CN112449370B - Positioning method and communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

The application provides a positioning method and a communication device, and the access network equipment positions the terminal equipment, so that the positioning time delay can be reduced. When the serving cell of the terminal equipment has a positioning function, the serving cell sends Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) configuration information of the serving cell and the adjacent cell to the terminal equipment. And the terminal equipment receives and measures PRSs of the serving cell and the adjacent cell and reports the measurement result to the serving cell. And the service cell positions the terminal equipment according to the measurement result. Or, when the serving cell does not have the positioning function, the serving cell acquires PRS configuration information of the neighboring cell through a first neighboring cell having the positioning function in the neighboring cell, and sends the PRS configuration information to the terminal device. The terminal equipment receives and measures PRSs of the serving cell and the neighboring cell, and sends measurement results to the serving cell. The serving cell provides the measurement result to the first neighbor cell, and the first neighbor cell locates the terminal device.

Description

Positioning method and communication device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communications technologies, and in particular, to a positioning method and a communications apparatus.

Background

In wireless communication technology, positioning has been an important aspect of the third generation partnership project (3 GPP). After release 15, rel 15 of Long Term Evolution (LTE) and release 15 of New Radio (NR), the positioning of the access to the fifth generation core network (5 GC) adopts an architecture that is controlled by a positioning management function (LMF) of the core network, and is assisted by an access network and a terminal device. Under the framework, cell information is interacted between the LMF and a service cell and an adjacent cell of the terminal equipment, and interaction of capability information of the terminal equipment, auxiliary information for positioning and a measurement result is completed between the LMF and the terminal equipment. And finally, the LMF completes the positioning of the terminal equipment based on the cell information of each cell and the measurement and report of the positioning reference signals of each cell by the terminal equipment.

However, as NR technology evolves, more application scenarios emerge. These application scenarios put higher demands on the latency of the positioning. In the existing core network LMF-based architecture, the requirement of NR for low time delay of positioning cannot be met because the information interaction between the access network and the terminal device and the LMF causes a large time delay.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a positioning method and a communication device, an access network can complete the positioning of terminal equipment without the participation of a core network, and the time delay of the positioning is favorably reduced.

In a first aspect, a method for positioning is provided, where the method includes: the method comprises the steps that a serving cell sends one or more Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) configuration information to a terminal device, PRSs corresponding to the one or more PRS configuration information are respectively sent by the serving cell and/or one or more neighbor cells, and each PRS configuration information in the one or more PRS configuration information comprises one or more of the following information: configuration information of a periodic PRS, configuration information of a semi-persistent PRS, and configuration information of a non-periodic PRS; receiving, by a serving cell from the terminal device, measurements of PRSs for the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells; and the service cell positions the terminal equipment according to the measurement result.

In the positioning method provided by the application, one or more neighboring cells of a serving cell assist the serving cell in positioning the terminal device. In the whole positioning process, the access network can realize the positioning of the terminal equipment without the participation of a core network. The access network positions the terminal equipment, so that on one hand, the positioning time delay can be reduced, on the other hand, the access network can be deployed independently of the core network, and the terminal equipment can be prevented from being exposed in the public network.

It should be understood that, in the present application, the serving cell sends PRS configuration information to the terminal device, that is, the access network device of the serving cell sends PRS configuration information to the terminal device. The neighboring cell sends cell information to the serving cell, that is, the access network device of the neighboring cell sends cell information to the access network device of the serving cell. In addition, the transmission of other information or signals is also similar.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the serving cell receives cell information of the one or more neighbor cells from the one or more neighbor cells, the cell information of each neighbor cell comprising one or more of the following information: position information, PRS configuration information, and cell timing information of the neighbor cell, wherein the PRS configuration information includes one or more of the following information: configuration information of a periodic PRS, configuration information of a semi-persistent PRS, configuration information of an aperiodic PRS.

By configuring the PRS periodically, semi-persistently or aperiodically, the configuration of the PRS may be enabled, so that the transmission of the PRS is more flexible and may be quickly adjusted according to the current load of the base station.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the serving cell sends a request message to the one or more neighbor cells, the request message requesting the one or more neighbor cells to send PRS to the terminal device, the PRS being semi-persistent PRS or non-periodic PRS, wherein the request message includes at least one of the following information: the number of times of sending the semi-persistent PRS, the duration of sending the semi-persistent PRS, and the time slot of sending the aperiodic PRS.

This may enable the configuration of semi-persistent, aperiodic PRSs, the transmission of PRS by the base station is more flexible, and the transmission of PRS may be quickly adjusted according to the current load of the base station.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the serving cell sends a first media access control element (MAC CE) to the terminal equipment, wherein the first MAC CE is used for the terminal equipment to activate or deactivate the receiving of the semi-continuous PRS.

Activating and deactivating the semi-persistent PRS by using the MAC CE is beneficial to flexibly switching on and off the PRS, so that the transmission of the PRS can be quickly adjusted according to the current load of the base station.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: and the serving cell sends first Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the terminal equipment, wherein the first DCI is used for the terminal equipment to activate the non-periodic PRS for receiving.

The DCI is utilized to activate the non-periodic PRS, which is beneficial to flexibly scheduling the single PRS, thereby realizing real-time dynamic measurement.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the serving cell sends reporting configuration information to the terminal device, where the reporting configuration information includes one or more of the following information: the measurement quantity included in the measurement result, the channel adopted for reporting the measurement result, the periodicity of the reported measurement result, and the PRS resource of each cell used for reporting the measurement result.

The terminal can feed back the measurement result to the base station more quickly by using the physical layer channel report, and the base station can unpack the physical layer channel data more quickly, so that the base station can acquire the measurement result of the terminal more quickly.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: and the serving cell sends a second MAC CE to the terminal equipment, wherein the second MAC CE is used for activating or deactivating the terminal equipment to report the measurement result semi-continuously through a PUCCH.

The reporting channels can be flexibly switched on and off by activating and deactivating the reporting channels by using the MAC CE, so that the base station can quickly adjust the terminal reporting measurement according to the current load.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: and the serving cell sends second DCI to the terminal equipment, wherein the second DCI is used for activating or deactivating the terminal equipment to report the measurement result semi-continuously through a PUCCH or a PUSCH.

The DCI is used for activating and deactivating the reporting channel, and the reporting channel can be flexibly switched on and off, so that the base station can quickly adjust the terminal reporting measurement according to the current load.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementation manners of the first aspect, the serving cell sends a third DCI to the terminal device, where the third DCI is used to activate the terminal device to report the measurement result aperiodically through a PUCCH or a PUSCH.

The DCI is used for activating the aperiodic report of the PUCCH or the PUSCH, which is beneficial to scheduling single report, thereby realizing real-time dynamic report.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the PRS configuration information includes one or more of the following information: the PRS mapping method comprises time-frequency domain resources mapped by the PRS, port numbers for sending the PRS, a PRS sequence and QCL information, wherein the time domain resources comprise a period for sending the PRS and an offset.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the measurement result is included in merged information, and the merged information satisfies the following rule: the merged information is obtained by merging the measurement quantity and the Channel State Information (CSI) contained in the measurement result; or the combined information is obtained by combining the measurement quantity and the first information obtained after the CSI is combined with a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) and a Scheduling Request (SR); or; the merged information includes a part of the measurement quantity and/or a part of the CSI in the measurement result, wherein the measurement result includes a plurality of measurement quantities, and the CSI includes a plurality of parts.

By designing the measurement quantity and the combination rule of the CSI, the HARQ-ACK, the SR or the data, and the like, when the time domain collision occurs between the reporting channel and the PUCCH carrying the HARQ-ACK, the SR or the CSI or between the reporting channel and the PUSCH carrying the data or the CSI, and the like, the information with relatively high priority is ensured to be reported, and the reporting mechanism can be optimized.

In a second aspect, a method of positioning is provided, the method comprising: the method further comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that a terminal device receives one or more PRS configuration information from a serving cell, wherein PRSs corresponding to the one or more PRS configuration information come from the serving cell and/or one or more neighbor cells, and each PRS configuration information in the one or more PRS configuration information comprises one or more of the following information: configuration information of a periodic PRS, configuration information of a semi-persistent PRS, and configuration information of a non-periodic PRS; the terminal equipment obtains a measurement result of PRS aiming at a serving cell and/or one or more adjacent cells according to the one or more PRS configuration information; and the terminal equipment sends the measurement result to a serving cell.

