or alternatively, the sensing service or transmitter device can look up potential transmitter or receiver devices close to the intended target (e.g., by requesting the last known position from a location database/service, or by requesting the potential transmitter or receiver devices to send their known position information, or acquiring the position from the potential transmitter or receiver devices through trilateration/triangulation/round trip time calculations based on signals received from the potential transmitter or receiver devices) and can voluntarily request (e.g., using an RRC or NAS message) a transmitter or receiver device to be used for sensing. The sensing service or transmitter device may transmit sensing configuration information based on a set of target identification information to the transmitter or receiver devices involved in the sensing of a target. Similar to the confirmation or denial response mentioned above, the request may include a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information and/or other sensing configuration information, and may also include credentials to be used for securely sending (e.g., integrity/confidentially protected) any sensing measurements/results or other sensing information about one or more targets/objects, and/or sensing configuration information to the sensing service, or other devices or services or applications involved in a sensing session/operation. The request may further include a message to inform the user that the sensing service is activated and/or to request confirmation from the user of the UE to initiate/approve the sensing of the target, and/or may also include a request for the location of the UE (if not provided in the request), e.g., to use it to verify whether the UE is in the vicinity of the target.

Then, an optional time synchronization (T-SYNC) and delay compensation (D- COMP) step S403 is initiated, where a receiver clock is synchronized to a transmitter clock by sending a timing signal to the receiver device.

In an optional subsequent target position acquisition (TP-ACQ) step S404, a target location/area/volume information is determined by the transmitter device, receiver device or sensing service, e.g., by performing an approximate radar object location scan in the direction indicated by the receiver device as target initial location estimate.

Alternatively or additionally, information about a target location/area/volume may be provided as part of sensing configuration or may be provided (indirectly) from a receiver device, transmitter device or mobile device (as mentioned in step RS-REQ), which the transmitter device can use as target location information.

Alternatively or additionally, a set of target identification or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information may be provided to the receiver device, transmitter device or sensing service.

Then, in a transmitter beamforming direction selection (BFD-SEL) step S405, the transmitter device selects an appropriate direction (for beamforming) for performing radar based sensing (distributed or non-distributed) based on the target location information/area/volume as transmitter target direction.

In a following signal parameter generation, e.g., chirp parameter generation (CP- GEN), step S406, the transmitter device selects appropriate parameters of the signals and generates matching parameters for signal generation (e.g., by DFT-s-OFDM processing).

Then, in an optional subsequent (radar-based) sensing session parameter transmission (RSP-TX) step SD407, the generation parameters and/or a selected start time and/or the location of the transmitter device and/or a target location information/area/volume are protected, e.g., encrypted using an encryption algorithm, and sent to the receiver device where it is decrypted using a corresponding decryption algorithm.

In a following optional receiver-transmitter relative position and delay estimation (RX-TX-P/D-EST) step S408, the receiver device uses the transmitter location plus its own known receiver location or a round trip delay measurement to calculate a relative offset (or equivalent light transit time) between the transmitter device and the receiver device.

At the signal (e.g., chirp) start time, the transmitter device initiates a transmitter generation (TX-C-GEN) step S409 and generates and emits a signal or a sequence of signals based on the generation parameters via an antenna beam formed in the direction of the transmitter target direction.

In an optional transmitter movement series transmission (TX-MOV-TX) step S410, the transmitter device communicates its detected movements and/or vibrations during the sequence to the receiver device or to the sensing service as transmitter movement data series.

In a receiver reflected signal acquisition (RX-R-SIG-ACQ) step S411, the receiver collects reflected radio signals, whereby it may use beamformed reception directed at the target, to obtain a received signal.

The above steps S401 to S411 can also be applied to CSI-based distributed sensing systems.

In an optional receiver IF signal generation (RX-IF-GEN) step S412, the receiver device uses the obtained sensing signal start time, transmitter-receiver delay and sensing signal generation parameters to generate a synthetic internal analog sensing signal that matches with the emitted sensing signal and mixes this signal with the received signal to generate an IF signal.

Additionally or alternatively, the receiver may perform measurements (e.g., determine time of arrival of a received sensing signal, determine an angle of arrival of a sensing signal, determine an amplitude or frequency of a signal) or perform digital signal processing of the received sensing signals (e.g., to perform filtering of the signal, such as band-pass filtering or determine a signal deformation).

In a subsequent optional receiver signal processing (RX-SIG-PROC) step S413, the resulting IF digital signal data or the output resulting from measurements and/or digital signal processing performed on the received sensing signals is processed to yield sensing information (e.g., sensing measurements/results or application specific data, e.g., location, movement, vibration etc. of a detected object which may be a potential/intended target).

Additionally or alternatively, the resulting IF digital signal data, or the output resulting from measurements and/or digital signal processing performed on the received sensing signals and/or the yielded sensing information is transmitted to a sensing service or a transmitter device for further processing.

In an optional target identification (T-ID) step, the receiver device, transmitter device or sensing service use the IF digital signal data, or the output resulting from measurements and/or digital signal processing performed on the received sensing signals, or the yielded sensing information from the previous step for detecting a set of objects and/or for determining a set of sensing information for one or more detected objects and/or for determining whether the set of sensing information for one or more detected objects meets or does not meet one or more configured criteria for identifying a target based on a set of target identification information. A set of target identification may, for example, be pre-configured, or may be transmitted as part of a request for a sensing operation/session (e.g., from a core network function or an application (e.g., via the NEF), or from a device connected to the network), or may be transmitted (e.g., from the AUSF or UDM) to the respective receiver device, transmitter device or sensing service upon authentication or authorization of a sensing service for a device (which may be carried or encompassed by a sensing target) connected to the network, or which may be retrieved from a core network function or database based on an identifier received as part of a request for a sensing operation/session or part of an authentication/authorization step, whereby the identifier is associated with a set of target identification information. Based on said determination, the receiver device, transmitter device and/or sensing service may:

• stop or continue the sensing operation;

• initiate an additional sensing operation;

• initiate/continue an authorization of a target for sensing (e.g., to verify whether a detected object is an authorized target for a sensing service).

