CN114095855A

CN114095855A - Positioning method and device

Info

Publication number: CN114095855A
Application number: CN202010753352.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 高鑫; 黄甦; 王艺; 刘梦婷
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-07-30
Filing date: 2020-07-30
Publication date: 2022-02-25

Abstract

The application relates to a positioning method and a positioning device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: a positioning server receives a first message of a first terminal device; the first message indicates that the type of the first terminal equipment is a calibration terminal; the method comprises the steps that a positioning server obtains first arrival time differences among N first access network devices measured by first terminal equipment; determining second arrival time differences between the first terminal equipment and the N first access network equipment according to the type of the first terminal equipment; the second arrival time difference is related to the position information of the first terminal equipment and the position information of the N first access network equipment; determining calibration time differences among the N first access network devices according to the second arrival time difference and the first arrival time difference; the calibrated time difference between the N first access network devices is used to determine the location information of the terminal device within the coverage of the N first access network devices.

Description

Positioning method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

With the development of mobile communication technology and the popularization of intelligent terminal equipment, mobile network services are increasingly abundant, so that the life of people is more convenient. Currently, most applications need to acquire location information of a terminal device in order to provide more humanized services for users, for example: traffic navigation, geographic location retrieval, location information sharing, and the like. Therefore, how to determine the position (i.e. location) of the terminal device has become an important research direction.

In the mobile cellular network positioning deployed by an operator, the mobile cellular network is utilized for positioning, the position range of a user can be preliminarily determined directly according to the position of a base station of a cellular cell where the user is located, and the smaller the coverage radius of the cell is, the higher the obtained position precision is; further, the time difference of arrival (TDOA) may be obtained by measuring the distance from the terminal device to the base station, the angle of arrival (AoA) or multi-cell joint measurement, so as to calculate a positioning result with higher accuracy. However, in the above positioning process, if the accuracy of timing synchronization of a plurality of base stations (which may include the serving base station and the neighboring base stations of the terminal device) is poor or timing synchronization is not possible, a large error exists between the calculated time difference and the actual propagation time difference of the channel signal, which affects the positioning accuracy.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a positioning method and a positioning device, which are used for improving the positioning accuracy of terminal equipment.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a positioning method, which may be applied in a positioning system including at least one terminal, at least one access network device, at least one positioning server, and at least two cells. In the method, a positioning server receives a first message of a first terminal device; the first message indicates that the type of the first terminal equipment is a calibration terminal; the method comprises the steps that a positioning server obtains first arrival time differences among N first access network devices measured by first terminal equipment; n is a positive integer; the positioning server determines second arrival time differences between the first terminal equipment and the N first access network equipment according to the type of the first terminal equipment; the second arrival time difference is related to the position information of the first terminal equipment and the position information of the N first access network equipment; the positioning server determines calibration time differences among the N first access network devices according to the second arrival time difference and the first arrival time difference; the calibrated time difference between the N first access network devices is used to determine the location information of the terminal device within the coverage of the N first access network devices.

By the method, the positioning server can acquire a first arrival time difference between N first access network devices measured by the first terminal device under the condition that the type of the terminal device reported by the first terminal device is the calibration terminal; and determining a second arrival time difference between the first terminal equipment and the N first access network equipment according to the type of the first terminal equipment, and then determining a calibration time difference between the N first access network equipment according to the first arrival time difference and the second arrival time difference, so as to calibrate the position information of the terminal equipment within the coverage range of the N first access network equipment according to the calibration time difference between the N first access network equipment, thereby improving the positioning accuracy of the terminal equipment.

In a possible implementation, the location server further receives a second message; the second message indicates that the type of the second terminal equipment is a non-calibration terminal; the positioning server receives a third arrival time difference between M first access network devices measured by the second terminal device; m is less than or equal to N; m is a positive integer; the positioning server determines a fourth arrival time difference according to the calibration time difference and the third arrival time difference; and the positioning server determines the position information of the second terminal equipment according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network equipment.

By the method, the type of the second terminal equipment can be determined by receiving the second message, so that the position information of the second terminal equipment is determined to be the terminal equipment needing to be calibrated for the time difference. Furthermore, when the second terminal device reports the third arrival time difference, the fourth arrival time difference is determined by calibrating the time difference, so that the position information of the second terminal device is determined according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network devices, and the positioning accuracy of the second terminal device can be improved.

In a possible implementation manner, the positioning server may further receive a first request message from the second terminal device; the first request message is used for requesting the calibration time difference among the N first access network devices; the positioning server sends a first response message to the second terminal equipment; the first response message is used to indicate a calibration time difference between the N first access network devices.

By the method, the positioning server can return the first response message to the second terminal device according to the first request message, so that the second terminal device can calibrate the arrival time difference measured by the second terminal device according to the calibration time difference between the N first access network devices in the first response message, and a more accurate positioning position can be obtained.

In a possible implementation manner, before the positioning server obtains the first message of the first terminal device, the positioning server may further send a first query message to the first terminal device; the first query message is used for querying whether the type of the first terminal equipment is a calibration terminal.

By the method, the positioning server can actively send the first query message to the first terminal equipment so as to determine the terminal equipment which can be used for calibrating the time difference, the efficiency of the positioning server for acquiring the calibration time difference is improved, and further, the situation that all the terminal equipment actively reports the first message is avoided, so that the resource overhead is reduced.

In one possible implementation, the first message may include a first field; the first field indicates a type of the first terminal device. Therefore, the positioning server can determine the type of the first terminal device according to the content corresponding to the first field to determine that the first terminal device is the calibration terminal, so that the positioning server can conveniently confirm the calibration time difference according to the information reported by the first terminal device, and the efficiency of determining the calibration time difference is improved.

In a possible implementation manner, the positioning server may further receive a third message from the first terminal device; the third message includes a second field; the second field indicates a measurement mode of the position information of the first terminal device; the measurement means may include, but is not limited to, at least one of: the method comprises the steps of a global navigation satellite system GNSS, a wireless local area network WLAN, Bluetooth and a preset mode.

By the method, the positioning server can correspondingly determine the precision of the position information of the first terminal device according to the measurement mode of the position information of the first terminal device indicated by the second field, so that the precision of the calibration time difference determined by the first terminal device is determined according to the precision of the position information of the first terminal device, and the positioning server can adopt the calibration time differences with different precisions for the terminal devices to be calibrated according to different precision requirements. In addition, the weight or the priority of the calibration time difference determined by the plurality of first terminal devices can be determined according to the measurement mode of the position information of the first terminal devices reported by the plurality of first terminal devices, so that the accuracy of the generated calibration time difference is improved, and the calibration precision is further improved.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a positioning method, which may be applied in a positioning system including at least one terminal, at least one access network device, at least one positioning server, and at least two cells. The method comprises the steps that a first terminal device sends a first message to a positioning server; the first message indicates that the type of the first terminal device is a calibration terminal, so that the positioning server determines second arrival time differences between the first terminal device and the N first access network devices according to the type of the first terminal device, the second arrival time differences are related to position information of the first terminal device and position information of the N first access network devices, and N is a positive integer; the first terminal equipment measures first arrival time differences among the N first access network equipment and provides the first arrival time differences to the positioning server; the first arrival time difference and the second arrival time difference are used for the positioning server to determine the position information of the terminal equipment within the coverage range of the N first access network equipment.

By the method, the first terminal device reports the type of the first terminal device to the positioning server, so that the positioning server can calibrate the clock synchronization errors among the N first access network devices through the first terminal device. The first terminal device sends a second arrival time difference between the N first access network devices measured by the first terminal device to the positioning server, so that the positioning server can determine the first arrival time difference according to the position information of the first terminal device and the position information of the N first access network devices, and further determine a calibration time difference according to the first arrival time difference and the second arrival time difference so as to calibrate the position information of the terminal device within the coverage range of the N first access network devices, thereby improving the positioning accuracy in the arrival time difference method.

In a possible implementation manner, before the first terminal device sends the first message to the location server, the first terminal device may further receive a first query message from the location server; the first query message is used for querying whether the first terminal device is a calibration terminal.

By the method, the first terminal equipment sends the first query message to the positioning server after the positioning server sends the first query message, so that the positioning server determines the terminal equipment which can be used for calibrating the time difference, all the terminal equipment are prevented from actively reporting the first message, and the utilization rate of resources can be improved.

In one possible implementation, the first message may include a first field; the first field indicates a type of the first terminal device. Based on this, the first terminal device can report the type of the first terminal device through the first field, which is beneficial for the positioning server to determine the type of the first terminal device, so that the efficiency of determining the calibration time difference can be improved.

In a possible implementation manner, the first terminal device may further send a third message to the location server; the third message includes a second field; the second field indicates a measurement mode of the position information of the first terminal device; the measurement means may include, but is not limited to, at least one of: the method comprises the steps of a global navigation satellite system GNSS, a wireless local area network WLAN, Bluetooth and a preset mode.

By the method, the first terminal device can report the measurement mode of the position information of the first terminal device to the positioning server through the third message, so that the positioning server can correspondingly determine the precision of the position information of the first terminal device, the positioning server is favorable for screening the position information of the terminal device, the accuracy of the generated calibration time difference is improved, and the calibration precision is improved.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a positioning method, which may be applied in a positioning system including at least one terminal, at least one access network device, at least one positioning server, and at least two cells. The second terminal device measures a third arrival time difference among M first access network devices, wherein M is a positive integer, and the second terminal device sends a first request message to the positioning server; the first request message is used for requesting the calibration time difference among the M first access network devices; the second terminal equipment receives a first response message from the positioning server; the first response message is used for indicating the calibration time difference among the M first access network devices; the calibration time difference between the M first access network devices is used for determining the position information of the terminal device within the coverage range of the M first access network devices; the second terminal equipment determines a fourth arrival time difference according to the calibration time difference and the third arrival time difference among the M first access network equipment; and the second terminal equipment determines the position information of the second terminal equipment according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network equipment.

By the method, the second terminal device can obtain the calibrated arrival time difference among the M first access network devices according to the calibrated time difference from the positioning server by sending the first request message to the positioning server, so that the fourth arrival time difference is determined according to the calibrated time difference among the M first access network devices and the third arrival time difference among the M first access network devices measured by the second terminal device, and the second terminal device determines the position information of the second terminal device according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network devices. Since the fourth arrival time difference is the calibrated arrival time difference, the accuracy of the position information of the second terminal device determined by the fourth arrival time difference is higher.