It should be understood that the positioning method of the second aspect and the positioning method of the first aspect are based on the same inventive concept, and therefore beneficial technical effects that can be achieved by various technical solutions in the second aspect may refer to descriptions of corresponding solutions in the first aspect, and are not described again.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the terminal device receives a first MAC CE from a serving cell, the first MAC CE being used for the terminal device to activate or deactivate reception of a semi-persistent PRS.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first MAC CE is used for reception of activation of semi-persistent PRS by the terminal device, and the method further includes: the terminal device periodically receives the semi-persistent PRS from cells in a first set of cells according to the first MAC CE, wherein the first set of cells comprises a serving cell and cells, which transmit the semi-persistent PRS, in the one or more neighbor cells.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the terminal equipment receives first DCI from a serving cell, wherein the first DCI is used for receiving the terminal equipment activated non-periodic PRS.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the terminal device receives the aperiodic PRS from cells in a second set of cells according to the first DCI, wherein the second set of cells includes a serving cell and cells, which transmit aperiodic PRS, in the one or more neighbor cells.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, before the terminal device sends the measurement result to the serving cell, the method further includes: the terminal equipment receives reporting configuration information from a serving cell, wherein the reporting configuration information comprises one or more of the following information: the measurement quantity included in the measurement result, the channel adopted for reporting the measurement result, the periodicity of the reported measurement result, and the PRS resource of each cell used for reporting the measurement result.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: and the terminal equipment receives a second MAC CE from a serving cell, wherein the second MAC CE is used for activating or deactivating the terminal equipment and reporting the measurement result semi-continuously through a PUCCH.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: and the terminal equipment receives second DCI from a serving cell, wherein the second DCI is used for activating or deactivating the terminal equipment to report the measurement result semi-continuously through a PUCCH or a PUSCH.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: and the terminal equipment receives third DCI from a serving cell, wherein the third DCI is used for activating the terminal equipment to report the measurement result through a PUCCH or PUSCH in an aperiodic way.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the PRS configuration information includes one or more of the following information: the PRS mapping method comprises time-frequency domain resources mapped by PRS, the number of ports for sending PRS, a PRS sequence and QCL information, wherein the time domain resources comprise a period for sending PRS and an offset.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the measurement result is included in merged information, and the merged information satisfies the following rule: the merged information is obtained by merging the measurement quantity and the Channel State Information (CSI) contained in the measurement result; or the combined information is obtained by combining the measurement quantity and the first information obtained after the CSI is combined with a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) and a Scheduling Request (SR); or; the merged information includes a part of the measurement quantity and/or a part of the CSI in the measurement result, wherein the measurement result includes a plurality of measurement quantities, and the CSI includes a plurality of parts.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the sending, by the terminal device, the measurement result to the serving cell includes: and the physical layer of the terminal equipment encapsulates the measurement result and then sends the measurement result to a serving cell through uplink control information UCI.

In a third aspect, a method for positioning is provided, the method comprising: a first neighbor cell sends one or more PRS configuration information to a serving cell, wherein PRSs corresponding to the one or more PRS configuration information come from one or more of the serving cell, the first neighbor cell and other neighbor cells; a first neighbor cell receives, from a serving cell, measurement results of PRSs of a terminal device for the serving cell and one or more neighbor cells; and the first adjacent cell positions the terminal equipment according to the measurement result.

In this embodiment, the serving cell does not have a positioning function, and the first neighboring cell of the serving cell has a positioning function. And the serving cell acquires the PRS configuration information through the first neighbor cell and sends the PRS configuration information to the terminal equipment. Further, the serving cell requests other neighbor cells to send PRSs to the terminal device through the first neighbor cell. The terminal device receives and measures PRSs of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells. After the terminal equipment completes the measurement, the measurement result is reported to the serving cell based on the reporting configuration information of the serving cell. The serving cell provides the measurement result to the first neighboring cell, and the first neighboring cell locates the terminal device. Therefore, in the scenario that the serving cell does not have the positioning function, but the neighboring cell has the positioning function, the access network can also complete the positioning of the terminal device without the participation of the core network.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, before the first neighboring cell sends PRS configuration information of the one or more neighboring cells to the serving cell, the method further includes: the first neighbor cell receives cell information from the serving cell and/or the other neighbor cells, the cell information for each of the serving cell and the other neighbor cells including one or more of the following information: location information, PRS configuration information, and cell timing information of a cell, wherein the PRS configuration information comprises one or more of the following information: configuration information of a periodic PRS, configuration information of a semi-persistent PRS, configuration information of an aperiodic PRS.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: receiving, by a first neighbor cell, a request message from a serving cell, the request message requesting the one or more neighbor cells to send PRSs to a terminal device, the PRSs being semi-persistent PRSs or non-periodic PRSs; the first neighbor cell sends the request message to the other neighbor cells.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, after the first neighboring cell locates the terminal device, the method further includes: the first neighbor cell transmits the location information of the terminal device to the serving cell.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device having the functionality to implement the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation thereof. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the above functions.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device having the functionality to implement the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation thereof. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the above functions.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device having the functionality to implement the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation thereof. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the above functions.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a network device comprising a processor and a memory. The memory is adapted to store a computer program and the processor is adapted to call and run the computer program stored in the memory to cause the network device to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a terminal device comprising a processor and a memory. The memory is adapted to store a computer program and the processor is adapted to call and run the computer program stored in the memory to cause the terminal device to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a network device comprising a processor and a memory. The memory is adapted to store a computer program and the processor is adapted to call and run the computer program stored in the memory to cause the network device to perform the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

Optionally, in the seventh to ninth aspects, the network device or the terminal device may include one or more processors, and the memory may also include one or more memories.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

In a thirteenth aspect, the present application provides a chip comprising a processor. The processor is adapted to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory, and the memory and the processor are connected with the memory through a circuit or a wire.

Further optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface.

In a fourteenth aspect, the present application provides a chip comprising a processor. The processor is adapted to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory, and the memory and the processor are connected with the memory through a circuit or a wire.

Further optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface.

In a fifteenth aspect, the present application provides a chip comprising a processor. The processor is adapted to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory, and the memory and the processor are connected with the memory through a circuit or a wire.

Further optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface.

In a sixteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

In a seventeenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

In an eighteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

In a nineteenth aspect, the present application further provides a wireless communication system, including the access network device of the serving cell and the access network devices of one or more neighboring cells in the embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the wireless communication system may further include a terminal device in the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the present application further provides another wireless communication system, including the access network device of the serving cell and the access network device of the first neighboring cell in the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the wireless communication system may further include a terminal device in this embodiment.

Further optionally, the wireless communication system may further comprise access network equipment of one or more other neighboring cells.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an example of one architecture of a communication system 100 suitable for use with embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a method of positioning provided herein.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method of positioning provided herein.

Fig. 4 is another schematic flow chart of a method of positioning provided herein.

Fig. 5 is an example of a positioning procedure in which the serving cell has a positioning function.

Fig. 6 is an example of a positioning procedure in which the serving cell does not have a positioning function.

Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the communication protocol stack of the LMF and the terminal equipment (taking the UE as an example).

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 700 for positioning provided herein.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 800 provided herein.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 900 provided herein.

Fig. 11 is a schematic configuration diagram of the communication device 10 provided in the present application.

Fig. 12 is a schematic configuration diagram of the communication device 20 provided in the present application.

Fig. 13 is a schematic configuration diagram of the communication device 30 provided in the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is an example of one architecture of a communication system 100 suitable for use with embodiments of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, a communication system 100 includes a core network, a Radio Access Network (RAN), and a terminal device. The core network includes access and mobility management function (AMF), location Management Function (LMF), unified Data Management (UDM), gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC), and Location Retrieval Function (LRF). The NG-RAN includes one or more NG-enbs and a gNB. Wherein, the ng-eNB is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) base station accessing the 5G core network, and the gNB is a 5G base station accessing the 5G core network. In addition, one or more terminal devices may also be included in communication system 100. The NG-RAN is connected to the core network via the AMF over the NG-C interface. The terminal is connected to the RAN via the ng-eNB and the gNB by LTE-Uu and NR-Uu, respectively.

It should be noted that the core network 5GC in fig. 1 is shown by a dotted line, which indicates that the communication system 100 may include only the terminal device and the RAN. In the technical scheme of the application, 5GC is optional. Or, in the positioning method provided in the present application, participation of any network element of the core network may not be required.

In addition, the external client (external client) in fig. 1 may be an application connected to the internet, the application requesting terminal location information from the 5G core network through the internet, and a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) of the 5G core network is responsible for processing the external client location request.

Alternatively, in another architecture, the core network may perform selection, authorization and control of the positioning process of the access network device, for example, start of the positioning process and acquisition of the positioning result. The positioning process is completely finished by the access network without the participation of the core network.