Furthermore, in an optional receiver target position update transmission (RX-TP- UD-TX) step S414, the receiver device may send an updated and improved target location information to the transmitter device based on the results of step S413 to enable continuing accurate beamforming by the transmitter device towards the target.

Additionally, an optional transmitter and receiver movement compensation (TX/RX-MOV-COMP) step S415 may be integrated, where measured movements and/or vibrations of the transmitter device and the receiver device are subtracted from motions detected by the radar.

Finally, in a user interface, data storage and display (UI/DS/DISP) step S416, the resulting data (e.g., sensing information about a target object or information about whether a matching target was detected or not detected) may be stored and/or may be transmitted to a network service or application (e.g., via the NEF)and/or may be displayed by the receiver device, transmitter device or other device (e.g., a mobile device carried/encompassed by a target) which may receive the resulting data from a core network service or application. The user interface and input information is collected (when necessary) using the user interface. In the following additional embodiments, details of the application-specific processing applied to the digitized IF signal (e.g., in step S413 of Fig. 4) are described.

Fig. 5 schematically shows an embodiment of a flow diagram of a location and movement detection process.

This embodiment may be relevant for use cases such as object counting, object motion detection and measurement, infrastructure monitoring and the like. In such cases, the receiver device or transmitter device may request to set up a process for regular radar operations, e.g., repeated radar sensing every 15 (fifteen) minutes.

In an initial background clutter subtraction (BG-C-SUB) step S501, background subtraction of clutter (e.g., undesirable multipath signals) from the digital IF signal (i.e., IF frequency data) is performed. Background subtraction may be achieved by discriminating foreground information from background information based on variations of received data at different times. This can be achieved by applying recursive moving averaging (RMA) or a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) for learning mean values of path distributions.

Then, in a surface identification (SF-ID) step S502, individual surfaces are identified from constant lines detected in the IF frequency data.

For objects with a measurable velocity, the velocity of each isolated surface is identified in a surface velocity identification (SF-V-ID) step S503 by the average phase change of the data extracted from that surface over several sequential sensing signals after phase extraction and phase unwrapping, e.g., by applying Doppler FFT. A sensing signal reflected at a moving surface incurs a Doppler frequency shift which is proportional to the velocity of the surface. This frequency shift introduces a phase shift in the detected sensing signal.

For objects with slow and long-term movement, the movement can be found in a slow movement detection (SL-MOV-DET) step S504 by determining their locations (range, direction) at regular times and calculating a change of that location over time.

Fig. 6 schematically shows an embodiment of a flow diagram of a heart rate and breathing rate detection process.

Again, in an initial background clutter subtraction (BG-C-SUB) step S601, background subtraction of clutter from the digital IF signal (i.e., IF frequency data) is performed.

Then, in a target surface selection (T-SF-SEL) step S602, the correct surface for a targeted user is selected from a constant line in the IF frequency data (at correct range).

In a subsequent phase data isolation (PD-ISO) step S603, the phase data from the selected surface is isolated and phase unwrapped (e.g., by applying a Doppler FFT).

Alternatively, the phase can be represented by complex components of sine and cosine of the signal (which avoids the need for phase unwrapping). Then, in a phase filtering (PS-FIL) step S604, the phase signal is band pass filtered for a heart rate frequency range (e.g., 0.6 ~ 4Hz) and/or a breathing rate (e.g., 0.1 ~ 0.6Hz) to derive a heart rate data and/or a breathing rate data.

Finally, in a vital signal extraction (VS-EXTR) step S605, the resulting data is processed to extract the vital sign signal from the noise, for example using an algorithm such as a deep neural network trained on a dataset collected along with a "gold standard" such as electrocardiogram (ECG) and/or stretch breathing sensors, to compensate for noise and background movements to extract the desired signal (heart rate, breathing rate), the signal variability (e.g., heart rate variability) and confidence values for the accuracy of the data values.

Wireless sensing operated by network function

Another embodiment of the present invention is represented in Fig. 7, which schematically shows an example sensing system 700, whereby the network (e.g., a RF sensing management function (RSMF) deployed by a 5G core network, as depicted in Fig. 7) configures or controls the configuration parameters and/or the sensing requirements, and/or collects or combines the sensing results of a sensing transmitter (sTX) and/or a sensing receiver (sRX), e.g. to perform matching and/or to identify target objects. Such a RSMF could be deployed as a separate function or service in the core network, as part of an existing function in the core network (e.g., as part or extension of a location management function (LMF) as specified in 3GPP TS 23.273), as part of a wireless access device (such as a base station), or, e.g., as part of an application function or edge application or cloud server (that may indirectly provide the configuration information or sensing requirements and/or receive the sensing results via a network exposure function (NEF)), and may in general be seen as a sensing service and/or may support sensing capabilities as described for a sensing service in the present disclosure.