In a possible implementation manner, the second terminal device may further send a second message to the location server; the second message indicates that the type of the second terminal device is a non-calibrated terminal.

By the method, the type of the second terminal device can be reported to the positioning server, so that the positioning server determines that the position information of the second terminal device is the terminal device which needs time difference calibration, and the positioning server can subsequently send the calibrated time difference to the second terminal device, thereby improving the positioning precision of the second terminal device. Or when the positioning server positions the second terminal device, calibrating the arrival time difference of the second terminal device by the calibration time difference.

In a possible implementation manner, the second terminal device may further receive a second query message from the location server; the second query message is used for querying whether the second terminal device is a calibration terminal.

By the method, the type of the second terminal equipment can be reported to the positioning server by receiving the second query message, so that the positioning server can determine that the position information of the second terminal equipment needs time difference calibration. Furthermore, when the second terminal device needs to be positioned, the calibration time difference can be sent to the second terminal device, so that the second terminal device obtains the calibrated arrival time difference according to the calibration time difference, and the positioning accuracy of the second terminal device is improved.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, for example, the communication apparatus may be a positioning server as described above, and the positioning server may be a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in the communication device. The communication device is adapted to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation. In particular, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation, for example comprising a processing means and a transceiver means. For example, the transceiver module may include a transmitting module and a receiving module, and the transmitting module and the receiving module may be different functional modules, or may also be the same functional module, but can implement different functions. For example, the transceiver module may be implemented by a transceiver, and the processing module may be implemented by a processor. Alternatively, the sending module may be implemented by a sender, the receiving module may be implemented by a receiver, and the sender and the receiver may be different functional modules, or may also be the same functional module, but may implement different functions. If the communication device is a communication device, the transceiver is implemented, for example, by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, etc. in the communication device. Alternatively, if the communication device is a chip disposed in the communication device, the transceiver (or the transmitter and the receiver) is, for example, a communication interface in the chip, and the communication interface is connected with a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication device to realize transceiving of information through the radio frequency transceiving component.

With regard to the technical effects brought about by the embodiments of the fourth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, for example, the communication apparatus is the first terminal device as before. The first terminal device is configured to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible embodiment. Illustratively, the first terminal device may be a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in the communication device. In particular, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method in embodiments of the second aspect, for example comprising a processing means and a transceiver means. For example, the transceiver module may include a transmitting module and a receiving module, and the transmitting module and the receiving module may be different functional modules, or may also be the same functional module, but can implement different functions. For example, the transceiver module may be implemented by a transceiver, and the processing module may be implemented by a processor. Alternatively, the sending module may be implemented by a sender, the receiving module may be implemented by a receiver, and the sender and the receiver may be different functional modules, or may also be the same functional module, but may implement different functions. If the communication device is a communication device, the transceiver is implemented, for example, by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, etc. in the communication device. Alternatively, if the communication device is a chip disposed in the communication device, the transceiver (or the transmitter and the receiver) is, for example, a communication interface in the chip, and the communication interface is connected with a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication device to realize transceiving of information through the radio frequency transceiving component.

With regard to the technical effects brought about by the embodiments of the fifth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the possible implementations of the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, for example, the communication apparatus is the second terminal device as before. The second terminal device is configured to perform the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation manner. The second terminal device may be a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in the communication device. In particular, the communication device may comprise means, for example comprising a processing means and a transceiver means, for performing the method in embodiments of the third aspect. For example, the transceiver module may include a transmitting module and a receiving module, and the transmitting module and the receiving module may be different functional modules, or may also be the same functional module, but can implement different functions. Illustratively, the communication device is a terminal device. For example, the transceiver module may be implemented by a transceiver, and the processing module may be implemented by a processor. Alternatively, the sending module may be implemented by a sender, the receiving module may be implemented by a receiver, and the sender and the receiver may be different functional modules, or may also be the same functional module, but may implement different functions. If the communication device is a communication device, the transceiver is implemented, for example, by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, etc. in the communication device. Alternatively, if the communication device is a chip disposed in the communication device, the transceiver (or the transmitter and the receiver) is, for example, a communication interface in the chip, and the communication interface is connected with a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication device to realize transceiving of information through the radio frequency transceiving component.

With regard to the technical effects brought about by the embodiments of the sixth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of possible implementations of the third aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, for example, a positioning server as before. Illustratively, the positioning server may be a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in the communication device. The communication device includes a processor and a communication interface that may be used to communicate with other devices or apparatuses. Optionally, the communication device may further comprise a memory for storing computer instructions. The processor and the memory are coupled to each other for implementing the method described in the first aspect or the various possible embodiments above. Alternatively, the communication device may not include a memory, which may be external to the communication device. The processor, the memory and the communication interface are coupled to each other for implementing the method described in the first aspect or the various possible embodiments. The processor, for example, when executing computer instructions stored by the memory, causes the communication device to perform the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible embodiments described above. Illustratively, the communication means is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in the communication device. Wherein, if the communication device is a communication device, the communication interface is implemented by, for example, a transceiver (or a transmitter and a receiver) in the communication device, for example, the transceiver is implemented by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, and the like in the communication device. Or, if the communication device is a chip disposed in the communication apparatus, the communication interface is, for example, an input/output interface, such as an input/output pin, of the chip, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication apparatus to realize transceiving of information through the radio frequency transceiving component.

In an eighth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which is, for example, the first terminal device as before. Illustratively, the first terminal device may be a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in the communication device. The communication device includes a processor and a communication interface that may be used to communicate with other devices or apparatuses. Optionally, the communication device may further comprise a memory for storing computer instructions. The processor and the memory are coupled to each other for implementing the method described in the second aspect or the various possible embodiments above. Alternatively, the communication device may not include a memory, which may be external to the communication device. The processor, the memory and the communication interface are coupled to each other for implementing the method described in the second aspect or the various possible embodiments described above. The processor, for example, when executing computer instructions stored by the memory, causes the communication device to perform the method of the second aspect or any one of the possible embodiments described above. Wherein, if the communication device is a communication device, the communication interface is implemented by, for example, a transceiver (or a transmitter and a receiver) in the communication device, for example, the transceiver is implemented by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, and the like in the communication device. Or, if the communication device is a chip disposed in the communication apparatus, the communication interface is, for example, an input/output interface, such as an input/output pin, of the chip, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication apparatus to realize transceiving of information through the radio frequency transceiving component.

A ninth aspect provides a communication apparatus, for example, the second terminal device as before. The second terminal device may be a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in the communication device. The communication device includes a processor and a communication interface that may be used to communicate with other devices or apparatuses. Optionally, the communication device may further comprise a memory for storing computer instructions. The processor and the memory are coupled to each other for implementing the method described in the third aspect or the various possible embodiments above. Alternatively, the communication device may not include a memory, which may be external to the communication device. The processor, the memory and the communication interface are coupled to each other for implementing the method described in the third aspect or the various possible embodiments. The processor, for example, when executing computer instructions stored by the memory, causes the communication device to perform the method of the third aspect or any one of the possible embodiments described above. Wherein, if the communication device is a communication device, the communication interface is implemented by, for example, a transceiver (or a transmitter and a receiver) in the communication device, for example, the transceiver is implemented by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, and the like in the communication device. Or, if the communication device is a chip disposed in the communication apparatus, the communication interface is, for example, an input/output interface, such as an input/output pin, of the chip, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication apparatus to realize transceiving of information through the radio frequency transceiving component.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a communication system comprising the communication apparatus of the fourth aspect or the communication apparatus of the seventh aspect, or comprising the communication apparatus of the fifth aspect or the communication apparatus of the eighth aspect, or comprising the communication apparatus of the sixth aspect or the communication apparatus of the ninth aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible embodiments.

In a twelfth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which is used for storing a computer program, and when the computer program runs on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method in the embodiment of the second aspect or the third aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of the possible implementations of the first, second or third aspect described above.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic system architecture diagram of a positioning method applicable to the present application;

fig. 2a is a schematic system architecture diagram of a positioning method applicable to the present application;

FIG. 2b is a schematic diagram of a positioning method applicable to the present application;

FIGS. 3A-3D are schematic diagrams of a system architecture suitable for use with the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a positioning method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a schematic flowchart of a positioning method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a schematic flowchart of a positioning method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 is a schematic flowchart illustrating a positioning method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

1) A terminal, also referred to as a terminal equipment, User Equipment (UE), Mobile Station (MS), Mobile Terminal (MT), etc., is a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user, and may include, for example, a handheld device with wireless connection capability or a processing device connected to a wireless modem. The terminal may communicate with a core network via a Radio Access Network (RAN), exchanging voice and/or data with the RAN. The terminal may include a User Equipment (UE), a wireless terminal, a mobile terminal, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber station), a mobile station (mobile), a remote station (remote station), an Access Point (AP), a remote terminal (remote terminal), an access terminal (access terminal), a user terminal (user terminal), a user agent (user agent), a user equipment (user device), or the like. For example, mobile phones (or so-called "cellular" phones), computers with mobile terminals, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included or vehicle-mounted mobile devices, smart wearable devices, and the like may be included. For example, Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and the like. Also included are constrained devices, such as devices that consume less power, or devices that have limited storage capabilities, or devices that have limited computing capabilities, etc. Examples of information sensing devices include bar codes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), sensors, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), laser scanners, and the like.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal may also be a wearable device. Wearable equipment can also be called wearable intelligent equipment, is the general term of applying wearable technique to carry out intelligent design, develop the equipment that can dress to daily wearing, like glasses, gloves, wrist-watch, dress and shoes etc.. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also realizes powerful functions through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable smart device includes full functionality, large size, and can implement full or partial functionality without relying on a smart phone, such as: smart watches or smart glasses and the like, and only focus on a certain type of application functions, and need to be used in cooperation with other devices such as smart phones, such as various smart bracelets, smart helmets, smart jewelry and the like for monitoring physical signs. The terminal may be a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an Augmented Reality (AR) device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical supply (tele operation), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), or the like.

2) The network device may be a (radio) access network (R) AN device, or may be a location server, or a combination thereof.