In addition, it should be understood that the interface names between the network elements shown in fig. 1 are by way of example only. The interfaces between the network elements shown in fig. 1 in different communication systems or along with the evolution of the communication systems may also be different from those shown in fig. 1, and are not limited herein.

The radio access network device mentioned in the present application is a device that is deployed in the RAN and satisfies the 5G standard or the next-generation communication standard to provide a terminal device with a radio communication function. The radio access network devices may include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations (also referred to as small stations), relay stations, access points, wearable devices, and vehicle-mounted devices. The gNB may also be a transmission and reception node (TRP), etc.

Terminal devices in this application include various handheld devices, vehicle mounted devices, wearable devices, computing devices or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem with wireless communication capability. For example, a terminal device may refer to a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a Mobile Station (MS), a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The terminal device may also be a cellular phone (cellular phone), a smart phone (smart phone), a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a tablet computer, a wireless modem (modem), a handheld device (handset), a laptop computer (laptop computer), a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal, a terminal device in a 5G network or a future-evolution Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), and the like, which is not limited in this application.

The method of positioning provided by the present application is described below.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a method of positioning provided herein.

210. The serving cell transmits one or more PRS configuration information to the terminal device.

Accordingly, the terminal device receives the one or more PRS configuration information from the serving cell.

In this application, the serving cell sends PRS configuration information to the terminal device, that is, the access network device of the serving cell sends PRS configuration information to the terminal device. The description is simplified herein for simplicity in description.

In addition, the description about information interaction between the serving cell and the neighbor cell is also similar. For example, the serving cell sends information to the neighboring cell, or the serving cell receives information from the neighboring cell, that is, the access network device of the serving cell sends information to the access network device of the neighboring cell, or the access network device of the serving cell receives information from the access network device of the neighboring cell.

Furthermore, the interaction of information and signals between the terminal device and the serving cell or neighboring cells is also similar. For example, the terminal device receives information from the serving cell, i.e. the terminal device receives information from the access network device of the serving cell. Or, the terminal device receives the PRS from the serving cell or the neighboring cell, that is, the terminal device receives the PRS from the access network device of the serving cell or the neighboring cell. Or, the terminal device sends information to the serving cell, that is, the terminal device sends information to the access network device of the serving cell.

The above description is applicable to each embodiment in the present application, and will not be described below.

The one or more PRS configuration information are from a serving cell and/or one or more neighbor cells, and PRSs corresponding to the one or more PRS configuration information are from the serving cell and/or the one or more neighbor cells. Each PRS configuration information may include one or more of the following information: configuration information of a periodic PRS, configuration information of a semi-persistent PRS, or configuration information of a non-periodic PRS.

It should be understood that periodic PRS refers to periodically transmitted PRS. Semi-persistent PRS refers to PRS transmitted semi-persistently. Aperiodic PRS refers to a PRS that is transmitted aperiodically.

220. And the terminal equipment obtains the measurement results of the PRSs of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells according to the one or more PRS configuration information.

The terminal device receives the one or more PRS configuration information from the serving cell, and then learns the PRS configuration of the cell corresponding to each of the one or more PRS configuration information. By receiving and measuring the PRS of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells, the terminal device obtains measurement results of the PRS of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells.

230. And the terminal equipment sends the measurement result to the serving cell.

240. And the service cell positions the terminal equipment according to the measurement result.

The serving cell can complete the positioning of the terminal device according to the measurement result reported by the terminal device. Or after receiving the measurement result, the serving cell sends the measurement result to the neighboring cell with the positioning function. The adjacent cell with the positioning function calculates the position of the terminal equipment according to the measurement result, and can also finish the positioning of the terminal equipment. Finally, the neighboring cell with positioning function may provide the calculated location information of the terminal device to the serving cell. Please refer to the following embodiments, where the measurement result includes which measurements and how the serving cell obtains the positioning of the terminal device according to the measurement result.

Therefore, in the method for positioning the terminal device by the access network provided by the present application, one or more neighboring cells of the serving cell may assist the serving cell in positioning the terminal device. In the whole positioning process, the participation of the core network is not needed. The access network positions the terminal equipment, so that the positioning time delay can be reduced on one hand, and the terminal equipment can be prevented from being exposed in a public network on the other hand.

The following two scenarios respectively describe in detail a detailed procedure for the access network to locate the terminal device, with respect to whether the serving cell of the terminal device has a location function.

Scene 1

The serving cell of the terminal device has a positioning function.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method of positioning provided in the present application.

301. The serving cell acquires PRS configuration information of one or more neighbor cells.

Specifically, one or more neighboring cells participating in positioning transmit respective PRS configuration information to a serving cell.

Optionally, in an implementation manner, the neighboring cell participating in positioning sends cell information to the serving cell, where the cell information includes PRS configuration information of the neighboring cell. In addition, the cell information may also include location information of the neighbor cell, timing information of the cell, and the like.

Wherein the PRS configuration information of each neighbor cell may include one or more of: periodic PRS configuration information, semi-persistent PRS configuration information, or aperiodic PRS configuration information.

It should be understood that when PRS configuration information of one neighbor cell only includes a certain type of PRS configuration information, it means that the neighbor cell transmits a corresponding type of PRS. For example, if the PRS configuration information of one neighbor cell only includes periodic PRS configuration information, it indicates that the neighbor cell transmits periodic PRS. When the PRS configuration information of one neighbor cell includes two or more PRS configuration information, it indicates that the neighbor cell may transmit different types of PRS at different time periods. For example, if PRS configuration information of one neighbor cell includes aperiodic PRS configuration information and semi-persistent PRS configuration information, it indicates that the neighbor cell can transmit aperiodic PRS and semi-persistent PRS based on a request of a serving cell.

Further, the PRS configuration information of each neighbor cell may include the following information: subcarrier interval, point-A frequency point, time-frequency domain resource in slot, port number, sequence, quasi co-located (QCL) information and the like.

For example, the subcarrier spacing of the PRS may be 30KHz.

The a-point frequency point may be represented by an Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (ARFCN) of a neighbor cell. For example, the a point frequency may be ARFCN 653334, indicating that the a point absolute frequency is 3800.01MHz.

The time domain resources of the time-frequency domain resources may be symbols 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 within one time slot occupied by the time domain symbols. The frequency domain resources may start with CBR #2 of a Common Resource Block (CRB) of carriers, occupying 192 RBs.

Further, for periodic PRS and semi-persistent PRS, the time domain resources may also include a periodicity and an offset within the periodicity.

For example, the period may be 10ms, and the offset within the period may be 2ms. When the subcarrier spacing is 30KHz, it means that the transmission timing of PRS is the 5 th slot of each system frame. For another example, if the period may be 40 slots, and the offset in the period may be 4 slots, it indicates that the PRS transmission timing is the 5 th slot of an even system frame.

The number of ports may be 1.

The sequence initialization scrambling code index may be 139. A sequence per slot, per symbol, may be generated based on the scrambling code index.

The QCL may be a synchronization signal block (SS/PBCH block, SSB) #2 of the neighbor cell, indicating PRS and SSB #2 QCLs of the neighbor cell.

The location information of the neighbor cell may be a geographical location of the neighbor cell, for example, latitude and longitude coordinates.

The timing information of the cell may be a System Frame Number (SFN) initialization time.

302. The serving cell sends the PRS configuration information of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells to the terminal device.

After receiving the PRS configuration information from the one or more neighbor cells, the serving cell sends the PRS configuration information of the one or more neighbor cells and the PRS configuration information of the serving cell to the terminal device.

In other words, the serving cell sends PRS configuration information for all cells participating in positioning to the terminal device.

Optionally, in order to achieve the purpose of positioning the terminal device, the serving cell sends PRS configuration information of multiple cells to the terminal device, so that the terminal device may measure PRSs of the multiple cells, and the access network positions the terminal device according to the measurement result. Wherein the plurality of (three or more) cells may include a serving cell and a partial neighbor cell.

In some possible scenarios, the serving cell sends PRS configuration information of one or two cells to the terminal device. The terminal device measures the PRS transmitted by different beams of a cell, and the obtained measurement result can also be used for positioning the terminal device, and the positioning accuracy may be slightly lower than that of the former.

303. And the service cell sends the reporting configuration information to the terminal equipment.

Accordingly, the terminal device receives the reporting configuration information from the serving cell.

In addition to the PRS configuration information in step 302, the serving cell also needs to issue reporting configuration information to the terminal device, so as to instruct the terminal device how to report the measurement result.