The RSMF may comprise a (network) communication unit capable of transmitting and receiving messages to/from the sensing transmitter (sTX) and/or the sensing receiver (sRX) and/or other core network functions and/or services (e.g., as specified in 3GPP TS 23.501, in particular UDM, UDR, AUSF, and AMF functions and/or services as depicted in Fig. 7), may comprise a non-volatile storage to store the sensing capabilities received from the sensing transmitter (sTX) and/or the sensing receiver (sRX), and may comprise a processing unit to run a sensing application or operation, to determine the parameters to be configured to the sensing transmitter (sTX) and/or the sensing receiver (sRX) (e.g., based on the received sensing capabilities from the sensing receiver (sRX) and/or from the sensing transmitter (sTX), and/or based on the sensing requirements (e.g., as received from or determined by an application or other services), and/or based on information about target objects (TOs) (for example a set of target identification information, as described in other embodiments of the present disclosure)), to collect sensing results from the sensing transmitter (sTX) and/or from the sensing receiver (sRX), and/or perform matching or object identification, and/or to further process the collected sensing results.

The RSMF may be deployed as part of the system 700 comprising a set of sensing transmitter devices (sTXs) (e.g., base stations, access points or UEs (e.g., mobile phones)) and a set of sensing receiver devices (sRXs) (e.g., base stations, access points or UEs (e.g., mobile phones)), whereby the sensing transmitter and receiver devices (sTXs, sRXs) may be colocated and hence be part of one and the same device (and hence may be controlled and operated as a single entity), and whereby the RSMF may be (securely) connected directly or indirectly via a set of wireless and/or wireline connections to these sensing transmitter and receiver devices (sTXs, sRXs), and whereby the RSMF and the involved sensing transmitter and receiver devices (sTXs, sRXs) may communicate with each other through a messaging protocol (e.g., a messaging protocol based on or extending the NAS protocol as defined in 3GPP TS 24.501, or RRC protocol as defined in 3GPP TS 38.331, or long-term evolution (LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) as defined in 3GPP TS 37.355, or new radio (NR) positioning protocol (NRPP) as defined in TS 38.455).

The RSMF and/or the sensing transmitter device (sTX) and/or the sensing receiver device (sRX) may support a method or a service flow comprising the following steps which may be performed in any order:

When the sensing receiver device (sRX) (e.g., a UE) registers to the network, the sensing receiver device (sRX) may provide its wireless sensing capabilities (e.g., device information (such as a number of antennas or supported frequency ranges), wireless sensing signal processing capabilities, ability to be a sensing receiver or a sensing transmitter or both, wireless sensing signal transmission capabilities (e.g., frequencies, timing, phase, type of signals it can generate), etc.), directly to the RSMF using a signal or a message transmitted from the sensing receiver device (sRX) to the RSMF over 709, or indirectly to the RSMF using a signal or a message transmitted from the sensing receiver device (sRX) to the sensing transmitter device (sTX) over 712 and then from the sensing transmitter device (sTX) to the RSMF over 710. The sensing receiver device (sRX) may also include its own position information, if known.

Alternatively or additionally, the position of the sensing receiver device (sRX) may be obtained from a LMF or location server, or from a wireless access device (e.g., a base station) which the sensing receiver device (sRX) is connected to or colocated with.

Similarly, when a sensing transmitter device (sTX) (e.g., a wireless access device such as a base station (e.g., a mobile base station relay device)) is added to the network, it may provide its wireless sensing capabilities to the RSMF using a signal or a message over 710. It is to be noted that, in an alternative embodiment, the (wireless) access devices could also be 0AM (operations, administration and maintenance) managed, whereby the RSMF may be deployed as part of the 0AM or may be connected to the RSMF for exchange of signals or messages (such as sensing capabilities of a wireless access device, configuration messages for sensing, or sensing measurements or sensing results).

The wireless access device or core network function (e.g., the AMF), to which the sensing receiver device (sRX) or sensing transmitter device (sTX) gets registered, may forward or redirect the signal(s) or message(s) or the capability information, as received from the sensing receiver device (sRX) or from the sensing transmitter device (sTX), to the RSMF (e.g., based on the device's identity or the session identity or the RSMF identity that may be provided in the registration message). The sensing receiver device (sRX) or the sensing transmitter device (sTX) may also send their capabilities after an initial registration, e.g., using an RRC UECapabilitylnformation message as specified in 3GPP TS 38.331, or through an LPP ProvideCapabilities message as specified in 3GPP TS 37.355, or as part of a sensing session setup request message (e.g., a separate/new NAS message by extending the messages as defined in 3GPP TS 24.501, a separate or new RRC message by extending the messages as defined in 3GPP TS 38.331, or a separate or new LPP or NRPP message by extending the messages as defined in respective 3GPP TS 37.355 and TS 38.455). Note that the capabilities of each of the devices involved in sensing may be different. For example, the RF signal processing capabilities of a UE may be different from those of a base station, e.g., a UE may be capable of determining a position or movement of a target object (TO), but may not be capable of determining a shape of the target object (TO), or, e.g., a UE may be capable of receiving and performing measurements on the received sensing signals, but be not capable of generating and transmitting wireless sensing signals. Hence the configuration of each of these sensing transmitter and sensing receiver devices (sTX, sRX) may be different or may change depending on the capabilities or the role (e.g., act as a sensing transmitter or a sensing receiver) they take. If a device can act as both a sensing transmitter (sTX) and sensing receiver (sRX), the sensing transmitter and receiver roles may be configured and/or activated independently, and may change dynamically (e.g., may act intermittently as a sensing transmitter and a sensing receiver, or may act as both a sensing transmitter and a sensing receiver simultaneously depending on a given schedule or based on messages received, e.g., by the RSMF or another network function, or by a local application).