The Location server includes, for example, an enhanced serving mobile Location center (E-SMLC), a Location Measurement Function (LMF), a Radio access network-Location measurement component (RAN-LMC), where the E-SMLC is a Location server located in an LTE Core network (EPC), the LMF is a Location server located in a 5G Core network (5G Core, 5GC), and the RAN-LMC is a Location service function component located in a Radio access network side, which may implement a part of functions of the LMF. May refer to a device, which may be a hardware device or a logic device based on software support, for determining the position of the terminal according to the position of the sender of the reference signal for positioning and measurement information (e.g., RSTD or Cell Identification (CID), etc.) of the terminal on the reference signal for positioning. The reference signal for positioning may be a PRS corresponding to the LTE system, or may be a downlink reference signal generally used for positioning, including a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH block), or a positioning reference signal in a specially defined NR system.

A (radio) access network device, e.g. comprising a base station (e.g. an access point), may refer to a device in the access network that communicates over the air with wireless terminals over one or more cells. The (radio) access network device may be configured to interconvert received air frames and Internet Protocol (IP) packets as a router between the terminal and the rest of the access network, which may include an IP network. The (radio) access network device may also coordinate attribute management for the air interface. For example, the (wireless) access network device may include a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), or a wireless fidelity (Wifi) Access Point (AP), and may also include a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system or an evolved Node B (eNB) or e-NodeB, or B) in an LTE-Advanced system (LTE-a), or may also include a next generation Node B (Node B, NB), a Node B (Node B, and NB) in a 5G system or a New Radio (NR) system, TRP), or Transmission Point (TP), or may also include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) in a cloud access network (cloudlen) system, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In the embodiments of the present application, the technical terms "(radio) access network device" and "access network device" may be used interchangeably.

3) A cell, which may be an area providing wireless communication services for a terminal, is a basic unit of a wireless network. A cell may be understood as a region formed by an access network device (e.g., a base station or a TP or a TRP), and the number of cells supported by the access network device is determined by "the number of sectors (sectors) × the number of carrier frequencies (frequencies) supported per sector". For example, the access network device is divided into 3 sectors (sector 0 to sector2) for coverage, and each sector uses 2 carrier frequencies (frequency 1 and frequency2), so that the number of cells supported by the access network device is 6. In a 5G system, beam forming (beamforming) technology is used for transmitting and receiving signals, for example, a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) of the 5G system may be transmitted in a beam (beam) form in each direction, in which case a cell may also be understood as a coverage formed by one or more beams of an access network device.

4) Time-of-arrival-based positioning technology, for downlink-based solution, that is, the reference signals of the downlink need to be measured at the UE side, for example, the time difference of arrival of the positioning reference signals transmitted by different base stations is measured.

In a communication system, when determining the position of a terminal by using a TDOA positioning method, a PRS of a secondary information cell needs to be received, where the secondary information cell includes a secondary information reference cell and a secondary information neighboring cell, and is a cell to which a reference signal that the terminal needs to measure belongs in order to determine the position of the terminal. Among the cells, there is one auxiliary information reference cell, and the others are auxiliary information neighbor cells. The auxiliary information reference cell is a cell in which the time domain position of a reference signal receiving window is determined by the timing of a serving cell or the timing is obtained based on terminal mobility measurement; the auxiliary information adjacent cell is a cell of which the time domain position of a reference signal receiving window is determined by combining the reference signal receiving timing of an auxiliary information reference cell with the offset of a pre-configured receiving window.

The receiving end measures the arrival time of the signal sent by the sending end, and then the arrival time is converted into distance information between the signal and the receiving end, and finally the position of the target to be positioned is obtained.

There are various arrival time based positioning techniques, such as a downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA) and a multi Round trip time (multi-RTT) algorithm, and the DL-TDOA positioning method and the multi-RTT algorithm are exemplified below.

5) And DL-TDOA positioning refers to that the position of a target terminal to be positioned is obtained based on TDOA calculation.

As shown in FIG. 1, the coordinates of the ith base station are (x) assuming that the locations of the 3 base stations are known_i,y_i) The coordinates of the target terminal to be positioned are (x)_UE,y_UE) Taking the 1 st base station as a reference base station, the target UE measures the arrival time difference Δ t between the PRSs of other auxiliary base stations and the PRSs of the reference base station respectively_i1. According to the definition of hyperbola (the distance from two fixed points is constant), the target is positioned on the hyperbola with two base stations as the focus, and the coordinate position (x) of the target terminal is positioned at the moment_UE,y_UE) Satisfies the following conditions:

where c represents the speed of light, the location coordinates of the target UE can be obtained by combining equations (1) and (2).

In the above positioning process, the most important step is that the target UE needs to measure the reference signal transmitted by the base station to obtain its time difference of arrival Δ t_i1And Δ t_i1The subsequent positioning accuracy is directly influenced by the measurement accuracy.

The positioning process needs to ensure that two base stations calculating the time difference have strict timing synchronization, so that the measured delta t can be considered_i1Is the signal propagation time difference in the true sense.

If the clocks of the two base stations are not synchronized, then the measured Δ t_i1In fact, an error, Δ t_i1+ ε. For a high-precision positioning system, even if epsilon is small, a large positioning precision deviation is caused, for example, epsilon is 1 nanosecond, the corresponding distance is deviated by 0.3 meter, epsilon is 10 nanoseconds, and the corresponding distance is deviated by 3 meters.

6) The multi-RTT positioning method has the positioning principle of trilateral positioning, and the UE to be positioned is positioned on the intersection point of circles with different base stations as the centers, as shown in the following figure 2a, the radius of each circle is determined, so that the distance from the UE to each base station is determined. One of the base stations is taken as an example for explanation.

As shown in FIG. 2b, the base station sends PRS to the target UE at time t₁The time when the target UE receives the downlink positioning reference signal is t₂After receiving the downlink positioning reference signal, the UE sends an uplink positioning reference signal SRS to the base station, and the time for sending the uplink positioning reference signal by the UE is t₃The time when the base station receives the uplink positioning reference signal SRS sent by the UE is t₄. t1, t2, t3 and t3 are positive numbers. At this time, the round trip time Δ t of the radio signal between the base station and the UE_RTTSatisfies the following conditions:

Δt_RTT＝(t₄-t₁)-(t₃-t₂)

thus, it is determined that the distance between the base station and the UE satisfies:

d＝c×Δt_RTT/2

where c represents the speed of light.

The distances from a plurality of base stations to the UE can be obtained by each base station and the UE through the process. For example, the ith base station has coordinates of (x)_i,y_i) And i is a positive integer. The coordinates of the target terminal to be positioned are (x)_UE,y_UE) The distance between the base station 1 and the UE is d1, the distance between the base station 2 and the UE is d2, and the distance between the base station 3 and the UE is d 3. Each base station and the UE meet the following conditions:

therefore, the coordinate position of the UE can be determined according to the intersection point of a plurality of circles taking a plurality of base stations as the center, namely, the equation system is solved. In the process of calculating the distance between each base station and the UE, timing estimation is performed separately, that is, the problem of unsynchronized clocks of different base stations is not involved, but the UE needs to receive a downlink reference signal and also needs to transmit an uplink reference signal, so that on one hand, power consumption of the UE is increased, and on the other hand, time delay of the whole positioning process is increased. And low power consumption and low time delay positioning are two major requirements of Rel-17/18 positioning.

7) The cells used in the positioning algorithm, as can be seen from the foregoing definition of the cells, when the beamforming technique is used to transmit and receive signals, one cell may also be a coverage area formed by one or several beams, and therefore, the cell group in which each cell is located may also be understood as a packet of reference signals transmitted by at least two transmission points. For convenience of description, a cell group in which each cell is located is described as an example hereinafter.

When the location server determines the location of the terminal by using the DL-TDOA location method, the location server may determine an auxiliary information reference cell and at least one auxiliary information neighboring cell for the terminal device, where one auxiliary information reference cell and at least one auxiliary information neighboring cell may be referred to as a cell group, and the terminal device in the coverage area corresponding to the cell group may measure the same cell to screen the measured cells, thereby improving the efficiency of the terminal device in measuring the cell and reducing the time delay.

According to a possible implementation manner, a positioning server can roughly estimate the position of a terminal device according to a measurement result reported by a plurality of terminal devices and used for measuring a reference signal of each cell, and then determines an auxiliary information reference cell and at least one auxiliary information adjacent cell from the plurality of cells according to pre-stored geographical position information of each cell, so that the positioning server can take the auxiliary information reference cell and the auxiliary information adjacent cell as the cells which are in the cell group coverage range and are measured after the terminal device is accessed to the reference cell.

In another possible implementation manner, the access network device of the serving cell in which the terminal device is located may also indicate, to the terminal device, a cell group in which each of the at least two cells is located. In another possible implementation manner, the terminal device may determine the cell group for TDOA positioning according to the received reference signal of each cell, without determining by a positioning server or an access network device.

In this embodiment of the present application, the configuration information configured by the positioning server or the access network device for the terminal device and used for indicating the cell group may include, but is not limited to, the following several cases:

in the first case: the configuration information comprises configuration information of an auxiliary information reference cell and information of at least one auxiliary information neighbor cell, the configuration information of the auxiliary information reference cell provided by the positioning server comprises an identifier of a cell group in which the auxiliary information reference cell is positioned and an identifier of a reference cell of the cell group in which the auxiliary information reference cell is positioned, and the configuration information of each auxiliary information neighbor cell provided by the positioning server comprises an identifier of the cell group in which each auxiliary information neighbor cell is positioned and an identifier of a reference cell of the cell group in which each auxiliary information neighbor cell is positioned.

In the second case: the configuration information comprises configuration information of an auxiliary information reference cell and information of at least one auxiliary information neighbor cell, the configuration information of the auxiliary information reference cell provided by the positioning server comprises an identifier of a cell group where the auxiliary information reference cell is located and whether the auxiliary information reference cell is a reference cell of the cell group where the auxiliary information reference cell is located, and the configuration information of each auxiliary information neighbor cell provided by the positioning server comprises an identifier of the cell group where the auxiliary information neighbor cell is located and whether each auxiliary information neighbor cell is a reference cell of the cell group where the auxiliary information neighbor cell is located.

In the third case: the configuration information comprises configuration information of an auxiliary information reference cell and information of at least one auxiliary information neighbor cell, the configuration information of the auxiliary information reference cell provided by the positioning server comprises an identifier of a cell group where the auxiliary information reference cell is located, and the configuration information of each auxiliary information neighbor cell provided by the positioning server comprises an identifier of a cell group where each auxiliary information neighbor cell is located.