Optionally, the reporting configuration information may include one or more of the following information:

the measurement result includes the measurement quantity, the channel used for reporting the measurement result, the periodicity of reporting the measurement result, and the PRS resource of each cell used for reporting the measurement result.

Alternatively, the measurement quantity may include a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD), a Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), and the like.

For convenience of description, a channel used for reporting the measurement result is hereinafter referred to as a reporting channel.

Optionally, the reporting channel may include a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) and a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).

Optionally, the reporting mode may include periodic reporting, semi-persistent reporting, or aperiodic reporting.

Optionally, PRS resources of each cell used for reporting the measurement result may be as follows:

the periodic reporting is generally based on periodic PRS;

the semi-persistent reporting may be based on periodic PRS or semi-persistent PRS;

aperiodic reporting may be based on periodic PRS, semi-persistent PRS, or aperiodic PRS.

It should be understood that the PRS configuration information in step 302 and the reported configuration information in step 303 may be sent to the terminal device by the serving cell together, or may be sent separately, which is not limited in this application. When transmitting separately, the order of transmission should not be limited either.

After the serving cell sends the PRS configuration information and reports the configuration information to the terminal device, step 340 may be performed.

304. The serving cell sends a request message to the one or more neighbor cells.

Wherein the request message is used for requesting the neighbor cells to transmit semi-persistent PRS or non-periodic PRS to the terminal equipment.

Specifically, the request message sent by the serving cell to the neighbor cell may include one or more of the following information: a number of times to transmit a semi-persistent PRS, a duration of time to transmit the semi-persistent PRS, and a slot to transmit an aperiodic PRS.

305. The serving cell activates reception by the terminal device of semi-persistent PRS or aperiodic PRS.

For neighbor cells transmitting semi-persistent PRS or non-periodic PRS, the serving cell may activate reception by the terminal device of semi-persistent PRS or non-periodic PRS through MAC CE or DCI.

Optionally, in one implementation, for semi-persistent PRS, the serving cell may activate reception by the terminal device of semi-persistent PRS through the MAC CE.

For example, the serving cell transmits a MAC CE to the terminal device, wherein the MAC CE is used to activate semi-persistent PRSs in the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells. After activation, the terminal device considers the semi-persistent PRS to be periodically transmitted.

After activating the semi-persistent PRS, the serving cell may also deactivate transmission of the semi-persistent PRS by the MAC CE as needed. After deactivation, the terminal device considers the semi-persistent PRS not to transmit any more.

For aperiodic PRS, the serving cell may activate reception of the aperiodic PRS by the terminal device through DCI.

For example, the serving cell transmits DCI to the terminal device, where the DCI is used to activate the aperiodic PRS in the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells. After activation, the terminal device receives an aperiodic PRS once.

For periodic PRS, the terminal device receives periodically.

306. The serving cell activates semi-persistent reporting or non-periodic reporting of the terminal equipment.

In step 303, the reporting configuration information includes the reporting periodicity. The periodicity of reporting may include periodic reporting, semi-persistent reporting, and aperiodic reporting.

For semi-persistent reporting and aperiodic reporting, the serving cell needs to be activated through the MAC CE or DCI.

In one implementation, the serving cell may activate PUCCH-based semi-persistent reporting through the MAC CE.

For example, the serving cell may send a MAC CE to the terminal device, where the MAC CE is used to activate the terminal device to perform semi-persistent reporting based on the PUCCH. After activation, the terminal device reports the measurement result periodically.

Optionally, after activating the semi-persistent reporting, the serving cell may deactivate the semi-persistent reporting through the MAC CE as needed. And after the deactivation, the terminal equipment does not report any more.

Optionally, the MAC CE for activating the semi-persistent reporting and the MAC CE for activating the semi-persistent PRS may be transmitted separately or together.

In one implementation, the serving cell may also activate PUCCH or PUSCH based aperiodic reporting through DCI.

For example, the serving cell sends DCI to the terminal device, where the DCI is used to activate the terminal device to perform aperiodic reporting based on PUCCH or PUSCH.

Optionally, the serving cell sends DCI to the terminal device, and the default indicates that the terminal device may select one of PUCCH and PUSCH to report. Or, the serving cell sends DCI to the terminal device, where the DCI may carry indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that the reporting channel adopts a PUCCH or a PUSCH. For example, the DCI carries a bit "0" indicating that the serving cell instructs the terminal device to perform aperiodic reporting using the PUCCH. The DCI carries a bit '1', which indicates that the serving cell indicates the terminal equipment to adopt the PUSCH for aperiodic reporting.

It should be understood that for aperiodic reporting, the terminal device only reports once after the serving cell is activated via DCI.

Optionally, if the aperiodic report is based on the aperiodic PRS, the DCI for activating the aperiodic report and the DCI for activating the aperiodic PRS are the same DCI.

307. The serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells transmit PRSs to the terminal device.

In step 307, all cells participating in positioning transmit PRS to the terminal device.

Wherein, for the neighboring cell transmitting the semi-persistent PRS or the aperiodic PRS, according to the request message received from the serving cell in step 304, the semi-persistent PRS is transmitted to the terminal device for a longer time period according to the number of times of the semi-persistent PRS specified by the serving cell, or the aperiodic PRS is transmitted to the terminal device at the time slot specified by the serving cell.

For a cell transmitting a periodic PRS, the PRS may be periodically transmitted to a terminal device according to PRS configuration information.

Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives and measures the periodic PRS, the semi-persistent PRS or the non-periodic PRS transmitted by the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells to obtain a measurement result.

308. And the terminal equipment sends the measurement result to the serving cell.

According to the reporting configuration information received in step 303, the terminal device sends the measurement result to the serving cell according to the reporting channel and the reporting periodicity specified by the serving cell.

Further, if the serving cell indicates that the terminal device performs semi-persistent reporting or aperiodic reporting, the terminal device reports the measurement result to the serving cell according to the activation and deactivation of the semi-persistent reporting or the aperiodic reporting in step 306.

Optionally, in step 308, the terminal device encapsulates the measurement result, and then sends the measurement result to the serving cell through Uplink Control Information (UCI).

309. And the service cell positions the terminal equipment according to the measurement result.

After receiving the measurement result of the terminal device, the serving cell locates the terminal device by combining the cell information received from the one or more neighboring cells in step 310, for example, the location information and cell timing information of each neighboring cell.

For example, when the measurement result is Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), the serving cell may obtain the positioning information of the terminal device according to the measurement result, the location information of each neighboring cell, and the cell timing information, and the positioning algorithm includes various implementation methods, which may specifically refer to the description of the prior art.

In scenario 1, the serving cell has a positioning function. The serving cell acquires the PRS configuration information of one or more neighbor cells of the serving cell, and sends the PRS configuration information and the PRS configuration information of the serving cell to the terminal equipment. Further, the serving cell requests the one or more neighbor cells to send PRSs to the terminal device so that PRSs available for measurement can be sent to the terminal device together with the serving cell, and the PRSs of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells are measured by the terminal device. And after the terminal equipment finishes the measurement, reporting the measurement result to the serving cell based on the reporting configuration information of the serving cell. The serving cell may complete positioning of the terminal device based on the measurement result.

Through the above steps 310-380, the access network can complete the positioning of the terminal device without the participation of the core network.

Scene 2

The serving cell does not have a positioning function, while a certain neighbor cell of the serving cell has a positioning function.

For clarity of description, the neighboring cell with positioning function of the serving cell is referred to as a first neighboring cell hereinafter. It should be understood that the first neighbor cell may be any one of all neighbor cells of the serving cell that has positioning functionality.

Optionally, in a possible case, the serving cell may have a plurality of neighboring cells with positioning function, in this case, the first neighboring cell may be any one of the plurality of neighboring cells with positioning function.

The following describes a positioning procedure of scene 2 with reference to fig. 4.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is another schematic flow chart of the method of positioning provided in the present application.

401. The serving cell acquires one or more PRS configuration information through the first neighbor cell.

Wherein the one or more PRS configuration information is from a serving cell, a first neighbor cell, and one or more other neighbor cells.

Or, the one or more PRS configuration information is from a serving cell and one or more neighbor cells. The one or more neighbor cells include a first neighbor cell. That is, the one or more neighbor cells of the serving cell include the first neighbor cell and other neighbor cells.

Specifically, before step 401, the serving cell and other neighboring cells send respective PRS configuration information to the first neighboring cell, and the first neighboring cell provides the serving cell with the PRS configuration information of the cell participating in positioning.

It should be appreciated that the one or more PRS configuration information provided by the first neighbor cell to the serving cell may include PRS configuration information for the serving cell, the first neighbor cell, and one or more other neighbor cells.