Based on the sensing needs of a (5G) core network service (e.g., provided by or via GMLC or LMF or AMF) or external application (e.g., provided via NEF) or a UE (e.g., provided during registration with the core network), and/or based on the received capabilities, the RSMF may determine a set of wireless access devices (e.g., base stations) and/or UEs and/or other devices to be used for sensing, and may configure one or more of these devices as a transmitter of the wireless sensing signals, using signals or messages directly transmitted from the RSMF to the sensing transmitter device (sTX) over 706. To this end, a core network service may provide the relevant information (e.g., sensing needs/requirements) for sensing by issuing a request for sensing by using a network initiated location request (NI-LR) (e.g., as defined in TS 23.273) to the RSMF, which may be extended to include information about a target to be sensed and/or about sensing requirements (e.g., which sensing results, e.g., velocity, need to be calculated, and/or accuracy requirements) and/or about sensing configuration information (e.g., target location/area/volume information that may be based on the location of the UE that initiated the request, or an identifier of the UE that initiated the request if the location of the UE is not known and still needs to be determined) and/or about capability information of one or more sensing receivers or sensing transmitters. The RSMF is able to receive and interpret such information upon which the RSMF may then initiate the selection and configuration of the sensing transmitter devices. Similarly, the UE may issue a mobile originated location request (MO-LR) or another client (e.g., an application function) may issue a mobile terminated location request (MT-LR) to the RMSF, carrying the above-mentioned information. If the location of the UE that initiated the request (or the identity of the UE included in the request to the RSMF, e.g., triggered by a core network function to initiate sensing via the RSMF) is used as a target location, and the location of that UE is not yet known, the RSMF may first request the LMF to determine the location of that UE, after which it may use the resulting location as the target location, possibly in addition to some other information, such as (pre-config- ured or estimated) distance between the UE and the target, or (pre-configured or estimated) information about the emergency/disaster area. Additionally, one or more of the set of wireless access devices (e.g., base stations) and/or UEs and/or other devices to be used for sensing may be configured as a receiver of the wireless sensing signals, using signals or messages directly transmitted from the RSMF to the sensing receiver device (sRX) over 707 or indirectly transmitted from the RSMF, i.e., transmitted from the RSMF to the sensing transmitter device (sTX) over 706 and then from the sensing transmitter device (sTX) to the sensing receiver device (sRX) over 711. The sensing transmitter and receiver devices (sTX, sRX) may also be colocated.

The device configuration information may include information about the wireless sensing signal to be used (e.g., timing, frequency, phase offset, identification of a wireless sensing signals), an identification of an algorithm or filter to be used for processing, wireless sensing application or session identifier, destination for sending the signal processing results, etc. (e.g., as described in the present disclosure). Some of these parameters may also be determined by the devices themselves, e.g., the sensing transmitter device (sTX) may decide the timing of the sensing signal (i.e., which resources are used for the sensing signal). Such parameters may be directly exchanged with the sensing receiver device(s) (e.g., through a DCI or sidelink control information (SCI) signal or message as specified in 3GPP TS 38.212 (e.g., with a particular (new) format identifiable to denote reception or transmission of sensing signals and/or sensing signal parameters such as frequency), or through a semi-persistent schedule (SPS) denoting a repeating set of resources used for sensing signals) or indirectly through the core network.

Based on the sensing needs of a (5G) core network service (e.g., as part of an authentication and/or authorization procedure of a target for a sensing service) or external application, the RSMF may obtain information about a set of target objects. This information may include (rough) location information (or, e.g., the last known location) or area information (e.g., an address of factory, hospital or house, or a denoted (geographical) area or volume) in which the target object is expected to reside or where it often resides, or may include information on how to identify a certain target object (e.g., physical characteristics, material, shape, etc.) (i.e., a set of target identification information as described in other embodiments of the present disclosure), or may include identities of devices that the person may own or carry, etc. (e.g., as described in other embodiments of the present disclosure). The RSMF may use this information about the set of target objects to select and configure a set of sensing transmitter and/or receiver devices (sTXs, sRXs) to participate in the sensing of the indicated target or target area/volume (this may include information about the wireless sensing signal to be used, as described above in the previous bullet), and/or may forward and/or configure some of this information to the set of sensing transmitter and/or sensing receiver devices (sTXs, sRXs). For example, the RSMF may provide the set of target identification information or an identifier associated with the set of target identification information to the set of sensing transmitter and/or receiver devices (sTXs, sRXs).

Additionally or alternatively, a UE device carried or encompassed by a target object (TO) may establish a connection to a network (e.g., to the AMF) via 701, and may trigger or initiate a sensing operation by sending a signal (which may carry a message) indicating such a trigger or initiation directly (e.g., through a tunneled connection over 701 and 715), or indirectly (e.g., via the AMF over 715 or via the AUSF over 705, whereby the UE may use a different set of messages to the AMF or AUSF than that being used between the AMF or AUSF and the RSMF), to the RSMF. Upon receiving such a trigger or initiation for initiating sensing, the AMF or the AUSF or the RSMF may initiate or request an authorization of the sensing service for the UE. For example, the AUSF may obtain a SUPI of the UE based on an identity provided by the UE to the AMF over 701 and then transmitted from the AMF to the AUSF via a message over 702, or based on an identity provided by the UE to the AMF over 701, transmitted from the AMF to the RSMF via a message over 715 and then transmitted from the RSMF to the AUSF via a message over 714, and based on the obtained SUPI, the AUSF may check or verify the information in the subscription database (e.g., the UDM) by transmitting a message to the UDM over 703, to determine whether or not the user of the UE device is subscribed to the sensing service and/or whether the UE device is authorized to participate in the sensing operation and/or whether the user of the UE device has provided consent to be a target for the sensing operation. If the user of the UE device is indeed authorized, then the UDM or the AUSF or the AMF may inform the RSMF about this through a message respectively transmitted over 704, 705 or 715. This message may contain a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information (e.g., provided by the UDM/UDR that may store this information as part of the subscription information for the sensing service). Afterwards, the RSMF, the sensing transmitter device (sTX) and/or the sensing receiver device (sRX) may initiate or perform sensing as described in the present disclosure. Note that initiating a sensing operation may comprise receiving or retrieving a set of target identification information, or an identifier associated with the set of target identification information (e.g., if a set of target identification information and its associated set of identifiers has already been provided earlier or during a pre-con- figuration of the involved sensing transmitter and receiver devices (sTX, sRX) and/or RSMF).