In a fourth case: the configuration information comprises configuration information of an auxiliary information reference cell and information of at least one auxiliary information neighbor cell, and the configuration information of the auxiliary information reference cell provided by the positioning server comprises an identifier of a reference cell of a cell group in which the auxiliary information reference cell is located, and the configuration information of each auxiliary information neighbor cell provided by the positioning server comprises an identifier of a reference cell of a cell group in which each auxiliary information neighbor cell is located.

Optionally, the configuration information may further include other information, for example, a carrier frequency of each cell, and the like, which is not limited herein. Further, when the positioning server determines the configuration information for the terminal device, it may also indicate to the terminal which one of the at least two cells is the auxiliary information reference cell and/or which cells are auxiliary information neighboring cells.

It should be noted that, when the positioning server determines the location of the terminal by using another positioning scheme, or along with the evolution of the positioning system, the at least two cells may not include the auxiliary information reference cell and/or the auxiliary information neighboring cell. For example, each cell may be other names, and is not limited herein. Of course, the method for determining the cell group in which each cell is located by the positioning server and the method for determining the reference cell in each cell group are examples, and should not be construed as limiting the positioning server. Those skilled in the art may also determine the cell group in which each cell is located and the reference cell in each cell group in other ways, which are not illustrated herein.

In the embodiments of the present application, "a plurality" means two or more, and in view of this, the "plurality" may also be understood as "at least two". "at least one" is to be understood as meaning one or more, for example one, two or more. For example, including at least one means including one, two, or more, and does not limit which ones are included, for example, including at least one of A, B and C, then including may be A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, or a and B and C. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" generally indicates that the preceding and following related objects are in an "or" relationship, unless otherwise specified. The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably.

Unless stated to the contrary, the embodiments of the present application refer to the ordinal numbers "first", "second", etc., for distinguishing between a plurality of objects, and do not limit the sequence, timing, priority, or importance of the plurality of objects.

The network architecture of the positioning system is described below.

Referring to fig. 3A, which is a network architecture of a positioning system according to an embodiment of the present invention, fig. 3A includes a positioning server, a terminal, and 2 cells, where 2 cells are a cell a and a cell B, respectively, and the terminal is located in a coverage area of the cell a. The positioning server shown in fig. 3A has a function of communicating with a terminal, and supports cell a and cell B.

Please refer to fig. 3B, which is another network architecture of the positioning system according to the embodiment of the present application. Fig. 3B includes a positioning server, an access network device, and 4 cells supported by the access network device, where the 4 cells are cell a to cell D, respectively, and the terminal is located in the coverage of cell C.

Please refer to fig. 3C, which is another network architecture of the positioning system according to the embodiment of the present application. Fig. 3C includes a positioning server, 2 access network devices and 4 cells, where the 2 access network devices are an access network device 1 and an access network device 2, the 4 cells are cells a to D, the cell a and the cell B are cells supported by the access network device 1, the cell C and the cell D are cells supported by the access network device 2, and the terminal is located in a coverage area of the cell a.

Please refer to fig. 3D, which is another network architecture of the positioning system according to the embodiment of the present application. Fig. 3D includes a positioning server, an access network device, a relay node, and 4 cells supported by the access network device, where the 4 cells are cell a to cell D, respectively, the terminal is located in the coverage area of cell C, and the positioning server communicates with the access network device through the relay node.

The numbers of access network devices, terminals and cells in fig. 3A to 3D are only examples, and in practical applications, the positioning system may serve more terminals and may include more cells. Further, in the network architecture as shown in fig. 3A to 3D, although the positioning server, the access network device, the terminal, and the cell are shown, the positioning system may not be limited to include the above. For example, devices for carrying virtualized network functions, wireless relay devices, etc. may also be included. These will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art and need not be described in detail herein.

The positioning system provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to a 5G system, an advanced long term evolution (LTE-a) system, a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), or a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system, and the like.

In addition, the positioning system may also be applied to future-oriented communication technologies, and the communication system described in the embodiment of the present application is for more clearly illustrating the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and does not form a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

An embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, please refer to fig. 4, which is a flowchart of the method.

In the following description, the method is applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 3B as an example, that is, the network device in the following may be a positioning server in the network architecture shown in fig. 3B, the at least two cells in the following may be cells a to D shown in fig. 3B, and the terminal in the following may be a terminal in the network architecture shown in fig. 3B. In addition, the method may be performed by two communication devices, for example, a first communication device and a second communication device, wherein the first communication device may be a positioning server or a communication device capable of supporting the positioning server to implement the functions required by the method, and may of course be other communication devices, such as a system on chip. The same applies to the second communication device, which may be, for example, a terminal or a communication device capable of supporting the terminal to implement the functions required by the method, or a system-on-chip. And the implementation modes of the first communication device and the second communication device are not limited.

For convenience of description, in the following, the method is taken as an example performed by a positioning server and a terminal, that is, the first communication device is a positioning server and the second communication device is a terminal.

S401, the positioning server sends a positioning parameter measurement request to the access network equipment, and the access network equipment receives the positioning parameter measurement request.

For example, the positioning server may be a positioning management function (LMF), and the positioning parameter measurement request may be configuration information for requesting configuration of a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS).

In this embodiment of the present application, the positioning parameter measurement request is used to request the terminal to obtain configuration information of a reference signal of a cell group in which each cell of the access network device is located. Specifically, when the location server needs to determine the current location of the terminal, the location server may actively send the location parameter measurement request, where the location parameter measurement request includes an identifier of the terminal, and the identifier of the terminal may be a temporary mobile subscriber identifier (S-TMSI), a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI), or the like, which is not limited herein.

S402, the access network equipment determines a positioning parameter measurement response according to the positioning parameter measurement request and sends the positioning parameter measurement response to the terminal.

After the access network device receives the positioning parameter measurement request, it determines that the identifier of the terminal included in the positioning parameter measurement request is the identifier of the terminal connected with the access network device, and then it may determine a positioning parameter measurement response according to the positioning parameter measurement request. It should be noted that, when the network architecture of the positioning system is as shown in fig. 3B, the positioning server communicates with the terminal through the access network device, and therefore, the positioning server needs to send the positioning parameter measurement request to the access network device, and the access network device determines the configuration information of the reference signal according to the positioning parameter measurement request, so as to send the positioning parameter measurement response to the terminal.

In another possible implementation manner, the access network forwards the measurement result of the terminal device to the positioning server according to the positioning parameter measurement request, so that the positioning server forwards the cell group to the access network device according to the cell group determined by the measurement result of the terminal device, so that the access network device configures resources for the reference signal corresponding to the cell group, thereby generating configuration information of the reference signal corresponding to the cell group, and sending the positioning parameter measurement request to the terminal device. If the network architecture of the positioning system is as shown in fig. 3A, the positioning server may send the determined positioning parameter measurement response to the terminal, and if the network architecture of the positioning server is as shown in fig. 3D, the positioning server may send the positioning parameter measurement request to the relay node, and the relay node forwards the positioning parameter request to the access network device, and finally the access network device forwards the positioning parameter measurement response to the terminal. When the positioning system is of other network architectures, the forwarding process of the positioning parameter measurement request may be different, and is not limited herein. In the embodiment of the present application, a network architecture of the positioning system is only illustrated as fig. 3B.

And S403, the terminal equipment starts to receive the reference signals sent by the N network equipment after receiving the configuration information of the reference signals.

The access network equipment sends a reference signal corresponding to each cell, and the terminal receives the reference signal corresponding to each cell. The reference signal transmitted by the cell may be a reference signal used for positioning, and may include, for example, a CSI-RS, an SS/PBCH block, or a positioning reference signal in a specially defined NR system, and the reference signal is denoted by a PRS hereinafter.

The terminal device performs relevant measurement on the received PRS, for example, measuring time difference of arrival (TDOA) of the PRS;

in the embodiment of the present application, the measurement result may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following information:

(1) reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) of a serving cell in which the terminal is located.

RSRP is an average value of received power of a terminal on all Resource Elements (REs) carrying reference signals of a cell over a bandwidth of the cell in one measurement period, and the cell may use 1, 2, and 4 cell reference signals, so that 1, 2, and 4 antenna ports are correspondingly used respectively.

As an example, in the network architecture shown in fig. 3B, since the terminal is located in the coverage of cell C, cell C is the serving cell of the terminal. If the period of the measurement cell C reference signal of the terminal is one slot and one Resource Block (RB) includes symbols of 8 cell reference signals, the terminal needs to measure the average value of the received power on the 8 REs.

(2) Reference Signal Reception Quality (RSRQ) of a serving cell in which the terminal is located.

The RSRQ is used to represent a ratio of RSRP to Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of a carrier, the RSSI is an average value of powers of all signals (including pilot signals and data signals, neighbor interference signals, noise signals, etc.) within one received symbol, and a calculation formula of the RSRQ satisfies: RSRQ — N RSRP/RSSI, where N represents the number of RBs in the RSSI measurement bandwidth.

(3) Received signal time difference between terminal and serving cell

The time difference between the terminal and the serving cell is the difference between the time of downlink reception of a certain radio frame (e.g., radio frame n) of the serving cell by the terminal and the time of uplink transmission of a radio frame (radio frame n) corresponding to the terminal.

As an example, in the positioning system shown in fig. 3B, the data transmission between the terminal and each cell uses a timing advance, please refer to fig. 6, and the terminal measures the time difference of the transmitted and received signal between the terminal and the serving cell (e.g. cell C in fig. 3B) for the radio frame n.

(4) Identification of the serving cell.

As an example, in the network architecture of fig. 3B, the serving cell of the terminal is cell C, and therefore, the identity of the serving cell is the Cell Identity (CID) of cell C.

Any of the information (1) to (3) may be obtained by the terminal measuring the reference signals of the serving cell and the other neighboring cells after receiving the positioning parameter measurement response. Or, the terminal may periodically measure the reference signal of the serving cell, that is, before the terminal receives the positioning parameter measurement response, the terminal already obtains the measurement result of the serving cell, and in this case, after the terminal receives the positioning parameter measurement request, the terminal may directly send the measurement result to the access network device. The information of the above (4) does not need to be measured by the terminal, and after the terminal receives the positioning parameter measurement request, the corresponding information is directly reported.

S404, the terminal device sends the measurement result to the positioning server through the access network device.

Correspondingly, the positioning server receives the measurement result through the access network equipment.