In one implementation, a serving cell sends message information of the serving cell to a first neighboring cell, where the cell information of the serving cell includes PRE configuration information of the serving cell, location information of the cell, cell timing information, and the like. Meanwhile, other neighboring cells also send their own cell information to the first neighboring cell, where the cell information includes PRS configuration information, location information of the cell, cell timing information, and the like.

The first neighbor cell receives the one or more PRS configuration information from the serving cell and one or more other neighbor cells and provides the one or more PRS configuration information to the serving cell.

It should be understood that since the first neighboring cell is a cell having a positioning function, the serving cell and other neighboring cells participating in positioning are determined by the first neighboring cell. The serving cell and the other neighbor cells transmit respective cell information to the first neighbor cell. After the first neighboring cell acquires the PRS configuration information of the serving cell and one or more neighboring cells, the first neighboring cell only needs to provide PRS configuration information of all cells participating in positioning to the serving cell.

Correspondingly, the serving cell only needs to transparently transmit the PRS configuration information of the cells participating in positioning, which is determined by the first neighbor cell, to the terminal device.

Optionally, in another implementation, after the first neighboring cell acquires the cell information of the serving cell and other neighboring cells, the location information and the cell timing information of each cell may be retained by the first neighboring cell without being provided to the serving cell, which is different from scenario 1.

In scenario 1, all neighboring cells provide their own cell information to the serving cell, where the cell information of each neighboring cell includes location information and timing information of the neighboring cell.

The reason for the difference is that in scene 2, the serving cell has no positioning function, while the first neighbor cell has a positioning function. The first neighbor cell retains the location information and timing information of the serving cell and other neighbor cells, which can subsequently be used to locate the terminal device without being provided to the serving cell.

The serving cell receives one or more PRS configuration information from a first neighbor cell.

402. The serving cell sends PRS configuration information for the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells to the terminal device.

403. And the service cell sends the reporting configuration information to the terminal equipment.

Steps 402-403 may refer to steps 302-303 above, respectively, and are not described in detail herein.

404. The serving cell sends a request message to a neighbor cell that sends a semi-persistent or aperiodic PRS through a first neighbor cell.

For the neighboring cells transmitting semi-persistent or non-periodic PRS, the serving cell needs to transmit a request message to the neighboring cells, where the request message carries one or more of the following information: a number of times to transmit a semi-persistent PRS, a duration of time to transmit the semi-persistent PRS, and a slot to transmit an aperiodic PRS.

405. The serving cell activates reception by the terminal device of semi-persistent PRS or aperiodic PRS.

406. The serving cell activates semi-persistent reporting or aperiodic reporting.

407. The serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells transmit PRSs to the terminal device.

The terminal device receives and measures PRSs of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells.

408. And the terminal equipment sends the measurement result to the serving cell.

The serving cell receives the measurement results from the terminal device.

Steps 405-408 are described with reference to steps 305-308, respectively, and will not be described again.

409. The serving cell sends the measurement result to the first neighbor cell.

410. And the first adjacent cell positions the terminal equipment according to the measurement result.

The first neighboring cell locates the terminal device according to the measurement result and the location information, timing information, etc. of other neighboring cells received from other neighboring cells in step 401, in combination with the location information, timing information, etc. of the first neighboring cell.

In scenario 2, the serving cell has no positioning function, while one neighbor cell (e.g., the first neighbor cell) of the serving cell has a positioning function. The serving cell acquires PRS configuration information of the cell participating in positioning through the first neighbor cell, and sends the PRS configuration information of the cell participating in positioning to the terminal equipment. Further, the serving cell requests other neighbor cells to send PRSs to the terminal device through the first neighbor cell. The terminal device receives and measures PRSs of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells. And after the terminal equipment finishes the measurement, reporting the measurement result to the serving cell based on the reporting configuration information of the serving cell. The serving cell provides the measurement result to the first neighboring cell, and the first neighboring cell locates the terminal device.

Therefore, under the scene that the serving cell does not have the positioning function and the neighboring cells have the positioning function, the access network can complete the positioning of the terminal device without the participation of the core network.

Considering that when the terminal device reports the measurement result (e.g., step 308 of scenario 1 or step 408 of scenario 2), the reporting channel may collide with a PUCCH carrying hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), scheduling Request (SR), or Channel State Information (CSI), or a PUSCH carrying data or CSI in a time domain, the scheme of the present application further provides a method for handling such collision.

The terminal equipment can combine the measurement quantity, the CSI, the HARQ-ACK and the SR according to the priority sequence of the measurement quantity, the CSI, the HARQ-ACK and the SR, and then report the combined information to the serving cell.

Alternatively, the measurement quantity and the priority of the CSI may be predefined or may also be defined by the terminal device.

For example, all measurement quantities have priority over CSI, or measurement quantities have priority between L1-RSRP and other CSI.

Optionally, when a collision occurs, if there is CSI, the terminal device first combines the measurement quantity and the CSI to obtain first information (or referred to as combined CSI). And further, combining the combined CSI, HARQ-ACK and SR to obtain the combined information. The combined CSI, HARQ-ACK, and SR may be referred to as 3GPP standard protocol TS 38.213.9.2.5-9.2.6.

Optionally, when collision occurs, if there is no CSI, the terminal device may directly combine the measurement quantity and HARQ-ACK, SR, or data, and then report the combined information to the serving cell.

Alternatively, the measurement result may include a plurality of measurement quantities, and the CSI includes a plurality of parts (e.g., part 1, part 2). The above defining the priorities of the measurement quantities and the CSI includes defining the priorities of the plurality of parts of the measurement quantities and the CSI. When a collision occurs, the plurality of measurement quantities and the plurality of portions of the CSI are combined according to the priorities.

For example, when the reporting channel cannot transmit all the measurement quantity and the CSI (or the bit number of the measurement quantity and the CSI exceeds the maximum code rate of the reporting channel), the terminal device may discard the measurement quantity with a lower priority or the CSI with a lower priority. That is, these lower priority measurements or portions of CSI are not reported. And the terminal equipment combines the measurement quantity with higher priority and the part with higher priority of the CSI, and reports the combined information to the serving cell.

In addition, when the terminal device reports the combined information to the serving cell, the PUCCH or PUSCH may be reselected to transmit the combined information.

Optionally, the terminal device may need to combine the measurement quantity and the SR, or combine the measurement quantity and the HARQ-ACK, or the reporting channel may be PUCCH, or the reporting channel may be PUSCH. In these different cases, there may be different merging rules, respectively, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

By designing the combination rule of the measurement quantity and CSI, HARQ-ACK, SR or data, etc., it can be ensured that information with relatively high priority is reported when collision occurs, and the reporting mechanism can be optimized.

The method for positioning the terminal device by the access network provided by the present application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 3 and 4.

This is illustrated below with reference to fig. 5 and 6.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is an example of a positioning procedure in which a serving cell has a positioning function.

501. The serving cell's gNB receives cell information for one or more neighbor cells from its gNB over an Xn interface based on an XnAP protocol.

The cell information of each neighboring cell includes PRS configuration information, location information, and timing information of the neighboring cell. .

502. And the gNB of the serving cell sends the report configuration information and the PRS configuration information of the cell participating in positioning to the UE through an RRC protocol.

Wherein the cells participating in positioning may include the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells.

It should be understood that, in this embodiment, the PRS configuration information and the reporting configuration information may be sent to the UE through one RRC message.

The UE receives the reporting configuration information and PRS configuration information of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells from the gbb of the serving cell.

503. And the gNB of the serving cell sends a request message to the gNB of the neighbor cell through an Xn interface based on the XnAP protocol.

Wherein the request message is used for requesting the one or more neighbor cells to transmit semi-persistent PRSs or non-periodic PRSs.

504. The serving cell's gNB activates the UE to receive semi-persistent PRS or aperiodic PRS.

Specifically, the serving cell's gNB may activate the UE to receive the semi-persistent PRS through the MAC CE or activate the UE to receive the aperiodic PRS through the DCI.

505. The gNB of the serving cell activates the UE to perform semi-persistent reporting or non-periodic reporting.

Optionally, the gNB of the serving cell may activate the UE to perform semi-persistent reporting or aperiodic reporting based on the MAC CE or DCI.

506. The gNB of the serving cell and the gNBs of the one or more neighbor cells transmit PRSs to the UE.

The neighbor cell configured to transmit the semi-persistent PRS transmits the PRS at a specified time and for a specified number of times according to a request of a gNB of a serving cell. Neighbor cells configured to transmit aperiodic PRSs transmit PRSs at specified times (e.g., at specified time slots) as requested by the serving cell.