Optionally, the RSMF may send a signal or a message (e.g., via a tunneled connection over 715 and 701) to the UE device carried or encompassed by the target object (TO), the signal or the message indicating that the sensing operation is starting or is about to start. The UE device may display a notification to the user or may request the user to provide confirmation (or automatically provide confirmation based on the UE device configuration) that he/she/it agrees to start the sensing operation, upon which a signal may be sent back to the sensing service (e.g., via a tunneled connection over 715 and 701) indicating whether or not a confirmation has been obtained. And if the confirmation is obtained, initiate or further perform sensing. The AUSF may optionally provide credential information to the RSMF over 705, and/or the RSMF may determine a set of credential information and may provide it to the AUSF over 714. The AUSF or the RSMF may provide, after successful authentication and/or authorization, this credential information to the involved devices (e.g., the sensing transmitter device (sTX), the sensing receiver device (sRX)), which may use the credential information for securely sending (e.g., integrity and/or confidentially protected) any sensing measurements and/or results (i.e., a set of sensing information) or other sensing information about one or more target objects, and/or sensing configuration information, to the RSMF, or to other devices or services or applications involved in the sensing session or the sensing operation.

The UE device carried or encompassed by a target object (TO) may provide information about its location and/or a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information and/or other sensing capability/configuration information, upon of after it has registered to the network to the RSMF (e.g. via the AMF or the LMF to which the RSMF may be connected to obtain the position of the UE), or may be requested by the RSMF or LMF to provide its location or participate in a location determination procedure to enable the RSMF to obtain the position of the UE device and/or may be requested to provide a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information and/or other sensing capability/configuration information.

The position information may be used as (initial) target location and/or may be used to configure the sensing receiver(s) and sensing transmitter(s) for sensing of the TO, i.e., the RSMF may use the location information of the UE device together with location information of a set of sensing receiver device(s) and/or sensing transmitter device(s) it may have stored or may obtain, in order to select and configure a set of sensing transmitter and/or sensing receiver devices (sTXs, sRXs) that are in the vicinity of the UE device (and hence in the vicinity of the TO) to enable these devices (sTXs, sRXs) to participate in a sensing operation of the TO. Similarly, the set of target identification information or an identifier associated with a set of target identification information and/or other sensing capability/configuration information may be used by the RSMF to select and configure a set of sensing transmitter and/or sensing receiver devices (sTXs, sRXs) that are capable of participating, or are best equipped to participate, in sensing of the TO based on the target identification information (e.g., by determining a required/desired accuracy based on which the RSMF may select sensing transmitter and/or sensing receiver devices (sTXs, sRXs) that may be capable of achieving the required/desired accuracy, e.g., because they support sensing using high frequency bands).

It is to be noted that the RSMF may provide location information about the UE device and/or location information about sensing transmitter device(s) (sTX(s)) and/or sensing receiver device(s) (sRX(s)), to the UE device and/or to one or more of the (selected) sensing transmitter device(s) (sTX(s)) and/or (selected) sensing receiver devices(s) (sRX(s)). Furthermore, the sensing transmitter device (sTX) or the sensing receiver device (sRX) may each provide location information about itself or about other sensing transmitter devices (sTXs) or about other sensing receiver devices (sRXs), to (further) other sensing transmitter and sensing receiver devices (sTXs, sRXs). This information may be used during the processing of the sensing measurements and/or sensing results for determining the location of the target object (TO) (as described in other embodiments of the present disclosure).

Alternatively, if target location or area or volume information is not available, the RSMF may trigger a (broadcast) search function in which the sending transmitter devices (sTXs) are requested to sense the environment to determine the rough location information of the set of target objects (TOs).

Alternatively or additionally, one or more of the devices involved in the sensing (e.g., a base station that may include both sensing transmitter and sensing receiver capabilities) may determine a rough position or location of the target object(s) (TO/TOs) (e.g., based on a non- distributed radar based sensing) and provide this information about the rough position or location of the target object(s) (TO/TOs) to the RSMF.

Alternatively or additionally, a rough location (or the last known location) of the target object (TO) or more generally a target location or area or volume may be provided by an external application (e.g., through the NEF) or may, e.g., be obtained from the LMF, as specified in 3GPP TS 23.273, or from the network data analytics function (NWDAF), as specified in 3GPP TS 23.288, e.g., based on the identity of a device or UE device expected or known to be attached to or carried by the target object (TO)). The RSMF or the sensing transmitter device (sTX) or the sensing receiver device (sRX) may provide the rough position or location information about the target object^) (TO/TOs), or more generally a target location or area or volume, to the involved sensing receiver device(s) (sRX/sRXs) and the involved sensing transmitter device(s) (sTX/sTXs).