In a possible manner, after the access network device receives the measurement result sent by the terminal device, the access network device may also obtain another measurement result according to the measurement result, where the another measurement result may be a round-trip time between the terminal and the serving cell where the terminal is located and/or an arrival angle between the terminal and the serving cell where the terminal is located. For an angle of arrival (DOA) between the terminal and the serving cell, as an example, the access network device may estimate from an SRS sent by the terminal for the serving cell. The access network equipment sends the reference signals of all cells through an antenna linear array with uniform intervals, and when receiving signals on any adjacent array, the phase of the access network equipment is fixed and rotated by theta. The value of θ is a function of the arrival angle, the antenna array sub-spacing and the carrier frequency, and for the two parameters of the antenna array sub-spacing and the carrier frequency, the access network device is known, so that the arrival angle between the terminal and the serving cell can be determined according to the SRS sent by the terminal for the serving cell and the functional relationship between the value of θ, the arrival angle, the antenna array sub-spacing and the carrier frequency. Therefore, the access network equipment can also report the obtained measurement result to the positioning server. When the access network device is required to provide the measurement information, the access network device may send the measurement result to the positioning server, and the positioning server receives the measurement result. And after the access network equipment acquires the measurement result, the measurement result is sent to the positioning server. Obtaining the measurement result of the access network device according to the measurement result of the terminal device requires the terminal to send the measurement result to the positioning server through the access network device, or the positioning server configures the access network device without obtaining the measurement result of the access network device through the measurement result of the terminal device. It should be understood that the above-mentioned obtaining of the measurement result of the access network device according to the measurement result of the terminal device is only an example, and should not be construed as a limitation to obtaining the measurement result of the access network device. It should be noted that the above parameters are only examples, and those skilled in the art may also configure the access network device to measure other parameters, which is not limited herein.

Correspondingly, the access network equipment sends the measurement result to the positioning server, and the positioning server receives the measurement result.

And after receiving the measurement result, the access network equipment forwards the measurement result to the positioning server.

It should be noted that, in S404, the terminal sends the measurement result to the location server through the access network device, but the embodiment of the present application is not limited to the manner in which the terminal sends the measurement result, for example, the terminal may also directly send the measurement result to the location server without forwarding through the access network device, and those skilled in the art may configure the terminal according to the actual situation. In the embodiment of the present application, the method of S404 will be described as an example.

It should be understood that the above measurement results may also be directly transmitted to the location server by the terminal through the location protocol. It is not necessary that the access network device sends the measurement result to the location server if the terminal directly sends the measurement result to the location server. The positioning protocol includes a New Radio Positioning Protocol (NRPP) or an LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP).

S405, the positioning server determines the position of the terminal equipment according to the measurement result.

In particular, the positioning server may perform an estimation of the position based on the received measurement results.

For round-trip time (RTT) between the terminal and the serving cell, the terminal device may measure a difference between a time of receiving a downlink signal of a radio frame (e.g., radio frame n) of the serving cell and a time of sending the downlink signal of the radio frame (radio frame n) corresponding to the access network device, so as to determine a time difference of receiving the signal by the terminal to the radio frame of the access network device. Therefore, the positioning server can determine the positioning position of the terminal according to the time difference of the transmitting and receiving signals, the arrival angle and the position of the base station. The specific method for determining the location position of the terminal may be a DL-TDOA location method, and reference may be made to the above description, which is not repeated herein.

In the method, because the synchronization problem among the cells is not considered, the positioning server may determine that the positioning position error of the terminal device according to the measurement results reported by the multiple cells is larger. The application also provides a positioning method, which uses the first terminal device as a calibration terminal to calibrate the problem of measurement errors caused by the asynchronous timing of cells or the asynchronous radio frames adopted by reference signals among cells.

For convenience of introduction, in the following, the method is taken as an example performed by the positioning server and the first terminal device, that is, the first communication apparatus is the positioning server and the second communication apparatus is the first terminal device. As shown in fig. 5, the method specifically includes:

s501, the positioning server sends a first query message to the first terminal device.

The first query message is used for querying whether the type of the first terminal equipment is a calibration terminal.

The first query message may be a higher layer signaling, a control signaling, or a message type specified by a protocol, which is not limited herein.

S502, the first terminal device sends a first message to the positioning server.

Wherein the first message indicates that the type of the first terminal device is a calibration terminal.

The first terminal device may be referred to as a calibration terminal, the location of which is known when measuring the reference signal. In this embodiment of the application, the position of the calibration terminal when measuring the reference signal may be determined by measuring in various ways, for example, so that the position is stored in the first terminal device in advance, or stored in the positioning server in advance, or stored in the access network device of the serving cell to which the first terminal device is currently accessing, which is not limited herein.

In one possible implementation, the first terminal device may send, to the positioning server or the access network device, a location where the reference signal is located when measuring the reference signal. Or, the positioning server may further determine the corresponding location information of the first terminal device when measuring the reference signal according to a field providing the location information in the higher layer signaling. The content of the higher layer signaling may include:

wherein, the location estimate field in the higher layer signaling represents the location coordinate information of the first terminal device.

Further, the determining method of the position where the first terminal device is located when measuring the reference signal may include at least one of: GNSS, wlan, bluetooth, preset location, etc. Considering that the first terminal device may be a roadside unit (or a beacon point) in a preset fixed location, the location of the first terminal device may also be a preset location, and of course, the location information of the first terminal device may also be determined by other means, which is not limited herein.

In a possible implementation manner, the determination manner in which the location server determines the location information of the first terminal device may be determined by the first terminal device sending a third message to the location server. Wherein the third message may include a second field; the second field indicates a measurement mode of the position information of the first terminal device; therefore, the positioning server can determine the accuracy of the corresponding position information of the first terminal device through the third message, so that when the positioning server receives the measurement results of the plurality of first terminal devices and the position information of the plurality of first terminal devices, the priority of the measurement results of the first terminal devices can be determined according to the accuracy of the position information, and when the priority of the measurement results of the first terminal devices is the priority of the measurement results of the first terminal devices, the measurement results of the first terminal devices are preferentially selected to calibrate the arrival time difference of the cell. Or, the weight of the measurement result corresponding to each measurement mode can be determined according to the measurement mode of the position information of the plurality of first terminal devices, and the measurement results of the plurality of first terminal devices are weighted to obtain a more accurate calibration time difference of the inter-cell arrival time difference, so that the calibration precision is effectively improved.

For example, the second field may be located in a field in which the following signaling is located. For example, the second field may be given by the locationSource-r13 field, the contents of which may be as follows:

from the above fields, it can be seen that the location of the UE can be derived from 7 candidate technologies, such as GNSS technology, wlan technology, bluetooth technology, etc. Here, considering that the calibration UE in the present invention may be a preset beacon point at a fixed location, and therefore its location may not be obtained by any of the above-mentioned techniques, but is a preset location, we add a field, such as otherSource, in the LocationSource-r13 field to represent the location information of the first terminal device obtained by other means. At this time, the second field may be expressed as:

s502, the first terminal device sends a first query response to the positioning server.

The first query response is used to indicate the type of the first terminal device.

It should be noted that, the positioning server may obtain, by means of high-level signaling, whether the terminal type of the first terminal device is a calibration terminal. The location server sends an inquiry request to the terminal device (at this time, the terminal device may be the first terminal device, or may be the second terminal device), so as to request the location capability of the terminal device, and the terminal device reports its capability information to the location server after receiving the inquiry request. In one possible implementation, the terminal device returns a query response to the location server. The query response may carry the type of terminal device in a first field (e.g., UEType-r17 field) in the signaling commoncies providecapabilities described below. The signaling content may be as follows:

in the above-mentioned higher layer signaling commonisprodevideccapabilities, the first field UEType-r17 is used to indicate the type of terminal equipment as either a calibration terminal or a non-calibration terminal. For example, if the bit value in the first field is 1, the type of the terminal device is identified as a calibration terminal, and if the bit value in the first field is 0, the terminal device is a non-calibration terminal, and the non-calibration terminal may be a terminal device that the positioning server needs to perform positioning.

The type of the current UE is carried by higher layer signaling, e.g. LPP signaling, for the positioning server to identify the first terminal device as a calibration UE, and thus calculate the calibration time difference from the position of the first terminal device.

S503, the first terminal device sends the first measurement result to the positioning server.

The first measurement result may include: the first terminal device measures first arrival time differences among N first access network devices; n is a positive integer; the N cells corresponding to the N first access network devices may be N cells in a cell group corresponding to the first terminal device.

S504, the positioning server obtains the positioning position of the first terminal device.

In the embodiment of the application, the positioning position of the terminal device can be determined by the terminal device according to other modes,

when the positioning server receives the UE type reporting field and determines that the first terminal device is the calibration terminal, the positioning server may actively acquire the location information of the first terminal device, so as to determine the calibration time difference in the following.

S505, the positioning server determines second arrival time differences between the first terminal equipment and the N first access network equipment according to the type of the first terminal equipment;

the positioning server may determine the second time difference of arrival according to the location information of the first terminal device and the location information of the N first access network devices.

After the location server obtains the location information of the first terminal device, a second arrival time difference between the N access network devices and the first terminal device may be calculated. Taking 2 access network devices as an example, that is, a cell group including a serving cell and a neighboring cell as an example, the second time difference of arrival RSTD between the serving cell and the neighboring cell and the first terminal device may be determined.

The location server may determine the arrival time t1 between the serving cell and the first terminal device according to the location information of the first terminal device and the location information of the access network device corresponding to the serving cell. Wherein t1 satisfies:

wherein s is₁Geographical location coordinates representing a serving cell, location information of x0 bit first terminal device, and c represents the speed of light. The location server may determine the arrival time t2 between the serving cell and the first terminal device according to the location information of the first terminal device and the location information of the access network device corresponding to the neighboring cell. Wherein t2 satisfies:

wherein s is₂Geographical location coordinates representing a neighboring cell, location information of the first terminal device x0 bits, and c represents the speed of light.

Thus, the second time difference of arrival RSTD between the serving and neighbor cells and the first terminal device satisfies:

RSTD＝‖t₂-t₁‖

s506, the positioning server determines the calibration time difference among the N first access network devices according to the second arrival time difference and the first arrival time difference.

The calibration time difference between the N first access network devices is used for determining the position information of the terminal device within the coverage range of the N first access network devices.

The positioning server may determine the first time difference of arrival according to a measurement result reported by the calibration UE.