Accordingly, the UE receives and measures PRS of the serving cell and PRS of neighboring cells according to the PRS configuration information of the serving cell and the PRS of neighboring cells received in step 502. For the serving cell or any one of the neighboring cells, the PRS transmitted by the serving cell may be a periodic PRS, an aperiodic PRS, or a semi-persistent PRS, depending on the configuration of the PRS of each cell.

507. The UE sends the measurement result to the serving cell's gNB.

The UE reports the measurement result according to the reporting configuration information received from the gNB of the serving cell in step 502.

Specifically, if the serving cell's gNB configures the UE to report periodically, the UE reports the measurement result periodically according to the reporting configuration information in step 502.

If the serving cell's gNB configures the UE for semi-persistent reporting or non-periodic reporting, the UE reports the measurement result to the serving cell's gNB on the reporting channel activated in step 504 according to the reporting configuration information in step 502.

Optionally, when the UE reports the measurement result, if the reporting channel collides with a PUCCH carrying CSI, HARQ-ACK, or SR, or collides with a PUSCH carrying data or CSI, the UE processes the measurement result according to the collision processing procedure described above, which is not described herein again.

508. And the gNB of the serving cell calculates the position of the UE according to the measurement result reported by the UE.

Optionally, after the serving cell's gNB calculates the location information of the UE, the location information is provided to the UE.

509. And the gNB of the serving cell sends the calculated position information of the UE to the UE through an RRC message or an MAC CE.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is an example of a positioning procedure in which a serving cell does not have a positioning function.

601. The serving cell sends PRS configuration information of the serving cell to the first neighbor cell, and one or more other neighbor cells send respective PRS configuration information to the first neighbor cell.

The first neighbor cell receives PRS configuration information for each cell from the serving cell and the one or more other neighbor cells.

602. The serving cell's gNB receives one or more cell information from the first neighbor cell's gNB over an Xn interface based on XnAP.

It should be understood that the one or more cell information is from the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells. Wherein the one or more neighbor cells include a first neighbor cell.

In other words, after acquiring the PRS configuration information of each cell from the serving cell and the gnbs of the one or more other neighboring cells, the gNB of the first neighboring cell provides the PRS configuration information of each cell participating in positioning to the gNB of the serving cell. The cell participating in positioning may be part or all of the serving cell and the one or more neighboring cells, which is not limited herein.

Wherein the cell information of each cell (e.g., serving cell or neighbor cell) includes PRS configuration information, location information, and timing information of the cell.

Optionally, after the gNB of the first neighboring cell receives the cell information from the serving cell and the gnbs of the one or more other neighboring cells, the cell information provided by the first neighboring cell to the gNB of the serving cell does not include the location information of each cell participating in positioning. Or, the gNB of the first neighbor cell provides only the PRS configuration information of each cell participating in positioning to the gNB of the serving cell.

603. The gNB of the serving cell provides the reporting configuration information, the PRS configuration information of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells to the UE based on the RRC protocol.

For PRS configuration information and reporting configuration information of each neighboring cell, reference may be made to the description of steps 402 to 403, which is not described herein again.

604. The serving cell's gNB transmits a request message to the one or more other neighbor cells via the first neighbor cell's gNB over an Xn interface based on an XnAP protocol.

Wherein the request message is used for requesting the corresponding neighbor cell to transmit the semi-persistent PRS or the aperiodic PRS.

605. The serving cell's gNB activates the UE to receive either semi-persistent PRS or aperiodic PRS.

606. And the gNB of the serving cell activates the UE to carry out semi-continuous reporting or non-periodic reporting.

607. The gNB of the serving cell and the gNBs of the one or more neighbor cells transmit PRSs to the UE.

The UE receives and measures PRS of the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells according to the PRS configuration information of the serving cell and the neighbor cells received in step 603.

It should be understood that for the serving cell or any one of the neighbor cells, the PRS it transmits may be a periodic PRS, an aperiodic PRS, or a semi-persistent PRS, depending on the configuration of the PRS for the cell.

608. And the UE reports the measurement result to the gNB of the serving cell.

609. The gNB of the serving cell sends the measurement result to the gNB of the first neighbor cell.

610. The gNB of the first neighboring cell calculates the location of the UE based on the measurement results and the location information, timing information, etc. of each neighboring cell acquired from each other neighboring cell in step 601.

611. And the gNB of the first adjacent cell sends the calculated position information of the UE to the gNB of the serving cell through an Xn interface.

612. The serving cell's gNB provides the UE's location information.

It should be understood that, each step in the flows shown in fig. 5 and fig. 6 may refer to the description of the corresponding step in fig. 3 and fig. 4, respectively, and a detailed description is not repeated for avoiding redundancy.

It should be noted that, in each embodiment of the present application, when the terminal device reports the measurement result to the serving cell, the physical layer of the terminal device encapsulates the measurement result and then sends the encapsulated measurement result to the serving cell through Uplink Control Information (UCI).

In the existing mechanism for performing location via LMF of core network, a long term evolution positioning protocol (LPP) layer of a terminal device encapsulates a measurement result, then maps the measurement result to an uplink-shared channel (UL-SCH) in a logical channel through non-access stratum (NAS) signaling and further via RRC/PDCP/RLC/MAC layer encapsulation, and sends the uplink-shared channel (UL-SCH) to a base station via layer 1 (PHY layer, physical layer), and the base station sends a data packet to the LMF via the AMF. The protocol stack is shown in figure 7.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a communication protocol stack of the LMF and the terminal device (taking the UE as an example). Information is transferred between the UE and the LMF through LPP messages, transparently forwarded through the base station, and transferred to the LMF through the AMF.

In the application, the physical layer of the terminal equipment is used for reporting, and the terminal equipment can feed back the measurement result to the base station more quickly. Meanwhile, the base station unpacks the data of the physical layer channel more quickly, and the base station can acquire the measurement result of the terminal more quickly.

The above method for positioning provided by the present application is explained in detail, and a communication apparatus for positioning provided by the present application is described below.

Referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 700 for positioning provided herein. The communication device 700 includes a transceiving unit 710 and a processing unit 720.

A transceiving unit 710, configured to transmit one or more Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) configuration information to a terminal device, a PRS corresponding to the one or more PRS configuration information is transmitted by a serving cell and/or one or more neighboring cells corresponding to the communication apparatus, and each PRS configuration information in the one or more PRS configuration information includes one or more of the following information: the method comprises the steps of configuring information of a periodic PRS, configuring information of a semi-continuous PRS and configuring information of an aperiodic PRS;

the transceiver unit 710 is further configured to receive, from the terminal device, measurement results of PRSs for the serving cell and the one or more neighbor cells;

and the processing unit 720 is configured to position the terminal device according to the measurement result.

Optionally, the transceiving unit 710 may also be replaced by a receiving unit and/or a transmitting unit.

For example, the transceiving unit 710 may be replaced by a receiving unit when performing the step of receiving. The transceiving unit 710 may be replaced by a transmitting unit when performing the step of transmitting.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 710 is further configured to receive cell information of the one or more neighboring cells from the one or more neighboring cells, where the cell information of each neighboring cell includes one or more of the following information:

position information, PRS configuration information, and cell timing information of the neighboring cell, wherein the PRS configuration information includes one or more of the following information: configuration information of periodic PRS, configuration information of semi-persistent PRS, configuration information of aperiodic PRS

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 710 is further configured to transmit a request message to the one or more neighboring cells, where the request message is used to request the one or more neighboring cells to transmit a PRS to the terminal device, where the PRS is a semi-persistent PRS or a non-periodic PRS, where the request message includes at least one of the following information:

the number of times of sending the semi-persistent PRS, the duration of sending the semi-persistent PRS, and the time slot of sending the aperiodic PRS.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 710 is further configured to transmit a first MAC CE to the terminal device, where the first MAC CE is used for the terminal device to activate or deactivate reception of the semi-persistent PRS.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 710 is further configured to transmit a first downlink control information DCI to the terminal device, where the first DCI is used for the terminal device to activate the reception of the aperiodic PRS.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiver unit 710 is further configured to send reporting configuration information to the terminal device, where the reporting configuration information includes one or more of the following information: the measurement quantity included in the measurement result, the channel used for reporting the measurement result, the periodicity of reporting the measurement result, and the PRS resource of each cell used for reporting the measurement result.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 710 is further configured to send a second MAC CE to the terminal device, where the second MAC CE is used to activate or deactivate the terminal device to report the measurement result semi-continuously through a PUCCH.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 710 is further configured to send a second DCI to the terminal device, where the second DCI is used to activate or deactivate the terminal device to report the measurement result semi-persistently through a PUCCH or a PUSCH.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 710 is further configured to send a third DCI to the terminal device, where the third DCI is used to activate the terminal device to report the measurement result aperiodically through a PUCCH or PUSCH.