Alternatively or additionally, the sensing function or service (RSMF) may obtain information about devices (e.g., information about their identities and estimated location) that are in the vicinity of the target object (TO) (e.g., a set of nearby base stations or UEs in the vicinity that are able and may be authorized (or are authorized) by the network and/or by the user of the device and/or by the target person or the target object owner, to participate in (distributed) sensing of the intended target. The authorization information (which may also include user consent information) may be stored as part of the user's subscription (e.g., in the UDM function of the core network) and/or as part of the RSMF, and/or may be received from a service or application function or an external application (e.g., through the NEF). The RSMF may use the information about sensing transmitter and receiver devices (sTX, sRX) in the vicinity of the target object (TO) in its selection and configuration of the sensing transmitter and sensing receiver devices (sTX, sRX) to be used. The devices involved in sensing may be invited and/or configured to be involved in a sensing session by sending a message that may include a session identifier and/or a sensing signal identifier and/or a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with the set of target identification information.

Alternatively or additionally, an initial radar scan or sensing operation, which is performed by one of the sensing devices that may support both transmitter and receiver roles, may show that the obtained accuracy of the sensing measurements may not be sufficient to meet the desired accuracy (e.g., as indicated or received or configured in the RSMF, e.g., by an external application). The sensing devices involved may determine this themselves and inform the RSMF about it, or the RSMF may determine this based on the sensing results it may receive from the respective sensing devices.

Alternatively or additionally, the RSMF may determine, based on the capabilities of the sensing transmitter and receiver devices (sTX, sRX) and/or the available bands or spectrum in a certain area, and/or through previous measurements (e.g., obtained by or from a network analytics function such as NWDAF), that the accuracy by the involved sensing transmitter and/or receiver devices (sTX, sRX) and/or the accuracy that can be obtained in a given sensing area may not be sufficient for the application's requirements. The RSMF may use this information (possibly together with the received capabilities and location information of the sensing transmitter and receiver devices (sTX, sRX) in an area) as a trigger to select other or additional sensing transmitter and/or sensing receiver devices in the vicinity of the target object (TO), and/or to improve the sensing measurements and sensing accuracy (e.g., by changing to a higher frequency and/or to larger bandwidths, by increasing the number of signals and/or the number of signal measurements, or by selecting different algorithms).

The RSMF may activate one or more of the selected sensing transmitter devices (sTXs) and/or the sensing receiver devices (sRXs) to activate the sensing, e.g., by initiating a sensing session directly over 706 and/or 707, respectively, or indirectly via the sensing transmitter device (sTX) over 706 and then 711. The activation of the sensing transmitter device (sTX) and/or the sensing receiver device (sRX) may be triggered automatically by receiving the above-mentioned sensing configuration (e.g., given a start time or a set of time intervals when the sensing signals are transmitted), or may be triggered through a separate message (e.g., an additional LPP message containing for example a sensing session identifier) or through a separate signal (e.g., an identifiable sensing signal being detected matching one or more of the given signal characteristics or signal identifiers provided during configuration).

Based on the received configuration information and/or rough location of the target object (TO) or more generally a target location or area or volume, one or more of the sensing transmitter devices (sTXs) will direct a wireless sensing signal 708 to the target location or area or volume. The time at which such a wireless sensing signal 708 is transmitted is based on, e.g., timing information (e.g., a sensing start time or a set of time intervals for sensing or a (preconfigured) set of time or frequency resources) as configured and, e.g., shared with the sensing receiver devices (sRXs) and other sensing transmitter devices (sTXs). The sensing receiver device(s) (sRX/sRXs) will receive the reflected wireless sensing signal 708R and be capable of recognizing and processing the received reflected wireless sensing signal 708R based on the wireless sensing configuration information that was provided (e.g., as described in the present disclosure). In an example, based on the received reflected wireless sensing signal 708R, the timing information of when a signal was sent (e.g., as configured or part of timestamp information in the signal), its own known location and the location of the sensing transmitter device (sTX) (e.g., the base station), a position or location of a (potential) target object (TO) can be estimated, e.g., by using triangulation. Additionally or alternatively, each sensing receiver or sensing transmitter device (sRX, sTX) will send its wireless sensing signal measurement and/or processing results to the configured destination (e.g., to the RSMF), which collects the results and can perform further processing on these results. The RSMF may use all received/collected measurements and/or (partial) sensing results to determine a set of sensing results. This may be based on the sensing requirements received in the location/sensing request (e.g., as received from the application). The sensing results (e.g., the position of the target) may be provided to the entity (e.g., GMLC/AMF/NEF/UE) that issued or forwarded the "extended" location request to the RSMF. Alternatively or additionally, the sensing results may be stored in a shared storage, e.g., an unified data repository (UDR), from which other entities can fetch the sensing results based on an identifier provided by the RSMF to the respective entity.