The positioning server may obtain the frame synchronization information of each cell in advance, for example, directly obtain the frame synchronization information from the access network device, or obtain the frame synchronization information by measuring signals of each cell. After the positioning server obtains the measurement result of the terminal, the frame synchronization information of each cell and the measurement result may be used to calculate a difference between the time domain position of the symbol boundary when each RS reaches the terminal and the time domain position of the frame receiving boundary, or calculate a difference between the time domain positions of the symbol boundaries when each two RSs reach the terminal.

For example, the positioning server obtains a system frame with a System Frame Number (SFN) of cell i being 0, that is, a coordinated Universal Time (UTC) time corresponding to transmission of SFN0 is t_iThe positioning server obtains the geographic position coordinate of the cell i as s_i(x_i，y_i) Then, the positioning server receives the time tau of the downlink channel sent by the cell i and arriving at the terminal according to the report of the terminal equipment_iThereby determining an estimated position (x) of the terminal based on the measurement result by the positioning server_UE，y_UE) Satisfies the following conditions:

where c is the speed of light within the propagation medium.

At this time, the first arrival time difference Δ t may be determined_iSatisfies the following conditions:

Δt_i＝τ_i-t_i

thus, it can be determined that the calibration time difference satisfies:

ΔRSTD_i＝RSTD_i-Δt_i

with reference to the above example, the calibrated time difference between the serving cell and the neighboring cell satisfies:

ΔRSTD＝RSTD-Δt

and the delta t is a first time difference of arrival between the serving cell and the adjacent cell determined by the first terminal device. The calibration time difference is the clock synchronization error between the two base stations (e.g., serving cell and neighbor cell) and the first terminal device. Assuming that the clock synchronization error of the base station remains constant for a certain time, the positioning server may use the calibrated time difference to compensate the time difference of arrival to a second terminal device located in the vicinity of the first terminal device and within the coverage of the N access network devices, thereby improving the positioning accuracy of the terminal device.

In the following description, the method is applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 3B as an example, that is, the network device in the following may be a positioning server in the network architecture shown in fig. 3B, the at least two cells in the following may be cells a to D shown in fig. 3B, and the terminal device in the following may be a terminal in the network architecture shown in fig. 3B. In addition, the method may be performed by two communication devices, for example, a first communication device and a second communication device, wherein the first communication device may be a positioning server or a communication device capable of supporting the positioning server to implement the functions required by the method, and may of course be other communication devices, such as a system on chip. The same applies to the second communication device, which may be, for example, a terminal or a communication device capable of supporting the terminal to implement the functions required by the method, or a system-on-chip. And the implementation modes of the first communication device and the second communication device are not limited.

For convenience of introduction, in the following, the method is taken as an example performed by the positioning server and the second terminal device, that is, the first communication apparatus is the positioning server and the second communication apparatus is the second terminal device. As shown in fig. 6, the method specifically includes:

s601, the positioning server determines the type of the second terminal equipment.

And the type of the second terminal equipment is a non-calibration terminal.

In a possible implementation manner, the method for determining the type of the second terminal device by the specific location server may include: and the positioning server sends a second query message to the second terminal device, wherein the second query message can be used for querying the type of the second terminal device. The second terminal equipment sends a second message to the positioning server; the second message indicates that the type of the second terminal device is a non-calibrated terminal.

For a specific embodiment, reference may be made to S501 and S502 in fig. 5, which are not described herein again.

And S602, the second terminal equipment sends a second measurement result to the positioning server.

In one possible implementation, the second measurement result may include: the second terminal device measures a third arrival time difference between M first access network devices; m is less than or equal to N; m is a positive integer.

The second terminal device may be a terminal device located in the same cell group as the first terminal device. Or, the M first access network devices may also be M first access network devices of the N first access network devices measured by the first terminal device, which is not limited herein. Optionally, the second terminal device may further measure reference signals of K second access network devices, and at this time, the second terminal device may further send measurement results of the measured reference signals of the K second access network devices to the positioning server. The measurement results may include: and the second terminal equipment measures a fifth arrival time difference between the K second access network equipment.

S603, the positioning server determines a fourth arrival time difference according to the calibration time difference and the third arrival time difference.

With reference to the example in fig. 5, N first access network devices correspond to the serving cell and the neighboring cell of the first terminal device. At this time, the serving cell of the second terminal device may be the same as the serving cell of the first terminal device, and the neighboring cell 1 of the second terminal device is the same as the neighboring cell of the first terminal device, and in addition, the second terminal device further includes another neighboring cell 2, which is a cell corresponding to the second access device. At this time, a third time difference of arrival Δ t between the serving cell and the neighboring cell 1, which can be measured by the second terminal device, with respect to the second terminal device₃The calibration may be performed by a calibration time difference between the serving cell and the neighboring cell determined by the first terminal device with respect to the first terminal device. So as to eliminate the error caused by the asynchronous clock between the serving cell and the adjacent cell.

Specifically, the fourth arrival time difference RSTD4 satisfies:

RSTD4＝ΔRSTD₁+Δt₃

s604, the positioning server determines the position information of the second terminal device according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network devices.

In connection with the above example, the location of the second terminal deviceInformation (x)_UE2，y_UE2) Satisfies the following conditions:

by solving the above equation, the position information of the second terminal device can be determined.

Further, the location information of the second terminal device may be further calibrated according to a fifth time difference between the second access network and the first access network measured by the second terminal device and a calibration time difference determined by the corresponding calibration terminal between the second access network and the first access network, so as to determine the location information of another second terminal device. The position information may be weighted and averaged with the position information determined by the fourth time difference to serve as the final position information of the second terminal device, so as to improve the accuracy of the measurement of the second terminal device.

S605, the positioning server sends the position information of the second terminal device to the second terminal device.

For convenience of introduction, in the following, the method is taken as an example performed by the positioning server and the second terminal device, that is, the first communication apparatus is the positioning server and the second communication apparatus is the second terminal device. As shown in fig. 7, the method specifically includes:

s701, the second terminal device sends a second message to the positioning server. The second message indicates that the type of the second terminal device is a non-calibrated terminal.

In a specific implementation process, the second terminal device may actively report the type of the second terminal device to the positioning server, or after the positioning server sends the second query request to the second terminal device, the second terminal device sends the second message to the positioning server to report the type of the second terminal device.

S702, the positioning server sends a first request message to the second terminal device.

Wherein the first request message is used for requesting the calibration time difference between the M first access network devices. The calibrated time difference between the M first access network devices is used to determine the location information of the terminal device within the coverage of the M first access network devices.

For a specific method for determining the calibration time difference, reference may be made to the embodiment in fig. 5, which is not described herein again.

S703, the positioning server sends a first response message to the second terminal device.

Wherein the first response message is used to indicate a calibration time difference between the M first access network devices.

After the positioning server obtains the clock synchronization error (i.e. the calibration time difference) of the base station by calibrating the UE, it needs to indicate the calibration time difference to the second terminal device through a high-level signaling. For example, the calibration time difference is carried in the following signaling, which may include the following:

the above calibration time difference may be located in a fourth field NR-Error-Compensation-r17, and the content of the fourth field may include:

NR-Error-Compensation-r17 ::＝SEQUENCE{

ErrorValue INTEGER(0..FFS),

resolution INTEGER(0..FFS),

}

where ErrorValue is used to represent the value of the calibration time difference, and resolution may be used to represent the error range of the calibration time difference.

S704, the second terminal device measures the reference signals of the M first network devices, and determines a second measurement result.

The process of the second terminal device measuring the reference signals of the M first network devices may refer to a process of the first terminal device measuring the reference signals of the N first network devices, for example, includes S401 to S404, which is not described herein again.

And S705, the second terminal equipment determines a third arrival time difference according to the second measurement result.

The process of determining the third difference of arrival by the second terminal device according to the second measurement result may refer to the process of determining the first difference of arrival by the first terminal device according to the first measurement result in fig. 5, for example, S504, and the process of determining the third difference of arrival by the second terminal device according to the second measurement result in fig. 6, which is not described herein again.

S705, the second terminal device determines a fourth arrival time difference according to the second measurement result and the calibration time difference.

The process of determining the fourth arrival time difference by the second terminal device according to the third arrival time difference and the calibration time difference may refer to the process of determining the fourth arrival time difference by the positioning server according to the third arrival time difference and the calibration time difference in fig. 6, for example, S604, which is not described herein again.

And S706, the second terminal device determines the position information of the second terminal device according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network devices.

The location information of the M first network devices may be an inquiry request for the second terminal device to send the location information to the M first network devices, and the location information of the M first network devices returned by the M first network devices to the second terminal device. Or the second terminal device sends a query request of the location information to the location server, and the location server returns the location information of the M first network devices to the second terminal device. Or may be pre-stored in the second terminal device, which is not limited herein.

The process of determining the location information of the second terminal device by the second terminal device according to the fourth arrival time difference and the location information of the M first access network devices may refer to the process of determining the location information of the second terminal device by the positioning server according to the fourth arrival time difference and the location information of the M first access network devices in fig. 6, for example, S605, which is not described herein again.

The following describes an apparatus for implementing the above method in the embodiment of the present application with reference to the drawings. Therefore, the above contents can be used in the subsequent embodiments, and the repeated contents are not repeated. Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 800 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 800 comprises a processing module 801 and a transceiving module 802. The communication device 800 may be a positioning server, or may be a chip applied in the positioning server, or other combined devices, components, and the like having the above positioning service functions. When the communication device 800 is a positioning server, the transceiver module 802 may be a transceiver, the transceiver may include an antenna, a radio frequency circuit, and the like, and the processing module 801 may be a processor, such as a baseband processor, which may include one or more Central Processing Units (CPUs). When the first communication device 800 is a chip system, the transceiver module 802 may be an input/output interface of a chip (e.g., a baseband chip), and the processing module 801 may be a processor of the chip system and may include one or more central processing units. It should be understood that the processing module 801 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver module 802 may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component.

For example, processing module 801 may be used to perform all operations performed by a positioning server in the embodiments shown in fig. 4-7, except transceiving operations, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein. Transceiver module 802 may be used to perform all transceiving operations performed by a network device in the embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 4-7, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein.