In one implementation, the communications apparatus 700 can be a gNB of a serving cell in a method embodiment. In this implementation, the transceiving unit 710 may be a transceiver. The transceiver has a function of transmitting and/or receiving. The processing unit 720 is a processing device.

In another implementation, the communication apparatus 700 may be a chip or an integrated circuit installed in a gbb of a serving cell. In this implementation, the transceiving unit 710 may be a communication interface. Such as an input-output interface or an input-output circuit. The processing unit 720 may be a processing device.

Here, the functions of the processing device may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. For example, the processing device may include a memory for storing a computer program and a processor that reads and executes the computer program stored in the memory, so that the communication device 700 performs the operations and/or processes performed by the gNB of the serving cell in the various method embodiments. Alternatively, the processing means may comprise only the processor, the memory for storing the computer program being located outside the processing means. The processor is connected to the memory through the circuit/wire to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory.

Alternatively, the transceiver unit 710 may be a radio frequency device, and the processing unit 720 may be a baseband device.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 800 provided herein. The communication device 800 includes a transceiver unit 810 and a processing unit 820.

A transceiver unit 810 configured to receive one or more PRS configuration information from a serving cell, where a PRS corresponding to the one or more PRSs is from the serving cell and/or one or more neighbor cells, where each PRS configuration information in the one or more PRS configuration information includes one or more of the following information: configuration information of a periodic PRS, configuration information of a semi-persistent PRS, and configuration information of a non-periodic PRS;

a processing unit 820, configured to obtain measurement results of PRS of a serving cell and/or one or more neighboring cells according to the one or more PRS configuration information;

the transceiving unit 810 is further configured to send the measurement result to the serving cell.

Alternatively, the transceiver unit 810 may be replaced by a receiving unit and/or a transmitting unit.

For example, the transceiving unit 810 may be replaced by a receiving unit when performing the step of receiving. The transceiving unit 810 may be replaced by a transmitting unit when performing the step of transmitting.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 810 is further configured to receive a first MAC CE from the serving cell, where the first MAC CE is used for the terminal device to activate or deactivate reception of a semi-persistent PRS.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the processing unit 820 is further configured to control the transceiver unit 810 to periodically receive the semi-persistent PRS from a cell in a first set of cells according to the first MAC CE, where the first set of cells includes the serving cell and a cell in the one or more neighbor cells, where the cell transmits the semi-persistent PRS.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 810 is further configured to receive a first DCI from the serving cell, where the first DCI is used for receiving the terminal device activated non-periodic PRS.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the processing unit 820 is further configured to control the transceiving unit 810 to receive the aperiodic PRS from a cell in a second set of cells according to the first DCI, where the second set of cells includes the serving cell and a cell in the one or more neighboring cells, where the cell transmits the aperiodic PRS.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiver unit 810 is further configured to receive reporting configuration information from the serving cell, where the reporting configuration information includes one or more of the following information:

the measurement quantity included in the measurement result, the channel used for reporting the measurement result, the periodicity of reporting the measurement result, and the PRS resource of each cell used for reporting the measurement result.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiver unit 810 is further configured to receive a second MAC CE from the serving cell, where the second MAC CE is configured to activate or deactivate the terminal device to report the measurement result semi-continuously through a PUCCH.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 810 is further configured to receive a second DCI from the serving cell, where the second DCI is used to activate or deactivate the terminal device to report the measurement result semi-persistently through a PUCCH or a PUSCH.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiver unit 810 is further configured to receive a third DCI from the serving cell, where the third DCI is used to activate the terminal device to report the measurement result aperiodically through a PUCCH or a PUSCH.

In one implementation, the communication apparatus 800 may be a terminal device in a method embodiment. In such an implementation, the transceiving unit 810 may be a transceiver. The transceiver has a function of transmitting and/or receiving. The processing unit 820 is a processing device.

In another implementation, the communication apparatus 800 may be a chip or an integrated circuit installed in the terminal device. In this implementation, the transceiving unit 810 may be a communication interface. Such as an input-output interface or an input-output circuit. Processing unit 820 may be a processing device.

Here, the functions of the processing device may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by hardware executing corresponding software. For example, the processing device may include a memory for storing a computer program and a processor for reading and executing the computer program stored in the memory, so that the communication device 800 performs the operations and/or processes performed by the terminal device in the method embodiments. Alternatively, the processing means may comprise only the processor, the memory for storing the computer program being located outside the processing means. The processor is connected to the memory through the circuit/wire to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory.

Alternatively, the transceiver unit 810 may be a radio frequency device, and the processing unit 820 may be a baseband device.

Referring to fig. 10, fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 900 provided herein. The communication apparatus 900 includes a transceiving unit 910 and a processing unit 920.

A transceiving unit 910, configured to transmit one or more PRS configuration information to a serving cell, where PRS corresponding to the one or more PRS configuration information are from one or more of the serving cell, a first neighbor cell corresponding to the communication apparatus, and other neighbor cells;

a processing unit 920, configured to receive, from a serving cell, measurement results of PRS of the serving cell and one or more neighbor cells by the terminal device;

the transceiving unit 910 is further configured to locate the terminal device according to the measurement result.

Alternatively, the transceiving unit 910 may also be replaced by a receiving unit and/or a transmitting unit.

For example, the transceiving unit 910 may be replaced by a receiving unit when performing the step of receiving. The transceiving unit 910 may be replaced by a transmitting unit when performing the step of transmitting.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 910 is further configured to receive cell information from the serving cell and/or other neighboring cells, where the cell information of each cell includes one or more of the following information: location information, PRS configuration information, and cell timing information of a cell, wherein the PRS configuration information comprises one or more of the following information: configuration information of periodic PRS, configuration information of semi-persistent PRS, and configuration information of aperiodic PRS.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 910 is further configured to receive a request message from the serving cell, the requesting cell being configured to request the one or more neighboring cells to transmit a PRS to the terminal device, the PRS being a semi-persistent PRS or a non-periodic PRS; and the transceiving unit 910 is further configured to send the request message to other neighboring cells.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the transceiving unit 910 is further configured to send location information of the terminal device to the serving cell.

In one implementation, the communication apparatus 900 may be a gNB of the first neighbor cell in the method embodiment. In this implementation, the transceiving unit 910 may be a transceiver. The transceiver has a function of transmitting and/or receiving. The processing unit 920 is a processing device.

In another implementation, the communication apparatus 900 may be a chip or an integrated circuit installed in a gbb of the first neighbor cell. In this implementation, the transceiving unit 910 may be a communication interface. Such as an input-output interface or an input-output circuit. The processing unit 920 may be a processing device.

Here, the functions of the processing device may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. For example, the processing device may include a memory for storing a computer program and a processor that reads and executes the computer program stored in the memory, so that the communication device 900 performs the operations and/or processes performed by the gNB of the first neighbor cell in the method embodiments. Alternatively, the processing means may comprise only the processor, the memory for storing the computer program being located outside the processing means. The processor is connected to the memory via the circuitry/wires to read and execute the computer programs stored in the memory.

Alternatively, the transceiving unit 910 may be a radio frequency device, and the processing unit 920 may be a baseband device.

Referring to fig. 11, fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of the communication device 10 provided in the present application. As shown in fig. 11, the communication device 10 includes: one or more processors 11, one or more memories 12, one or more communication interfaces 13. The processor 11 is configured to control the communication interface 13 to send and receive signals, the memory 12 is configured to store a computer program, and the processor 11 is configured to call and run the computer program from the memory 12 to execute the procedures and/or operations performed by the access network device of the serving cell in the positioning method provided by the present application.

For example, the processor 11 may have the functions of the processing unit 710 shown in fig. 8, and the communication interface 13 may have the functions of the transceiving unit 720 shown in fig. 8. Specifically, refer to the description in fig. 8, which is not described herein again.

Alternatively, when the communication device 10 is an access network device of a serving cell, the processor 11 may be a baseband device installed in the access network device, and the communication interface 13 may be a radio frequency device.

Referring to fig. 12, fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 20 provided in the present application. As shown in fig. 12, the communication device 20 includes: one or more processors 21, one or more memories 22, one or more communication interfaces 23. The processor 21 is configured to control the communication interface 23 to send and receive signals, the memory 22 is configured to store a computer program, and the processor 21 is configured to call and run the computer program from the memory 22 to execute the procedures and/or operations performed by the terminal device in the positioning method provided by the present application.