The processing on a sensing receiver device (sRX), or on a sensing transmitter device (sTX), or a part of this further processing on the configured destination (e.g., the RSMF), may include a step for detecting a set of objects, and/or a step for determining a set of sensing information (i.e., measurements and/or results) for one or more detected objects, e.g., using an initial scan or sensing operation of a target area or volume performed by the sensing service (i.e., the RSMF) and/or the sensing transmitter device (sTX) and/or the sensing receiver device (sRX) as also described in the embodiment of Fig. 8, and/or a step for determining whether the set of sensing information (i.e., the measurements and/or results obtained as an output of the sensing operation) for the one or more detected objects meets or does not meet one or more configured criteria (e.g., threshold values) for identifying a target based on a set of target identification information. Based on said latter determination, the sensing receiver device (sRX) and/or the sensing transmitter device (sTX) and/or the configured destination (e.g., the RSMF) may:

• stop or continue the sensing operation, for example by sending a signal or a message directly to the sensing transmitter device (sTX) over 706 and/or directly to the sensing receiver device (sRX) over 707, or indirectly to the sensing receiver device (sRX), i.e., via the sensing transmitter device (sTX) over 706 and then from the sensing transmitter device (sTX) to the sensing receiver device (sRX) over 711;

• initiate an additional sensing operation, for example by sending a signal or a message directly to the sensing transmitter device (sTX) over 706 and/or directly to the sensing receiver device (sRX) over 707, or indirectly to the sensing receiver device (sRX), i.e., via the sensing transmitter device (sTX) over 706 and then from the sensing transmitter device (sTX) to the sensing receiver device (sRX) over 711; • generate an event or transmit a signal, the event or the signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected (wherein the matching target matches (with a certain confidence or matching percentage) either a subset of the set of target identification information in the case of a partial match or an entirety of the set of target identification information in the case of a full match), for example by sending a signal or a message directly to the RSMF from the sensing transmitter device (sTX) over 710 and/or from the sensing receiver device (sRX) over 709, or indirectly to the RSMF from the sensing receiver device (sRX), i.e., from the sensing receiver device (sRX) to the sensing transmitter device (sTX) over 712 and then from the sensing transmitter device (sTX) to the RSMF over 710, or by sending a signal or a message from the RSMF to the UDM/UDR over 713 or to the AUSF over 714 (e.g., as part of an authentication and/or authorization procedure) or to an application function or AAA server (e.g., via the NEF, not shown) or to a non-volatile storage unit; or

• initiate or continue an authorization of a target or target object (TO) for sensing (e.g., to verify whether a detected object is an authorized target for a sensing service), for example by sending a signal or a message from the RSMF to the UDM/UDR over 713 or to the AUSF over 714, or to an application function or AAA server (e.g., via the NEF, not shown).

Thus, the RSMF can retrieve the wireless sensing capabilities of the sensing receiver devices (sRXs) and/or the sensing transmitter devices (sTXs), can configure one or more sensing transmitter devices (sTXs) and/or sensing receiver devices (sRXs) to take part in wireless sensing of the target object (TO), can configure a wireless sensing capable receiver device (sRX) and/or a wireless sensing capable transmitter device (sTX) with information about to which network entity or destination server to send the wireless sensing results, can configure a wireless sensing capable transmitter device (sTX) and/or a wireless sensing capable receiver device with information about when and how to transmit and/or receive and/or process a wireless sensing signal, and can collect and further process wireless sensing measurements and/or results (i.e., a set of sensing information) from the sensing transmitter devices (sTXs) and/or from the sensing receiver devices (sRXs).

To summarize, systems and methods for providing a wireless sensing capability, e.g., a radar-based sensing capability, in a wireless communication system have been described, wherein the wireless sensing capability enables identifying a target object for sensing, and provides capabilities for the network to be capable of verifying whether a target object is authorized to make use of the sensing service.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, such illustration and description are to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive. The invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. It can be applied to various types of UEs or terminal devices, such as mobile phone, vital signs monitoring/te- lemetry devices, smartwatches, detectors, vehicles (for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication or more general vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication), V2X devices, loT hubs, loT devices, including low-power medical sensors for health monitoring, medical (emergency) diagnosis and treatment devices, for hospital use or first-responder use, virtual reality (VR) headsets, etc.

Moreover, the above embodiments may be implemented in a quasi-distributed deployment where the base station is a central unit (e.g., gNB-CU) and there are two distributed units (e.g., gNB-DUs), one acting as the transmitter device and the other acting as the receiver device, while the central unit may be the entity synchronizing the distributed units.

The base station may be any network access device (such as a base station, Node B (eNB, eNodeB, gNB, gNodeB, ng-eNB, etc.), integrated access and backhaul (IAB) relay node, access point or the like) that provides a geographical service area.

Furthermore, at least some of the above embodiments may be implemented to provide network equipment for 5G/6G/xG cellular networks or a new product class of (low- cost/mid-cost) reconfigurable intelligent surfaces to improve coverage, reliability and speed of cellular networks.

Other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfil the functions of several items recited in the claims. Throughout the description and the claims, the expressions "at least one of A, B and C" or "at least one of A, B or C" should generally be understood as meaning "A and/or B and/or C". The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage. The foregoing description details certain embodiments of the invention. It will be appreciated, however, that no matter how detailed the foregoing appears in the text, the invention may be practiced in many ways, and is therefore not limited to the embodiments disclosed. It should be noted that the use of particular terminology when describing certain features or aspects of the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being re-defined herein to be restricted to include any specific characteristics of the features or aspects of the invention with which that terminology is associated.

The described operations like those indicated in Figs. 4 to 8 can be implemented as program code means of a computer program and/or as dedicated hardware of the related network device or function, respectively. The computer program may be stored and/or distributed on a suitable medium, such as an optical storage medium or a solid-state medium, supplied together with or as part of other hardware, but may also be distributed in other forms, such as via the Internet or other wired or wireless telecommunication systems.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. An apparatus for providing a wireless sensing capability, wherein the apparatus is configured at least to: obtain a set of target identification information; detect a set of objects and determine a set of sensing information about one or more of said detected objects (TOs), based on an output of a sensing operation of a target area or volume performed at least by a sensing transmitter (sTX) transmitting a set of sensing signals and by a sensing receiver (sRX) receiving the set of sensing signals; determine whether the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects meets or does not meet one or more configured criteria for identifying a target based on the set of target identification information; and perform, based on said determination that the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects meets or does not meet the one or more configured criteria for identifying the target, at least one of: stopping or continuing the sensing operation; initiating an additional sensing operation; generating an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected; and initiating or continuing an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing.