In addition, the transceiver module 802 may be a functional module that can perform both the transmitting operation and the receiving operation, for example, the transceiver module 802 may be used to perform all the transmitting operation and the receiving operation performed by the positioning server in the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to 7, for example, when the transmitting operation is performed, the transceiver module 802 may be considered as a transmitting module, and when the receiving operation is performed, the transceiver module 802 may be considered as a receiving module; alternatively, the transceiver module 802 may also be two functional modules, and the transceiver module 802 may be regarded as a general term for the two functional modules, which are respectively a transmitting module and a receiving module, where the transmitting module is configured to complete a transmitting operation, for example, the transmitting module may be configured to perform all transmitting operations performed by the positioning server in any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to 7, and the receiving module is configured to complete a receiving operation, for example, the receiving module may be configured to perform all receiving operations performed by the positioning server in the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to 7.

The processing module 801 is configured to determine, according to the type of the first terminal device, second arrival time differences between the first terminal device and the N first access network devices, where the second arrival time differences are related to the location information of the first terminal device and the location information of the N first access network devices; determining calibration time differences among the N first access network devices according to the second arrival time difference and the first arrival time difference; the calibration time difference between the N first access network devices is used to determine the location information of the terminal device within the coverage area of the N first access network devices, where N is a positive integer.

A transceiver module 802, configured to receive a first message of a first terminal device, where the first message indicates that the type of the first terminal device is a calibration terminal; and acquiring first arrival time differences among the N first access network devices measured by the first terminal device.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 802 is further configured to receive a second message, where the second message indicates that the type of the second terminal device is a non-calibration terminal; and receiving a third time difference of arrival between the M first access network devices measured from the second terminal device; m is less than or equal to N; m is a positive integer;

the processing module 801 is further configured to determine a fourth arrival time difference according to the calibration time difference and the third arrival time difference; and determining the position information of the second terminal equipment according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network equipment.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 802 is further configured to receive a first request message from a second terminal device, where the first request message is used to request calibration time differences among N first access network devices; and the first response message is used for sending a first response message to the second terminal equipment, and the first response message is used for indicating the calibration time difference among the N first access network equipment.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 802 is further configured to send a first query message to the first terminal device before obtaining the first message of the first terminal device, where the first query message is used to query whether the type of the first terminal device is a calibration terminal.

In one possible implementation, the first message includes a first field indicating a type of the first terminal device.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 802 is further configured to receive a third message from the first terminal device, where the third message includes a second field, and the second field indicates a measurement manner of the location information of the first terminal device; the measurement mode comprises at least one of the following: and integrating GNSS, WLAN, Bluetooth and preset modes.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 900 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 900 comprises a processing module 901 and a transceiver module 902. The communication apparatus 900 may be a terminal device, or may be a chip applied in the terminal device, or other combined devices, components, and the like having the functions of the terminal device. When the communication apparatus 900 is a network device, the transceiver module 902 may be a transceiver, the transceiver may include an antenna, a radio frequency circuit, and the like, and the processing module 901 may be a processor, such as a baseband processor, in which one or more Central Processing Units (CPUs) may be included. When the communication apparatus 900 is a component having the above-mentioned terminal device function, the transceiver module 902 may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module 901 may be a processor, such as a baseband processor. When the communication apparatus 900 is a chip system, the transceiver module 902 may be an input/output interface of a chip (e.g., a baseband chip), and the processing module 901 may be a processor of the chip system, and may include one or more central processing units. It should be understood that the processing module 901 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver module 902 may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component.

For example, processing module 901 may be used to perform all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiments shown in fig. 4-7, except transceiving operations, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein. Transceiver module 902 may be used to perform all transceiving operations performed by a terminal device in the embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 4-7, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein.

In addition, the transceiver module 902 may be a functional module that can perform both the transmitting operation and the receiving operation, for example, the transceiver module 902 may be used to perform all the transmitting operation and the receiving operation performed by the terminal device in the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to 7, for example, when the transmitting operation is performed, the transceiver module 902 may be considered as a transmitting module, and when the receiving operation is performed, the transceiver module 902 may be considered as a receiving module; alternatively, the transceiver module 902 may also be two functional modules, and the transceiver module 902 may be regarded as a general term for the two functional modules, which are respectively a transmitting module and a receiving module, where the transmitting module is configured to complete a transmitting operation, for example, the transmitting module may be configured to perform all transmitting operations performed by the terminal device in any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to 7, and the receiving module is configured to complete a receiving operation, for example, the receiving module may be configured to perform all receiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to 7.

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus 900 is a first terminal device, the processing module 901 is configured to measure a first arrival time difference between N first access network devices, and provide the first arrival time difference to the positioning server through the transceiver module; the first arrival time difference and the second arrival time difference are used for the positioning server to determine the position information of the terminal equipment within the coverage range of the N first access network equipment.

A transceiver module 902, configured to send a first message to a positioning server, where the first message indicates that the type of the first terminal device is a calibration terminal, so that the positioning server determines, according to the type of the first terminal device, second arrival time differences between the first terminal device and N first access network devices, where the second arrival time differences are related to location information of the first terminal device and location information of the N first access network devices, and N is a positive integer.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 902 is further configured to receive a first query message from the positioning server before sending the first message to the positioning server, where the first query message is used to query whether the first terminal device is a calibration terminal.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 902 is further configured to send a third message to the positioning server, where the third message includes a second field, and the second field indicates a measurement manner of the location information of the first terminal device; the measurement mode comprises at least one of the following: the method comprises the steps of a global navigation satellite system GNSS, a wireless local area network WLAN, Bluetooth and a preset mode.

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus 900 is a second terminal device, the transceiver module 902 is configured to send a first request message to the location server, where the first request message is used to request calibration time differences among M first access network devices; the calibration time difference between the M first access network devices is used for determining the position information of the terminal device within the coverage range of the M first access network devices; and for receiving a first response message from the positioning server, the first response message indicating a calibration time difference between the M first access network devices;

a processing module 901, configured to measure a third arrival time difference between M first access network devices, where M is a positive integer; and a fourth time difference of arrival is determined according to the calibrated time difference and the third time difference of arrival between the M first access network devices; and determining the position information of the second terminal device according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network devices.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 902 is further configured to send a second message to the positioning server, where the second message indicates that the type of the second terminal device is a non-calibration terminal.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 902 is further configured to receive a second query message from the positioning server, where the second query message is used to query whether the second terminal device is a calibration terminal.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device, and the communication device can be terminal equipment or a circuit. The communication device may be configured to perform the actions performed by the first terminal device or the second terminal device in the above-described method embodiments.

Based on the same concept as the above positioning method, as shown in fig. 10, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 1000. The communication apparatus 1000 may be used to implement the method executed by the positioning server or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments, which may be referred to in the description of the foregoing method embodiments, where the communication apparatus 1000 may be a positioning server, a terminal device, or may be located in a positioning server, a terminal device, and may be an originating device or a terminating device.

The communications device 1000 includes one or more processors 1001. The processor 1001 may be a general-purpose processor or a special-purpose processor, etc. For example, a baseband processor, or a central processor. The baseband processor may be configured to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processor may be configured to control a communication device (e.g., a positioning server, a terminal device, a vehicle-mounted device or a chip, etc.), execute a software program, and process data of the software program. The communication apparatus 1000 may include a transceiving unit to implement input (reception) and output (transmission) of signals. For example, the transceiver unit may be a transceiver, a radio frequency chip, or the like.

The communication apparatus 1000 comprises one or more processors 1001, and the one or more processors 1001 may implement the method performed by the positioning server or the terminal device in the above illustrated embodiments.

Alternatively, the processor 1001 may also implement other functions than the method in the above-described illustrated embodiment. Alternatively, in an implementation manner, the processor 1001 may execute a computer program, so that the communication apparatus 1000 executes the method performed by the positioning server or the terminal device in the above method embodiment. The computer program may be stored in whole or in part in the processor 1001, such as the computer program 1003, or in whole or in part in the memory 1002 coupled to the processor 1001, such as the computer program 1004, or the

computer programs

1003 and 1004 may jointly cause the communication apparatus 1000 to execute the method executed by the positioning server or the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

In yet another possible implementation manner, the communication apparatus 1000 may also include a circuit, which may implement the functions performed by the positioning server or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments.

In yet another possible implementation, the communication device 1000 may include one or more memories 1002, on which a computer program 1004 is stored, which can be run on a processor, so that the communication device 1000 performs the encoding method described in the above method embodiments. Optionally, the memory may also store data. Optionally, the processor may also have stored therein computer programs and/or data. For example, the one or more memories 1002 may store the association or the corresponding relationship described in the above embodiments, or the related parameters or tables referred to in the above embodiments, and the like. The processor and the memory may be provided separately or may be integrated or coupled together.

In yet another possible implementation, the communication device 1000 may further include a transceiving unit 1005. The processor 1001 may be referred to as a processing unit and controls a communication apparatus (a positioning server, a first terminal device, or a second terminal device). The transceiving unit 1005 may be referred to as a transceiver, transceiving circuit, or transceiver, etc. for implementing transceiving of data or control signaling.

For example, if the communication apparatus 1000 is a chip applied in a communication device or other combined devices, components, and the like having the functions of the communication device, the communication apparatus 1000 may include a transceiver 1005.

In yet another possible implementation, the communication device 1000 may further include a transceiving unit 1005 and an antenna 1006. The processor 1001 may be referred to as a processing unit and controls a communication apparatus (a positioning server, a first terminal device, or a second terminal device). The transceiving unit 1005 may be referred to as a transceiver, transceiving circuit, transceiver, or the like, and is used for implementing transceiving function of the apparatus through the antenna 1006.

In an embodiment, when the communications apparatus 1000 is a location server, the processor 1001 is configured to determine, according to the type of the first terminal device, second arrival time differences between the first terminal device and the N first access network devices, where the second arrival time differences are related to location information of the first terminal device and location information of the N first access network devices; determining calibration time differences among the N first access network devices according to the second arrival time difference and the first arrival time difference; the calibration time difference between the N first access network devices is used to determine the location information of the terminal device within the coverage area of the N first access network devices, where N is a positive integer.

In an embodiment, when the communications apparatus 1000 is a first terminal device, the processor 1001 is configured to measure a first time difference of arrival between N first access network devices, and provide the measured first time difference of arrival to the positioning server through the transceiver module; the first arrival time difference and the second arrival time difference are used for the positioning server to determine the position information of the terminal equipment within the coverage range of the N first access network equipment.

In an embodiment, when the communications apparatus 1000 is a second terminal device, the processor 1001 is configured to measure a third arrival time difference between M first access network devices, where M is a positive integer; and a fourth time difference of arrival is determined according to the calibrated time difference and the third time difference of arrival between the M first access network devices; and determining the position information of the second terminal device according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network devices.