For example, the processor 21 may have the functions of the processing unit 820 shown in fig. 9, and the communication interface 23 may have the functions of the transceiving unit 820 shown in fig. 9. Specifically, refer to the description in fig. 9, which is not described herein again.

Alternatively, when the communication device 20 is a terminal equipment, the processor 21 may be a baseband device installed in the terminal equipment, and the communication interface 23 may be a radio frequency device.

Referring to fig. 13, fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 30 provided in the present application. As shown in fig. 13, the communication device 30 includes: one or more processors 31, one or more memories 32, one or more communication interfaces 33. The processor 31 is configured to control the communication interface 33 to send and receive signals, the memory 32 is configured to store a computer program, and the processor 31 is configured to invoke and execute the computer program from the memory 32 to perform the procedures and/or operations performed by the access network device of the first neighboring cell in the positioning method provided by the present application.

For example, the processor 31 may have the functions of the processing unit 920 shown in fig. 10, and the communication interface 33 may have the functions of the transceiving unit 910 shown in fig. 10. Reference may be made specifically to the description in fig. 10, which is not described herein again.

Alternatively, when the communication device 30 is a gNB of the first neighboring cell, the processor 31 may be a baseband device installed in the gNB of the first neighboring cell, and the communication interface 33 may be a radio frequency device.

Alternatively, the memory and the storage in the above device embodiments may be physically separate units, or the memory and the processor may be integrated together.

In addition, the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer instructions are stored, and when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is caused to perform the operations and/or procedures performed by the access network equipment of the serving cell in the positioning method provided by the present application.

In addition, the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer instructions are stored, and when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is enabled to execute the operations and/or procedures executed by the terminal device in the positioning method provided by the present application.

In addition, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, where computer instructions are stored, and when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is caused to perform operations and/or procedures performed by an access network device of a first neighboring cell in the positioning method provided in this application.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program code to, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the operations and/or procedures performed by an access network equipment serving a cell in the method for positioning provided herein.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program code, which when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the operations and/or procedures performed by the terminal device in the method for positioning provided by the present application.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program code to, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the operations and/or procedures performed by the access network equipment of the first neighbor cell in the method for positioning provided herein.

In addition, the present application also provides a chip including a processor. A memory for storing the computer program is provided separately from the chip, and a processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the operations and/or processes performed by the access network device serving the cell in any of the method embodiments.

Further, the chip may also include a communication interface. The communication interface may be an input/output interface, an input/output circuit, or the like. Further, the chip may further include the memory.

In addition, the present application also provides a chip including a processor. A memory for storing the computer program is provided separately from the chip, and a processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the operations and/or processes performed by the terminal device in any one of the method embodiments.

Further, the chip may also include a communication interface. The communication interface may be an input/output interface, an input/output circuit, or the like. Further, the chip may further include the memory.

In addition, the present application also provides a chip including a processor. A memory for storing a computer program is provided separately from the chip, and a processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the operations and/or processes performed by the access network device of the first neighbor cell in any of the method embodiments.

Further, the chip may also include a communication interface. The communication interface may be an input/output interface, an input/output circuit, or the like. Further, the chip may further include the memory.

In addition, the present application also provides a wireless communication system, including the access network device of the serving cell and the access network devices of one or more neighboring cells in the embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the wireless communication system may further include a terminal device in the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the present application further provides another wireless communication system, including the access network device of the serving cell and the access network device of the first neighboring cell in the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the wireless communication system may further include a terminal device in this embodiment.

Further optionally, the wireless communication system may further comprise access network equipment of one or more other neighboring cells.

The processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having the capability of processing signals. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, or discrete hardware components. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware encoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the encoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor reads information in the memory and combines hardware thereof to complete the steps of the method.

The memory in the embodiments of the present application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM, enhanced SDRAM, SLDRAM, synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

As used in this specification, the terms "unit," "system," and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution. A component may be located on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processes based on a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from two components interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network, such as the internet with other systems by way of the signal).

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one type of logical functional division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (14)

1. A method of positioning, comprising:

a first neighbor cell sends one or more PRS configuration information to a serving cell, and PRSs corresponding to the one or more PRS configuration information are sent by one or more of the serving cell, the first neighbor cell and other neighbor cells;

the first neighbor cell receives a measurement result from the serving cell, wherein the measurement result is obtained by measuring PRSs transmitted by the serving cell and one or more neighbor cells according to the one or more PRS configuration information acquired from the serving cell by a terminal device;

and the first adjacent cell positions the terminal equipment according to the measurement result.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to the first neighbor cell transmitting one or more PRS configuration information to a serving cell, the method further comprises:

the first neighbor cell receives cell information from the serving cell and/or the other neighbor cells, the cell information for each of the serving cell and the other neighbor cells including one or more of:

location information, PRS configuration information, and cell timing information of a cell, wherein the PRS configuration information comprises one or more of the following information:

configuration information of a periodic PRS, configuration information of a semi-persistent PRS, configuration information of an aperiodic PRS.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the first neighbor cell receiving a request message from the serving cell, the request message requesting the one or more neighbor cells to send PRSs to the terminal device, the PRSs being semi-persistent PRSs or non-periodic PRSs;

and the first adjacent cell sends the request message to the other adjacent cells.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein after the first neighboring cell locates the terminal device according to the measurement result, the method further comprises:

and the first adjacent cell sends the position information of the terminal equipment to the serving cell.

5. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the measurement results are included in merged information, which satisfies the following rule:

the merged information is obtained by merging the measurement quantity and the CSI contained in the measurement result; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the combined information is obtained by combining the measurement quantity and the first information obtained after the CSI is combined with a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement HARQ-ACK and a scheduling request SR; or;

the merged information comprises a part of measurement quantity and a part of the CSI in the measurement result, wherein the measurement result comprises a plurality of measurement quantities, and the CSI comprises a plurality of parts;

the merged information is sent to the serving cell by the terminal equipment;

the first neighbor cell receiving measurement results of PRSs of a terminal device for the serving cell and one or more neighbor cells from the serving cell, comprising:

the first neighbor cell receives the measurement result included in the combined information from the serving cell.

6. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to transmit one or more PRS configuration information to a serving cell, where a PRS corresponding to the one or more PRS configuration information is transmitted by one or more of the serving cell, a first neighbor cell corresponding to the communication apparatus, and other neighbor cells;

the transceiver unit is further configured to receive a measurement result from the serving cell, where the measurement result is obtained by a terminal device measuring PRSs transmitted by the serving cell and one or more neighboring cells according to the one or more PRS configuration information acquired from the serving cell;

and the processing unit is used for positioning the terminal equipment according to the measurement result.

7. The communications apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

receiving cell information from the serving cell and/or the other neighbor cells, the cell information for each of the serving cell and the other neighbor cells including one or more of:

location information, PRS configuration information, and cell timing information of a cell, wherein the PRS configuration information comprises one or more of the following information:

configuration information of a periodic PRS, configuration information of a semi-persistent PRS, configuration information of an aperiodic PRS.

8. The communication apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

receiving a request message from the serving cell, the request message requesting the one or more neighbor cells to send a PRS to the terminal device, the PRS being a semi-persistent PRS or a non-periodic PRS;

and sending the request message to the other adjacent cells.

9. The communication apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

and sending the position information of the terminal equipment to the serving cell.

10. A communication device according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the measurement result is included in the merged information, and the merged information satisfies the following rule:

the merged information is obtained by merging the measurement quantity and the Channel State Information (CSI) contained in the measurement result; alternatively, the first and second liquid crystal display panels may be,

the combined information is obtained by combining the measurement quantity and the first information obtained after the CSI is combined with a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement HARQ-ACK and a scheduling request SR; or;

the merged information comprises a part of the measurement quantity and a part of the CSI in the measurement result, wherein the measurement result comprises a plurality of measurement quantities, and the CSI comprises a plurality of parts;

and the combined information is sent to the serving cell by the terminal equipment;

the transceiver unit is specifically configured to:

receiving the measurement result included in the combined information from the serving cell.

11. A communications apparatus, comprising at least one processor coupled with at least one memory:

the at least one processor configured to execute computer programs or instructions stored in the at least one memory to cause the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 1-5.

12. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-5.

13. A chip comprising a processor for reading and executing a computer program stored in a memory to perform the method of any one of claims 1-5.

14. A wireless communication system, characterized in that it comprises a communication device according to any of claims 6-10.

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