2. An apparatus for providing a wireless sensing capability, wherein the apparatus is configured at least to: detect a set of objects and determine a set of sensing information about one or more of said detected objects, based on an output of a sensing operation (801) of a target area or volume performed at least by a sensing transmitter (10) transmitting a set of sensing signals and by a sensing receiver (20) receiving the set of sensing signals; provide the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects and/or one or more potential targets, to a target matching entity (40); receive a result of a target matching procedure (803) performed by the target matching entity based on the set of sensing information and a set of target identification information; and perform, based on said result of the target matching procedure, at least one of: stopping or continuing the sensing operation; initiating an additional sensing operation; generating an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected; and initiating or continuing an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing.

3. An apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the apparatus comprises a communication unit configured to operate the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver in order to generate the output of the sensing operation.

4. An apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the apparatus comprises a communication unit configured to configure the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver based on the set of target identification information, and receive the output of the sensing operation from the sensing transmitter and/or the sensing receiver.

5. An apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the apparatus comprises a communication unit configured to connect to a network and receive the set of target identification information from the network, and optionally, wherein the apparatus receives the set of target identification information from the network after the apparatus has been authenticated by the network and authorized to take part in the sensing operation.

6. An apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the apparatus is configured to operate as a network function or service within a network, and optionally, wherein the apparatus comprises a communication unit configured to receive the set of target identification information as obtained from claim 1, or the result of the target matching procedure as received from claim 2, from an authentication server function (AUSF), a unified data management (UDM), a unified data repository (UDR), a network exposure function (NEF) or an external database.

7. An apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to use an identifier associated with the set of target identification information to initiate or continue the authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing, or continue the sensing operation based on said determination that the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects meets the one or more configured criteria for identifying the target based on the set of target identification information associated with the identifier.

8. An apparatus of claims 1 or 2, wherein the apparatus receives the set of target identification information or an identifier associated with the set of target identification information after a device associated with a subscription to a sensing service has been authenticated and authorized by the network for using the sensing service, and optionally, wherein: the apparatus receives the set of target identification information or the identifier associated with the set of target identification information after the device associated with the subscription to the sensing service has been determined to be located in the target area or volume, and/or the apparatus is configured to transmit a signal or a message to the device associated with the subscription to the sensing service, the signal or the message indicating that the sensing operation has started or indicating a request to confirm initiating the sensing operation.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus determines whether the set of sensing information meets or does not meet one or more configured criteria without accessing a content of the set of target identification information.

10. A wireless communication device, comprising a communication unit configured to connect to a network configured to operate a sensing service, wherein the wireless communication device is configured to transmit an identifier to be used for authorizing a use of the sensing service, and to retrieve a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with the set of target identification information for use in a sensing operation initiated by the network.

11. A wireless communication device of claim 10, wherein the wireless communication device is configured to provide location information, the sensing operation being performed in a target area or volume based on the location information.

12. A wireless communication device of claim 10, wherein the wireless communication device is configured to receive a signal or a message from the network, the signal or the message indicating that the sensing operation has started or indicating a request to confirm initiating the sensing operation.

13. A wireless communication device of claim 10, wherein the wireless communication device is configured to transmit the set of target identification information or the identifier associated with the set of target identification information or an artificial intelligence (Al) model capable of identifying a target, to the sensing service operated by the network.

14. A system comprising at least a wireless communication device as claimed in claim 9 and an apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the apparatus receives a set of target identification information or an identifier associated with the set of target identification information after the wireless communication device has been authenticated and authorized by a network for using a sensing service.

15. A method for providing a sensing capability in a wireless communication network or device, the method comprising at least: obtaining a set of target identification information; detecting a set of objects (TOs) and determining a set of sensing information about one or more detected objects, based on an output of a sensing operation of a target area or volume performed at least by a sensing transmitter (sTX) transmitting a set of sensing signals and by a sensing receiver (sRX) receiving the set of sensing signals; determining whether the set of sensing information about one or more of said detected objects meets or does not meet one or more configured criteria for identifying a target, based on the set of target identification information; and performing, based on said determination that the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects meets or does not meet the one or more configured criteria for identifying the target, at least one of: stopping or continuing the sensing operation; initiating an additional sensing operation; generating an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected; and initiating or continuing an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing.

16. A method for providing a sensing capability in a wireless communication network or device, the method comprising at least: detecting a set of objects and determining a set of sensing information about one or more of said detected objects, based on an output of a sensing operation (801) of a target area or volume performed at least by a sensing transmitter (10) transmitting a set of sensing signals and by a sensing receiver (20) receiving the set of sensing signals; providing the set of sensing information about the one or more of said detected objects and/or one or more potential targets, to a target matching entity (40); receiving a result of a target matching procedure (803) performed by the target matching entity based on the set of sensing information and a set of target identification information; and performing, based on said result of the target matching procedure, at least one of: stopping or continuing the sensing operation; initiating an additional sensing operation; generating an event or transmitting a signal, said generated event or said transmitted signal indicating that a matching target was detected or was not detected; and initiating or continuing an authorization of the matching target to be a target for sensing.

17. A computer program product comprising code means for producing the steps of any of claims 15 to 16 when run on a processor of a wireless communication device or of a device operat- ing a wireless communication network.