It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be implemented by a computer program in the form of a hardware integrated logic circuit or software in a processor. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components. The various methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The method steps disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly embodied as being performed by a hardware decoding processor, or may be performed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding 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 completes the steps of the method in combination with hardware of the processor.

It will be appreciated that the memory in the embodiments of the subject application can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can 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 (DR RAM). 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.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a computer, implements the method applied in any method embodiment of the positioning server, the first terminal device, or the second terminal device.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, which when executed by a computer implements the method applied in any method embodiment of the positioning server, the first terminal device, or the second terminal device.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, which includes the communication apparatus shown in fig. 8 or the communication apparatus shown in fig. 10, and includes the communication apparatus shown in fig. 9 or the communication apparatus shown in fig. 10.

In the above embodiments, all or part may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs. The procedures or functions according to the embodiments of the present application are wholly or partially generated when the computer program is loaded and executed on a computer. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer program can be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer program can be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that incorporates one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device, which comprises a processor and an interface; a processor configured to perform the method of any of the above method embodiments applied to the positioning server, the first terminal device or the second terminal device.

It should be understood that the processing device may be a chip, and the processor may be implemented by hardware or software, and when implemented by hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like; when implemented in software, the processor may be a general-purpose processor implemented by reading software code stored in a memory, which may be integrated with the processor or located external to the processor, and may exist as stand-alone devices.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer may implement the processes related to the positioning server, the first terminal device, or the second terminal device in the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to fig. 7 and provided by the foregoing method embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product, where the computer program is used to store a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer may implement the processes related to the positioning server, the first terminal device, or the second terminal device in the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to fig. 7 provided in the foregoing method embodiments.

It should be understood that the processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a CPU, and may also be other general purpose processors, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, and the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It will also be appreciated that the memory referred to in the embodiments of the 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 (DR RAM).

It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, the memory (memory module) is integrated in the processor.

It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

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, a division of a unit is merely a logical division, and an actual implementation may have another division, for example, a plurality of 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.

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. The computer readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. Taking this as an example but not limiting: a computer-readable medium may include a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), a universal serial bus flash disk (universal serial bus flash disk), a removable hard disk, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

The above description is only for the specific implementation of the present application, but the scope of the embodiments 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 embodiments of the present application, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered by the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of positioning, the method comprising:

a positioning server receives a first message of a first terminal device; the first message indicates that the type of the first terminal equipment is a calibration terminal;

the positioning server obtains a first arrival time difference between N first access network devices measured by the first terminal device, wherein N is a positive integer;

the positioning server determines second arrival time differences between the first terminal equipment and the N first access network equipment according to the type of the first terminal equipment; the second arrival time difference is related to the location information of the first terminal device and the location information of the N first access network devices;

the positioning server determines calibration time differences among the N first access network devices according to the second arrival time difference and the first arrival time difference; the calibrated time difference between the N first access network devices is used to determine the location information of the terminal device within the coverage of the N first access network devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

the positioning server receives a second message; the second message indicates that the type of the second terminal equipment is a non-calibration terminal;

the positioning server receives a third arrival time difference between M first access network devices measured by a second terminal device, wherein M is less than or equal to N and is a positive integer;

the positioning server determines a fourth arrival time difference according to the calibration time difference and the third arrival time difference;

and the positioning server determines the position information of the second terminal equipment according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network equipment.

3. The method of claim 1 or2, wherein the method further comprises:

the positioning server receives a first request message from a second terminal device; the first request message is used for requesting the calibration time difference between the N first access network devices;

the positioning server sends a first response message to the second terminal equipment; the first response message is used to indicate a calibration time difference between the N first access network devices.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein prior to the location server obtaining the first message for the first terminal device, further comprising:

the positioning server sends a first query message to the first terminal device; the first query message is used for querying whether the type of the first terminal equipment is a calibration terminal.

5. The method of any of claims 1-4, wherein the first message includes a first field; the first field indicates a type of the first terminal device.

6. The method of any one of claims 1-5, further comprising:

the positioning server receives a third message from the first terminal equipment, wherein the third message comprises a second field; the second field indicates a measurement mode of the position information of the first terminal device;

the measurement mode comprises at least one of the following: the method comprises the steps of a global navigation satellite system GNSS, a wireless local area network WLAN, Bluetooth and a preset mode.

7. A method of positioning, the method comprising:

a first terminal device sends a first message to a positioning server, wherein the first message indicates that the type of the first terminal device is a calibration terminal, so that the positioning server determines second arrival time differences between the first terminal device and N first access network devices according to the type of the first terminal device, the second arrival time differences are related to position information of the first terminal device and position information of the N first access network devices, and N is a positive integer;

the first terminal device measures first arrival time differences among the N first access network devices and provides the first arrival time differences to the positioning server;

wherein the first time difference of arrival and the second time difference of arrival are used for the positioning server to determine the location information of the terminal device within the coverage of the N first access network devices.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein prior to the first terminal device sending the first message to the location server, further comprising:

the first terminal device receives a first query message from the positioning server, wherein the first query message is used for querying whether the first terminal device is a calibration terminal.

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the first message comprises a first field; the first field indicates a type of the first terminal device.

10. The method of any one of claims 7-9, further comprising:

the first terminal equipment sends a third message to the positioning server, wherein the third message comprises a second field; the second field indicates a measurement mode of the position information of the first terminal device;

11. A method of positioning, the method comprising:

the second terminal device measures a third arrival time difference among M first access network devices, wherein M is a positive integer;

the second terminal device sends the first request message to a positioning server, wherein the first request message is used for requesting the calibration time difference among the M first access network devices; the calibration time difference between the M first access network devices is used for determining the position information of the terminal device within the coverage range of the M first access network devices;

the second terminal device receives a first response message from the positioning server, wherein the first response message is used for indicating the calibration time difference among the M first access network devices;

the second terminal device determines a fourth arrival time difference according to the calibration time difference between the M first access network devices and the third arrival time difference;

and the second terminal equipment determines the position information of the second terminal equipment according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network equipment.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

and the second terminal equipment sends a second message to the positioning server, wherein the second message indicates that the type of the second terminal equipment is a non-calibration terminal.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

and the second terminal equipment receives a second query message from the positioning server, wherein the second query message is used for querying whether the second terminal equipment is a calibration terminal.

14. A communications apparatus, comprising:

the terminal equipment comprises a receiving and sending module, a calibration module and a processing module, wherein the receiving and sending module is used for receiving a first message of first terminal equipment, and the first message indicates that the type of the first terminal equipment is a calibration terminal; acquiring first arrival time differences among N first access network devices measured by the first terminal device, wherein N is a positive integer;

a processing module, configured to determine, according to the type of the first terminal device, second arrival time differences between the first terminal device and the N first access network devices, where the second arrival time differences are related to location information of the first terminal device and location information of the N first access network devices; determining calibration time differences among the N first access network devices according to the second arrival time differences and the first arrival time differences; the calibrated time difference between the N first access network devices is used to determine the location information of the terminal device within the coverage of the N first access network devices.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to receive a second message indicating that the type of the second terminal device is a non-calibration terminal; and receiving a third time difference of arrival between the M first access network devices measured from the second terminal device; said M is less than or equal to N; m is a positive integer;

the processing module is further configured to determine a fourth arrival time difference according to the calibration time difference and the third arrival time difference; and determining the position information of the second terminal equipment according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network equipment.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 or 15, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to receive a first request message from a second terminal device, the first request message requesting calibration time differences between the N first access network devices; and the second terminal device is configured to send a first response message to the second terminal device, where the first response message is used to indicate calibration time differences between the N first access network devices.

17. The apparatus of any one of claims 14 to 16, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to send a first query message to a first terminal device before obtaining the first message of the first terminal device, where the first query message is used to query whether the type of the first terminal device is a calibration terminal.

18. The apparatus of any of claims 14-17, wherein the first message comprises a first field indicating a type of the first terminal device.

19. The apparatus of any one of claims 14-18, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to receive a third message from the first terminal device, the third message including a second field indicating a measurement mode of the location information of the first terminal device;

20. A communications apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

a transceiver module, configured to send a first message to a positioning server, where the first message indicates that the type of the first terminal device is a calibration terminal, so that the positioning server determines, according to the type of the first terminal device, second arrival time differences between the first terminal device and N first access network devices, where the second arrival time differences are related to location information of the first terminal device and location information of the N first access network devices, and N is a positive integer;

the processing module is used for measuring first arrival time differences among the N first access network devices and providing the first arrival time differences to the positioning server through the transceiver module;

21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to receive a first query message from the positioning server before sending the first message to the positioning server, the first query message being used to query whether the first terminal device is a calibration terminal.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 or 21, wherein the first message comprises a first field indicating a type of the first terminal device.

23. The apparatus of any one of claims 20-22, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to send a third message to the location server, the third message including a second field indicating a measurement mode of the location information of the first terminal device;

24. A communications apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

a transceiver module, configured to send the first request message to a location server, where the first request message is used to request calibration time differences among the M first access network devices; the calibration time difference between the M first access network devices is used for determining the position information of the terminal device within the coverage range of the M first access network devices; and for receiving a first response message from the positioning server, the first response message indicating calibration time differences between the M first access network devices;

a processing module, configured to measure a third arrival time difference between M first access network devices, where M is a positive integer; and determining a fourth arrival time difference according to the calibrated time differences among the M first access network devices and the third arrival time difference; and determining the position information of the second terminal device according to the fourth arrival time difference and the position information of the M first access network devices.

25. The apparatus as recited in claim 24 wherein said transceiver module is further configured to send a second message to a location server, said second message indicating that the type of the second terminal device is a non-calibration terminal.

26. The apparatus as recited in claim 25 wherein said transceiver module is further configured to receive a second query message from said positioning server, said second query message being used to query whether said second terminal device is a calibration terminal.

27. A communication device, the device comprising a processor and a communication interface;

the communication interface is used for receiving code instructions and transmitting the code instructions to the processor;

the processor for executing the code instructions to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 6.

28. A communication device, the device comprising a processor and a communication interface;

the processor for executing the code instructions to perform the method of any one of claims 7 to 10 or to perform the method of any one of claims 11 to 13.

29. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause the method of any of claims 1-13 to be implemented.